Identifications
Earl Warren Warren was Chief Justice and the former governor of California. He brought originally taboo social issues, such as civil rights to African Americans, to the attention of Congress and the country, although his civil rights record is scant.
Rosa Parks Parks was a seamstress and a secretary for the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP and is known as the "mother of the civil rights movement." In December of 1955, Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus to a white rider. She was jailed and fined $14 for the offense. This led to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Montgomery bus boycott.
Ho Chi Minh Ho was the Vietnamese leader who believed in Asian nationalism and anti-colonialism in his country. He was trying to get rid of the French colonial rule in Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh's beliefs were discouraged by the Cold War and he became increasingly communist. He led the North Vietnamese against the U.S. and the South Vietnamese. He was the American enemy in Vietnam.
Ngo Dinh Diem Ngo Dinh Diem, a strong anti-communist, proclaimed South Vietnam a republic on Oct. 26, 1956 and became its first president. He was formerly the Premier of Vietnam. He was assassinated in a military coup d'etat.
Gamal Abdel Nasser Nasser was a hard-nosed Arab-nationalist president of Egypt during the Suez Canal crisis in 1956. He seized the Suez Canal from the English and French. England and France were willing to use force to get it back. The Soviets tried to interfere. Eisenhower made the Europeans back down when he put the Strategic Air Command on alert. Nikita Khruschev Khruschev was the premier of Russia during the race to get satellites into space between Russia and the United States. He used many propaganda techniques to try to fool the world of Russia's intentions. President's Eisenhower and Kennedy dealt with his communist tricks in Berlin and Cuba.
Fidel Castro Castro engineered a revolution in Cuba in 1959. He denounced the imperialists and took valuable American property for a land-distribution program. When the U.S. cut off U.S. imports of Cuban sugar, Castro took more U.S. land and, resulting from that, his dictatorship became similar to Stalin's in Russia—communism had appeared in the Western Hemisphere just as the “domino theory” had foretold.
Desegregation / integration These terms refer to the mixing of races. It started in 1948 when Truman integrated the Army, then in 1954 with the Brown v. Board of Education case. During the 1960's, integration of southern universities began. President Kennedy supported black's civil rights. Some desegregation was painless, but much of it resulted in violent campaigns and riots.
massive retaliation John Foster Dulles formulated this policy for Eisenhower. He was Eisenhower's Secretary of State in the 1950's. It stated that America would be willing to use nuclear weapons in full force against aggressor nations instead of "limited" warfare. This led to the stockpiling of nuclear weapons.
military-industrial complex During the Cold War, military funding increased tremendously and at the end of Eisenhower's administration he warned about forming a "military-industrial complex" in which industry received huge government contracts to build weaponry for the military.
Brown v. Board of Education This was the “desegregation of schools” case. The case was brought before the Supreme Court in May 1954 and the Court ruled that segregation of races in public schools was unconstitutional. The Brown case effectively overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, the “separate but equal” case of 1896. Although the case took place in 1954, integration didn’t really happen in public school until about 1970.
Geneva Conference The Geneva conference split the nation of Vietnam roughly in half along the seventeenth parallel and established a shaky peace in the nation of Laos. South East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) SEATO was introduced by Secretary Dulles as a prop for his shaky policy in Vietnam. It was intended to be similar to NATO, only in Southeast Asia rather than the North Atlantic.
Hungarian Revolt When the Hungarians tried to win their freedom from the Russian communist regime in 1956, they were crushed by Soviet tanks.
Suez Crisis When President Nasser of Egypt announced his intention to build a dam in the Suez to provide power and irrigation to Egypt, the United States offered its financial support, then withdrawing it when Nasser spoke with the communists on the subject. Nasser responded by nationalizing the Suez Canal, which was previously owned by British and French stockholders. This hurt Europe by crippling their oil supply, most of which came from the Persian Gulf. The French and British retaliated by striking Egypt, confident that the United States would supply them with the oil they needed while they fought with the Middle East. President Eisenhower refused to do so, however, forcing the allies to withdraw their troops. As a result, U.N. troops acted for the first time to maintain peace and order in the world. The Soviets tried to interfere. Eisenhower put the Strategic Air Command on alert to halt this.
