The Eisenhower Era

Chapter 37

AP

Objectives….

• Explain how Eisenhower’s leadership coincided with the American mood in the 1950s.

• Describe the rise and fall of McCarthyism

• Describe the beginning of the civil rights movement

What caused Truman’s downfall?

• Korean War– Frustration with

conduct– Firing MacArthur

• McCarthy – criticism• Charges of corruption

in administration• 1952 – approval rating –

23%• Truman will not run in

1952

Who was the Democratic candidate in 1952?

• Adlai Stevenson• Honest and

intelligent• Liberal • Can’t win

– wage – price freeze during Korean War

– Charges of corruption in Truman administration

Who was the Republican candidate in 1952?

• Dwight David Eisenhower

• Popular WWII general• Moderate Republican• Warm personality• Pledged to “go to

Korea”• Offered stability• Knew voters wanted

peace and prosperity

Who was Ike’s vice-presidential candidate?

• Richard M. Nixon• Concession to hard

line anti-communists

• Antagonistic • Defamatory attacks

on Stevenson• Accused of having a

secret slush fund-$18,000

What was the Checkers Speech?

• Eisenhower wanted to dump Nixon

• Nixon took his case to the American people

• Masterful use of TV• Said the only thing he

received was a puppy and wouldn’t give it back

• The people loved it

What were the results of the Election of 1952?

• Eisenhower received 55% of the vote and carried 39 states

• Sign of Eisenhower’s popularity

• Congress – Republican on Ike’s coat tails

What was K1C2?

• Republican campaign theme in 1952

–Korea

–Communism

–Corruption

What result did the Eisenhower election have on the Cold War?

• Diminished the intensity• Many issues already settled

– Boundaries frozen– Berlin Blockade, Chinese Revolution,

Korean War

• Cold War defense spending permanent part of the budget – contributing to economic prosperity

• Sense of relative security

Dwight David

Eisenhower

DDE’s background…• Born 1890 into a poor Texas

family• Public education• 1915 - Graduated West Point • 1917 - WW I veteran• Advisor to MacArthur• 1943 - N. African campaign

- D-Day

DDE’s background…

• 1945 – Allied Commander

• 1945 - President Columbia U.

• 1950 - Leader of NATO

• 1952 – Elected US President

• Retired in Gettysburg, PA

• Died in Washington DC 1969

Dwight D. EisenhowerDynamic Conservatism

or Modern Republicanism

“Conservative when it comes to money and liberal when it comes to human beings” - DDE

What was Eisenhower’s leadership style?

• Moderate – middle of the road• Slow the growth of the federal government• Limit the President’s power• Cut spending/reduce taxes/balance the

budget• Worked behind the scenes – “hidden

hand”• Critics interpreted his style as doing

nothing

Ike’s view of the corporate commonwealth?

• Wanted to encourage and support corporate America

• Pro-big business

• Appointed to FTC, FCC, and the FPC men who were friendly to the corporate interests they were charged with regulating

Ike’s cabinet?

• Put successful businessmen in his cabinet – “eight millionaires and a plumber”

• Charles Wilson (Sec. of Defense) “What’s good for General Motors business is good for America.”

Submerged Lands Act of 1953?

• Transferred $40 billion worth of offshore oil lands from the federal government to the states so that the states could lease oil rights to corporations

Consequences of Ike’s environmental policy?

• Lax approach to government regulation

• Accelerated a trend toward the destruction of the natural environment

• Louisiana – massive degradation of wetlands

• Florida – tropical forest damaged

• Warehousing of dangerous chemicals

• Use of DDT poisoned birds

Ike and the New Deal?

