The Eisenhower Era

1. The Eisenhower Era 1952-1960 Chapter 38

2. Election of 1952 • Democrats nominate Adlai Stevenson • Republicans chose General Dwight David Eisenhower • Richard Nixon was chosen to run as VP for the Republicans

3. Election of 1952 • During the campaign, Nixon was accused of using government funds • Checkers Speech – Eisenhower was going to drop Nixon but he went on TV and apologized • Ike – won by a large majority

4. Korea • Eisenhower promised to end the Korean War • July 1953 – Ike threatened to use nuclear weapons to end the war • An armistice was signed • Korea remained divided at the 38th parallel

5. Joseph McCarthy • Sen. McCarthy • Feb. 1950 • Accused Sec. Of State Dean Acheson of knowingly employing 205 communists • Public supported McCarthy’s attempt to rid the government of communists

6. McCarthyism • McCarthy was the most ruthless of all the Red Hunters • Did the most damage to American tradition of free speech and fair play • 1954 – McCarthy attacked the US Army – went too far • Charged with “conduct unbecoming a member”

7. Desegregating the South • All aspects of blacks’ lives in the South were controlled by Jim Crow laws. • WWII generated a new militancy in the black population • Dec. 1955 – Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus • Her arrest sparked a yearlong boycott of the bus system

8. The Civil Rights Revolution • 1946 – Truman ended segregation in federal civil services • 1954 –Brown V. Board of Education - the Supreme Court ruled that segregation in public schools was unequal and thus unconstitutional. The decision reversed the previous ruling in Plessey v. Ferguson (1896). • States in the Deep South resisted the ruling

9. Crisis at Little Rock • Ike was not inclined to promoting integration.  • Sept. 1957 – Ark. Gov. Orval Faubus mobilized the Arkansas National Guard to block 9 black students from entering Central High School in Little Rock

10. Little Rock • Eisenhower sent federal troops to escort the 9 children to class • Faubus had directly challenged federal authority • Students were allowed to attend after a white mob and state guard backed away from a confrontation

11. Civil Rights Act of 1957 • 1st Civil Rights legislation since the Civil War • Set up a permanent Civil Rights Commission to investigate violations of civil rights and authorized federal injunctions to protect voting rights.

12. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. • Ph.D. from Boston University • Alabama preacher • Formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957. It aimed to mobilize the vast power of the black churches on behalf of black rights.

13. Sit-Ins • February 1, 1960 • 4 black college students in Greensboro, North Carolina demanded service at a whites-only lunch counter.  • Within a week, the sit-in reached 1,000 students demanding equal rights.  • April 1960 - southern black students formed the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to give more focus and force to their efforts.

14. Eisenhower’s Republicanism • When dealing with the economy and government, Ike was a conservative • Wanted to balance the budget and guard America from isolation • Supported the transfer of control over offshore oil fields from the federal government to the states.

15. Immigration • 1954 – Ike launched Operation Wetback and rounded up 1 million illegal Mexicans in the USA • wanted to terminate Indian tribes on reservations and reverse the Indian policy in place since 1934 • wanted to get rid of many government programs that cost money

16. Interstate Highway Act of 1956 • Created countless jobs and sped the suburbanization of America as 42,000 miles of highways were built. • Eisenhower only managed to balance the budget 3 times while in office, and in 1959, he incurred the biggest peacetimedeficit in the history of the United States.

17. Foreign Policy • Sec. Of State John Foster Dulles – 1954 • proposed a plan in which Eisenhower would set aside the army and the navy to build up an air fleet of super-bombers (called the Strategic Air Command, or SAC) equipped with nuclear bombs.  • This would allow President Eisenhower to threaten countries such as the Soviet Union and China with nuclear weapons.

18. Peace Conference in Geneva • At the Geneva summit conference in 1955, President Eisenhower attempted to make peace with the new Soviet Union dictator, Nikita Khrushchev, following Stalin’s death.  • Peace negotiations were rejected.

19. The Vietnam Nightmare • In the early 1950s, nationalist movements had sought to throw the French out of Indochina • Vietnam’s leader was Ho Chi Minh • He became increasingly communist as America became increasingly anticommunist

20. Vietnam • May 1954 - a French garrison was trapped in the fortress of Dienbienphu in northwestern Vietnam.  • President Eisenhower decided not to intervene, wary of another war right after Korea. • The pro-Western government in the South, led by Ngo Dinh Diem, was entrenched at Saigon as Vietnam-wide elections, which were promised by Ho Chi Minh, were never held.  • President Eisenhower promised economic and military aid to the Diem regime of the south.

