Dwight D. Eisenhower
34th President of USA (1952-1960)
Presidential Election
1952
- Dwight D. Eisenhower (Republican) v. Adlai Stevenson (Democrat)
- Eisenhower won with 442 electoral votes and 33,936,234 popular votes.
- Main opponent - 89 electoral votes, 27,314,992 popular votes
- Vice President - Richard M. Nixon
1956
- Dwight D. Eisenhower (Republican) v. Adlai Stevenson (Democrat)
- Eisenhower won with 457 electoral votes and 35,590,472 popular votes.
- Main opponent - 73 electoal votes, 26,022,752 popular votes
- Vice President - Richard M. Nixon
Cold War
- Political and military tensions between the U.S.S.R. and United States from 1945 to 1990.
Key Events
- 1953 - Dien Bien Phu falls under Communist control
Vietnam splits into two countries as a result of Geneva Conference
SEATO is created - 1954 - CIA-directed coup in Guatemala
- 1955 - Warsaw Pact signed
- 1956 - Suez Crisis
- 1957 - Eisenhower Doctrine created
U.S.S.R.'s launch of Sputnik I and Sputnik II - 1958 - National Defense Education Act passed
- 1959 - Fidel Castro came to power and made Cuba a satellite for U.S.S.R.
- 1960 - American U-2 spy plane shot down by U.S.S.R.
Joseph McCarthy
- accused Secretary of State Dean Acheson of hiring 205 Communist party members
- failed to name a single person, but his speech brought attention
- accused Democrats and powerful government officials for being traitors, including General George Marshall
- attacked U.S. Army, which led to the army fighting back on TV
- finally kicked out of Senate
- died of chronic alcoholism on May 2, 1957
Desegregation in the South
- Sweatt v. Painter - separate schools for blacks were ruled to be unequal (1950)
- Rosa Parks was arrested for sitting in "whites only" section on bus (Dec. 1955)
- Little Rock Crisis - Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas wanted National Guard to prevent nine black students from attending Little Rock Central High School, so Eisenhower got the troops to escort them to school instead.
- Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas - ruled that segregation in public schools was unconsititutional (May 1954)
- Montgomery Buss Boycott - Martin Luther King Jr. sparked bus boycott and nonviolent ways of resisting government
- Civil Rights Act of 1957 - created permanent Civil Rights Commission
Republicanism Policies
- reduced military funding from Truman's ginormous military buildup
- transfer of control of offshore oil fields from federal government to state government
- approved of start-up of small private companies to maintain a small federal government and get rid of large public companies (i.e. TVA)
- cancellation of the "Indian New Deal" (only lasted a few years)
- continuation of certain New Deal programs, such as Social Security, unemployment insurance, labor and farm programs
- supported Interstate Highway Act of 1956 - $27 billion plan to lay 42,000 miles of highways
Beginning of the Vietnam War
- Eisenhower did not aid French at first in fear of starting another war with Asia
- finally agreed after Diem regime agreed to make social reforms
- negotiated arms-control agreement with USSR, which led to Soviets withdrawing from Austria in May 1955
- Suez Crisis - Pres. Nasser of Egypt nationalized Suez Canal after Secretary of State Dulles withdrew offer for dam
- Eisenhower refused to aid Britain and France with oil during Suez Crisis
- Joseph Stalin denounced by Nikita Khrushchev in 1956
- U.S. limited Hungarian immigration to 30,000 people as violence worsened in Asia
- Eisenhower Doctrine in 1957 - U.S. promised military and economic aid to Middle Eastern countries that were threatened by communists
Space Race with Soviets
- Soviets launched Sputnik I on October 4, 1957. Sputnik II was launched a month later
- Eisenhower created National Aeronautics and Spaces Administration (NASA)
- U.S. launched satellite into space in Feb. 1958
- National Defense and Education Act (NDEA) was created in late 1958. used $887 million for education loans and grants