The Eisenhower Era, 1952-1960

Chapter 37

Affluence and its Anxieties

• Science & technology– Change business, military, & society– Boeing

• Strategic Air Command (SAC)• “White-collar” & “Blue-collar” jobs• “Cult of Domesticity” reborn (housewives)

– Television shows• Betty Friedan launches new women’s movement

(The Feminine Mystique)

Consumer Culture in the Fifties

• Expansion of middle class• Fast-food, TV, Disneyland, movie attendance,

advertising• Sports movement & popularity• Elvis Presley introduces Rock & Roll

– Cultural & social phenomenon• Sexual revolution

Advent of Eisenhower (1952 Election)• D – Adlai Stevenson, R – Dwight Eisenhower

– “I Like Ike”, Richard Nixon (R VP)• “Checkers Speech” – Nixon parlays “slush fund” into

speech about family dog (saves election)– TV dominates campaigns

• Eisenhower wins easily

Rise & Fall of Joseph McCarthy• McCarthy accuses Sec of State Acheson

of employing 205 communists (can’t find any)

• Accused General Marshall (Marshall Plan)

• Americans supported McCarthy & believed him

• Accused U.S. Army of being communist– McCarthy defeated in 35 day trial

(televised)– People lose faith in McCarthy

Desegregating American Society• Segregation & Jim Crow laws still in effect

in South– Violence, lynching, etc. still very prevalent

• War veterans, Emmett Till, etc.• North & West are more sympathetic

– Jackie Robinson, desegregation literature, etc.

• Rosa Parks refuses to sit in back of bus (Dec 1955)– Montgomery Bus Boycott (Blacks boycott

buses)• Martin Luther King Jr. rises to forefront of

Civil Rights Movement

Seeds of the Civil Rights Revolution

• 1948 – Truman desegregates military & civil service– Eisenhower reluctant to continue integration– Desegregation fell to Supreme Court

• Earl Warren leads SC to integration• Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

– Separate but equal struck down, schools ordered desegregated

• Deep South resists• Little Rock Nine (1957)

– Eisenhower orders integration of Central High School (sends air force to protect 9 black students)

• Non-violent protest (SCLC, SNCC, NAACP, etc.)

Eisenhower Republicanism at Home• Middle of the road

– Curb socialism• Fear of illegal immigration (bracero program)

– Operation Wetback• Proposed return to Indian assimilation• Interstate Highway Act of 1956

A “New Look” in Foreign Policy

• More than “containment,” “roll back” of communism• SAC – fleet of super bombers

– Massive retaliation response• Soviets smash potential Hungarian uprising

– U.S. fails to respond

Vietnam Nightmare

• U.S. involved in French wars in Asia• North Vietnamese halted by negotiation (17th P)• Vietnam refuses elections• U.S. stuck supporting South

Cold War Crises in Europe & the Middle East

• CIA helps install pro-West Shah in Iran (oil)• Suez Crisis (Egypt nationalizes Suez Canal)• Eisenhower Doctrine

– Pledges support to Middle East to resist communism• OPEC (1960) – Middle East & Venezuela control oil

Round Two for Ike• D – Stevenson (again), R – Eisenhower

– Eisenhower wins easily• Gov’t crackdown on labor & unions• 1957 – Soviets launch Sputnik I & II• NASA begins • ICBMs threaten world• U.S. focuses on improving education

Continuing Cold War• 1958 – End of nuclear testing• Lebanon – Egypt threatens, U.S.

lands troops to support• Eisenhower & Khrushchev meet

at Camp David– “Spirit of Camp David” (peaceful)

• U-2 shot down over Russia– Paris conference doesn’t go so

well

Cuba’s Castroism Spells Communism

• CIA coup in Guatemala (‘54) angers Latin America• Castro overthrows Batista in Cuba (‘59)

– Denounces U.S. as imperialistic– U.S. embargoes Cuba in ‘61 (still in effect)– Soviets establish base in Cuba

Kennedy Challenges Nixon for the Presidency• D – JFK, R – Nixon• JFK is 1st Catholic nominated since ‘28• Debate over U.S. status (JFK–down, Nixon–same)• Televised debates tip scales (change politics forever)

– JFK wins TV, Nixon wins radio• JFK wins closely (only Catholic president)

An Old General Fades Away

• Prosperity continued during ‘50s• AK & HI become states in ‘59• No significant contributions to Civil Rights

Movement

Life of the Mind in Postwar America

• Realism persists in literature• Less war writing than WWI• Dramas investigate society

– A Streetcar Named Desire– Cat on a Hot Tin Roof– Death of a Salesman– The Crucible (Parable about McCarthyism)