Dwight D. Eisenhower
youree choi
Republican Party
Republican Party
- Crusade against "Communism, Korea and Corruption"
- Increased focus on communism and against containment
- Resolved corruption and reform
- Promised to End the Korean War by personally going there
Election of 1952
- Ran with Vice President: Richard Nixon
- Democrat opponent was Adlai E. Stevenson (aka. Adlai the appeaser)
- Nixon found to be involved in "slush fund", which caused Checkers Speech, allowing Nixon to stay
- Embraced the television for campaigning
- Won by a landslide and ended two decades of the New Deal Coalition.
Election of 1956
- Largely a replay of Election of 1952
- Eisenhower in very poor health: heart problems
- Ran against Adlai Stevenson (Democrat) again
- Even larger landslide
- 457 of 531 electoral votes 57.6% popular vote
Cold War
Foreign Policies
- "Policy of Boldness"
- Eisenhower Doctrine states that US would aid nations threatened by communism, pointed more directly at Middle East countries unlike Truman Doctrine
- Warsaw Pact is signed by the Eastern countries
- Increased negotiations with Khrushchev at the 1955 Geneva Summit was rejected
- 1959 Krushchev called for complete disarmament as one of the members of the UN
Cold War in Europe
- 1960, American U-2 spy plane shot down in Russia
- Soviets agree to end Austrian occupation
- Violence in Hungary by Soviets led to the end of cooperation
Cold War tensions in the Middle East
- Lebanon asked for aid as there was a communist threat in July 1958.
- Iran began to resist Western petroleum companies
- CIA incited a coup that empowered Mohammed Reza Pahlev which led to future resentment of America and its allies
- Suez Crisis: Nasser of Egypt nationalized the Suez canal, causing France and Britain to stage an offensive (US withdrawal)
Vietnam
- Americans financing 80% of the French colonial war in Indochina
- The Viet Minh captured Dienbienphu in March 1954
- The Geneva Conference led to the splitting of Vietnam along 17th parallel
Joseph McCarthy
Anti-communist Senator
Joseph R. McCarthy
- Began as a senator from Wisconsin
- Largely represented the period of the Cold War Red-scare
- Flourished during the Cold War era as a ruthless Red-hunter
- Accused Secretary of State Dean Acheson of employing 205 Communists in 1950
- Eisenhower left McCarthy alone and gave him control of personnel policy at the State Department
- Lost much of his support after attacking the US Army
Desegregation in the South
The Civil Rights Movement
- Truman attempted to pass civil rights legislation, but failed
- Rosa Parks : arrested for sitting in the "White only" section of a bus, which led to the Montgomery Bus boycott led by Martin Luther King JR.
- Eisenhower showed no interest in passing civil rights legislation
- Chief Justice Earl Warren attempted to fix social issues and racial rights
- Brown v. Board of Education: segregation was inherently unequal
- Largely criticized by many, but inevitably led to adoption
Little Rock Crisis
- Forced to act because Faubus, governor of Arkansas, attempted to prevent integration at Little Rock's Central High School
- Eisenhower sent federal troops in order to escort nine black students
- The Civil Rights Act of 1957 ("the mildest civil rights bill possible") set up a permanent Civil Rights Commission
- First civil rights bill since Reconstruction
Republicanism
Policies
- Decreased Truman's military expenses (still 10% of GNP)
- Transferred offshore oil field control to states
- Encouraged private power company to compete with the TVA
- Operation Wetback: 1 million Mexicans were returned to Mexico
- Sought assimilation of Native Americans and cancel tribal preservation policies
Acceptance of New Deal and Fair Deal
- Made some New Deal programs permanent
- Accepted Social Security, unemployment insurance, labor and farm programs
- Interstate Highway Act of 1956 ($27 billion dollars) to build 42 thousand miles of highways
Economy
- Only managed to balance the budget only 3 times
- Incurred the biggest peacetime deficit in history
- Economic downturn in 1957-1958 caused 5 million jobless workers
- Caused the merger of AF of L and the CIO in 1955
Beginning of the Vietnam War
French colonial war
- The Cold War led to an end to dreams of self-determination
- Ho Chi Minh began to lean towards communism
- The US continued to finance a French colonial war in Indochina (80% of costs/$1 billion)
- The guerrilla warfare continued to defeat the French troops
Dienbienphu
- March 1954, French troops were trapped in Dienbienphu, which was captured by the Viets
- Led to the Geneva conference that split the country at the 17th parallel
- Ho Chi Minh arranged an election in 2 years that never occurred, due to communists' victory
- Ngo Dinh Diem controlled the Southern Pro-Western government, that would fall in the Vietnamese War
Space Race
Russian Advances
- Sputnik I in October 4, 1957
- Sputnik II in Novemember, 1957 with a dog
Rocket advances
- Eisenhower establishes NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)
- In February 1958, America sent a 2.5 pound satellite
- Led to the testing of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles