The Eisenhower Era

Chapter 40 ppt

The Advent of Eisenhower

1952 Election

Democrats nominate Adlai Stevenson– Korea, MacArthur, inflation, scandal

Republicans nominate Eisenhower– Taft out– Nixon VP

Ike very popular

I Like Ike War hero Easy to like President of Columbia University

Rough campaigning to Nixon

Aggressive Attack Democrats for coddling communists

Checkers Speech

Nixon accused of wrong doing Uses TV to prove innocence Eisenhower keeps Nixon

Eisenhower embraces TV

Foreshadows future campaigns

TV changes politics

Go straight to voters Threatens party power Sound bites popular form of communication

Results

Eisenhower – 33.9 million and 442 electoral votes

Stevenson – 27.3 million and 89 electoral votes

Ike goes to Korea

Promised Could not get peace process going

Korea

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

“Ike” takes command

Americans want calmer times

Worried about affluence Escape from Depression and War Reassured we would prevail in Cold War

Ike above politics

Worked well with others Very harmonious

Ike suited to American anxieties

Decade of shaky peace Critics say he cared more about social

harmony than social justice

What to do about McCarthy?

Accused State Department of communists Never found 1 Republicans let him run

– Hurt Democrats

McCarthy flourished in Cold War

Manipulated the media Exploited anxieties Ruined many lives

Accusations begin to grow Accuses Marshall and Democrats

Americans support McCarthy

Ike refused to get in gutter with McCarthy Damaged moral and recruitment into

government service

McCarthy attacks the army

Went to far On TV

– Shows his meanness and irresponsibility– Censored– Dies in 3 years of alcoholism

Desegregating the South

Situation

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

An American Dilemma

Gunmar Myrdal Exposed contradictions in society

Jackie Robinson joins the Dodgers Very few other successes

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

Rosa Parks

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

Montgomery bus boycott

Led by King Non violent Establishes King as a leader

Seeds of the Civil Rights Revolution

Truman ends segregation in the military

Manpower shortages in Korea Could not get civil rights legislation Ike shows no interest

Chief Justice Earl Warren

Appointed by Ike Thought he was conservative Encouraged Court to become Populist Attacks social issues

Brown v Board of Education

Reversed Plessy v Ferguson Separate but equal is not equal Segregation must end in public schools

Border states go along

Southern states resist “all deliberate speed” very slow in South

Crisis at Little Rock

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

Little Rock, Arkansas

Orval Faubus keeps 9 students out of Central High School

Challenges federal authority

Civil Rights Act passed by Congress

Ike says its mild Sets up Civil Rights Commission

SCLC

Southern Christian Leadership Conference Formed by King Mobilizes black churches for civil rights

– Better organized

Greensboro, North Carolina

Sit in at Woolworths Protest grew Sit in movement grows across nation

SNCC

Southern blacks form Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee Gives focus to civil rights efforts

Eisenhower Republicans at Home

Ike

Liberal with people Conservative with money and government Bland leading the bland

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

Operation Wetback

1 million Mexicans rounded up and sent back to Mexico

Tries to cancel Indian New Deal

Wants to reverse assimilation Klamaths bought out Most resisted

New Deal programs Ike kept

Social Security Unemployment insurance Labor or farm programs

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

No balanced budget

Only three times Biggest peacetime deficit Economic troubles revive Democrats in 1954 AFL and CIO join together

New Look At Foreign Policy

John Foster Dulles

Secretary of State Wants to roll back communists Balance budget Cut military spending

Policy

Balance budget Strengthen US position in world

– Builds up Strategic Air Command

Massive Retaliation

Inflicted by SAC if Soviets get out of hand Was cheaper

Ike seeks to thaw Cold War

Khrushchev new leader of Soviets Geneva peace talks start with hope but

comes up empty handed

New foreign policy illusionary

1956 Hungarian revolt– Put down by Soviets– Shows weakness of massive retaliation– Military costs go up– Ike warns of dangerous military industrial complex

The Vietnam Nightmare

How it begins

1. Nationalist movement in Indochina 2. Ho Chi Minh appeals to Wilson & FDR 3. Ho Chi Minh becomes more communist 4. US supports French with $1 billion a year 5. Viet Minh guerilla forces winning 6. Defeat of French and Dien Bien Phu 7. Ike does not bomb Viet Minh-holds back 8. Dien Bien Phu falls

9. Vietnam divided at 17th parallel 10. Elections to be held in 2 years 11. Elections never held because communists could

win 12. Ike promises aid to Ngo Dien Diem 13. Diem unpopular 14. US can’t back out 15. SEATO created to help Vietnam policy

A False Lull In Europe

Germany invited to join NATO

Warsaw Pact in response– Counter NATO– 1955

Cold War seemed to be thawing

Arms control with Moscow Soviets say they will end occupation of

Austria Khrushchev denounces Stalin

– Destalinization

– Lull ends when Hungarians brutally put down

Menaces in the Middle East

Fear Soviets will move into Middle East

CIA engineer coups to keep Iran friendly to US

Installs Shah of Iran Left bitter legacy

Suez Crisis

Nassar or Egypt nationalizes Suez Canal Wants to build great dam When Nassar talks to communists US and

Britain withdraw financial support

Seems to threaten western oil supplies

Britain and France attack Egypt US cuts off oil to Britain and France

– Allies withdraw– US police force sent to maintain order– Last time US uses oil as weapon

US becomes net oil importer Reserves dwindle

Eisenhower Doctrine

1957 Offers military and economic aid to Middle

East to fight communism

OPEC formed to control their own oil in 1960

The Voters Still Like Ike in 1956

Republicans re-nominate Ike

Heart attack Surgery Suez and Budapest issues Still very popular

Democrats

Stevenson again Attacks Ike’s health Nixon’s dishonesty Stand pattism

Ike wins easily

35.5 million to 26 million votes 457 electoral votes to 73

Both Houses go to Democrats Ike widely loved

Round Two For Ike

Relies on trusted aides

Sherman Adams leaves amid scandal John Foster Dulles died of cancer in 1958 Cuts back on work Health weak

