Chapter 37 - The Eisenhower Era

Affluence and Its Anxieties

• Invention of transistor helped electronics field thrive
• Aerospace industries thrived with Boeing company making its first passenger, jet airplane, the 707
• “White collar” workers outnumbered “blue collars” in 1956, meaning that the industrial era was settling in
• ==Betty Friedman== ==was the godfather of the godfather of the feminist movement==

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Consumer Culture in the Fifties

• The 1950s saw the first Diners club cards, opening of McDonald’s, the debut of Disneyland, and the explosion of TV stations
  • Advertisers used TV to sell products and sports shifted west
• ==Elvis Presley== ==redefined popular music with him dying from drugs in 1977==
• ==Traditionalists== ==were shocked by Elvis’s open sexuality==
• Marilyn Monroe continued with the redefinition of new sensuous sexuality

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The Advent of Eisenhower

• Democrats nominated Stevenson while the Republicans nominated Eisenhower in the election of 1952
  • Eisenhower was a war hero and well-liked and Nixon, his running mate almost got caught with a secretly financed “slush fund” and gave “checkers speech” to save his political career
• “Checkers speech” showed power of TV as Eisenhower had pleaded on national TV
  • ==Eisenhower== ==(“Ike”) won the presidential election 442-89 electoral votes which kept promise of settling armistice with Korea==

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The Rise and Fall of Joseph McCarthy

• McCarthy charged that there were scores of unknown communists in State Department in February of 1950
• Eisenhower secretly hated McCarthy
  • McCarthy attacked the army and exposed himself as a liar and drunk in 1954

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Desegregating the South

• Blacks in South were boundy by Jim Crow laws that segregated all aspects of society
• Only 20% of eligible blacks could vote due to intimidation, discrimination, poll taxes, and other schemes
• Gunnar Myrdal, through his book, exposed hypocrisy of American life in 1944
• ==Sweatt v. Painter====: supreme court ruled that separate professionals schools for blacks failed to meet the test of equality==

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Seeds of the Civil Rights Revolution

• Truman sought to improve black rights after hearing about the 1946 lynching of black soldiers
• 1945 case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas reversed ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson when Brown case said “separate but equal” facilities were inherently unequal

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Eisenhower Republicanism at Home

• Eisenhower came into White House, promising a policy of “dynamic conservatism” which decreased government spending by decreasing military spending
• Eisenhower “cracked down” on illegal Mexican immigration and kept several New Deal programs
  • Eisenhower faced biggest peacetime deficit in U.S. history in 1959

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A “New Look” at Foregin Policy

• Dulles said U.S. was going to push back communism and liberate people under “rollback”
• Ike tried to “thaw” Cold War by appealing to USSR for peace but his proposals were rejected

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The Vietnam Nightmare

• US began to oppose Ho as he became communist
• French trapped at Dien Bien Phu in March 1954
• Ike’s aides wanted to bomb Viet Minh guerilla forces, but Ike held back
• After Vietnamese won at Dienbienphu, Vietnam was split at the 17th parallel

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Cold War Crises in Europe and the Middle East

• ==USSR== ==formed Warsaw Pact to counteract NATO in 1955==
• CIA engineered a coup in Iran to protect oil supplies in Middle East in 1953
  • Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq, and Venezuela came together to form cartel, Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

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Round Two for Ike

• Eisenhower ran and won against Stevenson in 1956
• GOP turned to the “party of peace”
• Sherman Adams was forced to leave under cloud of scandal due to bribery charges
• 1959 Landrum-Griffin Act was designed to bring labor leaders to book for financial shenanigans and prevent bullying tactics
• ==“Space race” began in 1957==

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The Continuing Cold War

• Humanity-minded/focused scientists called for an end to atmosphere nuclear testing
• Washington halted “dirty” testing in October of 1958
• Khrushchev was invited to America by Ike, for talk
  • Khrushchev came in angry at Paris conference due to U.S. flying spy planes over USSR

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Cuba's Castroism Spells Communism

• Latin America hated that the U.S. gave billions to Europe and only millions to them and hated America’s constant intervention
• ==Fidel Castro== ==overthrew U.S. supported Fulgencio in cuba in 1959==
• Khrushchev threatened to launch missiles at the U.S. if it attacked Cuba
• Ike proposed a “Marshall Plan”

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Kennedy Challenges Nixon for the Presidency

• Republicans nominated Nixon and the Democrats nominated Kennedy
  • Kennedy was attacked due to him being Catholic with him encouraging Catholics to vote for him

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An Old General Fades Away

• Eisenhower was appreciated for ending a war and keeping the U.S. out of other wars
• The ==22nd Amendment== ==(1951) limited presidents to two terms==
• ==Alaska and Hawaii== ==became the 49th and 50th states to join the Union in 1959==

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The Life of the Mind in Postwar America

• New writers, who focused in realism were successful

  • Authors and books now explored problems created mobility and affluence of American life

• Books by black authors were Black Boy, Invisible Man, etc.

• Famous books by Jewish authors included J.D. Salinger’s, Catcher in the Rye

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