The Eisenhower Era
Alex Johnson
Eisenhower's Elections
1952
- Democrats nominated Adlai Stevenson
- Republicans nominated Eisenhower
- Richard Nixon is Eisenhower's vice president
- Nixon was almost removed from ballot for stealing government funds but he redeemed himself with his Checkers Speech
- Eisenhower won by a large majority
- Democrats nominated Adlai Stevenson again
- Republicans nominated Eisenhower again
- "We like Ike" became a popular phrase
- Richard Nixon is vice president to Eisenhower again
- he won by a large majority again
The Cold War
- Definition: a state of intense conflict and hostility where no weapons are actually fired
- Arms Race: the USA tested the first H-bomb in 1952 and shortly thereafter, in 1953, the Soviets tested their first H-bomb
- Suez Crisis: Egyptian President Nasser ask the communists for funds to build a dam on the Nile River, Nasser claimed the Suez Canal as Egypt's, British and French forces attack but are forced to withdraw their troops because US refused to supply emergency oil supplies
- Eisenhower Doctrine furthered conflict because Eisenhower promised aid to any Middle-eastern country threatened by communism
- 1959: Fidel Castro launched a coup that overthrew the pro-American government in Cuba
- 1959: Khruschev asked for complete disarmament before the UN General Assembly
- 1960: an American spy plane was shot down of the USSR ending all peace efforts at the time
Joseph McCarthy
- Senator Joseph McCarthy fueled the second red scare
- republican
- radical anti communist
- created lots of propaganda
- tainted others' reputations to be politically successful
- in 1954 he lost credibility for his accusations after attacking the US army
Desegregation of the South
- An America Dilemma exposed the paradoxical nature of "all men are created equal"
- Sweat v. Painter ruled that black and white schools needed to be of equal quality
- Little Rock Crisis: 1957 at Central High School, governor Faubus used the National Guard to prevent nine black children from enrolling in school, Eisenhower sent the military to escort the kids to their classes
- Brown v. Board of Education ruled that separate black schools weren't equal to white schools and so were unconstitutional
- Rosa Parks: 1955 arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man
- Montgomery Bus Boycott: resulted from Rosa Parks, year long boycott, showed that blacks wouldn't submit easily
- Civil Rights Act of 1957: protected voting rights, set up a permanent Civil Rights Commission to investigate violations
Republican Policies
- liberal when dealing with people
- conservative when dealing with government
- rounded up and deported millions of illegal immigrant in Operation Wetback
- wanted to assimilate native american tribes into society and stop protecting as separate entities
- Interstate Highway Act of 1956 created jobs and sped suburbanization
- built up the largest deficit in a time of peace in history
- 1955 Geneva Summit Conference Eisenhower attempted to make peace with Nikita Khrushchev but it failed
Beginning of the Vietnam War
- Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh became increasingly communist and eager to rid IndoChina of the French
- 1954 French garrison was trapped at the fortress of Dienbienphu
- the French forces fell
- a conference at Geneva halted the communist spread southward
- Eisenhower promised military and economic aid to the pro-western government in the south
The Space Race
- October 1957 the Soviets launch Sputnik 1 into space-the first satellite
- November 1957 Soviets launch Sputnik II which carried a dog
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is established to beat the Soviets in the space race
- National Defense and Education Act (NDEA) passed to improve the educational system because people feared that the Soviets were more educated