THE EISENHOWER ERA, 1952- 1960 · Elvis In 1954, Elvis Presley's first record was released and...

THE EISENHOWER ERA, 1952-1960

The American Pageant

Chapter 37

Eisenhower happy

Like a benign grandfather, Dwight D. Eisenhower provided a reassuring presence in the

White House in the 1950s. His moderation, balanced judgment, and apparent aloofness

from partisanship appealed to as many as did his fondness for bridge and poker,

bourbon, fishing and hunting, and golf. (Courtesy Dwight D. Eisenhower Library)

E I S E N H O W

E R H A P P Y

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Elvis

In 1954, Elvis Presley's first record was

released and within a year a new

rock'n'roll star had burst onto the music

scene. Elvis's style blended rhythm and

blues, country, and gospel into a unique

sound that, along with his body

language, created an American icon.

(Michael Barson Collection/Past

Perfect)

E L V I S


Host Dick Clark and teenagers on American Bandstand

In the 1950s the teenage culture of the baby boomers became a national phenomenon

through such outlets as Dick Clark's American Bandstand, where teens danced in

front of a national TV audience. (Library of Congress)

H O S T D I C K C L A R K A N D T E E N A G E R S O N

A M E R I C A N B A N D S T A N D


M A P : T H E R I S E O F

T H E T H I R D W O R L D

The Rise of the Third World

Accelerated by the Second World War, decolonization liberated many peoples from imperial rule. New nations emerged in

the postwar international system dominated by the Cold War rivalry of the United States and the Soviet Union. Many newly

independent states became targets of great power intrigue but chose nonalignment in the Cold War. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Indian boy protesting, April 18, 1958

One of Eisenhower's goals was to reduce

federal spending and controls. In line

with this policy, he tried to turn Indian

affairs over to the states and liquidate

federal services and reservations.

Between 1954 and 1960, sixty-one tribes

were affected. This picture shows a 4-

year-old Tuscarora boy protesting state

and federal policies that attacked Indian

rights. (Wide World Photos, Inc.)

I N D I A N B O Y P R O T E S T I N G , A P R I L

1 8 , 1 9 5 8


Jackie Robinson baseball promotional

booklet

Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier

in major league baseball in 1947, when

he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. After

serving as a lieutenant in the army

during the war, Robinson, an All-

American in football and baseball at

UCLA, played with the Kansas City

Monarchs of the Negro American

Baseball League until he was signed by

the Dodgers in 1945. Moved from the

minors to the majors in 1947, he earned

"Rookie of the Year" honors and later

was inducted into the Baseball Hall of

Fame. (Collection of Michael

Barson/Past Perfect)

J A C K I E R O B I N S O N B A S E B A L L

P R O M O T I O N A L B O O K L E T


Kennedy campaigning

John F. Kennedy is surrounded by supporters and the press as he arrives for the 1960

Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. Young, handsome, and articulate,

Kennedy introduced new vitality, and perhaps superficiality, into political

campaigning. On television and in person, Kennedy was a popular politician; when

he became president, he became a media star as well. (Wide World Photos, Inc.)

K E N N E D Y

C A M P A I G N I N G


Little Rock--white student yelling at Elizabeth Eckford, September 4, 1957

Elizabeth Eckford, age 15, one of the nine black students to desegregate Central

High School, endures abuse on her way to school. Forty years later, the young white

woman shouting insults asked for forgiveness. (Wide World)

L I T T L E R O C K - - W H I T E S T U D E N T Y E L L I N G A T

E L I Z A B E T H E C K F O R D , S E P T E M B E R 4 , 1 9 5 7


Martin Luther King, Jr. outside courthouse with wife, 1957

When Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) and other African Americans, including twenty-three

other 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 (here with his wife, Coretta)

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. (Corbis-Bettmann)

M A R T I N L U T H E R K I N G , J R . O U T S I D E

C O U R T H O U S E W I T H W I F E , 1 9 5 7


McCarthyism, "I have here in my

hand..."

