Eisenhower
Eisenhower's Elections
First Election:
- 1952
- Ran for Republicans
- Against Stevenson
- Running mate was Senator Richard Nixon
- Made use of powerful new T.V.s
- Won by over half a million in popular vote and 442 to 89 in Electoral College
Second Election
- 1956
- Ran for Republicans
- Against Stevenson
- Won by nearly 1 million in popular votes and 457 to 73 electoral votes
- Failed to win either houses of congress for his party
The Cold War During the Eisenhower Era
Cold War:
- Political hostility towards USSR that never flamed into open war
- Each side maneuvered to check the others power
- Conflict took place between puppet states
Events Under Eisenhower:
- Peace signed in Korea in 1953 after threat of atomic bombing; returned to pre-war status
- Republican Platform in 1952 called for actively "rolling back" communist influence, not merely containing it
- Threats of nuclear bombing made against China in response to their shelling of Taiwan
- Stalin died in 1953 and was replaced by Khrushchev
- Hungary unsuccessfully rebelled against USSR
- Successful revolt in Vietnam leads to split at 17th parallel, with communist North Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh and democratic South Vietnam under Ngo Dinh Diem; America provided aid to the south
- CIA stages coup in Iran to establish Phalevi as Shah and secure oil for the west
- The Suez Crisis: French and British forces attack Egypt to reopen it to their country after Egyptian president Nasser nationalized it; U.S. forced them to withdraw by withholding oil
- 1957 Eisenhower Doctrine promises aid to Middle Eastern countries threatened by Communists
- Communists launch Sputnik I and II into orbit, beginning space race
- Nuclear tests temporarily stop in 1958
- An American U-2 plane is shot down over Russia during 1960 Paris conference, souring diplomatic attempts between US and USSR
- Castro leads revolt against Batista and begins seizing and distributing American property in Cuba, leading to U.S. cutting ties with Cuba
McCarthyism
- Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin became well know after stating Dean Acheson, Secretary of State, employed 205 known communists
- Other Republicans started making use of attacks
- Accusations grew after Republican victory in 1952, especially focusing on democrats
- Majority of people approved of his actions
- Eisenhower avoided conflict with him, let him control State Department policy
- Finally brought own downfall by attacking military, they fought back with televised hearings in 1954
Desegregation in the South
- Jim Crow laws still existed in 1950
- Rosa Parks refused to move to back of bus to make room for white passengers, starting Montgomery Bus Boycott by blacks in area for a year
- Boycott brought MLK to prominence in civil rights struggle
- Chief Justice Warren, appointed by Eisenhower, fought to end segregation through judicial actions, such as the desegregation of schools in Brown Vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
- Desegregation was heavily resisted in deep South
- Eisenhower criticized Brown decision for going against American traditional values
- in 1957, however, he was forced to protect 6 black children attempting to attend Little Rock's Central High school in Arkansas with federal troops
- Congress that year established Civil Rights Commission to investigate civil rights violations
Eisenhower's Republican Policies
- Maxim was that policy concerning people should be liberal, but policy with money should be conservative
- Sought to balance federal budget and fight increasing socialism
- Stopped military buildup and transferred offshore oil rights to individual states
- Fought TVA by encouraging competition from a private company
- Operation Wetback in 1954 returned illegal immigrants to Mexico to preserve bracero program
- Tried to reverse Indian New Deal
- Protected New Deal initiatives like Social Security, unemployment insurance, and labor programs
- Backed Interstate Highway Act of 1956 to build 42 thousand miles of highway with
The Begining of the Vietnam War
- In 1954, U.S. taxes paid for 80% of French colonial war against Ho Chi Minh
- French lost at Dienbienphu in 1954, and resulting Geneva conference split Vietnam at 17th parallel into communist north under Ho Chi Minh and democratic south under Ngo Dinh Diem
- Free elections were promised, but never held due to inevitability of communist victory
- Eisenhower supported Diem in return for promise of social reform, which came slowly
The Space Race
- Soviets launched Sputnik I and II in 1957, the first nation to launch objects into orbit
- Proved that communism was productive to speculative nations
- Made real the threat of an ICBM attack on the U.S. from the USSR
- NASA was created to lead research on missile development
- Many early failures, including the Vanguard rocket blowing up a few feet above ground
- Finally launched a small satellite into orbit in 1958 and had ICBM capability by 1960
- America lagging behind made people question education system, and led to the NDEA which gave loans to needy students and improved quality of sciences and language teaching in schools