Transcript Eisenhower Era - Thomasville High School

Eisenhower Era
Chapter 37
Essential Questions?
• What political, social, and economic factors
lead to the US becoming involved in the
Vietnam conflict?
• How is America different because of the social
movements that took place in the post WWII
era?
Eisenhower Timeline
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1953: Eisenhower inaugurated
– CIA coup leads to shah controlled
Iran
1954: French defeat in Vietnam
– McCarthy hearings
– Brown v. Board of Education
– SEATO formed
– 1st McDonald’s
1955: Montgomery Bus Boycott
– Warsaw Pact created
– AFL-CIO merger
1956: USSR crushes Hungarian movement
– Suez crisis
– Eisenhower reelected
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1957: Little Rock 9
– SCLC formed
– Eisenhower Doctrine
– USSR launch of Sputnik
1959: Castro takes over Cuba
– Alaska and Hawaii statehood
1960: Sit-in movements
– U-2 incident
– OPEC formed
– Kennedy elected president
Technology Boom
• Massive suburban growth,
increased education, increased
production, military spending all
lead to new technologies.
• Computers: IBM pioneers the
world of computing.
– Original computers massive in size,
not capable of many functions
– Calculators revolutionize
mathematics.
• Military research spawns
aerospace industry.
– Commercial jet travel becomes
affordable, common.
• New fields of work
– White-collar jobs (not
physical) increase.
• Return of the Cult of Domesticity
– Affluence of middle class
leads many mothers to return
to the home.
– TV and pop culture portray
the “perfect” housewife.
• Birth of Feminism
– Some lash back at this “regression” of
female opportunities.
– Betty Friedan publishes The Feminine
Mystique, kicks of the new women’s
right smovement.
Consumer Culture
• Business caters to
growing middle class,
whose wealth and
recreation desires were
exploited
• Fast food invented
– McDonald’s
• Theme Parks
– Disney Land
• Television
– Revolutionized entertainment
and advertising
– Christianity engages in
televangelism (Billy Graham)
– Sports boom: baseball follows
Sunbelt out of Northeast
– Music changes, geared
toward Baby Boomers
•
Elvis Pressley “invents” rock and roll
• New mass “common” culture
pushes teenagers to conform
– Hints of rebellion that will grow in
the 60s.
– Conflict between WWII/ Great
Depression parents and Baby Boomer
kids.
1952 Election
• 22nd Amendment passed, Truman
decides not to seek 3rd term.
• Eisenhower
– Hero of D-Day
– Courted by both Dems and
Rep as presidential candidate;
chooses Republicans
• Democrats pick Adlai Stevenson
• Issues: Korean War, Cold War
• Ike’s VP Nixon was accused of
illegally accepting campaign $
– Won nation over with “Checkers
Speech”
– America likes Ike: 442 to 89
McCarthyism
• 2nd Red Scare
– Red China
– USSR develops Hydrogen
Bomb
– Spies in government (Hiss,
Rosenbergs)
– Korean War
• America looking for someone to
blame.
• Senator Joseph McCarthy looked
to capitalize on Red Scare by
claiming to have evidence of
more spies in government.
• Used his position and television
to “identify” potential threats.
• In Senate hearings he would
allude to top-secret information
in his accusations of “commies”.
• In reality, he had no information,
just wanted to make a name for
himself for future elections.
• At first many believed him, those
accused lost jobs, some
committed suicide.
• Eventually he began accusing top
military officials. They exposed
his fraud.
• Today, McCarthyism is
synonymous with accusing
someone of wrong while having
no evidence.
Fighting Segregation
• “Jim Crow” segregation laws had
existed since the end of
Reconstruction.
• 1946: 14 year old Emmitt Till
lynched in Mississippi.
• 1947: Jackie Robinson breaks
color barrier in baseball.
• 1954: Brown v. Board of
Education declared de jure
segregation to be unequal
– Case overturned Plessey v. Ferguson
– Argued by future SC Justice Thurgood
Marshall
– 1st of many cases ruled over by Earl
Warren who expands personal liberty
in the 50s-70s
• 1955: Rosa Parks and Dr. King
successfully lead the
Montgomery Bus Boycott
– Paved way for future civil
disobedience.
• President Eisenhower was
reluctant to support the cause of
civil rights.
• 1957: Eisenhower sends federal
troops to Little Rock, AR to
enforce Brown v. Board.
• Civil Rights organizations such as
CORE and SCLC continue fight for
integration peacefully.
Long Time Coming
Rosa Parks
Dr. Martin L. King Jr.
Youth Action
• College and high school AA follow
King’s example of nonviolent
resistance.
• These young blacks of the 50s
were growing up in a time of
plenty, yet they were deprived of
much opportunity.
• 1960: NC A&T students begin the
“sit-in” movement at major chain
store Woolworth’s in Greensboro.
• The idea spreads throughout the
nation.
• SNCC (Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee)
founded at Shaw U. in Raleigh.
Domestic Issues
• 1950s conservative values clash
with changing culture.
• Youth culture of change
contradicts middle class culture
of tradition.
• Eisenhower and Reps. try to halt
the creeping socialism of the New
Deal and decrease the size of US
gov.
• Operation Wetback: movement
to curb illegal immigration from
Latin America. 1 million
immigrants sent back to Mexico.
– Beginning of modern nativism toward
Hispanics.
• All of Ike’s anti-big government
talk was contradicted by the
largest works project ever.
• Interstate Highway Act employed
thousands in the creation of the
modern interstate highway
system.
