The Eisenhower Years

The 1950s have the popular image of the “happy days,’ when the nation prospered and

grew. But the Cold War and civil rights movement also defined the decade as one of

change.

Eisenhower Takes Command

• Dwight (“Ike”) Eisenhower• “I Like Ike”• Republican• Trusted, former WWII general,

conservative, integrity• Wins 1952 election with

Richard Nixon as his VP• Nixon defends his use of

campaign funds with the so- called Checkers speech

• Eisenhower promised to end the “war” in Korea

Domestic Policies

• Eisenhower was a fiscal conservative who wanted to balance the budget after years of deficit spending

• Accepted New Deal programs and extended some

• Social Security extended and minimum wage raised

• Opposed federal health care insurance and federal aid to education

• Called his balanced and moderate approach “modern Republicanism”

Interstate Highway Act

• 1956 Highway Act: authorized construction of 42,000 miles of interstate highways linking nation’s major cities

• Created jobs and accelerated the growth of suburbs

• More homogenous national culture

• Hurt the environment and railroads

Prosperity and Election of 1956

• Country enjoyed a steady growth rate during Eisenhower years

• Per-capita disposable income increases

• Family had twice the real income of a comparable family during 1920s

• Highest standard of living in the world

• Eisenhower and Nixon won reelection in 1956 by a wide margin, but Democrats controlled Congress

Eisenhower and the Cold War

• Secretary of State John Foster Dulles

• More aggressive containment policy than Truman

• push communist countries to the brink of war: brinkmanship

• Eisenhower often prevented Dulles from carrying out these extreme ideas

• Dulles advocated greater reliance on nuclear weapons

• Arms Race – hydrogen bomb• Massive retaliation

Korean War

• 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea

• Truman called for special session of UN

• UN troops sent (mostly U.S. troops) to defend S. Korea

• “police action” not a U.S. war• Eisenhower keeps promise to

try to end war• Visits troops in Korea in 1953,

armistice signed the same year

• 38th parallel, no peace treaty

Indochina and Vietnam

• France tried to hold onto colonial possession of Indochina (Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam)

• Vietnamese Communist leader Ho Chi Minh

• Soon U.S. gave aid• Soviets and China give aid to

Ho Chi Minh’s forces• French withdrew in 1954• Geneva Convention terms:

Vietnam temporarily divided until free elections were held

Vietnam

• N. Vietnam was a communist dictatorship under Ho Chi Minh

• S. Vietnam was lead by Ngo Dinh Diem

• Elections were never held because of the fear of a communist victory

• U.S. gave $ to S. Vietnam to help build a stable anticommunist government

• Domino theory: If Vietnam falls then Cambodia, Laos, Australia and New Zealand

Eisenhower Doctrine

• U.S. quickly replaced France and Britain as the biggest influence in Middle East

• Growing Soviet influence• 1957 pledge to give economic

and military aid to any Middle eastern country threatened by communism

• 1960 OPEC forms Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran and Venezuala

• Arab nationalism• Palestinian-Israeli conflict

U.S. – Soviet Relations

• At times both sides showed signs of wanting to ease tensions

• “peaceful coexistence”• Hungarian revolt – 1956,

crushed by Soviets • Sputnik launched in 1957• Is America losing in

technology?• Some blamed schools• Money pit towards increasing

science and math programs• 1958 – NASA created

Cold War Tensions

• U-2 Incident – 1955, Soviets shoot down US spy plane over Russia

• Fidel Castro lead a revolution in Cuba and takes over in 1959 and sets up Communist totalitarian state

• Cuba turns to Soviet Union for support

• Communist country 90 miles from US

Civil Rights Movement

• Jackie Robinson – 1947• Integration of military – 1948• Poll taxes, literacy tests,

grandfather clauses, segregation still existed (mostly in the South)

• Millions of African-Americans had moved into cities and the North

• Supported the Democratic party

• If we are a country of freedom and democracy, why segregation?

Desegregating the Schools

• NAACP had been working to overturn Plessy v. Ferguson

• “separate but equal”

• Case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

• Thurgood Marshall argues before the Supreme Court that Plessy ruling was unconstitutional – violated 14th Amendment “equal protection of the laws”

• 1954, Supreme Court overturned Plessy case

• Chief Justice Earl Warren said “separate facilities are inherently unequal”

Resistance in the South

• States in the South fought the Supreme Court ruling

• Some temporarily closed schools

• AK 1956: Governor used state’s National Guard to prevent 9 Afr-Am students from entering Little Rock Central High School

• President understood his constitutional responsibility to uphold federal authority

• Federal troops were ordered to stand guard and protect the students

Little Rock Central High School

• The Problem We All Live With

• Norman Rockwell

Montgomery Bus Boycott

• AL 1955, Rosa parks refuses to move to the back of a segregated bus = arrest

• She violated the bus segregation laws

• Massive bus boycott• Reverend Martin Luther King

Jr. emerges as a leader – nonviolent approach

• 1956 the Supreme Court rules segregation unconstitutional

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Nonviolent Protest

• King formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to organize churches and minister

• 1960 sit-in movement in Greensboro, NC by college students

• Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

• Turning point in civil rights: actions of Supreme Court, President Eisenhower

Popular Culture

• Suburbs = conformity to social norms

• Safe harbors for Americans troubled by communism

• Television became center of family life

• Advertising (McDonalds arches)

• Records- rock and roll• Corporate American (white

collar jobs)

Women’s Roles

• Homemaking a full time job• Traditional roles as caretakers

of children and homes was reaffirmed

• Baby and Child Care (1946) by Dr. Benjamin Spock

• More married women entering the workplace

• Dissatisfaction was growing among the educated middle class women

• Lower wages

Social Critics

• Not everyone approved of the trends of the 1950s

• Author’s wrote of the individual’s struggle against conformity

• J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye (1951)

• “Beatniks” a group of rebellious writers and intellectuals made up the so called Beat generation of the 1950s

• Jack Kerouac’s On the Road