The Eisenhower Era

The Main Idea

The presidency of
Dwight D.
Eisenhower was
shaped in large
part by the Cold
War and related
conflicts.
 The Election of 1952

• The Twenty-second Amendment

set a 10-year limit on the number
of years a president could serve.
• Truman was specifically excluded
from the limit.
• Still, he felt he had served long
enough and did not seek reelection
in 1952.
• Democrats nominated Adlai
Stevenson.
• Republicans chose Dwight D.
Eisenhower, known as “Ike.”
• His campaign hit a snag when his
vice-presidential running mate,
Richard M. Nixon, was accused of
being dishonest.
• Eisenhower won on his campaign
promise to end the war in Korea.
 Eisenhower’s Cold War Policies
John Foster Dulles was critical of the Democrats’
foreign policy. Dulles did not want to merely contain
communism; he wanted to roll it back.
Dulles believed in brinkmanship, the diplomatic art of
going to the brink of war without actually getting into
war. To this end he advocated building more nuclear
weapons.

Dulles also believed in the concept of massive

retaliation. This was the promise that the United States
would use overwhelming force against the Soviet Union
to settle conflicts.

Foreign policy also had a secret side—the Central

Intelligence Agency, or CIA.
 The Soviet Union

Changes in Leadership
• Joseph Stalin died in
March 1953.
• His death caused
Americans to wonder
what policies his
successor would enact.
• Nikita Khrushchev
emerged as the new
leader.
• The Soviet Union
remained a Communist
dictatorship.
 The Warsaw Pact
• The Soviets created the Warsaw Pact in 1955.
• It was a military alliance with the Soviet-dominated countries of
Eastern Europe.
• Uprisings in Poland and Hungary were ruthlessly suppressed.
• Soviets made it clear that they were in control of Eastern Europe.
 U.S.-Soviet Relations
Geneva Summit and the “Open Skies” Treaty
• Americans and Soviets met in Geneva, Switzerland, for a
summit meeting in 1955.
• Eisenhower proposed an “open skies” treaty that would allow
each side to fly over the other’s territory to learn more about
its military abilities.
• The Soviets rejected the proposal.

The Spy Plane Incident

• Eisenhower wanted to gain information about the Soviet
military.
• In 1960 the Soviets shot down an American U-2 spy plane
sent into the Soviet Union to inspect their military facilities.
• This incident greatly damaged U.S.–Soviet relations.
 Cold War In addition to Korea, Cold War tensions flared up in
several other spots around the world in the 1950s.
“Hot Spots”
in the 1950s

Issues in South
Vietnam Vietnam
reflected Cold was
War rivalries. supported
North by the
Vietnam was United
under the States and
control of its anti-
Communist Communist
leader Ho allies and
Chi Minh. headed by
President
Ngo Dinh
Diem

.
 Vietnam and the
Seeds of War

• Vietnam Fast Facts

– The country was divided
into North Vietnam
(Communist) and South
Vietnam (democracy).
– The division was to be
temporary—an election
would allow the
Vietnamese to choose a
government
– Eisenhower did not like
this agreement.
• The United States and its
anti-Communist allies
created the Southeast Asia
Treaty Organization, or
SEATO.
– Agreed to work
together to resist
Communist aggression
 Trouble in the Middle East
Israel Egypt
• In 1948 Israel declared • Gamal Abdel Nasser wanted
its independence. to unite the Arab nations
and sought the support of
• A UN resolution had the Soviet Union.
divided Palestine into a
Jewish and an Arab state. • U.S. leaders did not like this
and took away their support
• Arab Egypt, Syria, for the Aswan High Dam.
Jordan, Lebanon, and
Iraq attacked Israel. • In retaliation, Nasser seized
the Suez canal and almost
• Israel won the war and started a war.
the land of Palestine
came under the control of • The Eisenhower Doctrine
Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. said the U.S. would aid any
Nation in the Middle East
trying to resist communism.
 Atomic Anxiety

The Main Idea

The growing power of, and

military reliance on,
nuclear weapons helped
create significant
anxiety in the American
public in the 1950s.
 The Hydrogen Bomb

Arms race—An international contest between the U.S.A

and the U.S.S.R in which each side was seeking a military
advantage over the other

• Gets its power from fusing together hydrogen atoms

The • Fusion—the process that creates the energy of the
Hydrogen sun and stars
Bomb
• A fusion bomb is hundreds of times more powerful
than an atomic bomb.