• Accepted legacy of greater federal responsibility for social welfare

• Expanded Social Security

• Added 4 million workers to those eligible for unemployment

• Small increases in minimum wage

• Created Department of Health, Education and Welfare

Federal Highway Act of 1956

• $32 billion for the construction of a national interstate highway system

• By 1972 single larges public works program in Am. history

• 41,000 miles of highway at $76 billion

• Stimulated auto industry and suburbia

• Accelerated decline of mass transit and older cities

National Defense Education Act…

• Oct. 4, 1957 Soviet Union launched Sputnik

• Am. Officials worried that U.S. lagging behind in training scientists and engineers

• Strengthen support for math, science, and technology education

• 1958 - $280 million grants to upgrade university facilities

• $300 million for low-interest student loans

• Concede importance of education

Who was Senator Joe McCarthy?

• “Tailgunner” Joe

• Republican Senator from Wisconsin

• Weak – wanted reelection

• Identified himself as a leader against communism in U.S. government

• Gave a speech to a the Republican Women’s Club in Wheeling, W. Virginia

McCarthy…

• Claimed to have a list of 205 communists in the State Department – then 81 – then 57

• McCarthyism – synonym for public charges without sufficient regard for the evidence

• Demogogue…

Senator Joe McCarthy

What tactics did he use?

• Made slanderous attacks on the Senate floor

• Democrats – “soft on communism”

• Democratic Party – “the party of treason”

• Sec. of State Dean Acheson – “Red Dean”

• Fed on people’s fears

• Used the press effectively – called press conferences

Who supported him?

• Republicans who wanted a campaign issue for ’52

• Those who opposed aid to Europe and the New Deal

• Those who resented privilege and the eastern elite

• American Legion and the Chamber of Commerce

• Religious leaders and blue collar workers

What brought McCarthy’s downfall?

• He went too far• Made attacks against the US Army• Nationally televised investigation• Bullied witnesses and alienated the

audience• Censured by the Senate

Ike on Civil Rights…

• Couldn’t be avoided – did not assume leadership here

• Brown v. Board of Education

• Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

• Integration of Little Rock Central High School

Recent history of CR …

• WWII black migration and higher expectations

• WWII Threatened march on Washington, Double V Campaign and A. Philip Randolph

• WWIIFair Employment Practices and Executive Order 8802

Truman and Civil Rights

• Civil Rights Committee – 1946 –Dramatized inequalities of Jim

Crow–Called for anti-lynching and poll tax

legislation• Desegregated military• Ended discrimination in federal

hiring

How did the Supreme Court change in its approach to CR?

• Morgan v. Virginia – segregation on interstate buses – an undue burden

• Struck down: All white primaries, racially restrictive housing, exclusion of blacks from law and graduate schools

• Great potential of using the courts to fight discrimination

• Problem? Enforcement

What was the NAACP’s strategy?

• The NAACP focused on the inequalities between the B/W schools

• Under lawyer Thurgood Marshall the NAACP would win 29 out of 32 cases

• Morgan Vs Virginia (1946) - No segregated seating on interstate buses

McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents?

• Unconstitutional – “badge of inferiority”

Brown V. Board of Education?

• 8 year old Linda Brown lived 3 blocks from an all – white elementary school and had to travel 21 blocks to her school

• Oliver Brown tried to register at her neighborhood school

• Brown was one of 5 cases challenging segregation in schools

• Thurgood Marshall – NAACP lawyer

Linda and Terry Brown walking to segregated school

How did Thurgood Marshall win his case?

• Goal: Overturn Plessy v. Ferguson

• Argued: separate facilities denied blacks their full rights as American citizens

• Used: psychological and sociological evidence – self esteem studied

And the Court ruled?

• Chief Justice Earl Warren wanted a unanimous ruling

• Ruling: segregation denies children of a minority group equal educational opportunities

• Denies equal protection guaranteed under the 14th Amendment

Chief Justice Earl Warren:

“We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place.”

Integration after Brown in Virginia

What was the southern reaction?

• Most states put responsibility in hands of local school boards

–Created private all white academies

• Southern Manifesto – 101 congressmen urged states to refuse compliance

Ike on Brown…

• “I don’t believe you can change the hearts of men with laws or decisions”

• Privately opposed the decision

• Said appointing Earl Warren Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was “the biggest damn fool mistake I ever made.”