Eisenhower Doctrine In 1957, Congress and the president pledged U.S. military and economic aid to Middle Eastern nations threatened by communist aggression. Under this Eisenhower Doctrine, the U.S. was able to openly land several thousand troops and help restore order
Sputnik This Russian satellite was the first satellite ever launched into space, in October of 1957. Sputnik began the "race for space" where Americans competed with the Russians to get farther into space. Also it caused American education to focus more on science and mathematics and less on the arts and humanities.
National Defense and Education Act — (NDEA) After the Russian satellite "Sputnik" was successfully launched, there was a critical comparison of the Russian to the American education system. The American education system was already seen as too easygoing. So in 1958, Congress made the NDEA, authorizing $887 million in loans to needy college students and in grants for the purpose of improving the teaching of the sciences and languages.
U-2 Incident This took place under Eisenhower’s administration just before the "summit conference" in Paris scheduled for May 1960. The American U-2 spy plane was shot down over Russia. Eisenhower was forced to step up and assume personal responsibility for the incident. Francis Gary Powers was the pilot who was captured by the Russians, but later returned. The incident kept Khrushchev from meeting with Eisenhower.
Guided Reading Questions
Affluence and Its Anxieties
Know: IBM, Information Age, Ozzie and Harriet, The Feminine Mystique
1. What was life like for women in the 1950's?
The economy boomed during the 50s with companies like IBM expanding and prospering. Women appeared more and more in the workplace, despite the stereotypical role of women as housewives on TV show like Ozzie and Harriet and Leave it to Beaver. The Feminine Mystique was a best seller and a classic of modern feminine protest literature. Betty Friedan was the godmother of the feminist movement.
Consumer Culture in the Fifties
Know: Diner's Club, McDonald's, Disneyland, Television, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Playboy, The Affluent Society
2. How was popular culture changing and reflecting America?
The first Diner’s Club cards, McDonalds’s, Disneyland, and an explosion of TV stations began to expand in the country. Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, and Fulton Sheen used TV to sell products and preach religion. Elvis Presley was a white singer of the new rock and roll who redefined popular music. Marilyn Monroe continued in the redefinition of the new sensuous sexuality.
The Advent of Eisenhower
Know: Adlai E. Stevenson, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Checkers Speech
3. Describe the 1952 presidential election.
Democrats chose Adlai Stevenson, the witty governor of Illinois while Republicans chose Dwight Eisenhower to run for president and anticommunist Richard Nixon to be his running mate. Nixon delivered his Checkers Speech where he denied wrongdoing and spoke of his family and specifically his daughter’s cute little cocker spaniel. Checkers. He was forgiven in the public arena and stayed on as VP. Eisenhower won easily and flew to Korea to help move along peace negotiations, but failed. In Korea, 54,000 Americans had died, tens of billions of dollars had been wasted, but Americans took little comfort in knowing that communism had been contained.
The Rise and Fall of Joseph McCarthy
Know: Joseph McCarthy
4. Joseph McCarthy may have been more dangerous to our form of government than any communists who might have been in the country. Explain.
Joseph McCarthy charged that there were scores of unknown communists in the State Department. He couldn’t prove it and many Americans began to fear the red chase was going too far. After his acts, he charged that Dean Acheson was knowingly employing 205 Communist Party members and ruthlessly sought to persecute and prosecute suspected communists.
Desegregating American Society
Know: Jim Crow Laws, Emmett Till, Jackie Robinson, NAACP, Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, Montgomery Bus Boycott, Martin Luther King Jr.
5. What conditions in the South brought about the beginnings of the Civil Rights movement?
Jim Crow Laws segregated every aspect of society, from schools to restrooms to restaurants and beyond. Only about 20% of the eligible blacks could vote, due to intimidation, discrimination, poll taxes, and other schemes meant to keep black suffrage down. Jackie Robinson cracked the racial barrier by signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers. However, the NAACP and the case of Sweatt v. Painter , where Supreme Court ruled that separate professional schools for blacks failed to meet the test of equality. Rosa Parks refused to give up a bus seat in the whites’ only section, and pacifist leaders like MLK Jr. who believed in peaceful methods of civil rights protests, began the civil rights movement.
Seeds of the Civil Rights Revolution
Know: Earl Warren, Brown v. Board of Education, All Deliberate Speed, Little Rock Central High School, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Sit-ins, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee
6. Why was Brown v. Board of Education a landmark case?
Earl Warren, an appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, shocked his conservative backers by actively assailing black injustice and ruling in favor of blacks. The Brown v. Board of Education reversed the ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson when the Brown case said that separate but equal facilities were actually unequal. Schools were ordered to be integrated. The Declaration of Constitutional Principles that promised not to desegregate and physically prevented blacks to integrate. Ten years after, fewer than 2% of eligible black students sat in the same classrooms as whites.
