Chapter 27:
America at Midcentury
West Blocton High School
AP United States History
Mr. Logan Greene
Chapter Objectives
• How did the “Decade of Affluence” alter social and
religious life in America?
• What impact did Dwight Eisenhower’s foreign policy
have on U.S. relations with the Soviet Union?
• What was John F. Kennedy’s approach to dealing with
the Soviet Union?
• What was the significance of Brown v. Board of
Education of Topeka?
• How did Lyndon B. Johnson continue the domestic
agenda inherited from the Kennedy administration?
The Post War World
• The end of World War II launched a boom that would last for
25 years as the economy flourished under activist foreign
policy
• The Soviets and Americans faced off in the Cold War as both
countries stockpiled weapons and entered into an uneasy
relationship through MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction)
• The Korean conflict showed the growing battles between
Democracy and Communism as the Soviet backed North Korea
fought the American backed South Korea to a standstill
• The Second Red Scare occurred as Senator Joseph McCarthy
led witch hunts to find supposed communists in the United
States
The Decade of Affluence
• President Dwight Eisenhower was elected in
1952 to oversee the government in a new way
• Eisenhower was truly moderate as
conservatives saw him as conservative and
liberals saw him as liberal
• Eisenhower allowed much of the New Deal to
stay in place but did not expand reform
The Decade of Affluence
• The 1950’s economy of the United States was
as impressive and more stable than the
economy of 1920’s
• The economy grew over 3% each year with
thousands of jobs available and wages
increased faster than consumer prices
• The Federal Highway Act of 1956 created an
interstate highway system to provide for Cold
War emergencies
Families and Money
• Families again began relying on credit
• With the interstates came the birth of truly
national firms like McDonald’s
• Malls and full service credit cards made their
appearances
• Families were built around the professional
male head of household
• Women were expected to marry quickly and
forego any kind of career
Teenagers and Religion
• Teenagers for the first time became an
independent economic group on the 1950’s as
they listened to rock and roll, went to movies,
and dating became more universal
• Religion made a huge spike in the 1950’s as
church attendance surged and the US
government made increasing ties between
church and state (adding of Under God to
pledge of allegiance and In God We Trust to
money)
Gospel of Prosperity
• The Gospel of Prosperity began in the 1950’s
to define the continued affluence of America
society as based around abundance of natural
resources and the freedom of choice that
democracy offered (as opposed to
Communism)
• However, many believed this hid inequality and
the growing interdependence of big business,
the military, and the economy
The Soviets
• Eisenhower was a master of NOT saying the
wrong thing
• By dodging tricky questions and not drastically
interfering in a successful America he was
easily reelected in 1956
• The Soviets and the US still had a tenuous
peace hold amid a huge arms race based
around Mutually Assured Destruction
• However, when the Soviets launched the first
satellite into orbit, Sputnik, in October 1957
Americans became incredibly nervous
The Soviets
• The US immediately began NASA to close the
non existent missile gap
• Eisenhower believed the war against the Soviets
and communism should be about
“containment” not roll back. The idea was
about keeping Communism where it was
• Americans believed, very much in the spirit of
TR, that the US had a right and need to
interfere abroad when necessary
The Soviets
• The United States interfered in both Iran and
Guatemala to protect pro-US interests
• However, the biggest issue came in the small
southeast Asian country of Vietnam
• France was trying to control its colonial
holding in Vietnam but was failing against pro
communist forces under Ho Chi Min
• The United States took up the banner in a
limited way as an attempt to contain
Communism
Global Standoff
• Eisenhower refused to get involved in European
affairs as they could to easily result in nuclear
war
• However, several standoffs occurred that could
of began a Nuclear annihilation
• The best example was the shooting down of a
US Spy plane (a U-2) on May 1, 1960 over
Russia and the capture of the pilot
• The tense situation delayed political talks for
year
JFK and the Cold War
• In 1960 John F. Kennedy was elected President
• A Democrat, JFK promised a New Frontier, but
defined his presidency in continuing
Eisenhower’s stand on the Cold War
• Kennedy was the first truly visible President
thanks to the new mass media of broadcast
