The Eisenhower Era 1952 - 1960. Election of 1952 Dem – Adlai E. Stevenson Rep – Dwight D. Eisenhower Running mate – Richard Nixon Richard Nixon did most

The Eisenhower Era

1952 - 1960

Election of 1952

• Dem – Adlai E. Stevenson• Rep – Dwight D. Eisenhower

• Running mate – Richard Nixon

• Richard Nixon did most of the campaigning • Nixon was accused of corruption

– “Checkers speech” on national TV – gained support• Demonstrated the impact of TV on politics

Nixon and Eisenhower at the 1952 Republican Convention In this picture, the triumphant Republican nominees for the White House pose with smiles and wives--Pat Nixon and Mamie Eisenhower. Seen as a statesman and not a politician during the campaign, Eisenhower worked hard to ensure his nomination over Robert Taft, and then chose Richard Nixon to balance the ticket because he was a younger man, a westerner, and a conservative. (UPI Bettmann Archives)

Nixon and Eisenhower at the 1952 Republican Convention

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

“I Like Ike”

• Eisenhower wins easily – Promised to go personally to Korea to end the war– Dec 1952 – Eisenhower went to Korea

• 7 months later, after threatening to use atomic weapons, an armistice was finally signed (repeatedly violated)

• 1953 – Korea War ended– Bought only a return to the conditions of 1950

• Korea remained divided at the 38th parallel

Eisenhower happyLike a benign grandfather, Dwight D. Eisenhower provided a reassuring presence in the White House in the 1950s. His moderation, balanced judgment, and apparent aloofness from partisanship appealed to as many as did his fondness for bridge and poker, bourbon, fishing and hunting, and golf. (Courtesy Dwight D. Eisenhower Library)

Eisenhower happy


Problems for African Americans • Jim Crow Laws – separate social arrangements for

blacks & whites – Schools, public toilets, drinking fountains, waiting rooms

• Violence broke out– 14-year old Emmett Till was lynched in 1955 for leering at a

white woman• 1944 – An American Dilemma by Gunnar Mydral

– Exposed the contradiction between the treatment of blacks and the belief that all men are created equal

• Jackie Robinson – 1st AA to break the racial barrier in sports

Jackie Robinson baseball promotional bookletJackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball in 1947, when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. After serving as a lieutenant in the army during the war, Robinson, an All-American in football and baseball at UCLA, played with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American Baseball League until he was signed by the Dodgers in 1945. Moved from the minors to the majors in 1947, he earned "Rookie of the Year" honors and later was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. (Collection of Michael Barson/Past Perfect)

Jackie Robinson baseball promotional booklet


Drink Coca Cola--White Customers Only!

Signs like this were common in the South prior to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. (Library of Congress)

Drink Coca Cola--White Customers Only!


Desegregating the South • African Americans started demanding more rights after

WWII• 1944 – Supreme Court ruled that the “white primary”

was unconstitutional • Sweatt v. Painter – separate professional schools for

black were not equal– Thurgood Marshall, future Supreme Court Justice

• Dec 1955 – Rosa Parks was arrested & started the Montgomery bus boycott

• Martin Luther King Jr. followed the principles of Gandhi – Nonviolent protest

Seeds of Civil Rights Revolution • 1948 – Truman ended segregation in the military

– Congress still resisted passing civil rights legislation– Eisenhower showed no real signs of interest in the racial

issue• Chief Justice Earl Warren – attacked social taboo items

– Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954)• Ruled that segregation was unequal & unconstitutional • Reversed Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) – separate but equal

doctrine • Desegregation with “all deliberate speed”

Ike is Forced to Act • Sept 1957 – Little Rock, Arkansas

– Governor Orval Faubus organized the National Guard to prevent 9 black students from enrolling in Central High School

– Eisenhower was forced to send troops to escort the students to class

• 1957 – Congress passed the Civil Rights Act– Set up a Civil Rights Commission to investigate violations of

civil rights & authorized federal injunctions to protect voting rights

Little Rock--white student yelling at Elizabeth Eckford, September 4, 1957Elizabeth Eckford, age 15, one of the nine black students to desegregate Central High School, endures abuse on her way to school. Forty years later, the young white woman shouting insults asked for forgiveness. (Wide World)