A term invented by cartoonist Herblock,

McCarthyism to most liberals and

Democrats meant the use of lies, slander,

and innuendo to attack and discredit the

Democratic party for "twenty years of

treason." ("I have here in my hand…" from

Herblock : A Cartoonist's Life (Macmillian

Publishing Company , 1993))

M C C A R T H Y I S M , " I H A V E

H E R E I N M Y H A N D . . . "


Nixon and Eisenhower at the 1952 Republican Convention

In this picture, the triumphant Republican nominees for the White House pose with

smiles and 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. (UPI Bettmann Archives)

N I X O N A N D E I S E N H O W E R A T T H E

1 9 5 2 R E P U B L I C A N C O N V E N T I O N


Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott

A member of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP since 1943, and the organization's

secretary, Rosa Parks had protested segregation by refusing to drink from fountains labeled

"Colored Only" and by climbing stairs rather than using segregated elevators. 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. ((c)

Bettmann/Corbis)

R O S A P A R K S A N D T H E M O N T G O M E R Y

B U S B O Y C O T T


Sit-in--Jackson, Mississippi, May 28, 1963

The sit-ins of 1960 initiated the student phase of the civil-rights movement. Across the

south, young black activists challenged segregation by staging nonviolent

demonstrations to demand access to public facilities. Their courage and commitment

reinvigorated the movement, leading to still greater grass-roots activism. (World Wide)

S I T - I N - - J A C K S O N , M I S S I S S I P P I ,

M A Y 2 8 , 1 9 6 3


The Great Kitchen Debate, July 24, 1959

At the 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. (Wide World)

T H E G R E A T K I T C H E N

D E B A T E , J U L Y 2 4 , 1 9 5 9


Westinghouse Laundromat ad

In the "kitchen debate" of September

1959, Vice President Nixon argued with

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev about

the types of appliances the average

working family in America had in their

kitchens. This advertisement showing

the range of consumer products made by

Westinghouse clearly supports Nixon's

claim that American families were

affluent enough to furnish their homes

with a wide range of products. (Picture

Research Consultants)

W E S T I N G H O U S E

L A U N D R O M A T A D


AFFLUENCE & ITS ANXIETIES

Post WWII economic growth driven by: • Home construction – GI bill (In 1960: 1of 4 homes built in US

since 1950’s) • Science and technology

• IBM International Business Machines – typewriters to computers • Aerospace industries

• Civilian and Military Aircraft • Boeing 707- first large passenger jet 1957

• White-collar workers v Blue-collar workers • White-collar workers outnumber blue-collar workers for the first

time • Union membership

• 1954--35% and then begins a steady decline • Women back at home “cult of domesticity”

• 1950’s TV – “Ozzie and Harriet” & “Leave it to Beaver” – “nuclear family”

“Pink collar” workers

• clerical and service work

• 30 of 40 million jobs created

• Forced dual roles on women as workers & homemakers

AFFLUENCE & ITS ANXIETIES

Betty Friedan

• The Feminine Mystique

• Best-seller & classic of feminist protest-

• She was a college grad

• Later interviewed several former classmates who indicated housewifery was stifling

BETTY FREIDAN

Her book Feminine

Mystique was a best-seller

and is credited with

starting a second wave of

feminism – the modern

women’s movement

Diner’s Club – first credit

card

McDonalds 1955

Disneyland 1955

TV – by 50’s 442 stations

broadcasting -1951 7 million

sets sold

CONSUMERS OF THE 50’S

Religion

• “Televangelists”

• Billy Graham, Oral

Roberts & Fulton J. Sheen

Sports:

• NY Giants move to San

Francisco

• Brooklyn Dodgers to LA

Music – Elvis Presley – “The King” of rock and roll

Marilyn Monroe – movie star

Authors –

Portrayal of postwar generation as a pack of conformists

David Riesman – The Lonely Crowd

CONSUMERS OF THE 50’S

William H. Wythe Jr.-- The Organization Man

And Sloan Wilson The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit

John Kenneth Galbraith • Harvard economist

• The Affluent Society • Private wealth & public

good

• TV in homes but garbage in the streets

ELVIS “THE PELVIS” &

MARILYN MONROE

1952 election: • Democrats:

• Nominate Adlai Stevenson governor of Illinois

• Republicans:

• General Dwight D. Eisenhower

• Richard M. Nixon as VP

• “Red-hunter”

• House Un-American Activities Committee

• Alger Hiss investigation

• “Checkers Speech”

• Nixon charged for having a secret “slush fund”

• TV appearance saves him as a VP candidate

EISENHOWER

Election Results: • “IKE” won 442-89 EV

Tries to end war in Korea • Panmunjom Treaty

• July 27, 1953 =Armistice

• US to defend S. Korea. 54,000 US soldiers killed - 1 to 1.5 million Asians.

• 38th parallel – divides N & S Korea

Containment theory • Contain communism where it was

RED SCARE (AGAIN)

1948 House Un-American Activities Committee • Republicans in charge

• Movie industry • Hollywood Ten“

• Blacklist

• Ronald Reagan

Nixon • Whittaker Chambers "pumpkin papers“

• Alger Hiss - Perjury - cast suspicion on an entire generation of liberal Democrats • Made the public believe that “communist had infiltrated the government”.

• Somewhat confirmed by a series of setbacks overseas against communist expansion.

"Loyalty Boards" • Used to determine if loyal or disloyal.

• By 1951 212 federal employees dismissed and 2,000 resigned.

FBI • J Edgar Hoover-

• Investigates and harasses alleged radicals.

RED SCARE (AGAIN)

McCarran Internal Security Act • All Communists register and publish records

• Could not work in defense plants.

• Truman vetoes the McCarran Act

• Congress overrode he veto.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg • Communists

• Sold atomic bomb plans to the Russians

• Sentenced to death June 19, 1953 by electric chair.

• Protests from liberals all over the world

• Similar to Sacco and Vanzetti

MCCARTHYISM

Joseph McCarthy

• "McCarthyism“

• Uses the nation's fear of communists as a means of reelection

• Accused the Democrats of harboring Communists

• 200 in the state department

• Flimsy accusations

• Finally accuses the military of being communist

• General George Marshall

• On national TV shows McCarthy’s ignorance.

• Senate finally censors him

DESEGREGATION

1950-2/3 of 15 million blacks make homes in the South

Southern de facto segregation kept them powerless politically, economically inferior an separate “whites only” & “colored only” drinking fountains, restaurants, theaters etc.

1946 6 black veterans were murdered

Emmett Till (Chicago 15year old) was lynched in Mississippi for leering at a white woman

Jack (Jackie) Robinson – first major league baseball player played for the Brooklyn Dodgers 1947 – Branch Rickey

Rosa Parks – Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955

DESEGREGATION

Martin Luther King Jr. asked to lead the Boycott also starts

SLCL – Southern Christian Leadership Conference 1957

Thurgood Marshall black attorney wins rights in south (later a Supreme Court Justice

L E F T: JAC K I E RO B I N S O N A N D B R A N C H

R I C K E Y: R I G H T: G E O RG E H AY E S, T H U RG O O D

M A R S H A L L ( C E N T E R ) , A N D JA M E S N A R B R I T

C E L E B R AT I N G B ROW N V. B OA R D

Truman 1948 ends

segregation in federal civil

service and integrated the

armed forces

DESEGREGATION

Brown v. Board of Education of

Topeka, Kansas (Brown v. Board)

Chief Justice Earl Warren

segregation in public school

“inherently unequal”

White South: “massive

resistance” against court’s

ruling

(BROWN V. BOARD)

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas Chief Justice

Earl Warren segregation in public school “inherently unequal”

south to integrate with “all deliberate speed”

White South: “massive resistance” against court’s ruling also,

“Declaration of Constitutional Principals” fight desegregation

& white citizens’ councils to stop integration

Integration is slow – 2% in Deep South

LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS

1957 “Little Rock nine” 9 black students to integrate an all-white Central High School

