What are the most important ways that the New Deal and WWII shaped the US?

[Carm]

Specifically ideas that emerged in the late 1940s and 1950s.

[DOC]

The "New Deal" and WW II are two totally separate subjects just as are the 1940s and 1950s.

FDR's "New Deal" was both an unapologetic and unadulterated introduction of the U.S. to large scale socialism -- moving away from capitalism and the idea of suffering the consequence (good or bad) for decisions and actions made by individuals. Where capitalism rewards those who do well and punishes those who don't, FDR's "New Deal" provided a sort of "safety net" to those who did poorly. Sadly, we are still some 70+ years later paying for that safety net.

With war clearly visible on all horizons, FDR still chose to gut an already skeletonized military so that he could pay for his social programs. He left the country woefully unprepared for a two front war. Not to be out done, so too did Bill Clinton who promised that we would never again be in a two front war and never again would we need such a large military. Oops.

Had the news media been given the means and capabilities of today's (news media), I'm quite sure that WW II would have ended far differently than as it did. The slow pace of the news media and the government to get the information out about the true cost in lives lost as well as war materiel would have had the people screaming bloody murder. As is, FDR was able to incarcerate over 120,000 Americans for four years without due benefit of the legal system and no one batted an eye. He was also allowed to put limits on people's personal freedoms and capped the market system and the availability and amounts of items people were allowed to purchase. Again, if Bush 43 tried doing something like that even on a small scale, the people would be up in arms and he'd have been rail roaded out of office.

Instead, the people who lived during that period are now referred to as: The Greatest Generation (that ever lived).

As for the 1940s and 1950s, people were to a degree scared. Up through the 1960s, we practiced (in public schools), air raid drills incase of a nuclear attack. There was a junior Senator from Minn. on the war path in Washington, D.C., looking for Communists and sympathizers of Communism under every rock and in every nook and cranny.

Men came home from WW II and Korea and the economy boomed. Production was at an all time high and technology soared. The U.S. seemed to lead the world in every aspect. We elected a war hero as President and the American dream seemed to be well within reach. White picket fences and back yard Bar-B-Ques were the norm.