Labor Organization reform bill

Labor being taken over by organized crime Teamsters Dave Beck embezzlement Jimmy Hoffa takes over

– Teamsters expelled from AFL-CIO– Had taken $15 million from the union– Hoffa jailed, released, disappears

Landrum-Griffin Act

Eisenhower appeals to nation over union bosses protests

Keep unions honest End bullying tactics

Race With The Soviets Into Space

Sputnik

Russians launch first satellite in 1957 Sputnik II carries a dog Shatters American confidence Makes Soviets and communism look good

Military implications

If missile into space one could land in America

Eisenhower says not to worry Blamed on Truman Make up missile gap

Rocket Fever

Sweeps the nation Took four months to put first satellite into

space

Education

Sputnik led to compare education systems NDEA – National Defense and Education Act

– Gave aid to needy college students– Grants to teach science and languages

The Continuing Cold War

Nuclear Race Getting Out Of Hand

Could now destroy world many times Soviets call for test ban after dirty tests US halting testing Both countries violate suspension

Lebanon

Ike sends troops Aid against communists under Eisenhower

Doctrine 1958 Close to war

Khrushchev invited to US

Hold summit conference to ease Cold War Tells UN he wants complete disarmament

Camp David Meeting

Khrushchev calls for extension of withdrawal from Berlin

World relieved

Summit Conference to follow in Paris

Gary Power shot down in U2 spy plane Ike denies we were spying Khrushchev uses as propaganda against US Calls off summit

Cuba’s Castroism Spells Communism

Latin America upset at US

Spending more on Europe than closer to home

CIA coup in Guatamala in 1954 US supports bad dictators

Fulgencio Batista headed Cuba

US had given him support Fidel Castro starts rebellion in 1959 Denounces American imperialism Becomes a communist satellite Refugees head to America

Soviets defend Castro

Will attack if we try to oust Castro

US gives money to Latin America

To fight communism Stop Castro who wants to enlarge his

revolution

Kennedy Challenges Nixon For The Presidency

Republicans nominate Nixon– Ruthless or a party leader– More responsibility as VP– Kitchen Debate with KIhrushchev in 1959– Could stand up to communism

Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.

VP Grandson

Democrats

Kennedy LBJ closest rival Calls for New Frontier

The Presidential Issues of 1960

Roman Catholic

Would Pope control the White House? Baptists fear Catholics

Charges that Soviets have gained on US prestige and power

Kennedy-Nixon Televised Debate

Tipped the scale Kennedy looks better

– Nixon out of hospital

Results

Kennedy – 303 to 219 electoral votes

Only 118,574 votes separate candidates

Democrats

Stayed together Control both houses of Congress Youngest elected President

An Old General Fades Away

Ike still popular

Criticized for too much golfing

22nd Amendment

Does not hurt Ike Democratic Congress friendly to Ike

Legacy

America prosperous St. Lawrence Waterway project Alaska and Hawaii added

– Democratic states

No big failures

Could have had a stronger civil rights record Kept New Deal Failed to end arms race Checks communist aggression

– Long road to relaxation of tensions

Changing Economic Patterns

Nation of home owners

1 of every 4 homes built after 1950

Science and technology drive economy

Transistor sparks electronic revolution IBM computers in 1940s

– Dawning of information age

Aerospace industry grows

Strategic Air Command Airline business

– 707– Air Force One a 707

Nature of work changes

White collar workers outnumber blue collar– Postindustrial society

Organized labor shrinks– Union memberships slows

Special opportunities for women

Cult of domesticity emerges to celebrate women’s role as homemaker

Ideal urban family as seen on TV Women fill clerical jobs

– Pink collar jobs

Women working creates social and psychological shocks

Homemaker and worker Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique 1963

– Protest literature– Boredom of housewife– Struggles of working woman– Seek fulfillment as working women– Defined as unfeminine

Consumer Culture in the Fifties

Expansion of consumer culture

Diner’s Club McDonald’s Disneyland Fast Food New lifestyle of leisure and affluence

TV plays critical role in social development

7 million TVs sold by 1951 By 1960 almost every house has a TV Movie attendance slows Advertising spends $10 billion on TV

Religion capitalizes

Televangelists– Oral Roberts– Billy Graham– Fulton Sheen (Catholic)

Sports

Commercialization Shifting West and South

– Giants move to San Fransisco– Dodgers move to LA– Football and Basketball make gains also

Popular music

Elvis Presley – The King– Solidifies rock and roll– Brought youth to record buying industry– 45s sold– Parents appalled

Traditionalists upset

Marilyn Monroe flaunted sexuality Playboy shows up for affluent young

professional men

Economist Kenneth Galbraith

Questions relation of private wealth and public good

The Affluent Society– Failure of wealthy to increase spending for

common good– Influences Johnson and Kennedy

Life In The Mind Of Postwar America

Pre War writers still influential

Hemingway – Old Man and the Sea Steinbeck – East of Eden

New writers

Struggle of individual against conformity– JD Salinger’s Catcher In The Rye

Satarized stupidity of military and war– Joseph Heller’s Catch 22

Playwrites

Tennessee Williams – Cat On A Hot Tin Roof– A Streetcar Named Desire

Arthur Miller– Death of a Salesman– The Crucible

Southerners

William Faulkner– Nobel Prize

The Beat Movement

Jack Kerouac Allen Ginsberg Rebellious writers and intellectuals Drugs Rebellion against social standards Model for hippies of 60s