21. Europe • 1955, West Germany was let into NATO • 1955, the Eastern European countries and the Soviets signed the Warsaw Pact, creating a red military counterweight to the newly-bolstered NATO forces in the West • May 1955, the Soviets ended the occupation of Austria.  • In 1956, Hungary rose up against the Soviets attempting to win their independence.  When their request for aid from the United States was denied, they were slaughtered by the Soviet forces.

22. The Middle East • In 1953 - the CIA engineered a coup that installed Mohammed Reza Pahlevi as the dictator of Iran. • An effort to secure Iranian oil for the United States

23. The Middle East • President Nasser of Egypt was seeking funds to build a dam on the Nile River.  • After associating with the communists, secretary of state Dulles pulled back U.S. monetary aid for Egypt.  • Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, which was owned by the French and British. 

24. The Middle East • October of 1956, the Suez Crisis ensued as the French and British launched an assault on Egypt.  The two countries were forced to withdraw their troops as America refused to release emergency supplies of oil to them. • In 1957, Congress proclaimed the Eisenhower Doctrine, pledging U.S. military and economic aid to Middle Eastern nations threatened by communist aggression.  • In 1960, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, and Venezuela joined together to form the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC

25. Election of 1956 • Eisenhower again defeated Adlai Stevenson to win re-election • Again, Richard Nixon was selected as his VP running mate

26. Labor • 1959 - a drastic labor-reform bill grew out of recurrent strikes in important industries and corruption in unions.  The Teamsters Union leader, “Dave” Beck was sentenced to prison for embezzlement.  When his union replaced him with James R. Hoffa, the AF of L-CIO expelled the Teamsters.  Hoffa was later jailed for jury tampering.  • In 1959, President Eisenhower passed the Landrum-Griffin Act.  It was designed to bring labor leaders to book for financial shenanigans and to prevent bullying tactics.

27. The Race To Space • October 4, 1957, the Soviets launched the Sputnik Isatellite into space • November, they launched the satellite Sputnik II, carrying a dog.  The two satellites gave credibility to the Soviet claims that superior industrial production lay through communism.

28. The Race To Space • President Eisenhower established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). • As a result of the new technological advances in the Soviet Union, it was thought that the educational system of the Soviet Union was better than the United States‘ • A move to improve the American education system was taken.  In 1958, the National Defense and Education Act (NDEA) authorized $887 million in loans to needy college students and in grants for the improvement of teaching sciences and languages.

29. The Cold War Continues • 1958 – The US and USSR announce the end of nuclear testing • In July1958, Lebanon called for aid under the Eisenhower Doctrine as communism threatened to engulf the country. • In 1959, Soviet dictator Khrushchev appeared before the U.N. General Assembly and called for complete disarmament. • In 1960, an American U-2 spyplane was shot down in Russia, causing feelings of a possibly peaceful resolution to subside.

30. Cuba and Communism • Fidel Castro led a coup that overthrew the government of Cuba in 1959.  • The United States cut off the heavy U.S. imports of Cuban sugar. • Cuba’s left-wing dictatorship quickly had the possibility to become a military satellite for the Soviet Union. 

31. Election of 1960 • The Republicans nominated Richard Nixon to run for president and Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. for vice president in the election of 1960.  • The Democrats nominated John F. Kennedy (MA) to run for president and Lyndon B. Johnson (TX) for vice president.

32. The Election of 1960 • JFK’s Catholicism made many in the Protestant Bible Belt leery of voting Dem. • JFK claimed that USSR had gained on the US • TV played a big role – JFK was TV friendly and Nixon was not

33. A Changing Economy • The invention of the transistor in 1948 sparked a revolution in electronics, especially computers.  Computer giant International Business Machines (IBM) grew tremendously. 

34. A Changing Economy • 1956 - The number of “white-collar” (no manual labor) workers exceeded the number of “blue-collar” (manual labor) workers • Feminist Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique in ‘63, helping to launch the modern women’s movement. 

35. Consumer Culture • Credit cards, fast food, and new forms of entertainment all began in the 1950s • 1946 – 6 TV stations • 1956 – 400+ stations • Sports teams also moved west with the population • New York Giants became S.F. Giants

36. TV and Religion • “Televangelists” like Baptist Billy Graham, and Pentecostal Holiness speaker Oral Roberts, and Roman Catholic Fulton J. Sheen took to the television airwaves to spread Christianity. 

37. Elvis and Rock and Roll • Popular music was transformed during the 1950s.  Elvis Presley created the new style known as rock and roll. • Traditionalists were repelled by Presley as well as many of the new social movements during the 1950s.