Makers of America: The Great African-American Migration
7. Why did African Americans move north and west in the 1930's and 40's?
During the war, jobs were needed in factories in the South. White workers were hired on the spot, but blacks were commonly denied. Business owners in the South would even import white workers from the North and West instead of hiring skilled black workers.
Eisenhower Republicanism at Home
Know: Dynamic Conservatism, Creeping Socialism, Interstate Highway Act, AFL-CIO
8. Did Eisenhower live up to his philosophy of dynamic conservatism?
Yes, his dynamic conservatism stated that he would be liberal with people, but conservative with money. He decreased government spending by decreasing military spending and trying to curb the TVA by setting up a private company to take its place. Eisenhower kept many of the New Deal programs, like Social Security and unemployment insurance, simply had to stay in the public’s mind. However, he did do some of the New Deal programs better, such as his backing of the Interstate Highway Act, which built 42,000 miles of interstate freeways. Also, the Af of L merged with the CIO to end 20 years of bitter division.
A “New Look” in Foreign Policy
Know: John Foster Dulles, Strategic Air Command, Massive Retaliation, Military-industrial Complex
9. Was Eisenhower's policy of massive retaliation effective? Explain.
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles stated that the policy of containment was not enough and that the US was going to push back communism and liberate the people under it. It became known as the rollback. The Strategic Air Command could drop massive nuclear bombs in any retaliation. Eisenhower tried to thaw the Cold War by appealing for peace to Nikita Khrushchev at the Geneva Conference, but he rejected the proposals, along with one for open skies.
The Vietnam Nightmare
Know: Ho Chi Minh, Dienbienphu, Ngo Dinh Diem, Southeast Asia Treaty Organization
10. How did the United States get involved in Vietnam?
Ho Chi Mink had tried to encourage Woodrow Wilson to help the Vietnamese against the French and gained some support from Wilson, but as Ho became more communist, the Us began to oppose him. When the French became trapped at Dienbienphu, Eisenhower’s aides wanted to bomb the Viet Minh guerilla forces, but Eisenhower held back, fearing the US would enter another Asian war after Korea. Vietnam was then split at the 17th parallel. Dienbienphu marked the start of American interest in Vietnam. Secretary Dulles created the SEATO to emulate the NATO, but it provided little help.
Cold War Crises in Europe and the Middle East
Know: Shah of Iran, Gamal Abdel Nasser, The Suez Crisis, Organization of Petroleum Exporting Country
11. Why was the U.S. concerned about problems in the Middle East?
The CIA, protecting the oil supplies in the Middle East, engineered a coup in Iran that installed the youthful shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi, as ruler of the nation, in order to protect the oil for the time being, but earned the wrath of Arabs. The Suez crisis was messier. President Nasser needed money to build a dam in the upper Nile and flirted openly with the Soviet side and also the US and Britain. Thus, Dalles withdrew his offer, forcing Nasser to nationalize the dam. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, and Venezuela joined to form the cartel Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Round Two for "Ike"
Know: Teamsters, Jimmy Hoffa, Landrum-Griffin Act, , Missile Gap, National Defense and Education Act
12. What labor problems became evident during Eisenhower's second term?
Sherman Adams was forced to leave under a cloud of scandal due to bribery charges. Eisenhower was without his two most trusted and helpful aides and was forced to govern more. Dave Beck was sent to prison for embezzlement and his successor James R Hoffa’s appointment got the Teamsters expelled out of the AF of L CIO. The Landrum-Griffin Act was designed to bring labor leaders to book for financial shenanigans and prevent bullying tactics. The National Defense and Education Act gave $887 million in loads to needy college students and grants for the improvement of schools.
The Continuing Cold War
Know: U-2 Spy Plane
13. Describe efforts at disarmament during the Eisenhower administration.
Khrushchev was invited by Ike to America to talk, but when he arrived in New York, he immediately spoke of disarmament, but gave no means of how to do it. Later, at Camp David, he said that his ultimatum for the evacuation of Berlin would be extended indefinitely. At the Paris Conference, he came in angry that the US had flown a U2 spy plane over Soviet territory. The plane had been shot down and Eisenhower took responsibility and tensions tightened again.
