Nora Gallant Green
Unit 16
Chapter 27: The Eisenhower Years​ (pgs. 570-583)
Overview
● 1950s remembered as v happy & artsy, kinda true
○ Started w/ ​Korean War ​& ​McCarthyism
○ Rise of Civil Rights Movement & ​Martin Luther King Jr.
○ Cold War ​& threat of nuclear war
Eisenhower Takes Command (pgs. 570-573)
● (“Ike”) really popular w/ middle class
○ Trust him bc successfully commanded Allied troops in ww2
● Election of 1952
○ 1952 US wanted pres to end ​Korean War ​& bring order back to Washington
■ Ike Republican candidate, Nixon vp
● Domestic Policies
○ Ike delegated a lot of authority to his cabinet
■ Often criticized for this but research shows he was more in charge than he
appeared
○ Modern Republicanism
■ Ike’s 1st priority: balance budget after years of deficit spending
■ 1953 created ​Department of Health, Education, & Welfare (HEW) ​under
Oveta Culp Hobby, ​1st woman in Republican cabinet
● Administered all welfare programs
● Continued New Deal programs
■ Ike didn’t like federal health care insurance or federal aid for education
○ Interstate highway system
■ 1956 ​Highway Act​ made highways connecting major cities
● Created lots of jobs, grew suburbs & car industry
● But hurt railroads, environment, & limited public transport
○ Prosperity
■ Economy booming & living standards v high
● Election of 1956
○ 1955 Ike had big heart attack & surgery in 1956
■ Worried wouldn’t be able to run for reelection but did
■ Won by huge margin but Dems controlled Congress
Eisenhower and the Cold War (pgs. 573-579)
● Ike focused on foreign policy around Cold War
○ V influential diplomat was Secretary of State ​John Foster Dulles
● Dulle’s ​Diplomacy (pg. 573)
○ Thought containment too passive & wanted action to stop USSR & China
○ Said if war was declared, USSR would back down bc US had so many nuclear weapons
■ Called “brinkmanship” but Eisenhower stopped it getting too extreme
○ Massive retaliation
■ Dulles ​wanted more nuclear weapons & air power & less army/navy
■ 1953 US developed hydrogen bomb but USSR made on within 1 year
● Threat of nuclear destruction did stop military war between US & USSR
but wars broke out between 2’s spheres of influence in Southeast Asia,
Africa, & Middle East
● Unrest in the Third World (pg. 573)
○ 1947-1962 most colonies in Asia & Africa became independent
■ So often political system & economy v unstable
■ Went to US or USSR for help
■ Became divided into those close to USSR & those supported by US
○ Covert Action
■ Ike used a lot of covert action (aka CIA+)
■ 1953/4 CIA supported coup in Iran & Guatemala
● New monarch friendly to US
■ US fear of communism/USSR led them to support corrupt dictators
● V obvious in Latin America which became v unfriendly to US
● Asia (pg. 574)
○ Korean armistice
■ 1953 Stalin suddenly died
■ China & North Korea agreed to armistice July 1953
● Korea divided on 38th parallel, no peace treaty between S & N K
○ Fall of Indochina
■ 1950 war between French colonist & native Vietnamese & Cambodians
■ US helped French & USSR helped ​Viet Minh ​led by ​Ho Chi Minh
● Another US & USSR rivalry
■ 1954 Indochina officially divided into Cambodia, Laos, & Vietnam
○ Division of Vietnam
■ North Vietnam ​Ho Chi Minh b​ ecame Communist dictator
● South Vietnam, ​Ngo Dinh Diem​ anti-communist gov
■ 1955-1961 US gave $$ to S Vietnam to build stable anti communist gov
● Ike justified it w/ ​domino theory
○ 1 Asian nation fell, slowly all would
○ SEATO
■ 1954 Basically Asian version of NATO but US, GB & FR involved too
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Middle East (pg. 575)
○ Suez Crisis
■ Egypt wanted $$ from US to build Dam on Nile
■ US no, Egypt asked USSR, said yes but only a lil
■ Instead Egypt seized British/French owned ​Suez Canal
● Surprise attacked Egypt & took it back
■ Ike v angry bc GB & FR didn’t tell him about
● Sponsored UN saying invasion of Egypt bad
● GB & FR troops left & lost a lot of power in world affairs
○ Eisenhower Doctrine 1957
■ Would give military & economic help to any Middle Eastern nation threatened
by communism/USSR
US-Soviet Relations (pg. 577)
○ Spirit of Geneva
■ 1953 post Stalin death, Eisenhower wanted end to nuclear arms race & UN
nuclear weapons peace plan
