The Eisenhower Era
1952-1960
AN
AFFLUENT
SOCIETY
1950s
GUIDING QUESTION
To what extent did the
decade of the 1950s
deserve its reputation as
an age of political, social,
and cultural conformity?
“Conservatism,
Complacency, and
Contentment”
OR
“Anxiety,
Alienation, and
Social Unrest” ??
The Affluent Society
1950’s prosperity:
1. Surge of home construction
 1 of 4 homes in 1960 built in 1950’s
2. Technology- the transistor
(1948)=revolution in electronics
(computers).
 ENIAC- US government computer (large
as a small house) did basic computations
 Transistors & circuits on silicon=
miniaturization of electronics.
 IBM- prototype of “high tech” company
 Computers transformed billing, printing,
telecommunications
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AN AFFLUENT SOCIETY:
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Mass-produced housing on the edge
of cities
Suburbia
– Levittown – 17,000 mass-produced, lowpriced homes
 1949
 William Levitt produced 150 houses
per week.
 $7,990 or $60/month with no down payment.
Effect on inner cities:
increasingly poor and racially
divided
ENIAC- US Military computer
Affluent Society
3. Aerospace Industry- Eisenhower built up
Strategic Air Command & passenger airline
businesses.
 B-52 long range bomber
 1957- Boeing Company= 1st large passenger jet
(707)
 1959- Air force One
4. Changing workforce- service sector jobs
offered opportunities to women (1950-1970 = 40
million new jobs created= many service & clerical
 1950’s celebrated “cult of domesticity”
 New opportunities for women= social &
psychological shift= 1960’s, 70’s etc.
 ** Betty Friedan wrote: The Feminist Mystique
(1963)= launched modern feminist movement
The 1st Air force One
American Consumerism
1950’s Middle class expanded greatly
 More ‘white collar” than “blue collar” jobs
 Americans have more disposable money &
leisure time
 1948- 1st McDonalds opens
 1955- Disneyland opens
 Easy credit, high volume fast food, new
recreation
Television
 TV- 1951 7million sets sold; 1960 almost
everyone has one = movie going shrank
 Mid-1950’s- advertisers were spending $10
billion
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Impact of TV
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Televangelists ( Billy Graham, Oral
Roberts)- used TV to spread the Gospel
Commercialization of Sports
Movement of sports teams from east to
west= reflected population shifts
Popular Culture 1950’s
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Music- Elvis Pressley fused black rhythm
& blues with white bluegrass & country=
rock & roll= “crossover”
Marylyn Monroe- commercialized &
sensationalized new sexuality
Playboy Magazine (1955)
Critics of Popular Culture & Society
David Riesman (Harvard sociologist) The
Lonely Crowd= US citizens are pack of
conformists
 William H. Whyte Jr. –The Organization
Man
 Sloan Wilson- The Man in the Gray Flannel
Suit (1955)
 *John Kenneth Galbraith (Harvard
economist) – wrote The Affluent Society:
questioned relation between private wealth &
public good- called for government social
spending.

The 1952 Election
1.Democrats Party problems
 Military deadlock in Korea
 Inflation at home
 Whitehouse scandals
Nominated Adlai Stevenson (Gov. of ILL)
2. Republicans- nominated Dwight
Eisenhower (‘I Like Ike”)- mostly nonpartisan & grandfatherly.’
 Running mate- Richard Nixon (Calf.
Congressman)- “red hunter”
1952 Campaign Ads
1952 Presidential Campaign
Nixon –accused Democrats of corruption, ineptitude
in Korea, & soft on communism.
 Adlai “the appeaser”
 1st election in which TV played a role
 ‘THE Checker’s Speech”- Nixon was accused for
maintaining a “slush fund” while holding a seat in
the Senate.
 Nixon used TV to address charges=“Checkers’
Speech”= scandal disappeared (candidates could
bypass traditional party organization & speak
directly to voters).
 Eisenhower appeared in scripted TV spots (1st
version of political TV ads)
** Eisenhower announced that he would personally go
to Korea to end the war= Eisenhower won election!
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1952 Election Outcome

Election of 1952: Dwight
D. Eisenhower vs. Adlai
Stevenson
– Ike won: 34 million to 27 million
popular votes; 442 to 89
electoral votes.

