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Chapter 37
“The Eisenhower Era”
Election of 1952
• Republicans – Dwight D.
Eisenhower
– World War II hero
– Anticommunist Richard M.
Nixon was chosen as his
running mate
– Nixon gave “Checkers
Speech” after being
accused of wrongdoing in
regard to a secretly
financed “slush fund”
– “Checkers speech” showed
power of Television
• Democrats – Adlai
Stevenson
Checkers Speech
• [The gift] was a little
cocker spaniel dog . .
Checkers . . .and, you
know, the kids, like all
kids, love the dog,
and I just want to say this
right now,
that regardless of what
they say about it, we're
going to keep it.
"The Checkers Speech" 1952
End of Korean Conflict
•
•
•
Only after Ike threatened to use nuclear
weapons, was an armistice finally
signed.
54,000 Americans had died, and tens of
billions of dollars had been wasted in the
effort
Communism had been “contained.”
General/President Eisenhower
Ike
"Ike" and four brothers proudly exhibit
muskies and northern pike caught on
Wisconsin Lake
Copyright 1997 State Historical
Society of Wisconsin
McCarthyism
•
•
•
The success of brutal anticommunist “crusader” Joseph R.
McCarthy was quite alarming after he had charged onto the
national scene by claiming that Secretary of State Dean Acheson
was knowingly employing 205 Communist Party members.
He sought to prosecute suspected Communists, often targeting
innocent people and destroying families and lives.
Eisenhower privately loathed McCarthy, but the president did little
to stop the anti-red, since it appeared that most Americans
supported his actions.
•
In 1954, when he attacked the army, he went too far and was
exposed for the liar and drunk that he was; three years later, he
died unwept and unsung.
McCarthyism
This editorial cartoon comments on the political problems Senator Joseph McCarthy
presented to President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
CREDIT: Hungerford Cy, artist. "An Uncomfortable Situation." December 3, 1953.
Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
Desegregating the South
•
•
•
•
•
Jim Crow laws – Segregation laws in the South
Plessy vs Ferguson – 1896 the United States Supreme
Court said that separate but equal facilities were
permissible.
Segregation occurred in every aspect of society, from
schools to restrooms to restaurants and beyond.
Only about 20% of the eligible Blacks could vote, due
to intimidation, discrimination, poll taxes, and other
schemes meant to keep Black suffrage down
In his 1944 novel, An American Dilemma, Swedish
scholar Gunnar Myrdal had exposed the hypocrisy of
American life, noting how while “every man [was]
created equal,” Blacks were certainly treated worse
than Whites
Segregation
Image courtesy - Library of
Congress
Jackie Robinson
• Jackie Robinson became
the first black baseball
player in the modern
major leagues when he
joined the Brooklyn
Dodgers in 1947. Playing
from 1947 to 1956,
Robinson had a career
batting average of .311,
and in 1962 became the
first black player elected
to the Baseball Hall of
Fame.
Baseball retired
Robinson’s number 42
Improvements in Civil Rights
1.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People
•
•
1944 the Supreme Court ruled the “white primary”
unconstitutional
The case of Sweatt v. Painter (339 U.S. 629) was a pivotal
event in the history of The University of Texas, its School of
Law, and the struggle for civil rights in the United States.
Heman Marion Sweatt (1912-1982), an African American
postal worker from Houston, was denied admission to The
University of Texas School of Law in 1946. The NAACP's legal
team, led by Thurgood Marshall, carried the legal battle to the
United States Supreme Court, which struck down the system
of "separate but equal" graduate school education and paved
the way for the landmark decision of Brown v. Board of
Education in 1954.
Taking a Stand
2. Rosa Parks
•
•
In Montgomery, Alabama a collegeeducated black seamstress refused to give
up her seat in the “whites only” section of a
bus.
Her arrest sparked a yearling black boycott
of the city buses and served notice
throughout the South that blacks would no
longer submit meekly to the absurdities and
indignities of segregation
Rosa Parks
3. Truman’s
Desegregation
of the Armed
Forces
4. Chief Justice Earl
Warren
•
Shocked his
conservative
backers by actively
assailing Black
injustice and ruling in
favor of AfricanAmericans.