Crisis in Little Rock - 1957

• Federal judge ordered desegregation of Little Rock schools

• Little Rock school board complied …• Governor Orval Faubus defied the

order ..• Ike put Arkansas National Guard under

federal control and brought in the 101st Airborne Division to uphold federal authority and enforce the law

Montgomery Bus Boycott

• Rosa Parks…

• Boycott buses….

• Dr. Martin Luther King…

• Supreme Court ruled….

Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Alabama

MLK speaks to the press during the boycott

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People?

• 1910 - remove obstacles to voting for all Americans and to secure full legal equality

• Interracial• W.E.B. DuBois – one of the founders• Focus: anti-lynching laws, legal battles

in housing and education• Appealed to upper and middle class

African Americans

CORE?

• Congress of Racial Equality – 1942

• Pacifist – bring about change by peaceful confrontation

• Interracial

• Sit –ins and Freedom Riders

James Farmer – Founder of CORE

CORE – nonviolent action – Sit-ins and Freedom Rides

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

• MLK and other African American clergymen

• Influence of Walter Rauschenbusch – religious faith used in struggle for social justice

• Gandhi - nonviolence – “assert their human dignity”

SCLC – founded by MLK

MLK as president of the SCLC

• “nonviolent resistance transforms weakness into strength”

• Peacefully refuse to obey unjust laws

What was the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee?

• Off-shoot of the SCLC

• For students – took focus away from church leaders

• Gave young African Americans a chance to make decisions about priorities and tactics

• More militant than most of the older organizations

Sit - ins

• Young members of CORE and SNCC

• Sat down in segregated diners in the South

• Refused to leave until they were served – put business profits at risk

• Psychologically empowering

• Powerful method of protest – white people could not ignore

Sit - ins

Lunch Counter in Jackson, Mississippi - 1963

Objectives….

• Describe the Eisenhower approach to the Cold War and the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union

• Define basic principles of Eisenhower’s foreign policy in Europe, Vietnam, the Middle East, and Cuba

• Describe the practice of “Eisenhower Republicanism” in the 1950s, including domestic consequences of the Cold War

What were Eisenhower’s views on the Cold War?

• Experience working with the Soviets

• Viewed cold war stalemate as a permanent state between US and USSR

• Relied more on CIA and nuclear weapons

• Fostered growth of military-industrial complex

• Warned against dangers of growing military spending

What was the “New Look” ?

• Reduce military spending by relying on atomic and air superiority

• Reduce spending on conventional forces

• “get more bang for the buck” – Sec. of Defense Wilson

• Increased reliance on nuclear weapons and delivery systems

• Stabilized military spending

Secretary of State John Foster Dulles – policy of Brinksmanship

What is the policy of brinksmanship?

• Willingness to go to the edge of an all out war

• Policy of John Foster Dulles - Secretary of State for Eisenhower

– Anti-communist

– Cold war – a moral crusade

– Favored a “rollback” of communism as opposed to containment

How did Eisenhower view the “New Look”?

• Cautious

• Realized that reliance on nuclear weapons could lead to a full-scale war

• East Berlin – 1953

– rebellion

– U.S. did nothing to stop the Soviets from crushing the rebellion

What happened in Hungary in 1956?

• Revolt against Soviet domination• Called for a democratic government

and Soviet troops to leave• S.U. sent tanks to put down uprising

– 30,000 Hungarians killed– 200,000 fled to the west

• U.S. did nothing – Hungarians disappointed…

• U.N. condemned but took no action…

Budapest in 1956

Who was Nikita Khrushchev?

• Stalin’s successor• Denounced Stalin• Believed in the triumph of

communism• Believed in peaceful coexistence

– compete economically and scientifically

What was the “spirit of Geneva”?

• 1955 – Eisenhower met with Soviet leaders

• Proposed “open skies” – flights over each others territory

• Soviets rejected• Dialogue considered a step

toward peace

Thawing of the Cold War?