President
Eisenhower
(Courtesy Dwight D.
Eisenhower Library)
“Modern Republicanism”
– Fiscal Conservative: sound
business principles, Reduce
federal spending, balance budget
and cut taxes
– Social Moderate: maintain
existing social and economic
legislation
– avoid partisan conflicts
Ike with VP
Nixon on the
Links.
Ike Takes Office & Ends Korean Conflict
Republican’ s rode Ike’s coattails= paper thin
majority in Congress
 Ike went to Korea (3 days)- Dec. 1952- 7
months later- an armistice was signedends Korean War.
 Chinese ended the war because of the costmostly
 War lasted 3 years (54,000 Americans Killed)
 1 million Chinese, North Koreans & South
Koreans killed
 Status quo returned= Korea divided at 38th
parallel (even today)
 Communism had been contained in Korea

Rise & Fall of Senator Joseph McCarthy
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Wisc. Republican- anti=communist crusader
Won Senate seat by defeating Robert La Follette
(called him a red)
Feb. 1950- accused Sec. of State Dean Acheson of
employing 205 known communists & stated he had
a list (never produced)
Republicans – realized usefulness of communist
accusations-esp.. against Democrats
Accused writers, actors, officials= black listed=
could not get work
1954- Army-McCarthy Hearings( televised)McCarthy accused Army officials of being
communist (20 million Americans watched)
Few months later= McCarthy formally censured
The Foundations Civil Rights Movement
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1950- African-Americans= 15 million (2/3 lived in
the South)
1896- **Plessy v. Ferguson= est. “separate but
equal” as constitutional= Jim Crow laws in the
South.
1950’s= 20% of eligible southern African-American
voters registered (poll taxes still existed & literacy
tests).
Deep South (Mississippi, Alabama) only 2%
registered
1960- White southerners sensitive about race issues
Fear & violence used where the Jim Crow laws were
insufficient
1946- 6 black war veterans claiming civil rights were
killed.
Foundations of the Civil Rights
Movement
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Niagara Falls Conference – W.E.B. Dubois & others
met = est. NAACP 1909.
FDR executive order- forbidding discrimination in
war factories (FEPC- Fair Employment Practices
Commission created)
Double V Campaign (WWII)
CORE- Congress of Racial Equality ( 1942)- used sitins to protest segregation in public places (more
“militant” than NAACP)
Post WWII- more racial progress made in the north=
African-Americans secured equal access to public
accommodations.
1947- Jack Roosevelt “Jackie” Robinson- 1st AfricanAmerican allowed in the major league (Brooklyn
Dodgers)
Civil Rights
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Post WWII- Generated a new militancy among
African-Americans.
1940’s NAACP- had pushed to end segregation
1948- President Truman –ended segregation in US
civil service & **integrated the armed forces
1950- Sweatt v. Painter – Supreme Court ruled
separate professional schools for blacks represented
unequal treatment (argued by Thurgood Marshall
for NAACP- later Marshall appointed 1st AfricanAmerican to Supreme Court)
The Movement Begins in Earnest
1954- **Brown v. Board of Education of
Topeka, Kansas- Supreme Court ruled that
segregation in public schools was unequal &
unconstitutional- “must end with all deliberate
speed”. --**Chief Justice Earl Warren
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Border States made efforts to desegregate
Deep South= resisted (1956- Southern
Manifesto -101 Southern Congressmen vowed to
fight the ruling) States diverted public funds to
crate private schools= new segregation
*The Montgomery Bus Boycott
Dec. 1955- Montgomery, Alabama- Rosa Parks refused
to her seat in the white section of the bus.
 Parks was arrested for breaking segregation laws
*The Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-1956)- led by
Martin Luther King Jr.
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*Martin Luther King Jr.- 27 years old, pastor of
Dexter Ave. Baptist Church- born to prosperous Atlanta
family.
advocated *non-violent protest (influenced by Gandhi)
Eisenhower & Civil Rights
Reluctant to promote integration (co-mingling of
the races).
 Failed to use his popularity to push civil rights
1. **1957-Little Rock Nine
 Gov. Orval Faubus used National Guard to block
admittance of 9 African-American children to Little
Rock Central High School- a state thwarting
FEDERAL LAW!
 Eisenhower sent troops to escort the 9 children to
class.
2. Civil Rights Act 1957- 1st civil rights act since
Reconstruction; set up Civil Rights Commission to
investigate abuses & authorized federal
government to issue injunctions to protect voting
rights