5. Brown V. Topeka Board
of Education
– Segregation in the public
school was “inherently
unequal” and thus
unconstitutional.
– Reversed the Court’s
earlier declaration of 1896
in Plessy v. Ferguson that
“separate but equal”
facilities were allowable
under the Constitution
Nettie Hunt and her
daughter, Nickie, sit on the
steps of the
U.S. Supreme Court in May
1954.
Photo by Cass
Gilbert/Bettman/Corbis
6.
Little Rock Nine
•
•
Eisenhower refused to
issue a statement
acknowledging the
Supreme Court’s ruling in
the Brown Case, and he
even privately complained
about this new end to
segregation.
In September of 1957,
Orval Faubus, the governor
of Arkansas, mobilized the
National Guard to prevent
nine Black students from
enrolling in Little Rock’s
Central High School, Ike
sent troop to escort the
children to their classes.
photo: U.S. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
The Little Rock Nine pose in Daisy Bates ’
living room,,1957.From top left, Jefferson
Thomas,Melba Pattillo,Terrance
Roberts,Carlotta Walls,Daisy Bates,Ernest
Green,and from left bottom,Thelma
Mothershed,Minnie Jean Brown,Elizabeth
Eckford,and Gloria Ray.
Elizabeth Eckford
Elizabeth Eckford at a bus stop after soldiers with
bayonets denied her entry to Central High School.
Finally a woman from the crowd, Grace Lorch,
confronted the mob and escorted her to safety.
From “Crisis in Little Rock, 1957.” © Will Counts
Elizebeth Eckford and Hazel Bryan 50 years later
7. Southern Christian
Leadership
Conference
–
–
Aimed to mobilize the
vast power of Black
churches on behalf of
Black rights—a shrewd
strategy, since churches
were a huge source of
Black power.
Started by Martin Luther
King Jr.
King's interest in nonviolence
became a central tenet of his
leadership of the Southern
Christian Leadership
Conference and helped lead a
young generation of African
Americans to promote
desegregation through peaceful
sit-ins.
Courtesy of Atlanta History
Center Archives
8.
Greensboro, North
Carolina sit-in
•
•
•
an event that is often credited
with launching the civil rights
movement of the 1960s: a sit-in
campaign by African American
college students to integrate the
whites-only lunch counter at a
Woolworth's store in
Greensboro, North Carolina.
When the young people were
denied service on the first day of
the sit-in, February 1, 1960, they
refused to leave, and the lunch
counter was shut down.
Over the next two weeks, as the
Greensboro students continued
to sit in, similar actions spread to
15 Southern cities
More than 50,000 students
participated in the new
movement that year, and 3,600
were jailed. By the end of 1960,
many lunch counters across the
South — including the one at the
Greensboro Woolworth's —
were segregated no longer
A.and T. College
students sit in at a
Woolworth's lunch
counter in Greensboro,
North Carolina, on
February 2, 1960.
9. Creation of Student
Non-Violent
Coordinating
Committee (SNCC)
•
In April 1960,
southern Black
students formed the
Student Non-Violent
Coordinating
Committee, or
SNCC, to give more
focus and force to
their civil rights
efforts.
Stokley Carmichael the leader of SNCC
Black Power
Black Power is a term that emphasizes
racial pride and the desire for African
Americans to achieve equality.
The term promotes the creation of Black
political and social institutions.
The term was popularized by Stokely
Carmichael during The Civil Rights
Movement.
Many SNCC (Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee) members were
becoming critical of leaders that articulated
non-violent responses to racism.
Stokely
Carmichael
Tommie Smith and
John Carlos
Tommie Smith and John
Carlos give the Black
Power salute at the 1968
Summer Olympics.
The two men were
suspended by the United
States team and banned
from Olympic village.
The action is considered
a milestone of The Civil
Rights Movement.
Dynamic Conservatism
(Modern Republicanism)
•
"I will be a conservative when it comes to
money matters and a liberal when it comes to
human beings."
Dwight D. Eisenhower
• By Dynamic Conservatism, Eisenhower meant:
1. Budget cutting
2. Government support for big business
3. The return of federal functions back to state
and local governments
Goal of Ike – Roll Back Gains of
New Deal
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Decreased government spending by decreasing
military spending
Tried to transfer control of offshore oil fields to the
states
Tried to curb the TVA’s by setting up a private
company to take their places.
