Chapter 37

1. Chapter 37

2. Affluence and Its Anxieties Prosperity triggered of home construction. 1 out of every 4 homes existing in the 1960s were built in the 1950s. (83% of which were in suburbs) Science and technology increased economic growth. The first computers were created in the 1940s. International Business Machines (IBM) became the “high tech” corporation in the “information age.” Computers changed business practices (like inventory and billing)

3. Aerospace industries also grew in the 1950s, due to Eisenhower’s buildup of the Strategic Air Command and to an expanding passenger airline business. In 1957, the Boeing Company bought out the 1st passenger jet, the 707. In 1956 “white-collar” workers outnumbered “blue-collar” workers for the first time, marking a quiet revolution. Union membership peaked at about 35% into 1954, and then declined steadily. After WWII many women returned to the “cult of domesticity.”

4. Women in the work force created an extensive “pink-collar ghetto” of women dominated occupations. Feminist Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique, which launched the modern women’s movement.

5. Consumer Culture in the Fifties • The expansion of the television industry led to an increase in advertising There was a huge expansion of the middle class and an increase in consumer culture in the 1950s. The credit card, the first McDonalds, and the opening of Disneyland contributed the to the emerging leisure lifestyle. spending and the creation of televangelists, like Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, And Fulton J. Sheen.

6. Elvis Presley dramatically transformed the music industry with the creation of rock-and-roll. Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, and Playboy were highly criticized by traditionalists. America was emerging as a consumerist society.

7. Some books that were published during this time portrayed the post-war generation as a group of conformists such as The Lonely Crowd by David Riesman, The Organization Man by William H. Whyte Jr., and The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit by Sloan Wilson. John Kenneth Galbraith questioned the correlation between private wealth and the public good in The Affluent Society.

8. The Advent of Eisenhower During the election of 1952, Dwight D, Eisenhower was favored to defeat competitor, Adlai E. Stevenson. Nixon faltered when reports came about of a secret "slush fund." He then saved his candidacy with his famous "Checkers Speech." This was the start of politicians using the television to "advertise" themselves.

9. Eisenhower won the election of 33,936,234 votes to 27,314,992 votes and 442 to 89 in the electoral college. In 1953, an armistice was finally signed with Korea. Even after the Korean War, Korea was still divided at the thirty-eighth parallel

10. The Rise and Fall of Joseph McCarthy The rise of popularity of Joseph McCarthy was one of Eisenhower's first problems during his presidency. In 1950, McCarthy Secretary of State, Dean Archesonof knowingly and willingly employing 205 Communist party members. He later revealed that there had been only 57 actual communists. He ruined countless careers of officials, writers, and actors had been wrongly accused of communism by McCarthy.

11. He heavily damaged the American traditions of fair play and free speech. Eisenhower continued to allow McCarthy to control the personnel policy of the State Department even though he secretly hated McCarthy. McCarthy finally went too far when he accused the US Army. The men fought back in the televised hearings, which lasted 35 days. Later he was formally condemned by the Senate for "conduct unbecoming of a member."

12. Desegregating American Society By 1950, America had around 15 million black citizens, but the Jim Crow Laws restricted them in almost every aspect of everyday life. Due to Plessy v. Ferguson "separate but equal" facilities were constitutional, and almost every public place, including schools, restaurants, restrooms, drinking fountains, waiting rooms, buses, and trains, was segregated and had "white only" and "black only" seating.

13. Lynching of blacks was a practice during the 1950s. Emmett Till, a black 14 year old, was lynched for allegedly leering at a white woman. Jackie Robinson was the first African-American to play in Major League baseball when he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. An American Dilemma by Gunnar Myrdal and One World by Wendell Willkie criticized racism in America.

14. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People challenged the legality of segregation and pushed for integration in public places. The Supreme Court ruled that the "white primary" was unconstitutional. Sweatt v. Painter ruled that separate professional schools for blacks didn't meet the standards for equality.

15. Rosa Parks sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott when she sat in a "white only" section on a bus and refused to give it up. She was arrested for violating the city's Jim Crow statutes. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fought segregation with nonviolence and ideologies similar to those of Gandhi and Jesus.

16. Seeds of the Civil Rights Revolution In 1948, Truman ended segregation in federal civil service. In Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, the court ruled that separate facilities were unequal and therefore unconstitutional. This reversed the effects of Plessy v. Ferguson. In the Deep South "massive resistance" was organized.

17. Eisenhower was reluctant to encourage integration, but he was forced to act in 1957 when the National Guard, sent by Governor OrvalFaubus, tried to prevent 9 black students from enrolling in Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Eisenhower sent troops to escort the students to their classes.