• Developed during the 1940s and early 1950s

• First detonated on November 1, 1952, on Eniwetak
Making Atoll in the Marshall Islands
the
Bomb • 3-mile-diameter fireball, 10.4 megatons of energy
• Soviets successfully tested an H-bomb in August of
1953.
 Soviet Advances in Technology

• The Soviets built new and improved weapons

and delivery systems.
• In 1957 the Soviets launched the first-ever
artificial satellite, named Sputnik.
• The Sputnik launches worried the United States.
– Many thought the Soviets had surpassed American
scientists in terms of technical skill and knowledge.
• In 1958 the United States launched its own
satellite.
• In July of 1958 Congress established the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration,
or NASA.
 The Television Age

The Main Idea

Television was a major
influence on
American culture in
the 1950s, mirroring
larger changes in
technology and
culture.
 Television in the 1950s

• By the end of World War II, television was ready for home
use.
• Postwar consumers purchased the new device.
– In 1950, 9 percent of U.S. households had televisions.
– In 1960, 87 percent of U.S. households had televisions.
• Television had an immediate impact on American culture.
– On politics
– In advertising
• Some Americans questioned the effects of television—
especially on children.
 Television Changes American Life
• Lucille Ball was the star of a hugely popular
comedy called the I Love Lucy show.
• Milton Berle’s popular program of comedy and
Programming
music helped television get established.
• American Bandstand appealed to the rock-and-
roll crowd.
• Howdy Doody

• Soap operas, crime dramas, and game shows

all got their start during the 1950s.

• Some were concerned about the effects of TV.

Concerns
about • Congress looked into the effects of violent
TV content on young viewers.
• TV experienced a scandal in the late 1950s
when the public discovered that a game show
had been rigged.
 Other Technology in the 1950s

Transistors Computers Salk Vaccine

• Developed in • UNIVAC, built in • Polio outbreaks
1947, the 1951, was the first were common in
transistor commercial the early 1900s.
worked like the computer.
vacuum tubes in • Polio was
early computers • Huge computer— contagious,
but with several weighed 30,000 spread quickly,
advantages. pounds and took and could be
up a room fatal.
• Were smaller and
did not break as • Large companies • In 1952 more
often and government than 57,000
agencies bought people contacted
• Improved all these computers. polio.
kinds of
electronics from • The integrated • Jonas Salk
radios to TVs to circuit or developed a new
computers computer chip was polio vaccine.
developed in 1958.
 Cultural Changes in the 1950s
New Communities
• Levittown was the most famous of the new suburban
communities.
• The U.S. population was beginning a shift in settlement to the
so-called Sunbelt—the southern and western parts of the
country.

New Highways
• During the 1950s the United States launched the Interstate
Highway System—a network of high-speed roads for
interstate travel.
• This reinforced the United State’s commitment to cars and
trucks as its main means of ground transportation.
 The Art of Rebellion

Art in the 1950s stressed rebellion against sameness and

conformity.
Film stars built images as rebels who defied social norms.
•James Dean
•Marlon Brando

The 1950s witnessed the emergence of the Beat

generation, who took the position of outsiders and
rejected social norms.
•Jack Kerouac

Rock and roll represented the rebellion of young people.

•Elvis Presley first on television
Quiz Time!
 Quiz Time!
1. Following WWII, the U.S. and the Soviet
Union entered an era of high tension and
bitter rivalry known as the ____ ____
2. Winston Churchill said in his famous speech
that the Soviet Union had created a(n)
______ ______ in Europe with their
communistic influence.
3. The policy that the United States adopted in
the late 1940s to contain communism was
known as ______
4. What does the Second Red Scare refer to?
5. President Truman argued that providing aid
would help both the Greek and Turkish
governments resist Soviet expansion. In the
process, he issued what came to be known
as____ ____
6.What does McCarthyism mean?
7.Name me one of the right that all humans
gained from the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights.
8. Where did Mao Zedong rule?
9. What was the purpose of the GI Bill?
10. What parallel line did the Korean War take
place?
11. Who took police action during the
Korean war?
12. Who was the president after Harry
S. Truman?
13. John Dulles, foreign policy officer to
Dwight Eisenhower, believed in the
diplomatic art of going to the brink of
war without actually getting into war.
What was this policy?
14. The CIA was born in 1947. What
does CIA stand for?
15. What does SEATO stand for?
16. What type of nuclear warhead did the
Soviets test in the 1950s that brought so
much fear to Americans?
17. What was the name of the satellite that
the Russians put in space in 1957 that
terrified the Americans?
18. The Americans responded to Sputnik by
launching what space program?
19. During the 1950s the United States
launched the ______ _____ ______a
network of high-speed roads for interstate
travel.
20. Many suburban developments were built
in the 1950s. The most famous of these was
in New York and known as _____