■ USSR agreed to work towards peace w/ US but not to nuclear weapons peace
plan
○ Hungarian revolt
■ 1956 coup in Hungary replace Communist gov w/ liberal leaders
● Wanted to remove Hungary from ​Warsaw Pact
● Pissed off USSR leader ​Khrushchev​ sent tanks to stop revolt
● US didn’t do anything, first thaw in Cold War tension
○ Sputnik​ shock
■ 1957 USSR sent satellite & US shocked bc hadn’t developed anything like it
● Response, 1958 ​National Defense & Education Act​ gave $$ to increase
science & foreign language classes in schools
■ Also created ​NASA​ to explore space
■ Sputnik​ increased fear bc engine could send nuclear missiles out & reach
anywhere in world within minutes
○ Second Berlin Crisis
■ 1958 USSR gave US 6 months to leave West Germany
■ At Camp David ​Khrushchev​ & ​Eisenhower​ agreed to put off crisis & meet
again in 1960
○ U-2 Incident
■ Since 1955 Eisenhower had been sending spy flights over USSR to find out
missile program
■ Russians shot down ​U-2​ spy plane & tensions increased
Communism in Cuba (pg. 578)
○ 1959 ​Fidel Castro ​overthrew B
​ atista, ​US friendly dictator
■ Castro​ asked US for $$ but US refused so asked USSR
■ Set up Communist state & made US v nervous bc only 90 miles away from
Florida
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Eisenhower’s Legacy (pg. 579)
○ Started process of ending tension w/ Soviet Union
○ 1958 initiated ended above-ground testing of nuclear weapons
○ “Military Industrial Complex”
■ Eisenhower warned what would happen if they continued building up military
● Like Ancient Rome, turn into military/imperial state
The Civil Rights Movement (pgs. 579-581)
● Origins of the Movement
○ 1948 military integrated & civil rights legislation created in Congress (Truman)
■ 1950s South still segregated in schools & public facilities
● Also voting discrimination
■ Social segregation made blacks poorly educated, & poorer than whites
○ Changing demographics
■ Origins traced to migration of black Americans from rural to urban South &
North
■ North, black Americans part of Democratic Party & had more political influence
in 1950s
○ Changing attitudes in the ​Cold War
■ In Cold War US fighting for freedom/democracy but racial
segregation/discrimination still big part of society
● Desegregating Schools (pg. 580)
○ NAACP​ trying to overturn ​Plessy v. Ferguson
■ 1940s won cases starting to desegregate education
○ Brown​ decision
■ 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka​ ended segregation in schools
○ Resistance in the South
■ In angry response, temporarily closed Southern public schools
■ Eisenhower used federal troops to protect black students going to school
● 1st president since ​Reconstruction​ to protect rights of black Americans
● Montgomery Bus Boycott ​(pg. 580)
○ 1955 after ​Rosa Parks​ huge boycott of city buses
■ 1956 Movement had a huge win when Supreme Court ruled segregation laws
unconstitutional
● Federal Laws (pg. 581)
○ 1957 & 1960 2 civil rights laws passed
■ Made permanent ​Civil Rights Commission​ & gave Justice Department more
power to protect voting rights for blacks
● Southern officials still used voter intimidation to stop black Americans
from voting
● Nonviolent Protests (pg. 581)
○ Movement spurred sit ins & nonviolent protests
○ Progress was slow but bus boycott & gov actions were helping movement
■ 1960s movement turned into violent confrontations in streets
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Popular Culture in the ‘50s (pgs. 581-583)
● Consumer Culture and Conformity
○ Tv, advertising, & middle class migration to suburbs helped solidify US culture
○ Television
■ By 1961 most Americans watching tv programs so had seen common content
○ Advertising
■ All media promoted common material & introduced shopping centers
● 1950s credit cards created
○ Paperbacks and records
■ Paperbacks made books easier to access
■ Popular music easy to access by mass produced records
○ Corporate America
■ More Americans held white-collar jobs than blue-collar jobs
■ Big unions became more powerful & became more conservative bc blue collar
workers were enjoying middle-class incomes
○ Religion
■ Post ww1 organized religions expanded a lot
