The Eisenhower Era 1952-1960

1. The Eisenhower Era 1952-1960 Chapter 40 P. 908-934

2. Dwight David Eisenhower • Born in Texas • Raised in Abilene, Kansas • West Point grad 1915 • WWI served as instructor in military camps • Aide to Douglas MacArthur • 1941 Brigadier General • Organizational ability and tact earned him • Commanding General of the ETO • North African Invasion 1941 • Sicily and Italy Invasions 1943 • Normandy Invasion 1944 • 1945 Chief of Staff • 1948 President of Columbia University • 1951 Commander of NATO troops • 1952 and 1956 Elected president • Army-McCarthy Hearings 1954 • Interstate Highway Act 1956 • Ended the Korea War 1953 • Geneva Summit 1953 • Warsaw Pact 1955 • Hungarian Revolution 1956 • Suez War 1956 • Eisenhower Doctrine 1957 • Sputnik 1957 • Cuban Revolution 1959

3. Election 1952

4. Election 1952 • Republicans • Dwight Eisenhower • Richard Nixon (VP) • Checkers Speech • Issues • Capitalized on feelings about Korean War • Anti-communism • Landslide victory • Democrats • Adlai Stevenson • John Sparkman (VP) • Issues • Failure to end war in Korea • Accused of being soft on communism • Attacked the policy of containment as futile • Blamed for the fall of China

5. Nixon and Eisenhower Eisenhower tapped Nixon to be his running mate in 1952. They were reelected in 1956.

6. Nixon and Eisenhower at the 1952 Republican Convention Triumphant Republican nominees pose with wives--Pat Nixon and Mamie Eisenhower. Seen as a statesman and not a politician during the campaign, Eisenhower worked hard to ensure his nomination over Robert Taft, and then chose Richard Nixon to balance the ticket because he was a younger man, a westerner, and a conservative.

7. Election of 1952 • Dwight David Eisenhower • and the Republicans swept • into office • Republicans won • Majorities in both • houses of • Congress • 1956 Presidential Election • Eisenhower beat • Stevenson by even • larger margins, but • Democrats regained • majorities in • Congress

8. Election of 1952

9. Eisenhower Sworn in as President 1953

10. Korean War 1950-1953 • Major issue in the presidential campaign of 1952 • Eisenhower vowed to bring war to a conclusion • When Eisenhower took office he threatened to use the full thrust of American military might • June 1953 Communists • Agreed to the U.N. position on POWs • And the war ended

11. Ike in Korea with soldiers: Eisenhower oversaw the end of the Korean War, the first major diplomatic and military confrontation between America and a powerful communist foe.

12. McCarthyism 1950-1954 • Red-hunt turned into a witch-hunt • Anti-communism • Second red-scare • Government employees • Entertainment industry • Educators and • Union activists • Truman • George Marshall • U.S. Army • 1954 Army-McCarthy Hearings • Gavel-to-gavel live television coverage • Contributed to McCarthy's decline in popularity • December 2, 1954 Senate voted to • Censure Senator McCarthy

13. Nixon Investigating Hiss He won and gained national attention when, as a member of the House Un-American Activities Committee, Nixon investigated Alger Hiss and communist spying.

14. Speaking with Reporters: At home, Eisenhower supported and encouraged efforts to root out potential communist spies in America, but privately expressed disgust at the shameless tactics used by Senator Joseph McCarthy.

15. Desegregating the South Truman and the Armed Forces Jackie Robinson Brown v. Board of Education 1954 Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955-1956 Little Rock Crisis 1957 Civil Rights Act 1957

16. Desegregation • 1950 15 million black citizens • ⅔ lived in the South • Segregated society • Schools • Public toilets • Drinking fountains • Restaurants • Hotels • Buses, trains • Waiting rooms • Jim Crow laws • Separate social arrangements • Insulated from whites • Economically inferior • Politically powerless

17. Progress in Race Relations • 1944 Supreme Court ruled the • “white primary” unconstitutional • 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers sign Jackie Robinson • 1948 President Truman ended segregation in the armed forces • 1950 Sweatt v. Painter • Separate professional schools for blacks failed to meet the test of equality • NAACP • Thurgood Marshall—Chief counsel • 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka • 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott • Rosa Parks • Martin Luther King, Jr. • Organized a boycott of Montgomery’s buses

18. Jackie Robinson 1947 • Broke the color barrier in • major league baseball • Brooklyn Dodgers • Served as a lieutenant in the • army during the war • An All-American at UCLA in • Football and baseball • Played with the Kansas City • Monarchs of the Negro • American Baseball League • Signed by the Dodgers in 1945 • Moved from the minors to the • majors in 1947 • Earned "Rookie of the Year” • Inducted into the • Baseball Hall of Fame

19. Plessy v. Ferguson 1896 • Separate but Equal facilities were constitutional • Under the • Equal protection clause of theFourteenth Amendment • Supreme Court validated the South’s segregationist social order against blacks • All public facilities segregated for seventy years • Railroad cars • Schools • Theaters • Restrooms • Libraries • Second-class citizenship

20. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas 1954 • Decision • Landmark • Unanimous • Controversial • Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the opinion • “…in the field of public education the • doctrine of separate but equal has no place” because • “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” • Under the • Equal protection clause of the • Fourteenth Amendment

21. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas 1954 • Unanimous Supreme Court opinion • Overturned Plessy • Segregation is detrimental • Creates sense of inferiority in African American students • Court relied on social science because • Fourteenth Amendment was not necessarily intended to abolish segregated schools, and the Court sought a unanimous opinion l. to r: James Nabrit, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, George E.C. Hayes

22. Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955 • Rosa Parks protested • segregation by refusing to give • up her seat on the bus • Her act of protest against bus • segregation inspired a whole • black community to join her • cause and • Sparked the massive nonviolent • civil disobedience phase of the • struggle against white • supremacy

23. Martin Luther King, Jr. outside courthouse with wife, Coretta 1957 • King and others, including twenty-three ministers, provided support and leadership during the • Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott. • They were indicted by an all-white jury for violating an old law banning boycotts. • In late March 1956 King was convicted and fined $500. • A crowd of well-wishers cheered a smiling King outside the courthouse, where King proudly • declared, "The protest goes on!" • King's arrest and conviction made the bus boycott front-page news across America.

24. Martin Luther King Jr. at the end of the bus boycott. Montgomery, Alabama December 26, 1956

25. Southern Response to Brown • Massive resistance • Defiance of the courts • Closed public schools • Southern Manifesto 1956 • 100 members of Congress condemned Brown • Use all lawful means to reverse the decision • 1950s and 1960s • National Guard and regular army • Used to escort blacks to schools and universities • Border states • Made reasonable efforts to comply with Brown Central High Little Rock, AK 1957 Eisenhower sent army paratroopers to enforce Brown

26. Little Rock Crisis 1957 • First major confrontation over school de-segregation • Central High School • 2,000 students • All white high school • Court approved plan to admit • Nine black students to Central High • Governor Orval Faubus • Violence • President Eisenhower sent • 101st Airborne to • Enforce Brown President Eisenhower and Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus

27. Eisenhower Responds to Little Rock Crisis 1957 Eisenhower used federal troops to enforce desegregation and signed Civil Rights legislation.

28. Elizabeth Eckford in front of Little Rock Central High School September 4,1957

29. Civil Rights Act 1957 • Set up a permanent Civil Rights Commission • To investigate violations of civil rights • Authorized federal injunctions to protect voting rights

30. Civil Rights Movement • Southern Christian Leadership Conference • Formed by Martin Luther King, Jr. • Aimed to mobilize the power of the black churches on behalf of civil rights • Sit-in Movement 1960 • Greensboro, North Carolina • Whites-onlyWoolworth’s lunch • Four students demanded service at a counter • Returned the next day with nineteen more • Following day with eighty-five students • By the end of the week—a thousand • Burned across the South • Wade-ins • Lie-ins • Pray-ins • Equal treatment in • Transportation • Restaurants • Employment • Housing and • Voter registration

31. First “Sit-in” Greensboro, NC 1960 • Students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College stage • the sit-in when they were refused service at the lunch counter

