Lesson 2: The 1950’s The Dwight D. Eisenhower (“Ike”) Administration

1953-1961Politics of Anticommunism

I. Introduction

• Modern Republicanism = moderate Republicanism

• Dynamic/Progressive Conservatism: responding to Americans’ desire for stability

• Low-key, pragmatic non-ideological style of leadership

II. Eisenhower’s Dynamic Conservatism

Believing that traditional American values encompassed change and progress– Department of Health– Department of Education and Social Welfare– Interstate highway system: 41,000 miles of new

highways (largest public works project in American history)

A. Interstate Highway System• Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway Act of 1956:

Connecting major American cities…• Financed entirely by increased gasoline taxes (cost

more than the New Deal from 1933-1941!!)• Justified vis à vis conservative constituents as

needed escape routes in case of atomic bombImpact # 1• Lots and Lots of jobs…• Easier to vacation… Road trips…

• Disneyworld…•Made suburbs practical

Impact # 2 Migrating to the Sunbelt• Sunbelt States: states in the south and west• During the 1950’s Americans began to flock to

these statesAir ConditioningLots of Jobs in South• Oil, Space, and Defense Industries

• Permanent War EconomyAerospace, plastics, and electronicsHigh tech innovations resulted from military

spending•Passenger jets & Computers

• Major shift in political power

B. St Lawrence Seaway

• Revolutionized the American transportation system

• Opened the Great Lakes to ocean traffic• Financed through selling of bonds by the U.S.

Canadian Seaway Development Corporation

C. The Middle Road

Balance the Budget

Lower Taxes

End farm supports Keep Social

Legislation

End wage and price controls Federal Aid to

EducationFederal Support of Desegregation Rulings

• Declining religious sentiment• Sexual freedom• Civil Rights• NAACP (National Association for the

Advancement of Colored Peoples)• Brown v Board of Education 1954

+COMMUNISTS!!!

Conservatives under Ike concerned with:

III. Cold War Paranoia and the 2nd Red Scare

Civil Defense Poster

• People prepared by building bomb shelters in their homes

1. Bomb Shelters built

A. Fear of the Russians dropping the Atomic Bomb

Duck and Cover Drills2. Duck and Cover Drills in Schools: By-Product

of Hysteria

3. Media hype

feeding paranoia

B. Fear of not Keeping up with the Russians

•Space Race•1957 Sputnik•NASA•National Defense and Education Act

( spending on math and science)

C. Anti-communism legislation• Already Present under Truman• National Security Act 1947– Established the Department of Defense– Created the CIA

• McCarran Internal Security Act 1950• Passed over Truman’s Veto• Communist organizations must register with the government

• Loyalty Program• Truman issued an executive order for federal employees to

take a loyalty oath

D. HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee)

• Hollywood Ten: refused to answer questions

(5th Amendment)Blacklisted

•went after Hollywood writers and directors who were suspected of being Communists• Richard Nixon led the investigations

• Works for U.S. State Department• Instrumental in setting up the U.N.• Convicted 5 years for perjury (not treason)• Denounced by a former communist party

member

1. Alger Hiss Trial (1950)

2. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (1951)• Convicted of giving atomic secrets to the

Soviets• Convicted of Treason and Executed!!!• Guilt not proved until the 1990’s

Video: Alger Hiss and the RosenbergsVideo: Killed for Believing in Communism

3. McCarthyism• Junior Senator from Wisconsin claimed to have a list of Communists in the gov’t• Went after people he suspected of being

Communist• Made America even more paranoid•When accused the US Army, lost his

credibility•Eisenhower and others stayed out of his way

• Video: Better Dead than Red

-June 1949-

What is the Washington Post cartoonist portraying in his drawing?

Conclusion

A. Eisenhower’s 1950’s Legacy of Peace and Prosperity

“There is no alternative to peace.”– Great political acumen; knew that casualness inspired confidence– G.I. Bill enabled millions of vets to attend college, start businesses,

buy homes– Election of 1952: Ended first phase of post-war era, ending period of

Democratic Presidents in office (FDR, Truman)– Ike worked easily with the Democrat majority in Congress– Appointed Earl Warren to the Supreme Court who launched a judicial

revolution– Launched the National Defense Education Act which introduced the

radical precedent of the federal gov’t directly funding education– Reduced military spending and balanced the federal budget!

B. Eisenhower Legacy – a bitter taste– Middle of the road course, pleasing neither right-

wingers nor liberals– Accused by

liberals: failure to denounce McCarthy and racismconservatives: not repealing fair and new deals (Republicans in Congress blocked Health Care bill (=socialism)

– Left office warning countrymen of the growing influence of military-industrial complex over US society

– Anti-communism rhetoric silenced dissenters and weakened democratic liberalism

Video: Happy Daze 0 – 21’20

Homework

• Reading– Preface to Eisenhower in War and Peace by Jean

Edward Smith (see blog)– Why we fight Post-WWII (1 page)– McCarthyism Reading (2 pages)