His secretary of health, education, and welfare
condemned free distribution of the Salk anti-polio
vaccine.
Cracked down on illegal Mexican immigration that cut
down on the success of the bracero program by
rounding up 1 million Mexicans and returning them to
their native country in 1954.
Interstate Highway Act
• Very New Deal-ish
• Built 42,000 miles of interstate freeways
Massive Retaliation
•
•
Secretary of State John
Foster Dulles stated
that the policy of
containment was not
enough and that the
U.S. was going to push
back Communism and
liberate the peoples
under it.
Planned on building a
fleet of superbombers
called Strategic Air
Command, which could
drop massive nuclear
bombs in any
retaliation.
Secretary of State John Foster
Dulles (left) meets with President
Eisenhower. Dulles advocated
“massive retaliation” to combat
communist aggression, but
Eisenhower refused pleas to
employ nuclear weapons in
Vietnam. (AP photo )
B-52
•
•
Since becoming operational in
1955, the Boeing Stratofortress B52 has been the main long-range
heavy bomber of the Strategic Air
Command. Affectionately known
as the BUFF (Big Ugly Fat Fella),
it first flew on April 15, 1952.
Nearly 750 B-52s were built when
production ended in October
1963, of which 170 were D
models. On January 18, 1957,
three B-52Bs completed the
world's first non-stop round-theworld flight by jet aircraft, lasting
45 hrs., 19 mins., with only three
aerial refuelings en route.
A B-52 also made the first known
airborne hydrogen bomb drop
over Bikini Atoll on May 21, 1956.
Ike and the USSR
•
•
Ike tried to thaw the Cold
War by appealing for peace
to new Soviet Premier Nikita
Khrushchev at the 1955
Geneva Conference, but the
Soviet leader rejected such
proposals, along with one for
“open skies.”
The two leaders talked and
both expressed a desire to
cut back on nuclear
weapons. (spirit of Geneva)
The Vietnam Nightmare
•
•
•
•
Ho Chi Minh – Leader of Vietnam, became
Communist. Vietnam was a French colony. French
and a democratic group within Vietnam fought Minh
with help from the U.S. financially.
North Vietnamese (Communist) V. South Vietnamese
(democratic)
In March 1954, when the French became trapped at
Dienbienphu, Eisenhower’s aides wanted to bomb the
Viet Minh guerilla forces, but held back, fearing
plunging the U.S. into another Asian war so soon after
Korea, and after the Vietnamese won, Vietnam was
split at the 17th parallel, supposedly temporarily.
Vietnam became clearly split between a Communist
north and a pro-Western south
Ending of the “Spirit of Geneva”
1.
2.
3.
In 1956, when the Hungarians revolted against the USSR, the
Soviets crushed them with brutality and massive bloodshed.
In 1953, to protect oil supplies in the Middle East, the CIA
engineered a coup in Iran that installed the shah, Mohammed
Reza Pahlevi, as ruler of the nation, protecting the oil for the time
being but earning the wrath of Arabs that would be repaid in the
70s.
The Suez crisis was far messier: President Gamal Abdel Nasser,
of Egypt, needed money to build a dam in the upper Nile and
flirted openly with the Soviet side as well as the U.S. and Britain,
and upon seeing this blatant Communist association, Secretary of
State Dulles dramatically withdrew his offer, thus forcing Nasser
to nationalize the dam.
Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC).
•
In 1960, Saudi
Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq,
Iran, and Venezuela
joined to form the
Organization of
Petroleum Exporting
Countries, or OPEC.
Election of 1956
• Republicans – Ike
• Democrats – Adlai
Stevenson
• The GOP called itself the
“party of peace” while the
Democrats assaulted
Ike’s health, since he had
had a heart attack in
1955 and a major
abdominal operation in
’56.
• Ike won in a landslide but
the Democrats won a
majority in Congress
Eisenhower Doctrine
• In January 1957 in a speech to Congress
Eisenhower recommended the use of
American forces to protect Middle East
states against overt aggression from
nations "controlled by international
communism". He also urged the provision
of economic aid to those countries with
anti-communist governments.