Little Rock--white student yelling at Elizabeth Eckford, September 4, 1957


The Movement Starts

• 1957 – Martin Luther King Jr. formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)– Aimed to mobilize the power of black churches

• Feb 1, 1960 – “sit-in” movement – 4 black college students in Greensboro, NC started a sit-in at

Woolworth’s lunch counter– Movement spread very quickly across the South

• April 1960 – SNCC is formed– Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee

Sit-in--Jackson, Mississippi, May 28, 1963The sit-ins of 1960 initiated the student phase of the civil-rights movement. Across the south, young black activists challenged segregation by staging nonviolent demonstrations to demand access to public facilities. Their courage and commitment reinvigorated the movement, leading to still greater grass-roots activism. (World Wide)

Sit-in--Jackson, Mississippi, May 28, 1963


Eisenhower’s Domestic Policy • New Republicanism

– Strove to balance the federal budget & guard against “creeping socialism”

– Extended Social Security benefits & raised minimum wage – Launched the largest public works program ever

• Highway Act – created interstates

– Failed to solve the economic problems of the 1950’s: low farm prices

• Operation Wetback (1954) – sent 1 million Mexicans back

• Sought to cancel the Indian New Deal

Indian boy protesting, April 18, 1958One of Eisenhower's goals was to reduce federal spending and controls. In line with this policy, he tried to turn Indian affairs over to the states and liquidate federal services and reservations. Between 1954 and 1960, sixty-one tribes were affected. This picture shows a 4-year-old Tuscarora boy protesting state and federal policies that attacked Indian rights. (Wide World Photos, Inc.)

Indian boy protesting, April 18, 1958


Eisenhower’s Foreign Policy• Sec of State John Dulles

– Pledged to “roll back” communism & “liberate captive peoples”

– Wanted to build up a air fleet of superbombers carrying nuclear bombs (Strategic Air Command or SAC)

– Massive retaliation policy – you attack us we will attack you

Girl in front of dome atomic bomb shelterAs the Cold War intensified and the Soviets became a nuclear power, the government began to consider methods to survive a nuclear war. One "solution" was to encourage people to build backyard bomb shelters. Pictured here is one family's atomic bomb shelter that slept six. The cost was $1,250 in 1951. (Corbis-Bettmann)

Girl in front of dome atomic bomb shelter


The Vietnam Nightmare• 1954 – US was financing 80% of the French colonial

war in Indochina at $1 billion/year• March 1954 – Dien Bien Phu

– 25,000 French troops were trapped at this French base– Pleaded with the US for assistance but Ike refused

• 1954 – Geneva Accords – Communist & Democratic powers agree to divide Vietnam

• Ho Chi Minh’s Communist would control the north • Non-communist forces supported by the US would control the South • 1956 – Vietnam would unify after national elections

SEATO

• 1954 - Sec Dulles helped start the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO)– Included US, Great Britain, France, & others– Nations pledged joint action against any aggressor

Cold War Thaws • Nikita Khrushchev

– Becomes leader of USSR when Stalin dies – Hope for better relationship with USSR arises– Soviets agreed to end their occupation of Austria // ends with

Hungarian Revolution in 1956• July 1955 – Geneva Summit

– Policy of peaceful coexistence emerges

Menaces in the Middle East• CIA engineered a political coup

– 1953 – Installed a youthful Shah of Iran as a pro-western dictator who guaranteed Iranian oil for the West

• Us intervention led to a legacy of resentment

• Suez Crisis – 1956– Egyptian leader, Nasser, nationalized the Suez Canal owned chiefly by British

& French stockholders – led to a joint British-French attack on Egypt that was condemned by the US

• Eisenhower Doctrine – 1957– Pledged US military & economic aid to Middle Eastern nations threatened by

communist aggression

• OPEC is formed – 1960– Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries

Election of 1956• Candidates:

– Republican – Eisenhower & Nixon– Democrat – Adlai Stevenson

• Eisenhower’s Second Term– Labor legislation – Teamsters Union

• “Dave” Beck – sent to prison for embezzlement • Replaced by James Hoffa – AF of L / CIO expelled the Teamsters

