■Essential Question:
–To what extent did American
foreign & domestic policy
change in the 1950s?
■Warm-Up Question:
–Explain the Truman Doctrine
–Explain the Marshall Plan
–What was the purpose of NATO?
Recap of Post War Economics
■ 1946-1947: inflation with decline in GNP
– Led to labor strike; Then, Congress passed
Taft-Hartley Act (anti-labor)
– Unionization of South and women was not
successful. Membership peaked in 1950s
and then began steady decline
■ Democratic admin: sold war factories to
private companies cheaply
■ Congress passed Employment Act of 1946
and created Council of Economic Advisors
Recap of Post War Economics
■ 1948: GNP began to climb
■ 1950s: National income doubled and then
doubled again by 1960s
■ Affluence affected most Americas
■ Middle class more than doubled to 60%
■ Women benefited: though culture glorified
traditional role of women, they accounted for
more than a quarter of workforce at end of
war.
President Eisenhower’s
Modern Republicanism
Eisenhower Video
Communism
Gov’t
Eisenhower’s Modern Republicanism
Corruption
Korean
War
■ Frustration with the stalemate in Korea & the
Red Scare led to a Republican presidential
takeover in the 1952
■ WW2 hero Dwight Eisenhower provided an
antidote for “K1C2”
– Since Ike was liked by everyone, VP
Richard Nixon did the heavy campaigning
attacked communism & corruption
– Eisenhower vowed to go to Korea &
personally
Once elected,
Ikeend
didthe
gowar
to Korea, overturned
the U.N. battle plan, & threatened China with
nuclear war to get an armistice signed in 1953
Eisenhower’s Modern Republicanism
■ Eisenhower labeled his politics “Modern
“I’m conservative when it comes to money
Republicanism”
“dynamic
and
liberal when or
it comes
to conservatism”:
human beings”
– “Ike” believed in conservative gov’t
spending & a balanced budget but he had
no desire to end New Deal programs
middle of the road tactic
– Wanted to avoid creeping socialism
• Decreasing military spending, transfering
control of oil fields to the states, curb TVA
by setting up a private company
– The affluent, postwar “good life” at home
was dependent upon a strong Cold War
foreign policy
During
the
Eisenhower
era,
the
U.S.
economy
Eisenhower’s
Modern
Republicanism
avoided spiraling inflation & brought
■In his 8 prosperity
years as topresident,
Ike
middle-class
more Americans
had a modest domestic record:
Enacted “Operation Wetback”
–Instead of ending New Deal
programs, Eisenhower added to
social security & minimum wage
Tried to terminate Native American
–Usedtribes
FDR’s
Federal
Housing
as legal
entities.
Admin to help finance building &
purchasing of suburban homes
–Created the Depts of Health,
Education, & Welfare
Eisenhower’s Modern Republicanism
■Interstate Highway System:
–Highway Act of 1956 created
42,000 miles of divided highway
to connect major U.S. cities
–These highways helped promote
national defense, interstate
trade, & vacation travel
–All funds were raised exclusively
through gas, tire, & car taxes
“Have you
no decency,
The
Republicans in Power
McCarthy?”
■Mr.
Regarding
McCarthyism, Ike provided
McCarthy “just enough rope to hang himself”
in 1954
– After ruining lives of many officials, writers,
and actors, he also denounced General
“I
am
not
going
to
get
into
a
George Marshall. He finally went too far
[peeing]
contest
with
a
skunk”
when he attacked the Army
– In the televised “Army hearings,” the nation
saw McCarthy’s style & fact-less attacks
– The Senate censured McCarthy & his
“communist” attacks quickly died… as did
he of alcoholism 3 years later
Postwar American
Society
An Affluent Society
■ The postwar boom was caused by
– Increased production from WW2
– Cheap energy from low cost fuel and
electrical grids
– Increased productivity  rising educational
level of work force
– Change in economic structure: shift of
workforce out of agriculture
An Affluent
TheSociety
Marshall Plan
■The postwar boom The
wasKorean
caused
Warby
–A desire for consumer goods
in the 1930s & 40s)
Hi-fi (suppressed
record
Theplayers
American economy grew from crippling
–Gov’t
spending
duringRefrigerators
Cold
War
depression
to the
highest standard
of
living
in
allCars
of world
history
in
just
1
generation
withboom & movement
–Baby
Filter to the
automatic
cigarettes
TVs
suburbs
increased
the
demand
transmissions
for consumer goods
Diner’s Club credit cards
■But, this affluence led toMovement
a shift
to
Sunbelt
from individualism to conformity
“I Love Lucy”
TV
in the
“The Milton
1950s
Berle Show”
TV replaced
radio
& magazines as the primary
■$64,000
Question
conveyer of American consumer culture
■21 Questions
TV ownership
jumped from 9% in
■Bonanza
1950 to 90% by 1960
■The Untouchables (45 million).
