THE EISENHOWER ERA, 1952- 1960 · Elvis In 1954, Elvis Presley's first record was released and...
Transcript of THE EISENHOWER ERA, 1952- 1960 · Elvis In 1954, Elvis Presley's first record was released and...
THE EISENHOWER ERA, 1952-1960
The American Pageant
Chapter 37
Eisenhower happy
Like 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)
E I S E N H O W
E R H A P P Y
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Elvis
In 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)
E L V I S
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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)
H O S T D I C K C L A R K A N D T E E N A G E R S O N
A M E R I C A N B A N D S T A N D
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M A P : T H E R I S E O F
T H E T H I R D W O R L D
The Rise of the Third World
Accelerated by the Second World War, decolonization liberated many peoples from imperial rule. New nations emerged in
the postwar international system dominated by the Cold War rivalry of the United States and the Soviet Union. Many newly
independent states became targets of great power intrigue but chose nonalignment in the Cold War. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Indian boy protesting, April 18, 1958
One 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.)
I N D I A N B O Y P R O T E S T I N G , A P R I L
1 8 , 1 9 5 8
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Jackie Robinson baseball promotional
booklet
Jackie 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)
J A C K I E R O B I N S O N B A S E B A L L
P R O M O T I O N A L B O O K L E T
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Kennedy campaigning
John 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.)
K E N N E D Y
C A M P A I G N I N G
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Little Rock--white student yelling at Elizabeth Eckford, September 4, 1957
Elizabeth 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)
L I T T L E R O C K - - W H I T E S T U D E N T Y E L L I N G A T
E L I Z A B E T H E C K F O R D , S E P T E M B E R 4 , 1 9 5 7
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Martin Luther King, Jr. outside courthouse with wife, 1957
When Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) and other African Americans, including twenty-three
other ministers, provided support and leadership during the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott they were
indicted by an all-white jury for violating an old law banning boycotts. In late March 1956 King was
convicted and fined $500. A crowd of well-wishers cheered a smiling King (here with his wife, Coretta)
outside the courthouse, where King proudly declared, "The protest goes on!" King's arrest and conviction
made the bus boycott front-page news across America. (Corbis-Bettmann)
M A R T I N L U T H E R K I N G , J R . O U T S I D E
C O U R T H O U S E W I T H W I F E , 1 9 5 7
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McCarthyism, "I have here in my
hand..."
A term invented by cartoonist Herblock,
McCarthyism to most liberals and
Democrats meant the use of lies, slander,
and innuendo to attack and discredit the
Democratic party for "twenty years of
treason." ("I have here in my hand…" from
Herblock : A Cartoonist's Life (Macmillian
Publishing Company , 1993))
M C C A R T H Y I S M , " I H A V E
H E R E I N M Y H A N D . . . "
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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)
N I X O N A N D E I S E N H O W E R A T T H E
1 9 5 2 R E P U B L I C A N C O N V E N T I O N
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Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott
A member of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP since 1943, and the organization's
secretary, Rosa Parks had protested segregation by refusing to drink from fountains labeled
"Colored Only" and by climbing stairs rather than using segregated elevators. Her act of protest
against bus segregation inspired a whole black community to join her cause and sparked the
massive nonviolent civil disobedience phase of the struggle against white supremacy. ((c)
Bettmann/Corbis)
R O S A P A R K S A N D T H E M O N T G O M E R Y
B U S B O Y C O T T
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Sit-in--Jackson, Mississippi, May 28, 1963
The 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)
S I T - I N - - J A C K S O N , M I S S I S S I P P I ,
M A Y 2 8 , 1 9 6 3
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The Great Kitchen Debate, July 24, 1959
At the opening of the American National Exhibit in Moscow, Vice President Richard
Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev engaged in a "kitchen debate," arguing
not about the strength of their rockets or bombs but about the relative merits of
American and Soviet washing machines and television sets. (Wide World)
