Dwight D. Eisenhower
1952-1960
Presidential Election of 1952
- Dwight D. Eisenhower (Republican) v. Adlai Stevenson (Democrat)
- Vice President - Richard M. Nixon
- Eisenhower won with 442 electoral votes and 33,936,234 popular votes.
- Main opponent - 89 electoral votes, 27,314,992 popular votes
presidential election of 1956
- Dwight D. Eisenhower (Republican) v. Adlai Stevenson (Democrat)
- Vice President - Richard M. Nixon
- Eisenhower won with 457 electoral votes and 35,590,472 popular votes.
- Main opponent - 73 electoral votes, 26,022,752 popular votes
Cold war
- sustained state of political and military tensions between the USSR and United States from 1947 to 1991
- 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
- Senator Joseph McCarthy was a Senator from Wisconsin
- accused Secretary of State Dean Acheson of hiring 205 Communist party members into U.S. State Department
- his speech brought lots of attention, though he failed to name a single person
- 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
- allegations became so foolish to public, they dropped it
- finally kicked out of Senate
- died of alcoholism on May 2, 1957
desegregation in the south
- Sweatt v. Painter (1950) - separate schools for blacks were ruled to be unequal
- In December of 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for sitting in "whites only" section on bus
- Little Rock Crisis - Governor Orval Faubus (Arkansas) wanted National Guard to prevent 9 black students from attending Little Rock Central High School
- Eisenhower got the troops to escort them to school instead
- Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (May 1954) - ruled that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional and unequal
- 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
- transferred control of offshore drillings from federal government to state governments
- reduced military funding from Truman's ginormous military buildup
- cancellation of the "Indian New Deal" (only lasted a few years)
- approved of start-up of small private companies to maintain a small federal government and get rid of large public companies (TVA)
- New Deal programs still in existence, 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 (benefited trucking, automobile, oil, and travel agencies; created jobs; more, passes under Eisenhower; pollution)
Start of Vietnam War
- in fear of starting another war with Asia, Eisenhower didn't aid French at first
- 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 threatened by communists
Space Race
- 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