"I Like Ike"
President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Time in Office
Election of Eisenhower
Election of 1952:
- Democratic Party candidate: Adlai E. Stevenson, governor of Illinois
- Republican Party candidate: General Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Richard M. Nixon runs alongside Eisenhower to please anti-communists in the government
- "I Like Ike" buttons pop up everywhere - Eisenhower becomes most popular American of his time
- Eisenhower sported authentic hero credentials: 1) wartime supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe, 2) first supreme commander of NATO 1950-52
- Nixon campaigned for the two with almost exaggerated statements: they had put an end to corruption, fought hard with Korea, and flabbergasted communists
- Nixon almost booted off running alongside Eisenhower when a scandalous event is revealed, but redeems himself with his "Checkers Speech"
- With Eisenhower's last-minute promise to travel to Korea himself to end the war, wins by large margin: 33,936,234 votes versus 27,314992 for Stevenson; 442 electoral votes versus 89 for Stevenson
Election of 1956:
- Democratic Party candidate: Adlai Stevenson
- Republican Party candidate: Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Democrats attempted to find some issue with Eisenhower, but failed as the voters still proved to like Ike
- Eisenhower won by large margin again: 35,590,472 popular votes to 26,022,752 popular votes for Stevenson; 457 electoral votes versus 73 for Stevenson
The Cold War
Definition: long-term, non-violent conflict between the United States and the USSR following the year 1945
Events during Eisenhower's time as president:
- 3-Day visit to Korea following entrance into office
- 7 months later - armistice with Korea signed
- 1950 - Korea remains divided at 38th parallel
- Beginnings of Vietnam War
- Space Rate with Soviets
Joseph McCarthy
- Staggering power and popularity: one of Eisenhower's first problems
- Determined many communists worked in State Department
- February 1950: attacked Secretary of State Acheson of employing 205 communists
- Neither first nor most effective red-hunter, but most ruthless
- Eisenhower privately loathed him
- Eisenhower gave him control of personnel policy in State Department
- Deprived many Asian specialists from government
- 1954: attacked members of the U.S. Army
- Few months later: condemned
- McCarthyism coined after him: dangerous forces of unfairness and fear that democratic society can unleash only at its peril
Desegregation in the South
Brown v. Board of Education:
- May 1954
- Learned justices ruled segregation "inherently" unequal and unconstitutional
- Decision startled conservatives
- Reversed decision of 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson
- Border states attempted to comply with decision
- Deep South signed "Declaration of Constitutional Principles" in 1956 to pledge unyielding resistance to desegregation
- September 1957
- Governor of Arkansas, Orval Faublus, deployed National Guard
- Prevented 9 black students from enrolling in Central High School
- Eisenhower sent troops to escort students to classes
Montgomery Bus Boycott:
- December 1, 1955-December 20, 1956
- Protest against racial segregation on public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama
- Notable figure: 27 year old Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.
- Began with Rosa Parks refusing to give her seat to a white man
- Browder v. Gayle determined Alabama and Montgomery laws requiring desegregated buses unconstitutional - marked end of protest
Civil Rights Act of 1957:
- Enacted September 9, 1957
- First civil rights legislation passed since 1866 and 1875 Acts
- Primarily a voting rights bill
- Also show of Congress support for decision in Brown v. Board of Education
- Ensured all Americans right to vote
Republicanism Policies
- Strove to balance federal budget and guard Republic from "creeping socialism"
- Supported transfer of control over offshore oil fields from government to states
- Tried to restrain TVA by encouraging private power company to build generating plant
- Determined illegal Mexican immigration would cut bracero program
- Sought to cancel tribal preservation policies
- Proposed terminating tribes as legal entities
- Wanted to resort to assimilation goals of Dawes Severalty Act of 1887
- Supported Interstate Highway Act of 1956
- Sought to build 42,000 miles of highways with $27 billion
Beginning of Vietnam War
- 1954: American taxpayers financed nearly 80% of endless French colonial war in Indochina
- March 1954: French militia trapped in fortress of Dienbienphu
- Secretary Dulles, Vice President Nixon, and chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staffs wanted to help French
- Eisenhower wary going into war after only ending Korean War few months back
- Dienbienphu fell to nationalists -> multinational conference held at Geneva
- Conference halted Vietnam at 7th parallel
- Ho Chi Minh determined Vietnam-wide elections be held in 2 years
- Pro-Western government in south under Ngo Dinh Diem ingrained in Salgon
- Elections never held - communists seemed obvious to win
- Vietnam became dangerously divided country
- Eisenhower promised economic and military aid to Diem regime as long as certain social reforms occur
- Communist campaigns grew against Diem; America had no way to stop providing aid
Space Race with the Soviets
- October 4, 1957: Sputnik I goes into orbit by Soviet Union
- Month later: Sputnik II goes into orbit
- Sputniks gave Soviet Union evidence to claim superior industrial production comes through communism
- "Backward" nations found humor in America's under achievement in science
- Eisenhower claimed Soviet's success should not garner fright
- Experts determined efforts needed to close the missile gap and not widen it
- "Rocket fever" swept nation as Eisenhower established National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
- NASA received billions of dollars for missile development
- Several failures, notably Vanguard missile that blew up on television in 1957
- 1958: small satellite put into orbit
- End of decade: several satellites launched, America's own ICBMs created
- Led to National Defense and Education Act (NDEA) authorizing $887 million for improvement of science and language education in 1958