T H E G R E A T K I T C H E N
D E B A T E , J U L Y 2 4 , 1 9 5 9
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Westinghouse Laundromat ad
In the "kitchen debate" of September
1959, Vice President Nixon argued with
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev about
the types of appliances the average
working family in America had in their
kitchens. This advertisement showing
the range of consumer products made by
Westinghouse clearly supports Nixon's
claim that American families were
affluent enough to furnish their homes
with a wide range of products. (Picture
Research Consultants)
W E S T I N G H O U S E
L A U N D R O M A T A D
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AFFLUENCE & ITS ANXIETIES
Post WWII economic growth driven by: • Home construction – GI bill (In 1960: 1of 4 homes built in US
since 1950’s) • Science and technology
• IBM International Business Machines – typewriters to computers • Aerospace industries
• Civilian and Military Aircraft • Boeing 707- first large passenger jet 1957
• White-collar workers v Blue-collar workers • White-collar workers outnumber blue-collar workers for the first
time • Union membership
• 1954--35% and then begins a steady decline • Women back at home “cult of domesticity”
• 1950’s TV – “Ozzie and Harriet” & “Leave it to Beaver” – “nuclear family”
“Pink collar” workers
• clerical and service work
• 30 of 40 million jobs created
• Forced dual roles on women as workers & homemakers
AFFLUENCE & ITS ANXIETIES
Betty Friedan
• The Feminine Mystique
• Best-seller & classic of feminist protest-
• She was a college grad
• Later interviewed several former classmates who indicated housewifery was stifling
BETTY FREIDAN
Her book Feminine
Mystique was a best-seller
and is credited with
starting a second wave of
feminism – the modern
women’s movement
Diner’s Club – first credit
card
McDonalds 1955
Disneyland 1955
TV – by 50’s 442 stations
broadcasting -1951 7 million
sets sold
CONSUMERS OF THE 50’S
Religion
• “Televangelists”
• Billy Graham, Oral
Roberts & Fulton J. Sheen
Sports:
• NY Giants move to San
Francisco
• Brooklyn Dodgers to LA
Music – Elvis Presley – “The King” of rock and roll
Marilyn Monroe – movie star
Authors –
Portrayal of postwar generation as a pack of conformists
David Riesman – The Lonely Crowd
CONSUMERS OF THE 50’S
William H. Wythe Jr.-- The Organization Man
And Sloan Wilson The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit
John Kenneth Galbraith • Harvard economist
• The Affluent Society • Private wealth & public
good
• TV in homes but garbage in the streets
ELVIS “THE PELVIS” &
MARILYN MONROE
1952 election: • Democrats:
• Nominate Adlai Stevenson governor of Illinois
• Republicans:
• General Dwight D. Eisenhower
• Richard M. Nixon as VP
• “Red-hunter”
• House Un-American Activities Committee
• Alger Hiss investigation
• “Checkers Speech”
• Nixon charged for having a secret “slush fund”
• TV appearance saves him as a VP candidate
EISENHOWER
Election Results: • “IKE” won 442-89 EV
Tries to end war in Korea • Panmunjom Treaty
• July 27, 1953 =Armistice
• US to defend S. Korea. 54,000 US soldiers killed - 1 to 1.5 million Asians.
• 38th parallel – divides N & S Korea
Containment theory • Contain communism where it was
RED SCARE (AGAIN)
1948 House Un-American Activities Committee • Republicans in charge
• Movie industry • Hollywood Ten“
• Blacklist
• Ronald Reagan
Nixon • Whittaker Chambers "pumpkin papers“
• Alger Hiss - Perjury - cast suspicion on an entire generation of liberal Democrats • Made the public believe that “communist had infiltrated the government”.
• Somewhat confirmed by a series of setbacks overseas against communist expansion.
"Loyalty Boards" • Used to determine if loyal or disloyal.
• By 1951 212 federal employees dismissed and 2,000 resigned.
FBI • J Edgar Hoover-
• Investigates and harasses alleged radicals.
RED SCARE (AGAIN)
McCarran Internal Security Act • All Communists register and publish records
• Could not work in defense plants.
• Truman vetoes the McCarran Act
• Congress overrode he veto.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg • Communists
• Sold atomic bomb plans to the Russians
• Sentenced to death June 19, 1953 by electric chair.
• Protests from liberals all over the world
• Similar to Sacco and Vanzetti
MCCARTHYISM
Joseph McCarthy
• "McCarthyism“
• Uses the nation's fear of communists as a means of reelection
• Accused the Democrats of harboring Communists
• 200 in the state department
• Flimsy accusations
• Finally accuses the military of being communist
• General George Marshall
• On national TV shows McCarthy’s ignorance.
• Senate finally censors him
DESEGREGATION
1950-2/3 of 15 million blacks make homes in the South
Southern de facto segregation kept them powerless politically, economically inferior an separate “whites only” & “colored only” drinking fountains, restaurants, theaters etc.
