Chapter 28: America in the 1950s pg. 812 WHY IT MATTERS: The election of Dwight Eisenhower to the presidency ushered in one of the most prosperous periods in American history. Economic growth resulted in increased employment and higher wages throughout the 1950s. The Impact Today: The prosperity of the 1950s raised questions that remain important in American society.

Section 1: Eisenhower in the White House Main Idea: President Eisenhower promoted policies to compete with the Soviet Union for military and space leadership. Key Terms: Moderate Surplus Arms Race Domino Theory Summit Peaceful Coexistence

Republican Revival pgs. 814-815 A. Due to widespread dissatisfaction with the Truman presidency, Republicans saw their best opportunity in several decades to capture the White House. B. In 1952 republican candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower ran against Democratic candidate Adlai E. Stevenson. Eisenhower was a popular World War II hero, and people trusted him. C. The Republicans won the presidential election by a landslide, and a Republican-controlled Congress was also elected.

II. Domestic Policy pgs. 815-816 A. Eisenhower followed a middle-of-the-road domestic policy. Conservative financially, he avoided starting any ambitious new government programs. He also avoided angering people by refusing to get rid of popular old program. Eisenhower’s policies limited the government and encouraged private business. He abolished the wage and price controls instituted by the Truman administration. He made cuts in government spending and also transferred some financial authority from the federal government to the states.

II. Domestic Policy pgs. 815-816 (Cont.) B. The federal government built 40,000 miles of interstate highways as the result of the passage of the Federal Highway Act in 1956. Although the roads were built to improve military mobility in case of an attack, the building of the interstate highway system also spurred growth in the automobile and oil industries. C. In 1959 the nation expanded when Alaska and Hawaii became states.

II. Domestic Policy pgs. 815-816 (Cont.) D. During his term in office, Eisenhower supported expanding eligibility for Social Security and Unemployment benefits. He also supported a raise in the minimum wage. E. The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was created during the Eisenhower administration. Oveta Culp Hobby chosen as its secretary. She was the second woman to hold cabinet-level post. F. Eisenhower’s first term was very successful, and he was reelected in 1956 (over Adlai Stevenson again) by an even larger margin in 1952.

III. Eisenhower and the Cold War pgs. 816-818 A. The Cold War drove foreign policy during the Eisenhower administration. The United States opposed the threat of communism in the World, but looked for ways to keep American-Soviet tensions from erupting into open warfare. B. The architect of United States foreign policy during the Eisenhower administration was Secretary of State John Foster Dulles.

III. Eisenhower and the Cold War pgs. 816-818 (cont.) 1. Eisenhower and Dulles broke with the policy of containment of the Truman administration. They promised massive retaliation-an instant nuclear attack-should the Soviet Union attack any other nation. Dulles believed that the United States had to push the Soviet Union to the brink of war before the Soviets would agree to be reasonable. Critics called this policy “brinkmanship.” 2. The more cautious Eisenhower, however, avoided pressuring the Soviets into war with the United States.

III. Eisenhower and the Cold War pgs. 816-818 (cont.) C. The Eisenhower administration preferred to rely on nuclear weapons for defense. The president and his advisors believed that this would allow the United States to reduce its reliance on conventional. Or non-nuclear, weapons. D. The reliance on nuclear weapons was supposed to result in a decrease in military spending. However, the Eisenhower administration’s policy of massive retaliation- and the attempts of the Soviet Union to counter it- created an arms race that actually increased military spending.

III. Eisenhower and the Cold War pgs. 816-818 (cont.) E. Both nuclear superpowers built hydrogen bombs. They developed intermediate-range ballistic missiles that could reach targets 1,500 miles away. The next development, the intercontinental ballistic missile, had a range of several thousand miles. Soon, both the United States and the Soviet Union had weapons capable of destroying each other many times over. F. As the arms race continued and the danger of nuclear was increased, Americans began to prepare for nuclear attack. The Federal Civil Defense Administration educated the public about what to do in case a nuclear attack occurred. Some families built shelters in their basements, and schools held air-raid drills.

III. Eisenhower and the Cold War pgs. 816-818 (cont.) G. The successful Soviet launch of the first satellite, Sputnik, in 1957 and the failure of America’s first satellite, Vanguard, embarrassed the United States and resulted in the creation of an American Space program. 1. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was created to put American Space research and exploration on track. 2. The United States launched its first successful satellite, Explorer, in January 1958. This marked the beginning of the space race with the Soviet Union.

