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Chapter 37: The Eisenhower Era
Every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies…a theft from those who are cold
and are not clothed.Dwight D. Eisenhower 1953
“We Like Ike!”
• Modern Republicanism: “In all those things which deal with people, be liberal, be human…(but with the) people’s money, or their economy or their form of government, be conservative.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower• Supreme Allied Commander (WWII)• Head of NATO after the war• Chooses Richard Nixon as his
vice-president• Although a Republican (the 1st
since 1932), he expanded Social Security and ensured New Deal programs would survive regardless of who was in the White House
• He kept his campaign promise and went to Korea to restart stalled negotiations to end the war
Richard Nixon• Famous Communist
hunter with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
• Saved himself as a vice-presidential candidate with his “Checkers Speech”
Family Roles• Dr. Spock’s Book of Baby and
Child Care– The leading child care expert
(then and now)• The Woman’s Guide to Better Living
52 Weeks a Year– “The family is the center of
your living. If it isn’t, you’ve gone astray”
• Traditional family roles (remember the “cult of domesticity” of the 19th Century?) were reinforced by the media in the 20th Century
• Not ALL women werepleased about howtheir roles were being traditionally defined
• Some denounced the“pink-collar ghetto” offeminine occupations
• Others, like Betty Friedangave focus and fuel to the growing women’smovement soon to beknown as “feminism” in the Sixties
Popular Television of the Fifties
A Date with Your Family (1950)
The Culture and the Critics of Suburbia• By 1960, 1/3 of all Americans lived in suburbia• The Critics– A wasteland of conformity
and materialism– The Organization Man condemned society
for forcing conformity on the masses– Television and popular entertainment for the
masses were NOT high culture• It isolated individuals because
they were sharing in a commonexperience…but by themselves (sound familiar?)
The Triumph of the Automobile• Suburban living required transportation for
commuters and for moms• Cars became status symbols as Americans were
encouraged to move up to more expensive cars to show success
• 1956: Interstate Highway Act– A Cold War necessity
• Move troops and weapons• Evacuate cities
– Made travel faster and safer– Created economic opportunities (gas stations, motels,
restaurants)– More choices for Americans to live, work, vacation
Searching for Communists in the United States (a 2nd Red Scare)
• The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) investigated the full range of radical groups in the United States including Fascists and Communists
• Also investigated Hollywood actors, writers and directors– Feared the influence of movies
in society– Blacklists: if you were suspected of
being a Communist or Communist sympathizer you could not find any more work in Hollywood
• Federal Employee Loyalty Program– Required federal employees to
take loyalty oaths– Employees investigated and found
to be disloyal to the U.S. were barred from federal employment.
• The McCarran Act limited the rights of Communist organizations.
• Several spy cases in the late 1940sfueled fears of communism.– Julius and Ethel Rosenberg remain the
only Americans executed in peacetimefor espionage (1953)
The Rise and Fall of Joseph McCarthy• The Republican senator from Wisconsin rose to fame with
baseless charges about Communists in the State Department
• Finally, in 1954 McCarthy went too far when he accused both the army and President Dwight Eisenhower of being “soft on Communism”
• McCarthy was censured bythe Senate– Formally scolded/reprimanded
• He faded from the national scene but his Communist “witch hunt” caused great damage to individuals
• “McCarthyism”: The practice of publicizing accusations of political disloyalty or subversion with insufficient regard to evidence OR the use of unfair investigatory or accusatory methods in order to suppress opposition
• McCarthy’s witch hunt damaged the morale and effectiveness of those in foreign service
• Many Asian experts were purged that could have provided valuable advice and expertise about Vietnam later
• The American reputation of being a fair and open democracy was severely damaged
• Sec. of State John Foster Dulles helped shape Eisenhower’s “New Look” Cold War policies.
• Dulles did not want to merely contain communism; he wanted to roll it back (considered a “new look”).– Believed in brinkmanship, the diplomatic art of going
to the brink of war without actually getting into war. – Believed in the concept of massive retaliation (use
overwhelming force against the USSR … M.A.D. = Mutually Assured Destruction)
– Built up the Strategic Air Command (SAC) with a fleet of superbombers armed with nuclear missiles
• Later, Eisenhower will warn the US about the power of “the military-industrial complex” he helped create
The Spirit of Camp David• A USSR – USA summit meeting in Geneva,
Switzerland (the “Spirit of Geneva”…1955) was followed by a meeting in 1959 at Camp David (the “Spirit of Camp David”)– No decisions were made
but a spirit of goodwilland peace prevailed
– Ike said, “It looks like we can talk to each other without being mutually abusive”
• The Cold War sometimes “heats” up and sometimes “cools” down
Covert (Secret) Action• Gathering information through satellites, spies
and wiretapping• Francis Gary Powers flying a U-2 high altitude
spy plane was shot down embarrassing the U.S. and increasing Soviet distrust (page 963)– The “Spirit of Camp David” ends with this U-2
incident• The C.I.A. was often used to overthrow or
support the overthrow of “unfriendly” governments that we needed on our side– Especially in the Middle East (oil) and Central and
South America (location)
What seems to be the most appropriate title for the 1950’s so far?
