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Fair Deal

In United States history, the Fair Deal was the policy of social inprovment of U.S. President Harry S. Truman, outlined in his 1949 state of the union message to Congress on January 5, 1949.

In his address, he proposed an ambitious social & economic program that he called the Fair Deal. He asked Congress to enlarge programs in the areas of economic security, conservation, and housing and to go far beyond Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s initiatives in civil rights, national health insurance, federal aid to education & agriculture subsides. The 81st Congress passed most of his proposed legislation except the repletion of the Taft-Hartley Act, federal aid to children, national health insurance plan and crop subsidy system.

Truman began lessening his commitment at home, as the Cold War and the Korean War began taking his time and energy.