1946 6 black veterans were murdered
Emmett Till (Chicago 15year old) was lynched in Mississippi for leering at a white woman
Jack (Jackie) Robinson – first major league baseball player played for the Brooklyn Dodgers 1947 – Branch Rickey
Rosa Parks – Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955
DESEGREGATION
Martin Luther King Jr. asked to lead the Boycott also starts
SLCL – Southern Christian Leadership Conference 1957
Thurgood Marshall black attorney wins rights in south (later a Supreme Court Justice
L E F T: JAC K I E RO B I N S O N A N D B R A N C H
R I C K E Y: R I G H T: G E O RG E H AY E S, T H U RG O O D
M A R S H A L L ( C E N T E R ) , A N D JA M E S N A R B R I T
C E L E B R AT I N G B ROW N V. B OA R D
Truman 1948 ends
segregation in federal civil
service and integrated the
armed forces
DESEGREGATION
Brown v. Board of Education of
Topeka, Kansas (Brown v. Board)
Chief Justice Earl Warren
segregation in public school
“inherently unequal”
White South: “massive
resistance” against court’s
ruling
(BROWN V. BOARD)
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas Chief Justice
Earl Warren segregation in public school “inherently unequal”
south to integrate with “all deliberate speed”
White South: “massive resistance” against court’s ruling also,
“Declaration of Constitutional Principals” fight desegregation
& white citizens’ councils to stop integration
Integration is slow – 2% in Deep South
LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS
1957 “Little Rock nine” 9 black students to integrate an all-white Central High School
Orval Faubus Governor of Arkansas after agreeing with IKE to allow integration, blocks the school with national guard
A court injunction orders the governor to withdraw troops and a riot breaks out the next day
IKE mobilizes the 101st Airborne to escort students to school and to each class for the rest of the year
“LITTLE ROCK NINE”
Congress will pass the Civil
Rights Act 1957
Set up a Civil Rights
Commission to investigate
violations of Civil Rights and
authorized federal injunctions
to protect voting rights
DESEGREGATION
“Sit In” at lunch counter
in Greensboro, North
Carolina
SNCC – Student Non-
violent Coordinating
Committee to give focus
to efforts to gain equality
EISENHOWER REPUBLICANISM
“Dynamic conservatism” with people be liberal but conservative with people’s money, their economy or form of government.
Protect the government from “creeping socialism”
IKE will accept some New Deal programs increasing those who may receive Social Security
Reduce government by 183,000
Balanced the budget for 3 years
Gave off-shore drilling rights to states
EISENHOWER REPUBLICANISM
Encouraged private power companies to compete with the TVA
Operation wetback – return of 1 million “undocumented” aliens back to Mexico
IKE makes an effort to “terminate” Indian tribes as legal entities and assimilate native Americans
National Interstate Highway Act 1956 – 27$$billion spent to build 42,000 miles of freeway
FOREIGN POLICY
Condemned “containment” John Foster Dulles wants to “roll back” Communism and “liberate captive people”
SAC Strategic Air Command – build super bombers and nuclear arsenal
Not effective in Hungarian revolt 1955 US could do nothing to help
“massive retaliation” MAD (mutually assured destruction)
Brinkmanship – go to the brink of war to protect American interests
Had been under French control
Japan controlled the region during the war
Ho Chi Minh – leader of Vietnam (will turn communist)
France demands Vietnam after WIII
US will bankroll France
VIETNAM
March 1954 French troops lose to Viet Minh guerrilla at Dienbienphu
US fails to support France Militarily assuming it would draw us into a bigger war
Vietnam divided along the 17th parallel
South Vietnam is pro-west under the leadership of Ngo Dinh Diem – raised Catholic –ruled with iron fist
HO CHI MINH – 1945 & NGO
DINH DIEM
Germany allowed to join NATO 1955
Warsaw Pact (Soviet satellite nations) 1955
May 1955 Soviets agreed to end their occupation of Austria
1956 Nikita Khrushchev publically denounced the bloody excess of Stalin
But the Soviets brutally put down the Hungarian revolt with tanks
COLD WAR: EUROPE & MIDDLE EAST
The Soviets began to influence Iran
In a CIA Coup 1953 that placed the Shaw of Iran (Mohammed Reza Pahlevi) as dictator just because he was pro-western
Lingering bitter legacy in Iran
Suez Crisis – after US John Foster Dulles – pulled funds for the Anwar Dam in 1955
President Nasser of Egypt Nationalizes the canal
Israel, France, Great Britain invade. United States and Soviet Union join for the first time, condemning the mission and forcing France, G.B. and Israel out
EISENHOWER DOCTRINE 1957
US will assist (military and economic aid) to Middle
Eastern Countries threatened by Communist aggression –
not communism but nationalism that drove politics in the
Middle East – Nasser is wildly popular
OPEC nations 1960– Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran
& Venezuela (Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries) control oil prices
Repeat of 1952
Democrats – Adlai Stevenson
IKE wins 457 – 73 EV
But Republicans lost the Congress
IKE was in flailing health (stomach and heart)
Ezra Taft Benson – Sec of Agriculture against price supports as they promotes socialism
1956 ELECTION
IKE worked on Labor Legislation
Labor unions were responsible for fraud, heavy-handed tactics etc.