Cuba's Castroism Spells Communism
Know: Fulgencio Batista, Fidel Castro
14. Why was revolution in Cuba such a concern to America?
Latin American nations resented the Us’ giving of billions of dollars to Europe compared to millions to Latin America. Fidel Castro overthrew US supported Fulgencio Batista, promptly denouncing Yankee imperialists, and began to take US properties for a land distribution program. Castro confiscated more and more American property. America then broke relations with them.
Kennedy Challenges Nixon for the Presidency
Know: Richard Nixon, Kitchen Debate, John Kennedy, New Frontier
15. Was Nixon a good presidential candidate in 1960?
Yes, he was a gifted party leader to some, while a ruthless opportunist to others. He chose Henry Cabot Lodge Jr as his running mate while JFK chose Lyndon B Johnson as his. Kennedy was attacked because he was catholic but he used his religion to earn him some votes. The use of television actually helped JFK become elected because of his charismatic look.
An Old General Fades Away
Know: Alaska, Hawaii
16. Evaluate Eisenhower's presidency.
Eisenhower was praised for ending one war and keeping the US out of others. He displayed vigor and controlled Congress during his second term more than his first. But, his greatest weakness was his ignorance of social problems of the time, preferring to smile instead of deal with them, even though he wasn’t a bigot.
The Life of the Mind in Postwar America
Know: Catch-22, Arthur Miller, Catcher in the Rye, George Orwell
17. What do the books and plays of the post-war period say about the times in which they were produced?
Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.’s Slaughterhouse-Five crackled with fantastic and psychedelic prose, satirizing the suffering of the war. Authors and books that explored problems created by the new mobility and affluence of American searched for American values, as were Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and The Crucible. Books by black authors such as Richard Wright (Black Boy), Ralph Ellison (Invisible Man), and James Baldwin made best-seller’s lists; Black playwrights like LeRoi Jones made powerful plays (The Dutchman). The South had literary artists like William Faulkner (The Sound and the Fury, Light in August), Walker Percy, and Eudora Welty. Jewish authors also had famous books, such as J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye.
Earl Warren Warren was Chief Justice and the former governor of California. He brought originally taboo social issues, such as civil rights to African Americans, to the attention of Congress and the country, although his civil rights record is scant.
Rosa Parks Parks was a seamstress and a secretary for the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP and is known as the "mother of the civil rights movement." In December of 1955, Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus to a white rider. She was jailed and fined $14 for the offense. This led to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Montgomery bus boycott.
Ho Chi Minh Ho was the Vietnamese leader who believed in Asian nationalism and anti-colonialism in his country. He was trying to get rid of the French colonial rule in Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh's beliefs were discouraged by the Cold War and he became increasingly communist. He led the North Vietnamese against the U.S. and the South Vietnamese. He was the American enemy in Vietnam.
Ngo Dinh Diem Ngo Dinh Diem, a strong anti-communist, proclaimed South Vietnam a republic on Oct. 26, 1956 and became its first president. He was formerly the Premier of Vietnam. He was assassinated in a military coup d'etat.
Gamal Abdel Nasser Nasser was a hard-nosed Arab-nationalist president of Egypt during the Suez Canal crisis in 1956. He seized the Suez Canal from the English and French. England and France were willing to use force to get it back. The Soviets tried to interfere. Eisenhower made the Europeans back down when he put the Strategic Air Command on alert. Nikita Khruschev Khruschev was the premier of Russia during the race to get satellites into space between Russia and the United States. He used many propaganda techniques to try to fool the world of Russia's intentions. President's Eisenhower and Kennedy dealt with his communist tricks in Berlin and Cuba.
Fidel Castro Castro engineered a revolution in Cuba in 1959. He denounced the imperialists and took valuable American property for a land-distribution program. When the U.S. cut off U.S. imports of Cuban sugar, Castro took more U.S. land and, resulting from that, his dictatorship became similar to Stalin's in Russia—communism had appeared in the Western Hemisphere just as the “domino theory” had foretold.