Little Rock Nine
101st Airborne escorting “Little Rock Nine”
The Sit-In Movement
1957- Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)founded by MLK ; mobilized black churches.
*AP writers know that you know MLK –know he headed SCLC
The Sit-In Movement
 Feb. 1960- Greensboro ,NC: 4 black freshmen from NC ATT
demanded service at Woolworth’s lunch counter-black
waitress refused service.
 Next day-19 students returned to Woolworth’s
 Next Day= 85 students= end of week =1000 students
**inspired other students across the south to conduct sit-ins,
pray-ins,
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
 Organized April 1960
 Often were at odds with SCLC
Greensboro Sit-In-beginning of a nationwide sit-in movement
Eisenhower’s Domestic Agenda
1.
*“dynamic conservatism”- “in all things that deal
with people-be human…when it comes to people’s
money, or the economy…be conservative”.
2.
Worried about “creeping socialism”Cut back on Truman’s military spending (MOVED
FROM 13%-10% of GNP)
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Control of off-shore oil from federal government
to states
Tried to curb power of TVA
Eisenhower’s Domestic Agenda

Operation “Wetback”- deported about 1
million illegal Mexicans.
**Termination Policy
 Cancelled FDR’s “Indian New Deal” &
“terminated” Indian tribes as legal
entities=goal is assimilation (Dawes Act
1887)
Legitimatization of New Deal Programs
 Eisenhower knew that all New Deal
Programs could not be scaled back
***The Interstate Highway Act-1956
$27 Billion to build 42,000 miles of
interstate highway
Effects:
1. Created construction jobs
2. Sped up suburbanization of America
3. Increased growth of trucking, auto oil,
travel businesses.
 Hurt RR
 Hurt air quality
 Crated energy consumption issues we
still deal with today
 Deteriorating cities

Eisenhower’s Foreign Policy
A. *“new look”- “containment” –negative, futile, immoral–
wanted to “roll back” communist gains & liberate.

Promised to cut military spending & balance budget

Promoted by Eisenhower & Sec. of State John Foster
Dulles
1.
Cut spending on conventional troops (army & navy)– spent
more on super bombers (B-52’s)
2.
build up of nuclear weapons= cheaper than conventional=
“more bang for the buck”
B.
**“massive retaliation”- with increased strength of
Strategic Air Command.
C.
Negotiations with new Soviet leader (Nikita Khrushchev1953)
•
The Hungarian Uprising (1956) showed limits
of massive retaliation as a threat to the Soviets
Vietnam
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1950’s –Western Europe was mostly secure from
communist threat (NATO, MARSHALL PLAN)
Vietnam (French Indo-China)
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Nationalists had wanted independence from
French colonial rule for decades
1919- Ho Chi Minh tried to appeal at Post WWI
Paris Conference to Wilson-no success
Post WWII-Indochina turned back over to French
control= faced resistance from HO CHI MINH &
Vietminh
1954- US supported French (to get French
support to rearm West Germany) with 80% of
costs ($1 billion/year) & about 150 military
“advisors” (starting with Truman).
The French leave Indochina

