Arms Races

Abundance at Home

1950S

US AND USSR

US AND USSR

• Stalin died in 1953

• New Soviet premier is Nikita Khrushchev

• Eisenhower and Khrushchev meet in 1955 in Geneva, the first time leaders from these two countries have met since WWII

NUCLEAR ARMS RACE AND SPACE RACE

NUCLEAR ARMS RACE• 1957, Soviets tested ICBM (intercontinental ballistic

missile)

• Fears emerged that the US was lagging behind the Soviets

• Signed the National Defense Act (student loan and scholarships for math science).

• Civil Defense Administration recommended home bomb shelters

SPACE RACE• 1957, Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to circle

the earth

• The American first satellite was dubbed “Flopnik” because it exploded

• 1958, Eisenhower established National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

“BRINKSMANSHIP” AND “MAD”

• Secty of State John Foster Dulles, America’s willingness to go to the “brink” of war as a threat

• “MAD” Mutually assured destruction = nuclear stand-off

1959 “KITCHEN DEBATE” NIXON AND KHRUSHCHEV

• Nixon: “ to make things easier for our women.”

• Khrushchev: we do not have the “capitalist attitude toward women.”

US INTERVENTIONS IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST

• 1953 Eisenhower authorized the CIA to instigate a coup in Iran because the prime minister had nationalized the oil fields in 1951

• The Shah (traditional hereditary leader who favored US oil interests) was reinstated

• 1954 Eisenhower authorized CIA to assist in a coup

• 1959 after Castro revolt in Cuba, Eisenhower breaks diplomatic relations and authorized the CIA to train Cuban exiles

CONSEQUENCES OF THE COLD WAR• Shifted priorities of the federal government from domestic to

foreign affairs• Expanded budget• Increased the power of the president• Defense contracts encouraged economic population booms in

the West and Southwest• The Nuclear Arms races consumed dollars and resources,

skewed the economy toward dependence on military projects• Created anti-communist hysteria which stifled debate, politically

or socially

COLD WAR HAD CREATED A WARFARE STATE • “military-industrial complex”

• A term coined by Eisenhower in his farewell address• the power and influence of the military and defense

contractors who now controlled the economy• nearly one of every three California workers held a

defense-related job.• one in every ten American jobs depended on

defense spending

INTERSTATE HIGHWAY AND DEFENSE SYSTEM ACT OF 1956

Benefits

• Greater public travel

• Improved transportation of goods

• Suburban expansion

• Growth in fast food

• Growth in motel industry

• Most growth in trucking, construction, and auto industries

Costs

• paid costs through increased fuel and vehicle taxes

• Air pollution

• Energy consumption

• Decline in the railroads and mass transit

• Decay in central cities

COSTS AND BENEFITS

SUN BELT

CULTURE OF ABUNDANCE

• Increased prosperity and complacency

• Baby boom (higher birth rate), peaking in 1957 with 4.3 million births

• Traditional family and gender roles

• More religious observance, Baptist Billy Graham

• Congress adding “under God” to the pledge of allegiance in 1954 and “In God We Trust” on currency in 1955.

• Television widespread

TELEVISION• Eisenhower’s 1952

Presidential campaign used TV ads for the first time and

• by 1960, television played a key role in election campaigns

• Television came to dominate American’s leisure time, influence their consumption patterns, and shape their perceptions of the nation’s leadership.