Desegregation / integration These terms refer to the mixing of races. It started in 1948 when Truman integrated the Army, then in 1954 with the Brown v. Board of Education case. During the 1960's, integration of southern universities began. President Kennedy supported black's civil rights. Some desegregation was painless, but much of it resulted in violent campaigns and riots.
massive retaliation John Foster Dulles formulated this policy for Eisenhower. He was Eisenhower's Secretary of State in the 1950's. It stated that America would be willing to use nuclear weapons in full force against aggressor nations instead of "limited" warfare. This led to the stockpiling of nuclear weapons.
military-industrial complex During the Cold War, military funding increased tremendously and at the end of Eisenhower's administration he warned about forming a "military-industrial complex" in which industry received huge government contracts to build weaponry for the military.
Brown v. Board of Education This was the “desegregation of schools” case. The case was brought before the Supreme Court in May 1954 and the Court ruled that segregation of races in public schools was unconstitutional. The Brown case effectively overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, the “separate but equal” case of 1896. Although the case took place in 1954, integration didn’t really happen in public school until about 1970.
Geneva Conference The Geneva conference split the nation of Vietnam roughly in half along the seventeenth parallel and established a shaky peace in the nation of Laos. South East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) SEATO was introduced by Secretary Dulles as a prop for his shaky policy in Vietnam. It was intended to be similar to NATO, only in Southeast Asia rather than the North Atlantic.
Hungarian Revolt When the Hungarians tried to win their freedom from the Russian communist regime in 1956, they were crushed by Soviet tanks.
Suez Crisis When President Nasser of Egypt announced his intention to build a dam in the Suez to provide power and irrigation to Egypt, the United States offered its financial support, then withdrawing it when Nasser spoke with the communists on the subject. Nasser responded by nationalizing the Suez Canal, which was previously owned by British and French stockholders. This hurt Europe by crippling their oil supply, most of which came from the Persian Gulf. The French and British retaliated by striking Egypt, confident that the United States would supply them with the oil they needed while they fought with the Middle East. President Eisenhower refused to do so, however, forcing the allies to withdraw their troops. As a result, U.N. troops acted for the first time to maintain peace and order in the world. The Soviets tried to interfere. Eisenhower put the Strategic Air Command on alert to halt this.
Eisenhower Doctrine In 1957, Congress and the president pledged U.S. military and economic aid to Middle Eastern nations threatened by communist aggression. Under this Eisenhower Doctrine, the U.S. was able to openly land several thousand troops and help restore order
Sputnik This Russian satellite was the first satellite ever launched into space, in October of 1957. Sputnik began the "race for space" where Americans competed with the Russians to get farther into space. Also it caused American education to focus more on science and mathematics and less on the arts and humanities.
National Defense and Education Act — (NDEA) After the Russian satellite "Sputnik" was successfully launched, there was a critical comparison of the Russian to the American education system. The American education system was already seen as too easygoing. So in 1958, Congress made the NDEA, authorizing $887 million in loans to needy college students and in grants for the purpose of improving the teaching of the sciences and languages.
U-2 Incident This took place under Eisenhower’s administration just before the "summit conference" in Paris scheduled for May 1960. The American U-2 spy plane was shot down over Russia. Eisenhower was forced to step up and assume personal responsibility for the incident. Francis Gary Powers was the pilot who was captured by the Russians, but later returned. The incident kept Khrushchev from meeting with Eisenhower.
Guided Reading Questions
Affluence and Its Anxieties
Know: IBM, Information Age, Ozzie and Harriet, The Feminine Mystique
1. What was life like for women in the 1950's?
The economy boomed during the 50s with companies like IBM expanding and prospering. Women appeared more and more in the workplace, despite the stereotypical role of women as housewives on TV show like Ozzie and Harriet and Leave it to Beaver. The Feminine Mystique was a best seller and a classic of modern feminine protest literature. Betty Friedan was the godmother of the feminist movement.
Consumer Culture in the Fifties
Know: Diner's Club, McDonald's, Disneyland, Television, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Playboy, The Affluent Society
2. How was popular culture changing and reflecting America?
The first Diner’s Club cards, McDonalds’s, Disneyland, and an explosion of TV stations began to expand in the country. Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, and Fulton Sheen used TV to sell products and preach religion. Elvis Presley was a white singer of the new rock and roll who redefined popular music. Marilyn Monroe continued in the redefinition of the new sensuous sexuality.
