CHAPTER 18
PEACE AND PROSPERITY
The years following WWII were generally a time of
peace and prosperity. Cold War defense spending soon
gave the economy a boost. Business’s boomed, and
many Americans moved into the middle class. Other
Americans felt opportunities were passing them by.
IKE EISENHOWER’S
FOREIGN POLICY
A. The Nuclear Age
1. Eisenhower becomes The US President in 1952.
2. Cold War fears continues
with his presidency.
3.
Arms raced continued
a. Tested 1st hydrogen bomb after he was elected
b. Families built bomb shelters
c. “duck and cover” drills at schools
4. 1957 Soviet Unions launched Sputnik:
a. first artificial satellite into orbit.
B. U.S. Nuclear Policy
1. Launched 1st satellite in 1958
2. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) was created by Congress that same year to
carry out space research.
3. Improved math and science classes in schools,
better educated students would help the US win the
arms and space races.
4. Tried to “roll back” communism from certain areas
a. Ike received help from John Foster Dulles (secretary
of state)
5. This New Look strategy is known as massive retaliation
a. The threat of using nuclear weapons to stop
communism.
b. Brinkmanship(Dulles): US might have to come to the
brink or edge without getting involved into war
C. Covert Operations
1. Some Americans were against the brinkmanship,
not every conflict called for the threat of nuclear
weapons
2. Eisenhower used covert operations (secret missions) to
gain more foreign-policy options.
3. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) grew in size and
influence.
a. Become involved in missions in Iran (1953) and
Guatemala (1954)
D. Cold War Crisis
1. 1953: Nikita Khrushchev take the place of Premier
Joseph Stalin after his death.
2. Khrushchev announces Stalin committed criminal
acts and mass murder against the SU.
3. Wants capitalism and communism to come together
* capitalism: Private businesses own and operate
most industries, competition determines cost and pay
4. Left unrest in communist Eastern Europe:
a. Hungarian government wanted democracy: Soviet
Unions invaded Hungary and crushed them.
b. Aswan High Dam (Egypt)
1. US offered to help Egypt to build this dam in return
for their support in the Cold War
2. When US found out Egyptian leader was on good
terms with the SU, US dropped the project.
3. Lead to the Suez Crisis: (Egypt, Britain, France, Isreal)
could have lead to WWIII.
4. Eisenhower Doctrine: Us aid to any Middle Eastern
country facing communist aggression
E. The U-2 Incident
1. 1959 Vice President Richard Nixon visits the SU
2. Khrushchev then visits US
3. Things seem to be getting better between the US
and SU
a. Eisenhower and Khrushchev agree to discuss
arms reductions at a summit in Paris the next year.
4. May 5, 1960: SU shot down a US spy plane
5. US denies charge
6. Pilot (Frances Gary Powers) lives and admits he was
on a secret mission in a U-2 spy plane.
7. Eisenhower then admits he approved the flight
a. Said it was important that we gather military
information about other powerful countries so we remain
safe and free of attacks.
8. Both still agreed to the summit, but it was a disaster.
A PROSPEROUS NATION
A. America under Eisenhower
1. Economy boomed in the 1950’s
a. Spent $$$ on Cold War defense, creating tons of jobs
2. More Americans became part of the Middle Class
a. Earned between $3,000 and $7,000 a year
b. Could afford luxuries home appliances such as TV’s
3. Many could move:
a. Some moved to the Sunbelt: South and West
b. Others moved to the suburbs
4. Many Americans could take a vacation or send
their children to college.
B. A changing Workforce
1. Growth of the service sector (clerical and sales
workers)
a. Mostly filled by women, low paying, little room for
advancement
2. Industrial jobs were taken away from some worker
due to automation.
a. The use of machines in production
C. Technological Advances
1. Medical Advances:
a. Hearing aides, contact lens, polio vaccine (Dr.
Jonas Salk)
2. Military Research:
a. Improved computers (1st developed during
WWII) 1st commercial jetliner (707)
3. Home Life:
a. 1st nuclear power plant (gave electricity to homes
and businesses), air conditioners
D. Suburban America and City Life
1. 1956: Highway Act – paid for a new national system
of interstate highways which made it easy for
people to live in the suburbs and commute to work
in the cities
2. Levittown (Long Island, NY)
a. Early example of the preplanned and mass
produced housing developments.
b. The houses all look similar, have a garage and
large yard.
3. Suburbs were places for families
a. Baby boom – a sharp rise in the # of babies born
b. Suburban children participated in organized
activities
c. Neighbors sometimes competed with one
another for the newest clothes, gadgets or cars.
4. Conformity and Prejudice in the Suburbs
a. Most people living there were white, middle class
b. Some believed they tried to keep people of
other races from moving in
5. Leaving the City behind
a. Many poor and non-white residents were left I
the cities
b. Fewer tax $$$$$ decline in urban conditions
c. Urban renewal program: government plan to
replace old run down houses with large housing
projects (mixed reviews)
A CHANGING CULTURE
A. Television and Film
1. 1950’s: Television’s Golden Years
2. Before TV there was Vaudeville shows-stage
productions that combined singing, dancing, and
comedy.