• Landrum-Griffin Act (September 14, 1959),
law passed by Congress
to eliminate corruption
and suppress the
influence of organized
crime in labor unions.
Also called the Labor
Management Reporting
and Disclosure Act, it
requires that unions file
annual financial reports
showing how the dues of
union members are spent
Jimmy Hoffa, president of the Teamsters Union,
speaks to a crowd of 10,000 labor union members at
Madison Square Garden in New York City. Hoffa was
campaigning against the Labor-Management
Reporting and Disclosure Act, which proposed that
unions disclose all of their finances and hold regular
leadership elections. The United States Congress
passed the act in 1959. (Corbis)
Jimmy Hoffa
• In 1952 Hoffa became vice president of the Teamsters
Union under Dave Beck, the president. Allegations were
made in 1956 that the leadership of the union was
involved in illegal activities.
• Beck was eventually imprisoned for five years and Hoffa
became the new president of the Teamsters Union.
• Robert Kennedy claimed that Hoffa had misappropriated
$9.5 million in union funds and had corruptly done deals
with employers. Hoffa's lawyer, Edward Bennett
Williams, managed to persuade the jury to find him not
guilty. George Meany, president of the AFL-CIO, did not
agree with the verdict and Hoffa and the Teamsters
Union were expelled from the association.
Hoffa’s Mysterious Disappearance
•
•
•
•
In 1964, Hoffa succeeded in
bringing virtually all truck drivers in
North America under a single
national master-freight agreement
with the Teamsters Union.
Both President John F. Kennedy
and his successor, Lyndon B.
Johnson, put pressure on Hoffa
through the president's brother
Robert F. Kennedy (then Attorney
General), in an attempt to
investigate his activities and
disrupt his ever-growing union.
In 1964, Hoffa was convicted of
attempted bribery of a grand juror
and jailed for 15 years.
Hoffa disappeared on July 30,
1975 from the parking lot of the a
Restaurant in Michigan.
Sputnik I
•
•
•
•
•
•
1st satellite
Shattered American confidence
Proved to Americans that a “missile gap” existed. The USSR
appeared to be far more technologically advanced the the U.S.
Four months after Sputnik I, the U.S. sent its own satellite (weighing
only 2.5 lbs) into space, but the apparent U.S. lack of technology
sent concerns over U.S. education, since American children
seemed to be learning less advanced information than Soviet kids
The 1958 National Defense and Education Act (NDEA) gave $887
million in loans to needy college students and grants for the
improvement of schools.
Biggest effect was in education reform in the United States.
–
–
Led to science and math emphasis in schools.
President Eisenhower said that this event should not cause one iota of
concern
Sputnik 1
• Sputnik 1, launched on Oct.4,
1957, became the first artificial
satellite to successfully orbit
the Earth. It was a metallic
sphere about 2 feet across,
weighing 184 lbs (84 kg), with
long "whiskers" pointing to one
side, and stayed in orbit for 6
months before falling back to
Earth. Its rocket booster,
weighing 4 tons, also reached
orbit and was easily visible
from the ground.
Sputnik 2
•
Scientists in the Soviet Union were
sure that organisms from Earth could
live in space. To demonstrate that,
they sent the world's second artificial
space satellite — Sputnik 2 — to
space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome
on November 3, 1957.
On board was a live mongrel dog
named Laika (Barker in Russian) on a
life-support system. Laika also was
known as Kudryavka (Little Curly in
Russian). The American press
nicknamed the dog Muttnik.
•
While other animals had made
suborbital flights, Laika was the first
animal to go into orbit. She suffered no
ill effects while she was alive in an
orbit at an altitude near 2,000 miles
Laika inside Sputnik 2
[Tass News Agency photo via Russian
Space Agency]
Camp David Talks
•
One Eisenhower’s greatest
presidential accomplishments was
his success at keeping America at
peace throughout the Cold War.
When Khrushchev visited America
in 1959, he and Eisenhower
seemed to get along so well that it
seemed a thaw in the Cold War
was possible. But Khrushchev
would end up scuttling the Paris
Peace Conference the following
year after the Soviets shot down a
U.S. U-2 spy plane over their
airspace. The U-2 incident was
Eisenhower's greatest
embarrassment and
disappointment as president.