Orval Faubus Governor of Arkansas after agreeing with IKE to allow integration, blocks the school with national guard

A court injunction orders the governor to withdraw troops and a riot breaks out the next day

IKE mobilizes the 101st Airborne to escort students to school and to each class for the rest of the year

“LITTLE ROCK NINE”

Congress will pass the Civil

Rights Act 1957

Set up a Civil Rights

Commission to investigate

violations of Civil Rights and

authorized federal injunctions

to protect voting rights

DESEGREGATION

“Sit In” at lunch counter

in Greensboro, North

Carolina

SNCC – Student Non-

violent Coordinating

Committee to give focus

to efforts to gain equality

EISENHOWER REPUBLICANISM

“Dynamic conservatism” with people be liberal but conservative with people’s money, their economy or form of government.

Protect the government from “creeping socialism”

IKE will accept some New Deal programs increasing those who may receive Social Security

Reduce government by 183,000

Balanced the budget for 3 years

Gave off-shore drilling rights to states

EISENHOWER REPUBLICANISM

Encouraged private power companies to compete with the TVA

Operation wetback – return of 1 million “undocumented” aliens back to Mexico

IKE makes an effort to “terminate” Indian tribes as legal entities and assimilate native Americans

National Interstate Highway Act 1956 – 27$$billion spent to build 42,000 miles of freeway

FOREIGN POLICY

Condemned “containment” John Foster Dulles wants to “roll back” Communism and “liberate captive people”

SAC Strategic Air Command – build super bombers and nuclear arsenal

Not effective in Hungarian revolt 1955 US could do nothing to help

“massive retaliation” MAD (mutually assured destruction)

Brinkmanship – go to the brink of war to protect American interests

Had been under French control

Japan controlled the region during the war

Ho Chi Minh – leader of Vietnam (will turn communist)

France demands Vietnam after WIII

US will bankroll France

VIETNAM

March 1954 French troops lose to Viet Minh guerrilla at Dienbienphu

US fails to support France Militarily assuming it would draw us into a bigger war

Vietnam divided along the 17th parallel

South Vietnam is pro-west under the leadership of Ngo Dinh Diem – raised Catholic –ruled with iron fist

HO CHI MINH – 1945 & NGO

DINH DIEM

Germany allowed to join NATO 1955

Warsaw Pact (Soviet satellite nations) 1955

May 1955 Soviets agreed to end their occupation of Austria

1956 Nikita Khrushchev publically denounced the bloody excess of Stalin

But the Soviets brutally put down the Hungarian revolt with tanks

COLD WAR: EUROPE & MIDDLE EAST

The Soviets began to influence Iran

In a CIA Coup 1953 that placed the Shaw of Iran (Mohammed Reza Pahlevi) as dictator just because he was pro-western

Lingering bitter legacy in Iran

Suez Crisis – after US John Foster Dulles – pulled funds for the Anwar Dam in 1955

President Nasser of Egypt Nationalizes the canal

Israel, France, Great Britain invade. United States and Soviet Union join for the first time, condemning the mission and forcing France, G.B. and Israel out

EISENHOWER DOCTRINE 1957

US will assist (military and economic aid) to Middle

Eastern Countries threatened by Communist aggression –

not communism but nationalism that drove politics in the

Middle East – Nasser is wildly popular

OPEC nations 1960– Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran

& Venezuela (Organization of Petroleum Exporting

Countries) control oil prices

Repeat of 1952

Democrats – Adlai Stevenson

IKE wins 457 – 73 EV

But Republicans lost the Congress

IKE was in flailing health (stomach and heart)

Ezra Taft Benson – Sec of Agriculture against price supports as they promotes socialism

1956 ELECTION

IKE worked on Labor Legislation

Labor unions were responsible for fraud, heavy-handed tactics etc.

Teamster’s Union particularly bad

James (Jimmy) Hoffa embezzlement and jury- tampering went to federal prison – pardoned by Nixon, and went missing

Landrum – Griffin Act 1959 – more federal control over the actions of Unions – prevented secondary boycotts & certain types of picketing

EISENHOWER

Sputnik I October 4, 1957– first artificial satellite sent into space Weight 184 lbs.