1954- Dienbienphu (French military stronghold)
attacked & taken by communist forces.
*The Geneva Conference (1954)
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•
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meeting of multiple nations
Agreed to divide Vietnam in half at the 17th parallel
Ho Chi Minh agreed= if Vietnam wide elections
would be held in the future
North Vietnam= Communist led by Ho Chi Minh
South Vietnam= “Democratic” led by Ngo Dinh
Diem (supported by the US)
Eisenhower & the Middle East
1.
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The Iranian Crisis (1953)- Iranian government
(backed by Soviets?) began to resist Western
owned oil companies operating on Iranian soil.
1953- CIA- engineered a coup (overthrow) of the
Iranian government.
US placed the shah of Iran (Mohammed Reza
Pahlevi) in charge.
Iranian resentment= 26 years later the shah is
overthrown & Iranian’s take US embassy workers
hostage for 444 days (CARTER PRESDIENCY)
Eisenhower & the Suez Crisis
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Egyptian leader Gamal Nasser (plays the US &
Soviets against each other)
Nasser wanted to build a dam (US & Britain
reluctantly agreed support $)
Nasser started flirt with Soviets= US withdrew
support for the dam.
Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal (owned by
British & French companies)
Britain & France carried out an attack on Egypt
(Oct. 1956)
Soviets threaten nuclear attack on Paris & London
US did not support French or British (why??)
Troops evacuated Egypt
UN “POLICE FORCE” sent to Egypt (1st time)
Last time US could use oil as a weapon
*The Eisenhower Doctrine
1940- US produced 2/3 of world’s oil (5%
from Middle East)
 1948- US was a net importer of oil
(Middle East)
 *Eisenhower Doctrine (1957)- pledged
US military & economic aid to Middle
Eastern nations threatened by
communism.
 1960- OPEC (Oil Producing Exporting
Countries) formed (Saudis, Iran, Iraq,
Kuwait, Venezuela)
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**The Space Race
1956- Eisenhower re-elected= lost control of
Congress.
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Oct. 1957- Soviets launch *“Sputnik” -184 lbs.
ball that beeped.
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Nov. 1957- launched “Sputnik II”- 1,120 lbs.
carrying a dog into space.
Effect- fear in the US!
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Soviets with “ICBM’S” could place a warhead on
one & hit the US
1.
US created NASA- to compete against the
Soviets= 1958 US launched its 1st satellite.
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By late 1950’s US had tested its own ICBM’s
2. 1958- (NDEA) *National Defense &
Education Act- $887 million on math & science
education & loans for college.
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Sputnik I
“Laika” 1ST ANIMAL
IN SPACE-Sputnik II
Eisenhower & Khrushchev
Goal- discuss “détente”- easing of tensions, arms
limitations, testing restrictions.
 March 1958- Soviets & US announce a halt to
underground & atmospheric atomic testing.
 1959- Eisenhower & Khrushchev met in NY;
Khrushchev appeared before the UN general
assembly – proposed disarmament
 CAMP David- Khrushchev demands evacuation of
Berlin
Paris Summit (MAY 1960)
 Eisenhower & Khrushchev met
 US spy plane (U-2) shot down (pilot survived-Gary
Powers)
 Ike denied at first-then admitted to it
 Later Powers was released
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The Cuban Revolution
Latin Americans resented US aid to Europe
 1954- CIA directed coup in Guatemala
 US supported dictators in Latin America
Cuba
 1930’s-1960- US supported Cuban dictator Fulgencio
Batista
 Encouraged US investment
 1959- Fidel Castro ousted Batista & denounced the US=
NATIONALIZED US businesses & redistributed property.
 US cut off imports of Cuban sugar
 Castro aligned Cuba with the Soviet Union= threat 90 miles
off US coast!!
 1960-2000- almost 1 million Cubans escaped communist
Cuba & came to the US
 1961- US broke diplomatic relations with Cuba
 Soviets declare Monroe Doctrine dead-threatened nuclear
attack for US INTERVENTION.

Eisenhower’s Legacy
Limited to 2 terms by 22nd Amendment
(1951)
 universally admired & respected
 Cemented some New Deal policies
 Failure: to address civil rights
 Alaska & Hawaii added as US states
 Prosperity & real income increase
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Election of 1960
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1.
2.
3.
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Democrats-nominate John F. Kennedy/Lyndon
Johnson
Republicans-nominate Richard Nixon
Campaign Issues:
Kennedy accused Republicans of falling behind
the Soviets= “missile gap”
Kennedy & Nixon called themselves “Cold
Warriors”
Kennedy's Catholicism- many Americans still
hesitant about electing a Catholic to the WH.
Kennedy allayed many fears in a
speech=northern dems gravitated to Kennedy in
big numbers.
The Nixon-Kennedy Debates
Both candidates agreed to a series of 4
debates
 audiences of 60 million or more watched
 Kennedy held his own against the
seasoned Nixon
 1st Debate was a clincher- Kennedy
appeared to be more relaxed & confident
 JFK won by 100,000 popular votes (303219)
 **1st Catholic elected President
(youngest man elected)-workers,
Catholics, AA
 Democrats swept both houses of Congress
 Called Americans to a “New Frontier”
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Election of 1960 TV Campaign ADS
Literature- ‘Realism”- “Psychedelic
Prose
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Hemingway, Steinbeck, Mailer gave way to :
Searing Realism gave way to fantastic & psychedelic
prose
1961- Joseph Heller- Catch 22- antics & anguish of WWII
Mediterranean among US airmen.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. – Slaughterhouse Five (1969)- dark,
comedy war tale.
New Mobility & Affluence created dilemmas
*John Updike- “Rabbit, Run” 1960
John Cheever- “The Wapshot Chronicle” (1957)
Playwrights- Tennessee Williams & Arthur Miller
Disintegrating forces of modern American life &
search for values
Jewish Authors: J.D. Salinger : A Catcher In the Rye ; E.L.
Doctorow
Black Authors- Richard Wright- “Native Son”
Ralph Ellison- “Invisible Man”
The Beats
 Poets
/writes disillusioned with
materialism, conformity &
“establishment” of Eisenhower era
 AP TIP: Most similar to the 1920’s
“lost generation poets”
 * Jack Kerouac- “On the Road”
 * Allen Ginsberg- “Howl”