In United States history, the Fair Deal was the policy of social improvement of U.S. President Harry S. Truman, outlined in his 1949 State of the Union Address to Congress on January 5, 1949.

In his address, Truman proposed an ambitious social and 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, and agriculture subsides. The 81st Congress passed most of his proposed legislation except the repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act, federal aid to children, national health insurance plan, and crop subsidy system.

Not long thereafter, Truman began lessening his focus on domestic affairs, as the Cold War and the Korean War began taking his time and energy.

See: Point Four