November Sputnik II – 1,200 lbs and a dog

Shocks the US- Soviets have ICBM’s (Intercontinental ballistic missiles)

US Vanguard missile fails 1957

Explorer I by February 1958 – Weight 2.5 lbs

“Rocket fever” in US – NASA $$$ to missile development called the “Space Race”

Effects US Public education – more math and science classes & a more rigorous curriculum NDEA – National Defense and Education Act

SPUTNIK I

EXPLORER I

COLD WAR

Nuclear testing

Atmospheric – very dirty – Soviets did several – US a few (1958 after several tests the Soviets call for a suspension of testing)

Underground testing – continued for years

Lebanon - Pro-western - Egypt and Communist takeover-US brings in 14,000 troops - order restored w/out loss of life.

Berlin Ultimatum - 6 months to get out

Ike & Dulles refuse to budge

1959 “Summit Conference” Camp David Khrushchev announces and indefinite suspension of the Berlin Ultimatum

U-2 incident – Gary Powers US Pilot shot down over Russia (surveillance mission) Russians are upset and it scuttles the next “Summit Conference”

IKE takes full responsibility (after initial bureaucratic denials)

LATIN AMERICA & CUBA

US CIA directed coup overthrowing a leftist government in Guatemala 1954 – but US continued to support bloody dictators that claimed to be fighting communism

Cuba – Fidel Castro overthrows dictator Fulgencio Batista in power since 1930’s (had encouraged US investments)

Castro then announces that he was Communist and allies himself with Moscow

One million anti-Castro exiles leave Cuba – arriving primarily in Miami

US embargo on Cuba in 1961/ Helms-Burton Act 1996 strengthens it – Monroe Doctrine dead

F I D E L C A S T RO C U BA N R E VO L U T I O N A RY A N D I N

N Y 1 9 5 9 ( R I G H T ) B E F O R E H E A N N O U N C E S H E I S A

C O M M U N I S T

1960 ELECTION

Election of 1960

(R) Richard Nixon national lime-light (Kitchen Debate with Khrushchev -Moscow 1959 “hard-line anti-Communist”

(D) John F. Kennedy –wins 303-219 very close popular vote

Had to overcome the stigma of being Catholic –

T.V. debates considered even (those who listened – thought Nixon won, those who watched - thought Kennedy won)

-South split-voted for Senator Harry F. Byrd

“New Frontier” Kennedy Speech – America needs change

IKE

1951 22nd Amendment - two term limit

1959 St. Lawrence Seaway –Canals from St. Lawrence to Great Lakes –popular

1959 Alaska and Hawaii admitted as states

Farwell address: warns against the power of the “military-industrial complex”

Critics thought he should have done more for civil rights

Ike ends up very respected

Eisenhower being reinterpreted by historians, felt was much more effective president than before, worked behind the scenes.

Ernest Hemingway: The Old Man and the Sea

John Steinbeck: Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden – Nobel Prize

Norman Mailer The Naked and the Dead

Catch 22 – Joseph Heller

Slaughterhouse Five: Kurt Vonnegut

Rabbit Run, John Updike

Poetry, troubled and macabre

LIFE AND MIND OF POSTWAR US

Playwrights – Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Arthur Miller Death of a Salesman, The Crucible Salem Witch Trials compared to “McCarthyism”

Lorraine Hansberry A Raisin in the Sun – portrait of African American

Native Son – Richard Wright

Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison

William Faulkner,

Southerner, Nobel prize 1950

As I lay Dying, The Sound and

the Fury – many short stories

All the King’s Men – Robert

Warren about Huey Long

Louisiana politician

LIFE AND MIND OF POSTWAR US

J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the

Rye

Bernard Malamud, about

baseball in, The Natural

Goodbye Columbus, Philip Roth

wrote comically of New Jerseys

suburbanites

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THE EISENHOWER ERA, 1952- 1960 · Elvis In 1954, Elvis Presley's first record was released and...

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