– Landrum-Griffin Act (1959)• Prevent bullying tactics & would make labor leaders keep accurate

financial records

The Race for Space

• Oct 4, 1957 – Soviets launched the first satellite into space called Sputnik I & was followed by Sputnik II a month later– US’s confidence was shattered by the “missile-Gap”– Congress authorized the National Defense & Education Act

(1958) to improve the teaching of science & languages

“The Spirit of Camp David”

• Khrushchev invited in 1959 to America to met with the U.N. General Assembly– Discussed disarmament

• Result was a meeting at Camp David in Maryland • Follow-up meeting was planned for Paris in May, 1960

– Eve of conference, American U-2 spy plan was shot down over Soviet Union

– Ended hope of peaceful coexistence

Problems in Latin America• Latin American Grievances

– European countries received more US aid– CIA-directed coup involvement in Guatemala (1954)

• But continued to support dictators that claimed to combat communism

• Cuba – Dictator – Fulgencio Batista - some support from US– Fidel Castro engineered a revolution in 1959 & was not

friendly to the US• US stopped importing Cuban sugar & broke relations in 1961• Cuba became a Soviet satellite

– Soviet Union set up a communist base in Cuba• Khrushchev threatened an attack if the US attacked Cuba

Election of 1960

• Republican – Richard Nixon– Defended American democracy in the “kitchen debate” with

Khrushchev in 1959– Running mate – Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.

• Democrat – John F. Kennedy – Running mate – Lyndon B. Johnson– JFK was Roman Catholic // youngest elected president

• Television played a major role– Televised debates – JFK appeared stronger

Kennedy campaigningJohn F. Kennedy is surrounded by supporters and the press as he arrives for the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. Young, handsome, and articulate, Kennedy introduced new vitality, and perhaps superficiality, into political campaigning. On television and in person, Kennedy was a popular politician; when he became president, he became a media star as well. (Wide World Photos, Inc.)

Kennedy campaigning


Election Issues

• Kennedy’s Catholicism – Said he would not be swayed by Rome and pointed

to his 14 years service in Congress • Kennedy charged the Soviets had gained on

America in prestige and power • Kennedy won• Democrats swept both houses of Congress

Ike’s Legacy

• 22nd Amendment (1951)– Presidents can serve only 2 terms or a total of 10 years– Passed under Truman, prevented Ike from running again.

• 1959 – Alaska & Hawaii become states• No moral crusade for civil rights• Exercised restraint on using military power

Prosperity in the 1950s • Surge of home construction• Computers were developed – IBM• Commercial airlines & “Air Force One” – Boeing • “White collar” workers outnumbered “blue collar” workers• Clerical & service work filled by mostly women• “Cult of domesticity” emerged – “Ozzie & Harriet”

– Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique (1963) started the women’s movement

Consumer Culture• Expansion of the middle class• Diner’s Club – first credit card in 1950• 1954 – McDonalds opened in California• 1955 – Disneyland opened in California • TV were in almost every home

– Televangelists – Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, Fulton J. Sheen– Commercialized professional sports

• Rock ‘n’ Roll – mix of black rhythm & blues, country, & gospel– Elvis Presley

• Marilyn Monroe – Playboy in 1955

ElvisIn 1954, Elvis Presley's first record was released and within a year a new rock'n'roll star had burst onto the music scene. Elvis's style blended rhythm and blues, country, and gospel into a unique sound that, along with his body language, created an American icon. (Michael Barson Collection/Past Perfect)

Elvis


Host Dick Clark and teenagers on American Bandstand

In the 1950s the teenage culture of the baby boomers became a national phenomenon through such outlets as Dick Clark's American Bandstand, where teens danced in front of a national TV audience. (Library of Congress)

Host Dick Clark and teenagers on American Bandstand


Significant Works of the 1950s• John Kenneth Galbraith’s

The Affluent Society (‘58)• Ernest Hemingway’s The Old

Man and the Sea (‘52)• John Steinbeck’s East of

Eden (‘52) & Travels with Charley (‘62)

• Joseph Heller’s Catch – 22 (61’)

• Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire (’47)

• Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (’49) & The Crucible (’53)

• Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun

• Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (’62)

• Richard Wright’s Native Son (’40)

• J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye (’51)

Documents

The Eisenhower Era 1952 - 1960. Election of 1952 Dem – Adlai E. Stevenson Rep – Dwight D. Eisenhower Running mate – Richard Nixon Richard Nixon did most