The Advent of Eisenhower
Know: Adlai E. Stevenson, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Checkers Speech
3. Describe the 1952 presidential election.
Democrats chose Adlai Stevenson, the witty governor of Illinois while Republicans chose Dwight Eisenhower to run for president and anticommunist Richard Nixon to be his running mate. Nixon delivered his Checkers Speech where he denied wrongdoing and spoke of his family and specifically his daughter’s cute little cocker spaniel. Checkers. He was forgiven in the public arena and stayed on as VP. Eisenhower won easily and flew to Korea to help move along peace negotiations, but failed. In Korea, 54,000 Americans had died, tens of billions of dollars had been wasted, but Americans took little comfort in knowing that communism had been contained.
The Rise and Fall of Joseph McCarthy
Know: Joseph McCarthy
4. Joseph McCarthy may have been more dangerous to our form of government than any communists who might have been in the country. Explain.
Joseph McCarthy charged that there were scores of unknown communists in the State Department. He couldn’t prove it and many Americans began to fear the red chase was going too far. After his acts, he charged that Dean Acheson was knowingly employing 205 Communist Party members and ruthlessly sought to persecute and prosecute suspected communists.
Desegregating American Society
Know: Jim Crow Laws, Emmett Till, Jackie Robinson, NAACP, Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, Montgomery Bus Boycott, Martin Luther King Jr.
5. What conditions in the South brought about the beginnings of the Civil Rights movement?
Jim Crow Laws segregated every aspect of society, from schools to restrooms to restaurants and beyond. Only about 20% of the eligible blacks could vote, due to intimidation, discrimination, poll taxes, and other schemes meant to keep black suffrage down. Jackie Robinson cracked the racial barrier by signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers. However, the NAACP and the case of Sweatt v. Painter , where Supreme Court ruled that separate professional schools for blacks failed to meet the test of equality. Rosa Parks refused to give up a bus seat in the whites’ only section, and pacifist leaders like MLK Jr. who believed in peaceful methods of civil rights protests, began the civil rights movement.
Seeds of the Civil Rights Revolution
Know: Earl Warren, Brown v. Board of Education, All Deliberate Speed, Little Rock Central High School, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Sit-ins, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee
6. Why was Brown v. Board of Education a landmark case?
Earl Warren, an appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, shocked his conservative backers by actively assailing black injustice and ruling in favor of blacks. The Brown v. Board of Education reversed the ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson when the Brown case said that separate but equal facilities were actually unequal. Schools were ordered to be integrated. The Declaration of Constitutional Principles that promised not to desegregate and physically prevented blacks to integrate. Ten years after, fewer than 2% of eligible black students sat in the same classrooms as whites.
Makers of America: The Great African-American Migration
7. Why did African Americans move north and west in the 1930's and 40's?
During the war, jobs were needed in factories in the South. White workers were hired on the spot, but blacks were commonly denied. Business owners in the South would even import white workers from the North and West instead of hiring skilled black workers.
Eisenhower Republicanism at Home
Know: Dynamic Conservatism, Creeping Socialism, Interstate Highway Act, AFL-CIO
8. Did Eisenhower live up to his philosophy of dynamic conservatism?
Yes, his dynamic conservatism stated that he would be liberal with people, but conservative with money. He decreased government spending by decreasing military spending and trying to curb the TVA by setting up a private company to take its place. Eisenhower kept many of the New Deal programs, like Social Security and unemployment insurance, simply had to stay in the public’s mind. However, he did do some of the New Deal programs better, such as his backing of the Interstate Highway Act, which built 42,000 miles of interstate freeways. Also, the Af of L merged with the CIO to end 20 years of bitter division.
A “New Look” in Foreign Policy
Know: John Foster Dulles, Strategic Air Command, Massive Retaliation, Military-industrial Complex
9. Was Eisenhower's policy of massive retaliation effective? Explain.
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles stated that the policy of containment was not enough and that the US was going to push back communism and liberate the people under it. It became known as the rollback. The Strategic Air Command could drop massive nuclear bombs in any retaliation. Eisenhower tried to thaw the Cold War by appealing for peace to Nikita Khrushchev at the Geneva Conference, but he rejected the proposals, along with one for open skies.