Love attendance
Lucy
As■Ia result,
in movies declined,
advertisers
using tv ads, televangelists
■1950sbegan
TV networks
emerged, & people began viewing sports from
home.
Birthrate, 1940-1970
The late 1940s & 1950s
experienced the “baby boom”
Life in the Suburbs
■The rapid growth of suburbs
altered American life:
–“Blue” & “white collar” workers
lived in the same neighborhoods
–Suburbs depended upon cars,
grocery stores, & shopping malls
–Suburbs allowed for the nuclearfamily, not the extended family
–“White-flight” to the suburbs left
behind largely black urban cores
A Suburban Case Study: Levittown, New York
Grew
to 17,000
sold
homes
in 1951
Begin
in 1947
with 4,000
rental
homes
to veterans
Southdale Shopping Center, Minnesota—
the 1st enclosed, air-conditioned shopping mall
Areas of Greatest Growth
■The rapid growth of suburbs led to
–Increased church membership;
Religious preference became
the primary identifying feature of
the suburbs
–Public schools grew & a college
education was a goal for middle
class children
Music changed in the 1950s.
“Doo-wop” music dominated the early 1950s…
Music changed in the 1950s.
…but, was
challenged in
popularity by
rock n’ roll.
Rock n’ roll
was inspired
by
black artists,
but Elvis
Presley made
it popular
among the
youth.
The Music of the 1950s
■But, rock n’ roll quickly struck a
chord with young listeners:
–Black artists: Ray Charles,
Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, &
Little Richard
–White artists: Jerry Lee Lewis,
Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, &
Elvis Presley
Rock scared parents who thought
the fast beats were immoral.
This rock ‘n’
roll music is a
SIN!
Teenagers were an important force in the 1950s
Suburban teens had leisure time
& money to spend.
Teenagers were an important force in the 1950s
Businesses targeted teenagers, selling
billions of dollars of “cool” consumer goods.
Hollywood movies targeted teens &
made films about “juvenile delinquency.”
TV, movies, & advertising in the 1950s
promoted conformity & stereotypes.
The “ideal man” was provider & boss of the house.
TV, movies, & advertising in the 1950s
promoted conformity & stereotypes.
The “ideal woman” was a housewife & mother.
The media promoted women as mothers &
homemakers, but almost 40% of mothers had jobs.
Betty Friedan’s The
Feminine Mystique was a
best-seller. She is the
godmother of the feminist
movement. It was “an
indictment of the stifling
boredom of suburban
housewifery.”
But, 1950s
stereotypes
were
TV, movies,
& advertising
in the
1950s
not accurate
of most&Americans.
promoted
conformity
stereotypes.
Changing Sexual Behavior:
Sexologist
Alfred Kinsey
Behavioral
Rules
revealed that premarital
&
Obey
authority.
sex
extramarital
affairs
were common in the 1950s.
of the 1950s:
 Control Your emotions.
 Fit in with the crowd.
 Don’t even think about sex!!!
Playboy’s first publication, 1953
New Students Taking Advantage of the G.I. Bill
Critics of the Consumer Society
■Some criticized suburban culture:
– William Whyte’s Organized Man
Gave rise to counter-culture
& David Riesman’s
reactionaries Lonely
of 1960s
Crowd criticized American
Inspired by Zen Buddhist state of
conformity
to social
inner grace
calledpressures
“beatitude”
–Jack Kerouac & the Beats
(Beatniks) emerged as a new
counter-culture by refusing to
conform to 1950s culture
The “beat movement” rejected conformity.
“Beatniks” were artists
& writers who lived
non-conformist lives.
They rejected the
suburbs, consumerism,
& “regular jobs.”
Led by Jack Kerouac, the
beats inspired the
“hippies” of the 1960s.
Beat Artists (Beatniks)
“City Lights” in San Francisco
■ Find imageswas a hotbed for Beat artists
Jackson
Mark
Rothko
Pollock
Abstract
Expressionism
Mar
■Essential Question:
–How do the domestic & foreign
policies of Truman &
Eisenhower compare?