television
• He won his election by seeming to be more
impressive and professional than Richard
Nixon
Bay of Pigs
• Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev
pushed each other further into the Cold War
• To try and stem communism JFK sponsored an
invasion of communist Cuba
• Landing at the Bay of Pigs 1400 anti-Castro
Cubans started an invasion backed by CIA
training and the approval of Kennedy
• The invasion was squashed and Kennedy was
embarrassed on the international scene
Vietnam
• America became more involved in Vietnam
under Kennedy
• Since the mid 1950s the US had only invested
a minor force of advisors to the country
• Under JFK the US sent more weapons and
increased the advisors to help South Vietnam’s
Ngo Dinh Diem fight the North Vietnamese
Vietcong under Ho Chi Minh
Cuban Missile Crisis
• In 1962 the US learned the Soviets were building
missile launching stations in Cuba
• In response JFK created a “quarantine” of Cuba from
incoming trade until the missile sites were removed
• Soviet ships stopped before entering Cuban waters
and JFK and Khrushchev stared one another down
• The Soviets agreed to take down the sites and the US
agreed to leave Cuba alone and also remove missiles
from Turkey
• Only in later years was it revealed how close the two
nations were to coming to nuclear war over this
incident
Civil Rights
• The 1960’s finally started to see a rebirth of
activist Federal Government in Civil Rights that
had not been seen since Reconstruction
Brown v. Board
• For decades Civil Rights activists had tried to
overturn the decision in Plessy v. Ferguson of
separate but equal
• Finally the case of Brown v. Board of Education
Topeka, Kansas arrived at the Supreme Court
• The decision reversed Plessy v. Ferguson and
demanded the desegregation of Public Schools
• Southern states reacted with universal anger
(despite one of the leading justices on the case
Hugo Black being from Alabama)
Public Accomodation
• As Brown was argued and passed in 1954 activists
went after other forms of segregation
• Rosa Parks symbolically began the major Civil Rights
movement by refusing to give up her seat on a
Montgomery Bus to a white man in 1955, the
following boycott jumpstarted the career of a young
pastor: Martin Luther King Jr.
• King formed the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference to coordinate actions
• Later the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC) was founded to draw on young activists
1963 March
• To highlight the still disturbing issues of race
in the South King organized the march on
Washington in March 1963
• At this March King delivered the famous “I
Have a Dream” speech that is considered to be
the greatest oratory of the 20th Century
Kennedy Gone
• In November of 1963 Kennedy visited
Washington at the height of his popularity
• While driving through the city he was fatally
shot by Lee Harvey Oswald
• Lyndon Johnson, from Texas, was forced to
take over at one of the most unstable points in
American history (very similar to Andrew
Johnson after the Lincoln assassination)
War on Poverty
• Johnson turned his attention from the Soviets
to domestic policy
• Johnson was going to attempt to define JFK’s
ideas of a great society by first fighting what he
called an “unconditional war on poverty”
• The Office of Economic Opportunity was set up
to help the lowest levels of Americans close to
the poverty line
• Through Johnson the war on poverty improved
the lives of millions of Americans
Civil Rights 1964-1965
• Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964
which outlawed discrimination in public places
and also outlawed employment discrimination
• King and his associates fought through the
Freedom Sumer of 1964 to register previously
unregistered black voters across the South
• Johnson went further in 1965 signing the
Voting Rights Act making it illegal to require
literacy tests or poll taxes
1964
• 1964 saw several major issues come to light
• The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was passed in
response to a North Vietnamese/US skirmish
and allowed Johnson the right to use all means
necessary in Vietnam
• To help the Great Society Johnson passed
Medicare and Medicaid to give poverty stricken
Americans safety
• 1964 also saw Johnson win a landslide
election for his own outright term
Chapter Objectives
• How did the “Decade of Affluence” alter social and
religious life in America?
• What impact did Dwight Eisenhower’s foreign policy
have on U.S. relations with the Soviet Union?
• What was John F. Kennedy’s approach to dealing with
the Soviet Union?
• What was the significance of Brown v. Board of
Education of Topeka?
• How did Lyndon B. Johnson continue the domestic
agenda inherited from the Kennedy administration?