Sputnik

III. Eisenhower and the Cold War pgs. 816-818 (cont.) H. Project Mercury was the nation’s first program to put an astronaut in space. The government increasingly supported space research and exploration, and provided increased funding for the teaching of science and technology in schools. The United States soon began to pull ahead in the space race.

IV. Foreign Policy Changes pgs. 818-820 A. With the constant threat of nuclear conflicts escalating into a huge crisis that would drag both countries into war. There were several crisis in the 1950s that threatened to involve both the United States and the Soviet Union, possibly resulting in war between the two nuclear powers. 1. Egypt took over the Suez Canal in 1956. Britain, France, and Israel responded by attacking Egypt to overthrow the Egyptian gov’t and protect oil shipments that traveled through the canal to Western Europe. The Soviets threatened rocket attacks on British and French cities. Under pressure, the 3 nations pulled out of Egypt.

Suez Canal

IV. Foreign Policy Changes cont. 2. In early November of 1956, Soviet tanks and troops poured into Hungary to crush a revolt. Hungarian rebels appealed to the United States for help. President Eisenhower condemned the crackdown, but did not confront the Soviets directly by intervening. 3. In the early 1950s, France was involved in fierce fighting against Nationalists/Communists rebels (the Vietminh) in its formers colony of Vietnam. By March 1954, the French were facing defeat. France asked the United States to send troops, but Eisenhower refused. With fresh memories of the Korean War, he did not want to become involved in Southeast Asia. Without American help, the French were forced to surrender that May.

IV. Foreign Policy Changes cont. 4. An agreement known as the Geneva Accords ended the war. It temporarily divided Vietnam into a northern part controlled by the Vietminh and a southern part controlled by another group of Vietnamese more friendly to the French. The accords provided for withdrawal of French troops and free elections in 1956 in a reunited Vietnam. B. Eisenhower believed in the domino theory: if one nation in Southeast Asia fell to the Communists, the others would follow. To keep Vietnam from becoming the first domino, the United States sided with the anti-Communist gov’t of South Vietnam, although the leaders of South Vietnam had little popular support.

IV. Foreign Policy Changes cont. C. The United States hoped to create support against Communist aggression in Southeast Asia by helping to create the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) in 1954. The nations of SEATO (the U.S., Great Britain, France, New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, Pakistan and Thailand) pledged joint actions against any aggressor.

IV. Foreign Policy Changes cont. D. The Eisenhower administration also faced challenges in Latin America. 1. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) helped to overthrow the gov’t of Guatemala in 1954 because the United States feared Guatemala was leaning toward communism. This action created resentment among other nations in Latin America. 2. Relations also became strained between the U.S. and Cuba. Fidel Castro came to power in 1959 after the overthrow of dictator Fulgencio Batista. The United States supported Castro initially, but then turned against him when he took over foreign-owned property. Cuba became a dictatorship and turned to the Soviet Union for assistance. During the last days of his presidency in early 1961, Eisenhower cut diplomatic ties with Cuba.

Fidel Castro

IV. Foreign Policy Changes cont. E. Though the Cold War continued, by the mid-1950s American and Soviet leaders were interested in easing tensions. After a summit meeting in Geneva in July 1955 that included American and Soviet leaders, a friendlier atmosphere between the two nations prevailed-at least for a time. After the summit, a policy of peaceful coexistence began to emerge. This meant that although the two superpowers would continue to compete, they would avoid war. Eisenhower and the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, agreed to visit each other’s countries and attend another summit in Paris 1960.

IV. Foreign Policy Changes cont. F. A spy mission spoiled any chance of closer ties between the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the early 1960s. In May 1960, the Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 spy plane over its territory. The downing of the plane occurred just before the 1960 American-Soviet summit in Paris. Although the summit went on as planned, the spirit of the meeting had soured. Khrushchev denounced the American spy mission as an invasion of Soviet airspace. The summit broke up after just one day. This marked an end to the brief “thaw” in the Cold War.

IV. Foreign Policy Changes cont. G. In his Farewell Address to the nation in January 1961, Eisenhower expressed his fear of the growing influence of the “military-industrial complex.” He said that this alliance of military and business leaders was conspiring to persuade the United States to build bigger and more expensive weapons, which would only heat up the arms race and bring the world closer to war.