3. Popular TV programs were drama, game shows,
soap operas, comedies (Lucille Ball) and westerns
4. Commercials were usually sponsored by a single
company, worked better than the radio (see it)
5. Movies: mostly about young rebels
a. Rebel Without a Cause (James Dean) and The
Wild One (Marlon Brando)
B. Writers and Artists
1. African American writers
a. Ralph Ellison: Invisible Man
b. James Baldwin: Notes of a Native Son
2. Beatniks (beats): criticized American Life
a. Jack Kerouac wrote about following your
own path in his book On the Road
3. Silent generations: the name of college students
and teenagers who didn’t protest and did what
was expected.
a. Reading MAD magazine was looked at as
rebelling.
C. Rock ‘n’ Roll
1. Teenagers rebelled by listening to new music
2. Bebop/bop: African American jazz musicians paired
up to play jazz at a rapid pace
3. Rock ‘n’ Roll: drew from African American rhythm
and blues
a. Used the electric guitar for a fast-paced sound
b. Elvis Presley was the most famous
4. Critics thought this music lead to youth crime
a. Gave no message (do-wop do-wop)
b. Cut across racial lines
THE EARLY CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
A. Segregation after World War II
1. Many African American veterans returned from war,
but still were not treated equally in the US
2. Faced voting discrimination
a. Fees, literacy tests, and violence
keep African Americans from voting.
3. Summer of 1946, civil rights activist tried to gain
Truman’s attention by protesting at the White House and
Lincoln Memorial
4. In December, Truman set up The Committee on Civil
Rights: look into racial discrimination and suggest
answers.
a. Desegregated the armed forces
b. Set up a Fair Employment Practices Commission:
banned racial discrimination in the hiring of federal
employees.
B. The Struggle against Segregation Begins
1. National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP) had one goal: to end the
segregation of black and white Americans.
2. Segregated Schools:
a. Officials argued they were “separate but equal”
b. 1938: Supreme Court ruled every state had to
offer equal educational opportunities (white law
school and a black law school)
c. 1950 Sweatt v. Painter: Herman Sweatt was
refused admission to the law school at the
University of Texas. Instead they created an African
American law school.
1. The new school did not provide equal access.
So the court ordered he was allowed to be
admitted to University of Texas.
2. Possible because of Thurgood
Marshall: NAACP attorney
C. Brown v. Board of Education
1. Seven year old Linda Brown from Topeka, Kansas
lived close to a white school, but had to travel all the
way across town to attend the African American
school
2. Her father sued to allow Linda to attend the closer
white school
3. 1954: US supreme Court decides segregation in
public schools is ILLEGAL
a. Overturned the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling
that established separate but equal.
4. 1955: Court ordered schools to desegregate “with
all deliberate speed”
D. The Little Rock Nine
1. Segregation was slow, only 3 school districts in the
entire South desegregated in 1954
2. School Board in Arkansas started to integrate the
high school first then slowly worked down
a. Choosing 9 outstanding African American
students to attend Central High school in 1957
(Little Rock 9)
3. Arkansas governor Orval Faubus didn’t want
integration.
a. Went on TV the day before school started and
declared the National Guard units would prevent
them from starting school.
b. Said this would prevent the violence that would
occur
4. Daisy Bates, president of Arkansas NAACP, called
all the nine and told them to meet her in the
morning before school so they could get a ride
together.
1. Elizabeth Eckford, 1 of the 9, never got the
message
2. arrived by herself to be greeted by an angry
mob and the National Guard which wouldn’t allow
her in
c. Crowd was screaming to lynch her as she ran
away the crowd followed her.
d. Was finally helped to safety by a white woman
5. President Eisenhower sent federal troops to enforce
desegregation at Central High since Faubus
continued not to follow the law for several weeks.
6. Once the troops left, white students continue to
harass the 8 out of 9 students who remained
7. 1958: Ernest Green became the first African
American student to graduate from Central High.
8. Faubus continued to keep fighting
year
a. Shut down the school for the 1958-59 school
b. Court order made them reopen and continue to
desegregate
E. The Montgomery Bus Boycott
1. Public transportation in Montgomery, Alabama was
segregated.
a. White passengers rode in the front, African
Americans had to ride in the back
b. African Americans had to give up their seats if
the bus filled up
c. African Americans had to pay at the front, get
off, and then enter through the back
2. 1955: Rosa Parks, African American, refused to give
up her seat and was arrested for breaking the law.
3. E.D. Nixon (former NAACP president) organized the
Montgomery Bus Boycott
a. African Americans boycotted the city bus
system
4. The Montgomery Improvement Association was
formed to strengthen the boycott
a. Lead by minister Martin Luther King Jr.
5. The bus system lost 70% of its passengers, still refused
to desegregate.
6. 1956: US Supreme Court ruled the Montgomery’s bus
system was ILLEGAL
7. Martin Luther King helped found the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference
a. Helped lead the struggle for civil rights