Cold War America: Conservatism, Complacency and Contentment
-or- Cold War America: Anxiety, Alienation
and Agitation
The Deadly Arms Race• 1952: the United States develops the H-Bomb
(500x more powerful than the bombs dropped during the war)
• Submarines were equipped with nuclear missiles– I.C.B.M.s (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles)
• Red (mainland) China attacks Nationalist (Taiwan) China– The U.S. threatens a nuclear attack unless the
Communist government backs off and ends the attacks
– They do (…but what if they didn’t??)
Scientific Progress? Not in the U.S.A.• While American teenagers are
dancing at sock hops, listening to Elvis and watching television (a “vast wasteland”-Newton Minow chairman of the FCC), the Soviets launch Sputnik in 1957
• 1958: National Defense Education Act (significant federal expansion) along with N.A.S.A.
• Ho Chi Minh– Inspired by Woodrow Wilson and ideas
of self-determination for the French colony of Vietnam
– Anti colonial leaders were increasingly moving toward Communism
• The French government stubbornly tried to hold their colony until they lose at Dien Bien Phu (1954)
• The Geneva Accords in 1955 divide Vietnam – Elections were to be held but never occurred when it
became obvious Communists would win• The U.S. supports Ngo Dinh Diem in the south
Into the Vietnam Nightmare
World War III in Egypt?• In 1956, Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser
nationalizes the British controlled Suez Canal– Nationalization is when a country takes control of a resource
in that country formerly controlled by a different country– He wanted to build the Aswan Dam on the Nile River
• Britain and France meet with Israel and plan the attack thinking they would receive U.S. support
• The U.S.S.R. threatens to back the Egyptians with military force
The Eisenhower Doctrine• When the Suez Crisis begins, the U.S. actively
seeks the aid of the United Nations to get Great Britain, France and Israel out of Egypt
• Weakens the power/presence of the French and British in Africa (hurts American relations with those nations)
• The Soviets build the dam with the Egyptians• The U.S. would aid any nation in the Middle East
trying to resist communism.
A Nation Divided• Blacks lived under a
different set of rules than whites, primarily in the South, but throughout the United States
• 1896: The Supreme Court ruled in Plessy vs. Ferguson that segregation could exist as long as accommodationswere “separate but equal”
• Jim Crow Laws established separate facilities for blacks and whites throughout the South
The Courts Dismantle Segregation• Jim Crow laws allowed segregation and the Courts
began to rule them unconstitutional• None bigger than Brown v. Board of Education– Linda Brown had to walk a mile to her school in Topeka,
Kansas when a white school was only 7 blocks away– Local courts found no “willful discrimination”
• NAACP (Thurgood Marshall) appeals to the Supreme Court
• Segregation harmed black children by reinforcing negative stereotypes
• “’Separate but equal’ has no place”– It deprives minority children the right to equal
educational opportunities• Earl Warren (Chief Justice)– The Warren Court becomes known for its activism on
civil rights and free speech• The South was supposed to desegregate in the
aftermath of the Court’s ruling…but they resist• While Eisenhower will enforce the ruling, a
chief criticism was that he refused to use his immense popularity toward the cause of civil rights– He cared more about social harmony than social justice
• An American Dilemma (1944) exposed the contradiction in America between the “American Creed” (progress, liberty, equality and humanitarianism) and how blacks were treated.
• The Other America (1962) revealed 20% of the American population and 40% of the black population suffered in poverty
The Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955)
Little Rock Central High (1957)
Sit-Ins and SNCC
Living with Nuclear Anxiety
Hollywood used aliens as metaphors for whom?
Civil Defense and Preparedness• Ground Zero– The impact point of a nuclear bomb
• Federal Civil Defense Administration distributed manuals and guidelines to help citizens prepare for a surprise attack– Emergency sirens, fallout shelters, bomb shelters
• Questions were raised about the evacuation of large cities and the survivability of a nuclear war
The postwar era witnessed tremendous economic growth and rising social contentment
and conformity. Yet in the midst of such increasing
affluence and comfortable domesticity, social critics
expressed a growing sense of unease with American culture
in the 1950s.
Assess the validity of that statement and explain how the
decade of the 1950s laid the groundwork for the social and
political turbulence of the 1960s.