• New roads add to the commercial
boom and economic expansion,
yet increase our national debt.
Domestic Issues
Operation Wetback
Interstate Highway System
Foreign Policy
• New Sec. of State John Foster
Dulles promised to not just
contain communism, but to “”roll
back” the reds.
• Military focus became the
Strategic Air Command, fleet of
bombers capable of delivering
nuclear bombs anywhere in the
world.
• Hope comes when Stalin dies in
1953, but new Soviet leader
Nikita Khruschev proves to be just
as tough.
• Warsaw Pact: Alliance of Eastern
European communist nations.
– Rival of NATO
• The Truman Doctrine met a series
setback during the Hungarian
uprising.
• 1956: Hungary fights the USSR for
independence, expect US
support.
• US does nothing, Hungary gets
crushed, other E. European
nations feel they can not rely on
US.
• Era of “massive retaliation”
begins. USSR and US both were
likely to blow each other off the
map in the event of war.
• This fear shapes future decisions
on both sides.
“Russians go Home”
Vietnam Develops
• Vietnam had been a French
colony pre-WWII.
• Japanese takeover.
• After WWII France tries to retake,
defeated by Vietnamese forces at
Dienbienphu.
• Vietnam was free, but the people
disagreed on the new form of
government.
• Ho Chi Minh was the
“Washington” of Vietnam, and
most of his followers wanted
communism.
• UN divides the nation at the 17th
parallel: Commies in North, ProAmerican forces in South.
• South Vietnam leader Ngo Dinh
Diem very cruel to procommunist and Buddhists alike.
• Elections were to be held in late
1950s to decide on what type of
government a united Vietnam
would have.
• Elections never held because it
was obvious commies would win.
• Vietnam would remain divided.
• Problem!!!! Not everyone in
South Vietnam wanted
democracy; most support Minh
and the northern communists.
Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh
Ngo Dinh Diem
Vietnam
Middle East
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Since Treaty of Versailles, UK and
France had controlled much of
Middle East.
Nations gain independence after
WWII.
A cheap supply of oil became
increasingly important to US
interests during the economic
boom of the 50s.
Fear of communism in ME sparked
US interest in the region.
CIA overthrows pro-USSR regime in
Iran. Installs the Shah, a US friendly
dictator.
1956: Egypt threatens to take over
the UK owned Suez Canal, vital link
for oil from ME.
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UK, France, and Israel coordinate
an attack on Egyptian forces.
US feared a USSR retaliation, and
refused to aid UK, forcing them to
withdraw.
Major turning point!!!!! US and
Europe prove that they are
dependent on ME oil, becomes
major issue for generations to
come.
Eisenhower Doctrine: US would
provide aid to any ME nation
threatened by communism.
OPEC formed: organization of ME
nations.
– Power of oil gives them an upper hand
in dealing with US and USSR.
Space Race
• Ike reelected in 1956: 457 to 73.
• USSR causes US panic with launch
of Sputnik in 1957.
• US fears that we have fallen
behind the USSR in technology.
• NASA created, space race begins
to gain an upper hand in “New
Frontier”
• National Defense in Education
Act: increased emphasis on math
and science.
– Need to be sure future Americans
can compete.
– Loss of traditional education
(history , Latin, French,
reading)
• Inter-Continental Ballistic
Missiles: ICBMs developed
• New missiles can travel around
the world in a few minutes,
deliver a nuclear blast anywhere
on globe.
• USSR soon develops there own.
• Idea of massive retaliation
expands (nuclear clock begins to
tick down to doomsday).
Space Race
Cold War Continues
• 1960: US spy plane U2 was shot
down over USSR.
– International crisis, world new we
were spying on Soviets.
– Makes world feel sympathetic toward
commies, us look like bad guys.
– USSR spying on us too, just can’t
catch them.
• Big trouble in Cuba
– Since Spanish American War, US had
controlled Cuba.
– We supported dictator Fugencio
Batista, but Cubans didn’t.
– Very cruel and unfair to masses of
Cubans.
• 1959: Rebel leader Fidel Castro
overthrows Batista.
– Batista and supporters flee to US.
• US does little to help, believing
that Castro would support US
policies.
– We were wrong!
• Castro is a communist, and allies
himself with USSR.
• Now we have a communist
enemy 90 miles away from
Florida.
• US panics
Fidel Castro
1960 Election
• 22nd Amendment prohibited
Eisenhower from 3rd term.
• Republicans pick VP Richard
Nixon.
• Democrats choose Senator John
Kennedy
• Issues
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Kennedy was a Catholic
Civil Rights
Cuba
Cold War
• 1960 election largely influenced
by TV.
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1st televised debates
Nixon looks tired, old.
Kennedy youthful and pretty.
Close election, but image wins the
day for Kennedy.
– Marks the beginning of new era in
American politics: looks, not just
substance matter.
Kennedy wins 303-219
President John Kennedy
Literature of 1950s
• Realism of 20s and 30s dies with
Hemingway and Steinbeck.
• Psychedelic and surreal writing
carried the day.
– Norman Mailer, Kurt Vonnegut.
• Pent-up youthful frustrations of
the 50s were demonstrated by JD
Salinger in The Catcher and the
Rye.
• Playwrights Tennessee Williams
and Arthur Miller highlighted the
misfits of this era of conformity.
• Ralph Ellison characterized the
dilemma of AAs in The Invisible
Man.
– “Be your own father, young man. And
remember, the world is possibility if
only you'll discover it. Last of all,
leave the Mr. Nortons alone, and if
you don't know what I mean, think
about it. Farewell.”