U-2 Incident
• Gary Powers was
convicted of espionage
and sentenced to 3 years
imprisonment and 7 years
of hard labor. He only
served 1 year 9 months
and 9 days before being
traded for the Soviet spy
Colonel Rudolph
Ivanovich Abel
Gary Power Pilot of U-2
Cuban Communism
•
•
•
Latin American nations resented
the United States’ giving billions of
dollars to Europe compared to
millions to Latin America, and the
U.S.’s constant intervention
(Guatemala, 1954), as well as its
support of cold dictators who
claimed to be fighting communism
In 1959, in Cuba, Fidel Castro
overthrew U.S.-supported
Fulgencio Batista, promptly
denounced the Yankee imperialists,
and began to take U.S. properties
for a land-distribution program, and
when the U.S. cut off heavy U.S.
imports of Cuban sugar, Castro
confiscated more American
property.
In 1961 America broke diplomatic
relations with Cuba
Fidel Castro, leader of Cuba Since 1959
Election of 1960
•
•
Republicans – Richard Nixon
Democrats – John F. Kennedy
–
–
–
Lyndon B. Johnson his VP candidate.
A marriage of convenience (LBJ meant southern votes)
Kennedy was attacked because he was the first Catholic
presidential candidate ever, but defended himself and
encouraged Catholics to vote for him, and if he lost votes from
the South due to his religion, he got them back from the North
due to the bitter Catholics there
In four nationally televised debates, JFK held his own and
looked more charismatic, perhaps helping him to win the
election by a comfortable margin, becoming the youngest
president elected (but not served) ever.
1960 Nixon/Kennedy Debate
1960 Presidential Election
Eisenhower Legacy
• Ended the Korean War and kept the U.S. out of
a war with Russia
• In 1959, Alaska and Hawaii became the 49th
and 50th states to join the Union
• Ike did little for civil rights
• Escalation of the nuclear threat
• Warned against a military/industrial complex.
Ironic because he came up with the idea of
Strategic Air Command
• Remained popular after his presidency
Alaskan Statehood
Signing of the Alaska Statehood Proclamation, January 3,
1959. Photo Courtesy Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Hawaiian Statehood
Admitting Hawaii as the 50th state to join the Union, August 21,
1959. Attending, Fred Seaton, Daniel K.Ineuye, Edward Johnson, Sam
Rayburn, Richard Nixon, Lt. Col. James S. Cook Jr., Maj. Gen. A. T.
McNamara.
Early Computers
• The economy really
sprouted during the 50s,
and the invention of the
transistor exploded the
electronics field,
especially in computers,
helping such companies
as International Business
Machines (IBM) expand
and prosper
• Key to economic growth
in 50s was electronics
Analog computing machine, an early
version of the modern computer. (Image
is taken from NASA's Web site:
http://www.nasa.gov.)
Early Passenger Airplanes
•
Aerospace industries progressed, as the
Boeing company made the first passenger-jet
airplane (adapted from the superbombers of
the Strategic Air Command), the 707.
Interior of the Boeing 707
First Air Force One
Today’s Air Force One
1953 First Issue of Playboy
1954 Original McDonald’s
San Bernadino, CA
Elvis
Opening of Disneyland
Construction of the Matterhorn
Changing Economy
•
•
•
•
In 1956, “white-collar” workers outnumbered
“blue collar” workers for the first time, meaning
that the industrial era was passing on
As this occurred, labor unions also labored,
since most of their members were industrial
workers.
Women more employable after 1945 because
of the change to a more service sector society.
Critics charged that the American people had
developed into a nation of conformists
1950s Cult of Domesticity
Ozzie and Harriett Show
Leave it to Beaver Show
NY Giants Become the SF Giants
in 1958
NY Giants Baseball game at the Polo
Grounds in 1911
SF Giants First Baseball game at
Seals Stadium in 1958
Brooklyn Dodgers Become the LA
Dodgers in 1958
1955 Brooklyn Dodgers game at Yankee Stadium
Don Larson Pitched a no-hitter.
The Feminine Mystique
• Written by Betty
Friedan
• Launched modern
women’s Liberation
movement
• Discussed the
boredom of suburban
housewifery
Betty Friedan
1950s Television