Eisenhower Wages
the Cold War
Eisenhower & the Cold War
■Ike was unusually well-prepared
to be a Cold War president
■Ike’s foreign policy goals were to:
–Take
a strong stand against
WW2
military
experience
in
Communism
byExcellent
using “massive
diplomat
Europe & Asia
retaliation” with nuclear
weapons
& politician
Pragmatic
&
& covert
CIA
operations
well organized Chose hard-liner John Foster
to bespending
Sec of State
–To reduce Dulles
defense
&
relax Cold War tensions
Massive Retaliation
“Massive
retaliation”
meant
targeting
■Eisenhower wanted “more bang
civilian targets rather than military ones
for the buck”:
–Nuclear weapons & long-range
delivery
missiles
were
cheaper
Ike relied heavily on “brinksmanship”
than
conventional
in which
he used veiledarmed
threats forces
of
nuclear war to
accomplish strategy
his goals
–“Massive
retaliation”
made using nuclear weapons
unlikely
–But massive retaliation offered
no intermediate course of action
if diplomacy failed
Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs)
What are the stakes of war?
Massive Retaliation?
Mutual Assured Destruction?
Chinese Massive
did not knowRetaliation
if Ike was bluffing so
backed
off this territorial
expansion
■InChina
1954,
Eisenhower
used
a
hard-line approach to stop
Chinese expansion in Asia:
…and –Chinese
the refusal of the
USSR
to
aid
China
added
a
attempts
to
take
over
rift between Russia & China by the end of the 1950s
islands near Taiwan led
Eisenhower to threaten nuclear
war if China did not stop
–Eisenhower hoped this pressure
would drive a wedge between
the USSR & communist China
Massive Retaliation
■In 1956, Egyptian leader Nasser
nationalized
the start
Suez
Canal: we
“If those fellows
something,
may have to&hitFrance
‘em—and,
if necessary,
–England
invaded
Egypt
with
everything
in
the
bucket”
to take back the canal but the
USSR opposed this intervention
–Eisenhower did not want the
USSR to attack so he threatened
Russia with nuclear war
–England, France, & the USSR
left Egypt & the U.S. became the
leader in Middle East
Eisenhower Doctrine
Like the Monroe Doctrine in Latin America,
■The
Suez
Crisis
revealed
thepower
the
United
States
emerged
as a police
vulnerability
of the
Middle
in a new part
of the
world East to
Communism & Ike responded:
–In 1957, the Eisenhower Doctrine
recommended U.S. armed force
to protect the Middle East from
Communist aggression
–In 1957, Ike sent the military to
Lebanon to halt Communism &
install a pro-Western gov’t
Covert Actions
■Ike’s administration used covert
CIA acts to expand U.S. control:
“The the
end justifies
the means”
–In 1953,
CIA overthrew
Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran
in favor of a U.S.-friendly shah
–Ininterventions
1954, the led
CIAtooverthrew
a
These
anti-American
leftist
Guatemala
hostilities
in theregime
Middle in
East
& Latin America
–In 1959, the CIA took a hardline against new Cuban dictator
Fidel Castro after his coup
■Essential Question:
–How do the domestic & foreign
policies of Truman & Eisenhower
administrations compare?
■Warm-Up Question:
–Why do you think the USA and
Soviet Union were so concerned
about their space programs?
The Effects of Sputnik
■ The “space race” intensified the Cold War
between USA & USSR
– In 1957, the launch of the Soviet satellite
Sputnik led to fears that the USSR was
leading the race to create intercontinental
ballistic missiles (ICBMs) creating a missile
gap
Khrushchev
used Sputnik to put the U.S. on
defensive:
you.ICBMs
Your &
–the
The
U.S. sped“We
up it will
plansbury
to build
grandchildren
will live under Communism.”
IRBM submarines
The Effects of Sputnik
■Sputnik led to fears that America
was growing soft & was losing its
competitive edge & work ethic
The advanced placement (AP)
■The
U.S.isgov’t
responded
with:
program
a byproduct
of the NDEA!
– National Aeronautics & Space
Administration in 1958
–National Defense Education Act
was created to promote math,
science, & technology education
Sputnik
inwas
1957
Alan
Shepard
the
The Original Seven—Mercury
Astronauts
st
1 American in space
Waging Peace
■Ike tried to end the nuclear arms
race as both sides tested
hydrogen bombs & ICBMs
–In 1953, Eisenhower called for
disarmament & presented his
“Atoms for Peace” plan to the
United Nations
–In 1955, Khrushchev rejected
Eisenhower’s “open skies” plan
for weapons disarmament
Military-Industrial Complex
This
military-industrial
complex in
is part
of the
■In
his farewell address
1960,
reason
for
the
Soviet
demise
in
the
late
1980s
Eisenhower warned against the
& end of the Cold War in 1991
Military-Industrial Complex:
–The massive military spending
that
dominate
domestic
& foreign
politics
Conclusions:
Restoring National
Confidence
Conclusions
■By 1960, the American people
were more optimistic than in 1950
–Americans were no longer
afraid of a return of another
Great Depression
–Anxiety over the Cold War
continued but was not as severe
–But, American values & race
relations were areas of concern