CHAPTER 371952-1960

The Eisenhower Era

Anxieties

Economic boom Brought several changes to

society Homeownership Science and technology

First Computer• “Information Age”

Aerospace Industry Expanding passenger airline

= Boeing Company• “Air Force One”

Cont.

“White” collar workers outnumber “blue” Service based New opportunities for women

40 million new jobs created between 1950-1970’s 30 million clerical/service work “Pink-collar ghetto”

Launched the modern women’s movement Betty Friedan = The Feminine

Mystique

Consumer Culture

More people working in higher paid jobs

Franchise Company that offers similar product or services in

many locations Fast Food Restaurants

McDonalds Assembly line methods

Consumerism

Consumerism Buying material goods came to be equated with success

New products appeared TV’s, tape recorders, record players

Planned Obsolescence Made products to become obsolete “Throwaway Society”

Credit Diner’s Club – 1950

Advertising Encouraged spending – TV 1 minute commercial

Leisure

Decline in commercial use of railroads

More Americans hit the road Flocked to mountains, lakes, and national parks

Disneyland opened in July 1955 3 million visitors the next year

Drive in movies

Restaurants / Shopping malls

Rock ‘n’ Roll

Rock ‘n’ Roll Elvis Presley

King

Many adults condemned the new music Concerts were banned

Beatles

Marilyn Monroe

Eisenhower

Election 1952 Republicans = Dwight D. Eisenhower

War hero Richard M. Nixon – V.P.

Red Hunter Illegal donations = Checkers Speech

Democrats = Adlai E. Stevenson

Television

Eisenhower wins 442 to 89 GOP control congress

Joseph McCarthy

Anticommunist crusader

Senator / WisconsinFeb. 1950

Accused Secretary of State / Dean Acheson of employing 205 Communist party members Later said only 57 Couldn’t prove it

McCarthyism Ruthless = “Low-Blow Joe”

Eisenhower loathed him, stayed out of his way

Attacked U.S. Army Televised hearing

Army-McCarthy Hearing

Senate condemned him “Conduct unbecoming a

member”

Desegregating America

Jim Crow Laws Segregation = “Whites Only” – “Colored Only”

Jackie Robinson

Rosa Parks Refused to give up seat on bus to a white man Boycott of the entire Montgomery Alabama, bus system Martin Luther King, Jr.

Brown v Board of Education of Topeka = 1954 Public schools must be racially integrated

Ruled against Plessy v. Ferguson = 1896

Civil Rights

South organized massive resistance

Declaration of Constitutional Principles = 1956 Pledging unyielding resistance to desegregation

Diverted public funds

September 1957 Orval Faubus = Arkansas Governor Used National Guard to prevent 9 black students from enrolling in

Little Rock’s Central H.S. Eisenhower sent troops to escort the students

“Arkansas Nine”

Civil Rights

1957 Congress passed the First Civil Rights Act

Civil Rights Commission Investigate violation of Civil Rights / protect voting

rights

Martin Luther King, Jr. Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Mobilize power of black churches

Civil Rights

New Movement launched “Sit-Ins” Feb. 1, 1960

4 college freshmen Greensboro, N.C. Demanded service at white lunch counter

Waitress refused Came back next day = 19 people Next day = 85 End of week = 1,000

Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee

Eisenhower Republicanism

Balance federal budget “Creeping socialism” Stopped funding for military buildup

Operation Wetback Bracero program Illegal Mexican immigration

1 million Mexicans returned in 1954

Eisenhower Cont.

Federal Highway Act of 1956 $27 Billion 42 Thousand miles of road Essential for national defense = mobilize Created construction jobs Suburbanization

Vietnam Nightmare

Vietnam Nationalist movement

French colonial rule Self determination

Ho Chi Minh Turning communist

U.S. financing French colonial war in Indochina French failing Guerilla force = Viet

Minh

Battle of Dien Vien Phu Victory for Nationalists

17th Parallel Ho Chi Minh = North Ngo Dinh Diem = South

Vietnam wide election? Communism Divided American Aid?

Europe / Middle East

Warsaw Pact Eastern European Countries / Soviets Red military counterweight

Iran Help from Kremlin Oil = Resist U.S. control of Iranian Petroleum CIA

Coup = 1953 Install the Shah of Iran Mohammed Reza Pahlevi

New Dictator Resentment among Iranians

Helped secure oil

Cont.

Suez Crisis President Nasser of Egypt Dam on the upper Nile

Funding France, Britain, Israel

Attack Egypt = October 1956 U.S. does not send supplies (Oil)

“Boil in their own oil”

Eisenhower Doctrine Military and Economic Aid = Middle East

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, and Venezuela = 1960

Ike

Election 1956 Republican = Eisenhower

Public still loved their general Peace / Prosperity

Democrats = Adlai Stevenson

Eisenhower wins 457 to 73

Eisenhower Administration

Eisenhower Fragile health

Part-time president golf

Labor Unions = gangsterism/

fraud

Landrum-Griffin Act = 1959 Financial shenanigans /

bullying tactics

Sputnik Soviets Oct. 4, 1957 Satellite

“Rocket fever” National Aeronautics and

Space Administration NASA

Missile development

1958 U.S. = First satellite

Cold War

Khrushchev Atmospheric testing “Summit Conference” = 1959

New York UN General Assembly

Camp David Evacuation of Berlin

Paris “Summit Conference” = May 1960 Fiasco American U-2 spy plane

Shot down in Russia Ike takes blame

Conference collapsed U-2 Incident

Cuba

Batista oustedFidel Castro Denounced Yankee imperialists

Land-distribution program

US cuts off heavy imports of Cuban sugar Castro confiscates property

Seized 3 American and British oil refineries

Cuba becomes a satellite nation

Anti-Castro Cubans head for the U.S. 1 million between 1960-2000 10% of Cuba’s population went into exile

Florida

Embargo = 1961 sugar

Kennedy

1960’s Economy in recession

American military falling behind the Soviets

Alignment of Cuba with the Soviets

American's questioning whether the U.S. was losing the Cold War

Kennedy / Nixon

Election 1960 Democrats = John F. Kennedy

Senator / Massachusetts Lyndon B. Johnson Roman Catholic

Republicans = Richard M. Nixon V.P.

Television Debates Image

Civil Rights

Atlanta, Georgia Martin Luther King, Jr. --- arrested

33 Demonstrators Sitting at a segregated lunch counter Sentenced to months of hard labor

Kennedy phoned King’s wife

Robert Kennedy persuaded the judge to release King on bail --- pending an appeal

African American Community now backed Kennedy in election Helped carry key states

Kennedy

Kennedy wins 303 to 219 Workers, Catholics, African Americans Young / Family

Democrats swept both houses