Teamster’s Union particularly bad
James (Jimmy) Hoffa embezzlement and jury- tampering went to federal prison – pardoned by Nixon, and went missing
Landrum – Griffin Act 1959 – more federal control over the actions of Unions – prevented secondary boycotts & certain types of picketing
EISENHOWER
Sputnik I October 4, 1957– first artificial satellite sent into space Weight 184 lbs.
November Sputnik II – 1,200 lbs and a dog
Shocks the US- Soviets have ICBM’s (Intercontinental ballistic missiles)
US Vanguard missile fails 1957
Explorer I by February 1958 – Weight 2.5 lbs
“Rocket fever” in US – NASA $$$ to missile development called the “Space Race”
Effects US Public education – more math and science classes & a more rigorous curriculum NDEA – National Defense and Education Act
SPUTNIK I
EXPLORER I
COLD WAR
Nuclear testing
Atmospheric – very dirty – Soviets did several – US a few (1958 after several tests the Soviets call for a suspension of testing)
Underground testing – continued for years
Lebanon - Pro-western - Egypt and Communist takeover-US brings in 14,000 troops - order restored w/out loss of life.
Berlin Ultimatum - 6 months to get out
Ike & Dulles refuse to budge
1959 “Summit Conference” Camp David Khrushchev announces and indefinite suspension of the Berlin Ultimatum
U-2 incident – Gary Powers US Pilot shot down over Russia (surveillance mission) Russians are upset and it scuttles the next “Summit Conference”
IKE takes full responsibility (after initial bureaucratic denials)
LATIN AMERICA & CUBA
US CIA directed coup overthrowing a leftist government in Guatemala 1954 – but US continued to support bloody dictators that claimed to be fighting communism
Cuba – Fidel Castro overthrows dictator Fulgencio Batista in power since 1930’s (had encouraged US investments)
Castro then announces that he was Communist and allies himself with Moscow
One million anti-Castro exiles leave Cuba – arriving primarily in Miami
US embargo on Cuba in 1961/ Helms-Burton Act 1996 strengthens it – Monroe Doctrine dead
F I D E L C A S T RO C U BA N R E VO L U T I O N A RY A N D I N
N Y 1 9 5 9 ( R I G H T ) B E F O R E H E A N N O U N C E S H E I S A
C O M M U N I S T
1960 ELECTION
Election of 1960
(R) Richard Nixon national lime-light (Kitchen Debate with Khrushchev -Moscow 1959 “hard-line anti-Communist”
(D) John F. Kennedy –wins 303-219 very close popular vote
Had to overcome the stigma of being Catholic –
T.V. debates considered even (those who listened – thought Nixon won, those who watched - thought Kennedy won)
-South split-voted for Senator Harry F. Byrd
“New Frontier” Kennedy Speech – America needs change
IKE
1951 22nd Amendment - two term limit
1959 St. Lawrence Seaway –Canals from St. Lawrence to Great Lakes –popular
1959 Alaska and Hawaii admitted as states
Farwell address: warns against the power of the “military-industrial complex”
Critics thought he should have done more for civil rights
Ike ends up very respected
Eisenhower being reinterpreted by historians, felt was much more effective president than before, worked behind the scenes.
Ernest Hemingway: The Old Man and the Sea
John Steinbeck: Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden – Nobel Prize
Norman Mailer The Naked and the Dead
Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
Slaughterhouse Five: Kurt Vonnegut
Rabbit Run, John Updike
Poetry, troubled and macabre
LIFE AND MIND OF POSTWAR US
Playwrights – Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Arthur Miller Death of a Salesman, The Crucible Salem Witch Trials compared to “McCarthyism”
Lorraine Hansberry A Raisin in the Sun – portrait of African American
Native Son – Richard Wright
Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison
William Faulkner,
Southerner, Nobel prize 1950
As I lay Dying, The Sound and
the Fury – many short stories
All the King’s Men – Robert
Warren about Huey Long
Louisiana politician
LIFE AND MIND OF POSTWAR US
J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the
Rye
Bernard Malamud, about
baseball in, The Natural
Goodbye Columbus, Philip Roth
wrote comically of New Jerseys
suburbanites