The Vietnam Nightmare
Know: Ho Chi Minh, Dienbienphu, Ngo Dinh Diem, Southeast Asia Treaty Organization
10. How did the United States get involved in Vietnam?
Ho Chi Mink had tried to encourage Woodrow Wilson to help the Vietnamese against the French and gained some support from Wilson, but as Ho became more communist, the Us began to oppose him. When the French became trapped at Dienbienphu, Eisenhower’s aides wanted to bomb the Viet Minh guerilla forces, but Eisenhower held back, fearing the US would enter another Asian war after Korea. Vietnam was then split at the 17th parallel. Dienbienphu marked the start of American interest in Vietnam. Secretary Dulles created the SEATO to emulate the NATO, but it provided little help.
Cold War Crises in Europe and the Middle East
Know: Shah of Iran, Gamal Abdel Nasser, The Suez Crisis, Organization of Petroleum Exporting Country
11. Why was the U.S. concerned about problems in the Middle East?
The CIA, protecting the oil supplies in the Middle East, engineered a coup in Iran that installed the youthful shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi, as ruler of the nation, in order to protect the oil for the time being, but earned the wrath of Arabs. The Suez crisis was messier. President Nasser needed money to build a dam in the upper Nile and flirted openly with the Soviet side and also the US and Britain. Thus, Dalles withdrew his offer, forcing Nasser to nationalize the dam. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, and Venezuela joined to form the cartel Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Round Two for "Ike"
Know: Teamsters, Jimmy Hoffa, Landrum-Griffin Act, , Missile Gap, National Defense and Education Act
12. What labor problems became evident during Eisenhower's second term?
Sherman Adams was forced to leave under a cloud of scandal due to bribery charges. Eisenhower was without his two most trusted and helpful aides and was forced to govern more. Dave Beck was sent to prison for embezzlement and his successor James R Hoffa’s appointment got the Teamsters expelled out of the AF of L CIO. The Landrum-Griffin Act was designed to bring labor leaders to book for financial shenanigans and prevent bullying tactics. The National Defense and Education Act gave $887 million in loads to needy college students and grants for the improvement of schools.
The Continuing Cold War
Know: U-2 Spy Plane
13. Describe efforts at disarmament during the Eisenhower administration.
Khrushchev was invited by Ike to America to talk, but when he arrived in New York, he immediately spoke of disarmament, but gave no means of how to do it. Later, at Camp David, he said that his ultimatum for the evacuation of Berlin would be extended indefinitely. At the Paris Conference, he came in angry that the US had flown a U2 spy plane over Soviet territory. The plane had been shot down and Eisenhower took responsibility and tensions tightened again.
Cuba's Castroism Spells Communism
Know: Fulgencio Batista, Fidel Castro
14. Why was revolution in Cuba such a concern to America?
Latin American nations resented the Us’ giving of billions of dollars to Europe compared to millions to Latin America. Fidel Castro overthrew US supported Fulgencio Batista, promptly denouncing Yankee imperialists, and began to take US properties for a land distribution program. Castro confiscated more and more American property. America then broke relations with them.
Kennedy Challenges Nixon for the Presidency
Know: Richard Nixon, Kitchen Debate, John Kennedy, New Frontier
15. Was Nixon a good presidential candidate in 1960?
Yes, he was a gifted party leader to some, while a ruthless opportunist to others. He chose Henry Cabot Lodge Jr as his running mate while JFK chose Lyndon B Johnson as his. Kennedy was attacked because he was catholic but he used his religion to earn him some votes. The use of television actually helped JFK become elected because of his charismatic look.
An Old General Fades Away
Know: Alaska, Hawaii
16. Evaluate Eisenhower's presidency.
Eisenhower was praised for ending one war and keeping the US out of others. He displayed vigor and controlled Congress during his second term more than his first. But, his greatest weakness was his ignorance of social problems of the time, preferring to smile instead of deal with them, even though he wasn’t a bigot.
The Life of the Mind in Postwar America
Know: Catch-22, Arthur Miller, Catcher in the Rye, George Orwell
17. What do the books and plays of the post-war period say about the times in which they were produced?
Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.’s Slaughterhouse-Five crackled with fantastic and psychedelic prose, satirizing the suffering of the war. Authors and books that explored problems created by the new mobility and affluence of American searched for American values, as were Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and The Crucible. Books by black authors such as Richard Wright (Black Boy), Ralph Ellison (Invisible Man), and James Baldwin made best-seller’s lists; Black playwrights like LeRoi Jones made powerful plays (The Dutchman). The South had literary artists like William Faulkner (The Sound and the Fury, Light in August), Walker Percy, and Eudora Welty. Jewish authors also had famous books, such as J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye.