The Eisenhower Era

1. The Eisenhower Era Chapter 40 ppt

2. The Advent of Eisenhower

3. 1952 Election • Democrats nominate Adlai Stevenson • Korea, MacArthur, inflation, scandal • Republicans nominate Eisenhower • Taft out • Nixon VP

4. Ike very popular • I Like Ike • War hero • Easy to like • President of Columbia University

5. Rough campaigning to Nixon • Aggressive • Attack Democrats for coddling communists

6. Checkers Speech • Nixon accused of wrong doing • Uses TV to prove innocence • Eisenhower keeps Nixon

7. Eisenhower embraces TV • Foreshadows future campaigns

8. TV changes politics • Go straight to voters • Threatens party power • Sound bites popular form of communication

9. Results • Eisenhower – 33.9 million and 442 electoral votes • Stevenson – 27.3 million and 89 electoral votes

10. Ike goes to Korea • Promised • Could not get peace process going

11. Korea • Millions of dollars • 54,000 American deaths • Return to pre-war conditions • Containment had been achieved • Limited warfare

12. “Ike” takes command

13. Americans want calmer times • Worried about affluence • Escape from Depression and War • Reassured we would prevail in Cold War

14. Ike above politics • Worked well with others • Very harmonious

15. Ike suited to American anxieties • Decade of shaky peace • Critics say he cared more about social harmony than social justice

16. What to do about McCarthy? • Accused State Department of communists • Never found 1 • Republicans let him run • Hurt Democrats

17. McCarthy flourished in Cold War • Manipulated the media • Exploited anxieties • Ruined many lives • Accusations begin to grow • Accuses Marshall and Democrats

18. Americans support McCarthy • Ike refused to get in gutter with McCarthy • Damaged moral and recruitment into government service

19. McCarthy attacks the army • Went to far • On TV • Shows his meanness and irresponsibility • Censored • Dies in 3 years of alcoholism

20. Desegregating the South

21. Situation • 15 million • 2/3 live in South • Jim Crow lives on • Segregated society and schools • Only 20% registered to vote • Vigilante violence

22. An American Dilemma • Gunmar Myrdal • Exposed contradictions in society • Jackie Robinson joins the Dodgers • Very few other successes

23. Refuse to suffer in silence • NAACP gains a few successes • 1944 White primary unconstitutional • Thurgood Marshall becomes chief legal council • Sweat v. Painter – separate black professional schools failed to meet test of equality

24. Rosa Parks • Montgomery, Alabama • Refused to give up her “whites only” seat • Martin Luther King Jr. gets involved

25. Montgomery bus boycott • Led by King • Non violent • Establishes King as a leader

26. Seeds of the Civil Rights Revolution

27. Truman ends segregation in the military • Manpower shortages in Korea • Could not get civil rights legislation • Ike shows no interest

28. Chief Justice Earl Warren • Appointed by Ike • Thought he was conservative • Encouraged Court to become Populist • Attacks social issues

29. Brown v Board of Education • Reversed Plessy v Ferguson • Separate but equal is not equal • Segregation must end in public schools

30. Border states go along • Southern states resist • “all deliberate speed” very slow in South

31. Crisis at Little Rock

32. Ikes stance on civil rights • Does not educate Americans on need to desegregate • Grew up in segregated Army • Criticized Truman’s desegregation of army • Did not support Brown case

33. Little Rock, Arkansas • Orval Faubus keeps 9 students out of Central High School • Challenges federal authority

34. Civil Rights Act passed by Congress • Ike says its mild • Sets up Civil Rights Commission

35. SCLC • Southern Christian Leadership Conference • Formed by King • Mobilizes black churches for civil rights • Better organized

36. Greensboro, North Carolina • Sit in at Woolworths • Protest grew • Sit in movement grows across nation

37. SNCC • Southern blacks form • Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee • Gives focus to civil rights efforts

38. Eisenhower Republicans at Home

39. Ike • Liberal with people • Conservative with money and government • Bland leading the bland

40. Wants to balance federal budget • Stopped military buildup • Release government oil to private companies • Encourages private electric companies to compete with TVA • Opposed free distribution of polio • Tried to restore free markets to farmers

41. Operation Wetback • 1 million Mexicans rounded up and sent back to Mexico

42. Tries to cancel Indian New Deal • Wants to reverse assimilation • Klamaths bought out • Most resisted

43. New Deal programs Ike kept • Social Security • Unemployment insurance • Labor or farm programs

44. Interstate Highway Act of 1956 • Out does the New Deal • $27 billion for 42,000 miles of road • Creates countless construction jobs • Sped up suburbanization • Benefits trucking • Hurts railroads • More energy consumption • Pollution

45. No balanced budget • Only three times • Biggest peacetime deficit • Economic troubles revive Democrats in 1954 • AFL and CIO join together

46. New Look At Foreign Policy

47. John Foster Dulles • Secretary of State • Wants to roll back communists • Balance budget • Cut military spending

48. Policy • Balance budget • Strengthen US position in world • Builds up Strategic Air Command

49. Massive Retaliation • Inflicted by SAC if Soviets get out of hand • Was cheaper

50. Ike seeks to thaw Cold War • Khrushchev new leader of Soviets • Geneva peace talks start with hope but comes up empty handed