The Eisenhower Era
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Lack of support for Truman; Dems nominated
Stevenson
Republicans: Eisenhower/Nixon (anticommunist)
“Checkers Speech”
 Emotional television speech
 Campaign funding
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Ike threatened to use nuclear weapons on
North Korea
July 1952 – armistice signed ending the war
Korea remained divided at the 38th parallel
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Anti Communist rhetoric
 Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
 Had largest affect on free speech
 Widely supported
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Accused Sec. of State Acheson of employing
205 Communists
 Proved to be false
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Attacked U.S. army
 Condemned by Senate for “conduct unbecoming
a member”
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In place from 1876-1965
Schools, public places and transportation
“Separate but Equal”
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Gunnar Myrdal
“All men are created
equal…”
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Sweatt vs. Painter 1950
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Ruled that separate back schools
Rosa Parks
 December 1955
 Montgomery, AL
 Refused to give up seat
 Yearlong boycott of buses
Segregation in public
schools was unequal
and unconstitutional
 Reversed Plessy V.
Ferguson
 “Declaration of
Constitutional
Principles”
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 Southern resistance to
ruling
Gov. Faubus (AK)
mobilized National
Guard to prevent Little
Rock 9 from entering
Central High School
 Eisenhower responded
by sending troops to
walk students in.
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Balance the budget
 1959 – largest
peacetime deficit
Guard America from
socialism
 Wanted to end
reservation system and
assimilate Native
Americans
 Support Interstate
Highway act of 1956
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Ended bracero
program
 Deported over 1
million Mexican
Americans
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Strategic Air Command
(SAC)
 Creation of
superbombers
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Geneva summit
conference 1955
 Peace talks rejected by
Nikita Khrushchev
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Move to throw French out of Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh, leader of Vietnam, becoming
Communistic
May 1954: French garrison trapped in
Dienbienphu
 Fell to the nationalists