18. Civil Rights Act of 1957 set a permanent Civil Rights Commission, which would investigate violations of civil rights. It also authorized federal injunctions to protect voting rights. Also, in 1957 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. created the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). It was aimed at mobilizing the power of the black churches to speak on behalf of black rights.

19. In 1960, the “sit-in” movement began in Greensboro, North Carolina and quickly spread to the rest of the South. It was used to encourage equal treatment in restrooms, transportation, employment, housing, and voting. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was formed in April of 1960, and it tried to give more force to the sit-in movement.

20. Eisenhower Republicanism at Home Eisenhower strove to guard the Republic from “creeping socialism” and to balance the federal budget. He followed a small-government philosophy. In Operation Wetback more than 1 million Mexicans were taken and sent back to Mexico. Eisenhower tried to cancel tribal preservation policies, posed to “terminate” the tribes as legal entities, and wished to revive assimilation projects similar to that of the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887.

21. Eisenhower made New Dealish programs, like Social Security, unemployment, and farm and labor programs, legitimate. Eisenhower backed the Interstate Highway Act of 1956. This was a $27 billion plan to build 42,000 miles of highways. This boosted many industries related to travel.

22. A “New Look” in Foreign Policy The platform of Republicans in 1952 called for a “new look” in foreign policy. It promised to fight communism, not just “contain” it. They also promised to balance the budget by cutting military spending. To accomplish these two contradicting gals, they planned to build up an airfleet of super bombers, the Strategic Air Command (SAC).

23. Eisenhower also sought to ease the Cold War by negotiating with the new Soviet leaders who had taken over after Stalin’s death in 1953. Nikita Khrushchev rejected the idea of “open skies” over the Union and the US.

24. The Vietnam Nightmare Asia became increasingly communist, while America became increasing anticommunist. By 1954, America was financing nearly 80% of the French colonial war in Indochina. Vietnam was halved at the seventeenth parallel.

25. Cold War Crisis in Europe and the Middle East The US had initially backed the French in Indochina to win French approval of a plan to rearm West Germany. And Germany was welcomed into NATO. By 1955, the Cold War appeared to be thawing. Then in May, the Soviets agreed to end their occupation in Austria.

26. Fears of Soviet attack into the oil-rich Middle East further heightened Cold War tensions. The CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) secured Iranian oil for the West, but left resentment amoung many Iranians. The Suez crisis proved messy when the US took their portion of funds for the Suez Canal when Nasser was in communication with the communists.

27. In 1956, the British and the French staged a joint attack on Israel. And a United Nations police force was sent to maintain order. The Eisenhower Doctrine of 1957 pledged US military and economic aid to Middle Eastern countries Nations that are threatened by communists. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, and Iran joined with Venezuela in 1960 to form the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

28. Round Two for Ike The election of 1956 was almost an exact repeat of the election of 1952. Eisenhower won 35,590,472 popular votes to 26,022,752 popular votes and 457 to 73 in the electoral college. The Landrum-Griffin Act was passed in 1959. It was designed to keep labor leaders in check and prevent bullying tactics. It prohibited “secondary boycotts” and some kinds of picketing.

29. The first satellite was launched into orbit in 1957 by the soviets. It was called the Sputnik I. A month later they sent a larger satellite, called the Sputnik I. “Rocket Fever” swept the nation. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was created. In 1958 the National Defense and Education Act (NDEA) granted $887 million in loans to college students and in grants to teach the languages and sciences.

30. The Continuing Cold War Scientists during this time urged that nuclear tests be stopped before the atmosphere became too polluted. Thermonuclear suicide drew near in July 1958, when both Egyptian communist plottings threatened Lebanon. In 1959 Khrushchev went before the UN General Assembly and proposed complete disarmament. The “summit conference” was ruined when the spy palne, the U-2 was shot down.

31. Cuba’s Castroism Spells Communism In 1959, Fidel Castro rebelled against Batista as the Cuban dictator. The US released Cuba from “imperialistic slavery” by cutting off heavy US imports of Cuban sugar. Over 1 million anti-Castro Cubans headed for the US between 1960 and 2000. The US broke diplomatic relations with Cuba and imposed a strict embargo on trade with Cuba in 1961. And the Americans almost invoked the Monroe Doctrine.

32. Kennedy Challenges Nixon Nixon gained popularity in the “kitchen debate.” Kennedy was a Roman Catholic, the first president to be Catholic, and was faced with prejudice. Television influenced the elction when Nixon agreed to meet Kennedy in our televised debated. Nobody “won” the debates. Kennedy won by only 118,574 popular vote and 303 to 219 in the electoral college. He was also the youngest person to be elected president.

33. The Life of the Mind in Postwar America Literature bloomed in postwar America in Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, John Steinbeck’s East of Eden and Travels with Charley. Poetry also bounded in the postwar society with Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, Theodore Roethke, and Robert Lowell.