Eisenhower
Jackie Malish 4th Period
Election of Eisenhower
1952
· Republican
· Ran against Adlai E. Stevenson
· Television campaigning
· VP- Richard Nixon
o Delivered Checkers Speech after charges of corrupt financing in order to regain popularity
· Received 442 electoral votes compared to 89
· Republican control of new Congress as well
1956
· Against Adlai Srevenson
· 457 electoral votes to 73
· Congress majority was not Republican
· Health worsening after heart attack and abdominal surgery
· labor legislation big issue
The Cold War
- Definition: continuous tension between Western democratic countries and communist nations; U.S. wanted to stop Communist expansion
- Events:
2. America finance French fighting in Vietnamese war
- French trapped at Dienbienphu until surrender
- "Policy of Boldness" carried out by U.S. and created by John Foster Dulles
Joseph McCarthy
- Anti Communist
- McCarthy accused Secretary of State Acheson of hiring 205 communists in 1950 speech
- Bold rhetoric
- Affected free speech
- Privately disliked by Eisenhower
- Many thought he went too far after attacking U.S. army
Desegregation
- Jim Crow laws were still in affect
- Progress-- Jackie Robinson, black signed by Brooklyn Dodgers
- Little Rock Crisis: Orval Faubus used National Guard to prevent 9 blacks from enrolling in Central High School, Eisenhower sent troops to monitor the families and ensure their safety
- Brown v. Board of Education: overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, public school segregation was unequal and unconstitutional
- Montgomery Bus Boycott: spurred after Rosa Parks refused to giver up her seat on a public bus, boycott lasted a year
- Civil Rights Act of 1957: Civil Rights Commission established, monitor violations of civil rights, protect voting
Republicanism policies
- Balance federal budget
- avoid socialism
- Stopped building military
- Overall small government ideology
- Allowed states to monitor off shore oil fields
- encouraged private industry to combat large industry produced by New Deal
- "Operation Wetback" to collect illegal immigrants
- Assimilation of native Americans
- Interstate Highway Act of 1956: $27 billion to build 42,000 miles of highway, increased number of suburbs, benefited trucks and cars but hurt trains and caused energy and pollution concerns
- Merger of AFL and CIO
Beginning of Vietnam War
- Ho Chi Minh communist leanings
- America aiding French fighting
- Trapped at Dienbienphu
- Geneva meeting split Vietnam at 17th parallel
- Guerillas continued campaign against Diem
Space Race
- First orbiting object, Sputnik put into space by Soviets in 1957
- Then Sputnik II carrying more weight and a dog
- Fear of International ballistic missiles
- Rocket fever led to the creation of NASA
- America began testing its own missiles and orbits
- National Defense and Education Act to increase science education