32. Election 1956 Eisenhower Stevenson

33. Election 1956 • Eisenhower and Nixon (R) • Unanimously renominated • Public confidence and affection • Resounding endorsement for Eisenhower • Despite heart attack and major abdominal surgery • Democrats won both houses of Congress • Country still heavily Democratic • Aldai Stevenson (D)

34. Election of 1956 • 1956 Presidential • Election • Eisenhower beat • Stevenson by • larger margins • than in 1952 • Democrats • regained • majorities in • Congress

35. Election 1956

36. Domestic Policy Interstate Highway Act 1956 Space Race Information Age Work Force Cult of Domesticity Television Feminine Mystique Consumer Culture Rock ’n Roll

37. Interstate Highway Act 1956 • Largest public works project in history • Outdid any New Deal project • $27 billion plan to build 42,000 miles of road • Results • Created countless construction jobs • Speeded the urbanization of America • Benefitted trucking, oil, travel and the auto industries • Robbed railroads of business • Especially passenger trains • Exacerbated problems of air quality and energy consumption • Disastrous consequences for cities • Once vibrant downtowns withered • Business went to shopping malls in the suburbs

38. Interstate Highway System

39. Space Race • Sputnik October 4, 1957 • Launched by Soviets • First artificial satellite to orbit the Earth • Shattered American self-confidence • Soviets tried to convince uncommitted countries that communism was the key to superior industrial production • Critical comparison of American education • Missile gap • Rocket fever

40. National Aeronautics and Space Act 1958 • Explorer I 1958 • U.S. launched a smaller satellite • NASA 1958 created by act of Congress • Responsible for the nation's civilian space program and aeronautics and aerospace research • Project Mercury • Project Gemini • Apollo Program • Apollo-Soyuz Test Project • Space Shuttle

41. Information Age • First computers in 1940s were massive • Transistors made miniaturization and speed possible • Invention of transistor 1948 • Caused a revolution in electronics and computers • International Business Machines (IBM) • Expanded • Prototype of the high tech corporation • Transformed business practices like • Billing and inventory control • Revamped • Airline scheduling • High speed printing and • Telecommunications

42. Aerospace Industry • Growth industry in 1950s due to • Build up of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) • Growth in passenger airline business • 1957 Boeing in Seattle brought out the first • Large passenger jet, the 707 • 1959 Boeing delivered the first presidential jet • “Air Force One”

43. Workforce • 1956 Beginning of post industrial era/economy • Fundamental transformation • Quiet revolution • First time • “White-collar” workers outnumbered “blue-collar” • Conformity • New York • Financial capital • Union membership • Peaked at @ 35% in 1954 • Steady decline thereafter • Withered along with smokestack industries

44. Workforce and Women • White-collar employment opened opportunities for women • 1950-1980 • 40 million new jobs created • > 30 million were clerical and service • Women filled the majority of these positions • Created a“pink-collar ghetto” of occupations

45. Women in the Labor Force1900–2008

46. Cult of Domesticity • Post WWII women returned to conventional female roles • Wives • Mothers • Baby-boom • Popular culture celebrated those eternal female roles • Television programs • Depicted idyllic suburban families • Working husband • Wife who raised the two children • Ozzie and Harriet • Leave It to Beaver The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet Leave it to Beaver

47. Feminism • Questions about the role of women • Betty Friedan • The Feminine Mystique • Best-seller • Feminist protest literature • The problem that has no name • Launched the modern women’s movement • Indicted the boredom of suburban housewifery • Working women struggling against the guilt of leading an “unfeminine” life

48. Consumer Culture • Expansion of the middle class • Easy credit • Credit card 1950 • Introduced by the Diner’s Club • Fast food • McDonald’s 1955 • San Bernardino, California • New forms of recreation • Disneyland 1955 • Rise of television • 1946—6 TV stations • 1956—442 TV stations • 1940s televisions were a novelty • 1951—7 million televisions were sold • 1960 virtually every American home had one

49. The Great Kitchen Debate, July 24, 1959 Opening of the American National Exhibit in Moscow Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev Engaged in a “Kitchen debate” arguing not about the strength of their rockets or bombs but about the relative merits of American and Soviet washing machines and television sets.

50. Nixon and Khrushchev's “Kitchen Debate” Nixon famously debated Khrushchev on policy in what became known as the “Kitchen Debate.”