• S.U. withdrew troops from Austria in 1958

• S. U. suspended nuclear testing• Khrushchev made a 12 day trip to U.S.

in 1959• 1960 – Khrushchev called for a summit

meeting in France to discuss German reunification

• Eisenhower was invited to the S.U.

Ike and Khrushchev during his visit to Camp David

What ended the thaw?

• May 1, 1960 – a U-2 spy plane piloted by Frances Gary Powers was shot down over the S.U.

• Eisenhower denied we were spying

• Confronted with evidence

• Khrushchev demanded flights cease and an apology

• We stopped flights – no apology

How did the U-2 affect our relationship with the Soviet

Union?• Khrushchev called off the

summit conference and withdrew the invitation to Eisenhower to visit the S. U.

• Renewed tension between the S.U. and the U.S.

How did the U.S. respond to Sputnik?

• Shocked – concerned we were lagging technologically behind

• Fear – Am. began building bomb shelters

• Passed the National Defense Education Act of 1958

• Increased the military budget by $8 billion

• Accelerated the arms race

What is covert action?

• CIA activities• Cheap, quick, and quiet way to

depose hostile regimes• Destabilize third world governments

we thought were too radical• Allen Dulles – head of CIA• Collect and analyze information

What were the U.S. actions in Iran?

• 1951 Mohammed Mossadegh - Prime Minister of Iran nationalized oil fields

• British stopped buying Iranian oil• U.S. feared Iran would go to S.U. for

help• CIA gave money to supporters of the

Shah of Iran• Shah came back to power and turned

oil back to western interests

Mossadegh was tried as a traitor by a military tribunal after his ouster

The Shah of Iran resumes control with U.S. aid

Trouble in the Suez?

• Soviet Union was gaining influence in Egypt

• Nasser of Egypt seized the Suez Canal from Great Britain and France

• Closed access to Israel• G.B., France, and Israel attacked and

seized the Mediterranean end• U.N. intervened – G.B., France, and

Israel withdrew

Nasser

How did the U.S. respond to the Suez crisis?

• Eisenhower angry with allies – nearly provoked a war with the Soviet Union

• U.S. concerned about increased prestige of S.U. in Middle East

• Eisenhower Doctrine: U.S. would defend the Middle East against an attack by any communist country

How the U.S. become involved in Vietnam?

• Vietnam – part of French colony of Indochina

• During WWII – French Indochina was occupied by the Japanese

• Ho Chi Minh – member of the Indochinese Communist Party had opposed French rule

• Ho Chi Minh formed the Vietminh – to rid Vietnam of foreign rule

Vietnam …

• 1945 Japan was defeated• Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam an

independent country• France wanted her former colonies back• U.S. gave massive military and economic

aid to France to restore her former colony• Battle of Dien Bien Phu – 1954 France lost

Ho Chi Minh – Communist revolutionary or nationalist freedom fighter?

What is the Domino Theory?

• The loss of one country to communism would lead to the loss of others

• Eisenhower feared the loss of Vietnam would lead to the loss of Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand

What was decided at the Geneva Conference?

• Cease –fire• Temporary division line along the 17th

parallel dividing North and South Vietnam

• Communists in the North and a government acceptable to the U.S. in the South

• Elections in 1957 – and reunification• U.S. refused to sign the accord

Ho Chi Minh in the North

Diem in the South

The government of South Vietnam?

• Ngo Dinh Diem– Former Japanese collaborator– Catholic – country 90% Buddhist– Corrupt and repressive government

• U.S. economic and military aid – CIA covert activity

• 1956 – refused to hold election – knew Diem would lose

• 1959 – civil war in South Vietnam

Beginnings of a peace movement?

• “New Look” not logical – threatened the entire planet

• Radioactive fallout – move toward ended nuclear testing

• “Ban the Bomb”

What was Ike’s warning upon leaving the presidency?

• Doubts about the arms race• Farewell Address – 1961 – warned against the

dangers of the “military-industrial complex”