In the United States following World War II, President Harry Truman’s “Fair Deal” targeted poverty by raising the minimum wage and expanding access to Social Security benefits to 10 million additional recipients. However, many of Truman’s policies were rejected.

The Cold War was soon in full swing and fear of the spread of Communism prompted the rise of Joseph McCarthy as well as investigations of suspected communists by the House Un-American Activities Committee. When Eisenhower took office in 1953, he ended the Korean War, which had begun under Truman. McCarthy’s power in the Senate, too, came to an end, following his accusations against the army.

During the 1950s, the US economy boomed, suburbs spread, and the federal government constructed the interstate highway system. But, at the same time, Eisenhower was not active in helping end the suffering of African Americans caused by the persistence of segregation. Eisenhower publicly supported the Warren Court’s Brown v. Board decision, but privately expressed understanding of how desegregation of schools would upset southerners.

However, when a stand-off arose in Little Rock over admission of nine African American students to an all-white high school, Eisenhower federalized the national guard and stood strongly behind the Supreme Court’s decision. The “New Look” was Eisenhower’s foreign policy; it focused on winning the Cold War by building up the US’s nuclear arsenal and reliance on the ability of the CIA to push back against Soviet expansion.

When John F. Kennedy took office in 1961, his “New Frontier” agenda was meant to take the US to the moon and decrease US poverty. His foreign policy sometimes stumbled; while the Bay of Pigs mission failed to overthrow Castro, his determination forced the USSR to withdraw its nuclear missiles from Cuba and ended the Cuban Missile Crisis. President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in following Kennedy’s assassination. He faced an escalating war in Vietnam, the continuing Civil Rights movement, and the expectation that he would continue JFK’s policies.

The Great Society program that Johnson created attacked poverty by creating Medicare and the department of Housing and Human Development. Johnson also signed the Higher Education Act. Johnson’s 1965 Immigration Act abolished the quota system that had been used to regulate immigration. Two signal accomplishments of Johnson were the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

The 1968 election took place in the midst of assassinations of RFK and Martin Luther King and passionate anti-Vietnam protests. Johnson decided not to run again, and in 1969, Nixon became President. Although his reputation was strongly anti-Communist, Nixon began a policy of détente, signing the SALT I treaty, meeting with both Mao Zedong and Leonid Brezhnev in 1972. Nixon did not support student anti-Vietnam protesters, but ended the Vietnam War in 1973. Nixon also raised the minimum wage and passed the 1970 Clean Air Act.

However, by 1973, his presidency was under attack as the Watergate scandal unfolded, and in August, 1974, Nixon resigned. Gerald Ford took office, pardoned Nixon, and struggled to deal with out of control inflation. He lost the election in 1976 to Jimmy Carter, a folksy, sincere Georgian. Carter’s one-term presidency tried to deal with the energy crisis which had engulfed the country as a result of the 1973 OPEC embargo. His National Energy Program successfully reduced American dependence on foreign oil, but the continuing pressure of OPEC’s high prices drove US inflation. Carter raised the minimum wage and pardoned the Vietnam draft dodgers. Carter’s foreign policy stumbled with the 1979 Iranian revolution and his handling of the subsequent hostage crisis.

In Canada, the policies of Prime Minister Louis St Laurent helped manufacturing expand. St. Laurent also promoted improvements in transportation. Canada became more closely tied to the US both economically and strategically. It had membership in NATO and the finalization of NORAD put radar sites in Canada to detect Soviet missiles. In 1957, the Liberal government of St. Laurent was defeated by the Progressive Conservative party of John Diefenbaker (1962). Farmers benefited from agricultural programs, and social services expanded. However, Diefenbaker allowed the construction of nuclear missile sites in Canada.

Also during the 1960s, in Québec, the Quiet Revolution pushed forward modernization and also supported the distinctive French-Canadian culture of Québec. In 1963, Lester Pearson became Prime Minister; under his tenure, the actual nuclear warheads that had never been installed at the missile sites were armed. Pearson drew closer to the US with car manufacturing agreements and adopted a fully socialized healthcare system.

Between 1963 and October of 1970, the Quebec Liberation Front (FLQ) conducted a violent campaign for the independence of Quebec. The October Crisis of 1970 was handled by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s government, which had taken office in 1968. The crisis involved the kidnapping of James Cross, British trade Commissioner, and Pierre Laporte, the Quebec Minister of Labour. Cross was released but Laporte was murdered.

Trudeau used the War Measures Act to gain control of the situation. Another crisis faced by Trudeau was the energy crisis of the 1970s, which he addressed with subsidies for oil. His policies also aimed toward protectionism of Canadian businesses. To address stagflation, he introduced price controls and wage controls. Trudeau’s time in office was marked by immigration reform and the passage of the Constitution Act of 1982, which allowed Canada to amend its constitution without British approval, thus granting Canada complete independence.