● More religious tolerance & religious membership was more source of
individual identity & socialization than intense religion
● Women’s Roles (pg. 583)
○ Homemaking was full-time job for most women bc baby boom
■ Post ww2 women in house role reaffirmed in mass media
■ More married women & middle class women entered workforce
● 1950s male employers v sexist & women had much lower wages
● Social Critics (pg. 583)
○ The Lonely Crowd, ​David Riesman criticized US conformists instead of individualism
○ Economist ​John Kenneth Galbraith​ said wealthy Americans failing to $$ more on
society for common good
■ Influenced JFK & Johnson administrations later
○ Novels
■ Many novelists wrote about struggling against conformity
● Talked about stupidity of war & importance of individuality
○ “Beatniks”
■ Group of rebellious writers led by ​Jack Kerouac ​& ​Allen Ginsberg
● Advocated rebellion against social norms, used a lot of drugs
● Became models for youth rebellions of the ‘60s
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Chapter 28: Promises and Turmoil: The 1960s​ (pgs. 599-603)
Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965 (pg. 599)
● 1964 ​Civil Rights Act​ made segregation illegal in all public facilities
○ Also made ​Equal Employment Opportunity Commission​ to end racial discrimination
in workforce
○ 1964 ​24th Amendment​ ended poll tax (that had discouraged poor people from voting)
○ 1965 ​Voting Rights Act​ ended literacy tests in areas where voting for blacks restricted
■ Made black Americans able to vote for 1st time since ​Reconstruction​ era
Civil Rights and Conflicts (pgs. 599-602)
● Civil rights movement stronger during Kennedy & Johnson presidencies
○ 1962 ​James Meredith​ tried to enroll in Uni of Mississippi & Kennedy sent in federal
troops to protect ​Meredith​ going to class
■ Alienated white voters bc of this but got support from black americans
● Leadership of ​Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ​(pg. 600)
○ Civil rights activists in South were violently attacked by white extremists
○ 1963 ​MLK​ committed to nonviolent protests but he & his followers jailed in
Birmingham
■ Movement gained momentum after bc most americans thought jailing unjust
■ Made ​President Kennedy​ support stronger civil rights bill
○ March on Washington 1963
■ Aug 1963 ​MLK​ led most biggest/most influential demonstration
● “I Have A Dream” speech
○ March to Montgomery 1965
■ March from Selma to Montgomery was attacked by police, Johnson sent troops
to protect demonstrators
● Young black americans frustrated by slow progress to equality
● Black Muslims and ​Malcolm X​ (pg. 601)
○ Elijah Muhammad​ advocated black nationalism, separatism & self improvement
○ 1952 ​Malcolm X ​bc 1 of most controversial leaders of movement
■ Criticized ​King​ for being subservient to whites
■ Led ​Organization of Afro-American Unity​ but was assassinated in 1965 before
he could pursue his ideas
● Black Power and Race Riots (pg. 601)
○ Radicalism of ​Malcolm X​ & ​Black Panthers​ saw it as revolution for social reform &
advocated self-rule for black Americans
○ Riots
■ 1964-1968 race riots broke out in black neighborhoods of major cities
● V violent w/ deaths & destruction of property
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Murder in Memphis
■ 1964 ​MLK​ got Nobel Peace Prize but under pressure bc of nonviolence
principles
■ April 1968 ​MLK​ was assassinated in Tennessee by a white man
● Huge riots erupted in US & revealed black americans anger/frustration
The Warren Court and Individual Rights (pgs. 602-603)
● 1953-1969 Chief Justice ​Earl Warren ​v influential in improving race relations
○ 1960s ​Warren Court​ worked to improve criminal justice system, political system of the
states, & individual rights
● Criminal Justice
○ Mapp v. Ohio (1961) ​evidence seized illegally couldn’t be used in court against accused
○ Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) ​made state courts give an attorney for poor defendants
○ Escobedo v. Illinois (1964) ​police got tell arrested person they had right to remain silent
○ Miranda v. Arizona (1966) ​also said person had right to lawyer during questioning by
police
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