1. Lesson 2: The 1950’s The Eisenhower Administration 1953-1961 Politics of Anticommunism

2. I. Introduction Modern Republicanism
Dynamic/Progressive Conservatism: responding to Americans’ desire for stability
Low-key, pragmatic non-ideological style of leadership

3. II. Eisenhower’s Dynamic Conservatism
Modern Republicanism
preserved individual freedom and the market economy yet insured that government would provide necessary assistance to workers who had lost their jobs or to senior citizens
Believed that traditional American values encompassed change and progress
Department of health
Department of Education and Social Welfare
Interstate highway system: 41,000 miles of new highways (largest public works project in American history)

4. A. Interstate Highway System
Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway Act of 1956:
Connecting major American cities…
Financed entirely by increased gasoline taxes (cost more than the New Deal from !!)
Justified vis à vis conservative constituents as needed escape routes in case of atomic bomb
Impact # 1
Lots and Lots of jobs…
Easier to vacation… Road trips…
Disneyworld…
Makes suburbs practical

7. Impact # 2 Migrating to the Sunbelt
Sunbelt States: states in the south and west
During the 1950’s Americans began to flock to these states
Air Conditioning
Lots of Jobs in South
Oil, Space, and Defense Industries
Permanent War Economy
Aerospace, plastics, and electronics
High tech innovations result from military spending
Passenger jets & Computers
Major shift in political power

8. B. St Lawrence Seaway
Revolutionized the American transportation system
Opened the Great Lakes to ocean traffic
Financed through selling of bonds by the U.S. Canadian Seaway Development Corporation

9. C. The Middle Road Balance the Budget Lower Taxes End farm supports
Keep Social Legislation
End wage and price controls
Federal Aid to Education
Federal Support of Desegregation Rulings

10. Conservatives under Ike concerned with:
Declining religious sentiment
Sexual freedom
Civil Rights
NAACP (National Association for the
Advancement of Colored Peoples)
Brown v Board of Education 1954
+COMMUNISTS!!!

11. III. Cold War Paranoia and the 2nd Red Scare Civil Defense Poster

12. A. Fear of the Russians dropping the Atomic Bomb
1. Bomb Shelters built
People prepared by building bomb shelters in their homes

13. 2. Duck and Cover Drills in Schools: By-Product of Hysteria

14. 3. Media hype feeding paranoia

15. B. Fear of not Keeping up with the Russians
The Space Race
1957 Sputnik
1958 NASA founded
1958 National Defense Education Act
( spending on math and science)

16. C. Anti-communism legislation
Already Present under Truman
National Security Act 1947
Established the Department of Defense
Created the CIA
McCarran Internal Security Act 1950
Passed over Truman’s Veto
Communist organizations must register with the government
Loyalty Program
Truman issued an executive order for federal employees to take a loyalty oath

17. D. HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee)
went after Hollywood writers and directors who were suspected of being Communists
Richard Nixon led the investigations
Hollywood Ten: refused to answer questions
(5th Amendment)
Blacklisted from film industry

18. 1. Alger Hiss Trial (1950) Worked for U.S. State Department
Instrumental in setting up the U.N.
Convicted 5 years for perjury (not treason)
Denounced by a former communist party member

19. 2. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (1951)
Convicted of giving atomic secrets to the Soviets
Convicted of Treason and Executed
Guilt not proved until the 1990’s
Video: Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs
Video: Killed for Believing in Communism

20. 3. McCarthyism Video: Better Dead than Red
Junior Senator from Wisconsin claimed
to have a list of Communists in the gov’t
Went after people he suspected of being Communist
Made America even more paranoid
When accused the US Army, lost his credibility
Eisenhower and others stayed out of
his way
Video: Better Dead than Red

21. -June 1949-
What is the Washington Post cartoonist portraying in his drawing?

22. Conclusion A. 1950’s Economic Boom and Prosperity
G.I. Bill enabled millions of vets to attend college, start businesses, buy homes
Election of 1952: Ended first phase of post-war era, ending period of Democratic Presidents in office (FDR, Truman) but the New Deal consensus continued (with Republicans and Democrats)

23. B. Eisenhower Legacy
Middle of the road course, pleasing neither right-wingers nor liberals
Accused by
liberals: failure to denounce McCarthy and racism
conservatives: not repealing fair and new deals (Republicans in Congress blocked Health Care bill (=socialism)
Left office warning countrymen of the growing influence of military-industrial complex over US society
Anti-communism rhetoric silenced dissenters and weakened democratic liberalism

24. Review Video
Video: Happy Daze 0 – 21’20

25. Homework Reading Why we fight Post-WWII (1 page)
McCarthyism Reading (2 pages)
Eisenhower Reading