The Eisenhower Years
Election of 1952
 Republicans want to gain control of the White
House
 Democrats had been in control for 20 years
 Republicans want to run against Korea,
communism and corruption
 Speculation during the Truman administration that
some of his officials accepted bribes
Eisenhower
 Republicans nominate Eisenhower
 Democrats nominate Adlai Stevenson
 Chose Richard Nixon as his running mate
 What do we know thus far about Nixon?
 Campaign Slogan:
 “It’s time for Change”
 Wanted to end Korean conflict/corruption
 Political saying: I Like Ike!
 Campaign Controversy
 Nixon accused of accepting $18,000 in gifts from
businessmen
 Nixon addresses the nation in a radio broadcast
 Says he used the funds for political reasons
 Except one gift: a cocker spaniel Checkers
 Known as the Checkers Speech
"The Man from Abilene"
(Eisenhower, 1952)
"Never Had It So Good"
(Eisenhower, 1952)
http://www.livingroomcandidate
.org/commercials/1952/the-manfrom-abilene
Election of 1952
The Eisenhower Presidency
 The Bricker Amendment
 Proposed by John Bricker
 Angry over secret
agreements at Yalta, wants
to limit presidential power
 Senate would have to ratify
all decisions of the
President with other
nations
 Defeated by one vote
 Eisenhower suffers a heart attack in 1956
 His bad health will have Congress examine
the question of presidential succession
 What would happen if the president stayed
ill, and was unable to lead?
 VP would fill in, but the Constitution
does not say who decides whether or
not the VP would have to take over
 1967, ratify the Constitution with a
provision that would outline presidential
disability
 25th Amendment
Eisenhower Presidency
 Wins the 1956 election
 Congress is controlled by the
Democrats
 During his presidency, he tries
to limit the control of the
government
 Does cut budget, reduces taxes,
end gov’t regulation of business
 What will Eisenhower do
w/New Deal policies
 America will see a rise in
the economic sector
 Increase in credit
 Increase in technology
 Suburban lifestyles
 Women roles
 Baby boomers
 Birth rate increases from
1945-1961
Eisenhower and Foreign Policy
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Wants to contain communism
Especially in Asia and Africa
Want to increase the number of Allies 
US has larger role in NATO

Creates SEATO
 SE Asian Treaty Organization

 Creates CENTO
 Central Treaty Organization
 (organization of nations in the Middle
East)
 OAS
 Organization of American States
 All created to offset the spread of
Communism
Helpful to Eisenhower and his foreign
policy was John Dulles
Dulles thought containment wasn’t strong
or forceful enough
Believed in MASSIVE RETALIATION
 All or nothing
 Keep Soviet attack at bay by
threatening to use nuclear weapons
 If the Soviet attacked, US would
launch weapons
 Eisenhower, afraid of an all out nuclear
war, continues with containment
Foreign Policy in Asia
 After Korea, another
conflict emerges
 Ho Chi Minh
 Communist in Vietnam
 Vietminh
 Heads the push for independence
from France
 US stays out of conflict, but
supplies France with
weapons/supplies
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Dulles wants to send troops
No support from Congress
Eisenhower stays out of the conflict
Dien Bien Phu falls in 1954
French withdraw from Indochina
Geneva Conference 1954, Vietnam divided
on 17th parallel
 North of line Ho Chi Minh and
communists in control
 South of line, government supported by
the US is established
 Many oppose Diem’s leadership in the
south
Iran and Guatemala
 Iran
 Iranian PM takes control of the
Anglo-American Oil Co.
 Eisenhower worried of IranianSoviet Alliance
 Could endanger US supplies of
oil
 Eisenhower helps fund a revolt
 Will later sign agreement
allowing the US to have a part
in oil production
 Guatemala
 Helped remove another govt official
 Colonel Jacobo Guzman
 Receiving weapons from communist states
 Seizes control of an American owned fruit
company
 Afraid communism would spread to
Central America
 Organizes and funds a coup
Third World Neutrality
 Nations from Africa and Asia get together
 Want to remain free from the influence of the First
World (the West) and the Second (the Soviet)
 Want to remain neutral
Conflict in the
Middle East
 1950s US involved with Middle 
Eastern affairs

 What resource is the US
dependent upon?
 Want to protect those interests
 US also interested in Israel
 1948, a Jewish homeland had been
created
Arabs believe Israel was created on land
that belonged to the Palestinians
Tension grows in the region
 1956: Egyptian PM Nasser wants to take
control of the Jewish state
 Signs a treaty with the Soviet to get
weapons for cotton
 US tries to win Egyptian favor by
offering to give money for the funding
of a dam on the Nile
 Relations w/China/Soviet causes the
US to back out
 Nasser takes the Suez Canal
Why the Suez?
 Trade Link btw
Europe, Asia and
Middle East
 British French, and
Israeli troops attack
w/o support of US
 At meeting of the UN,
US votes WITH Soviet,
condemning actions
 Forces them to
withdraw from Egypt
 US looks weak
After the Suez
 Eisenhower worried about Soviet influence
 Soviet offers money to Egypt to build the dam
 Eisenhower Doctrine
 Gave authority for president to use military to assist nations in the M.E.
from communist states
 Ex: Lebanon asks for help in defending themselves from Nasser & the
Soviet
 Thought they were going to invade
 US sends troops to oversee the installation of a new gov;t
 Shows US dedication in M.E.
The Cold War Thaws?
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1953 Stalin dies
Replaced by Nikita Khrushchev
Khrushchev saw Stalin as a tyrant
Soviets seek a peaceful existence with
the West
 1955: meet at Geneva w/France, GB
 Motions for disarmament
 Relations not strong for long
 Disagreements erupt over Berlin
 Soviet threatens to cut them off from
the West unless the East German
gov’t was recognized
The Cold War Thaws?
 1959 Khrushchev/Nixon visits
 Kitchen Debate: July 1959
 Debate by the world leaders
regarding communism v. capitalism
 Meet at Camp David to plan a
second summit meeting
 Peace lasts only so long
http://video.google.com/videosearch?gbv=2&hl=en&q=Kitchen%20Debates&u
m=1&ie=UTF8&sa=N&tab=wv#q=Kitchen%20Debate&hl=en&sitesearch=video.google.com
U-2 Spy Plane
 May 1960
 Soviet shoots down a U-2
surveillance plane over the
Soviet
 US sent the plane to
photograph nuclear
sites/missile facilities
 Khrushchev refuses to attend
the second summit
 Cold War is back on