01:512:205 Lecture Notes - Lecture 38: Slush Fund, Checkers Speech, Solid South
18 May 2018
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Chapter 38: The Eisenhower Era, 1952-1960
The Advent of Eisenhower
• American people found themselves in the 1950s dug into the Cold War abroad
and dangerously divided at home over the explosive issues of communist
subversion and civil rights
• Democratic prospects in the president election of 1952 were blighted by the
military deadlock in Korea, Truman’s clash with MacArthur, war-bred inflation,
and whiffs of scandal
• Democrats nominated Adlai E. Stevenson (governor of Illinois) while the
Republicans enthusiastically chose General Dwight D. Eisenhower (and
paired him with Richard Nixon)
• Eisenhower was already the most popular American of his time (television
politics, credentials)
• Eisenhower left the rough campaigning to Nixon, but reports surfaced of a
secret slush fund that Nixon had tapped while in Senate and he made a
Checkers speech that saved him
• Nixon and Eisenhower both embraced the new technology of the black-and-
white television
• This new medium was a threat to the historic role of political parties (political
communication)
• Eisenhower cracked the solid South wide open and ensured GOP control of
the new Congress
“Ike” Takes Command
• Eisenhower visited Korea in December 1952 but could not budge the peace
negotiations; only after Eisenhower threatened to use atomic weapons seven
months later was an armistice finally signed but was repeatedly violated in the
succeeding decades
• The fighting lasted three years and about fifty-four thousand Americans died
and more than a million Asians were dead but only Korea remained divided at
the thirty-eighth parallel
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find more resources at oneclass.com
• Eisenhower had a leadership style that projected sincerity, fairness, and
optimism; his greatest asset was his enjoyment of the affection and respect of
the citizenry
•
• His immense popularity was used for a good cause (social harmony and civil
rights)
The Rise and Fall of Joseph McCarthy
• One of the first problems Eisenhower faced was the swelling popularity and
swaggering power of anticommunist crusader Senator Joseph R. McCarthy
who crashed into the limelight with the charge that scores of known
communists worked in the State Department (failed to prove)
• McCarthy’s Republican colleagues realized the usefulness of this kind of
attack on the Democratic administration; McCarthy saw the red hand of
Moscow everywhere
• McCarthy flourished in the Cold War atmosphere of suspicion and fear; he
was surely the most ruthless red-hunter and damaged the American traditions
of fair play and free speech
• The careers of countless officials, writers, and actors were ruined after he
named them
• Opinion polls showed that a majority of the American people approved of
McCarthy’s crusade
• Eisenhower, in effect, allowed him to control personnel policy at the State
Department
• McCarthy crossed the line by attacking the US army; soldiers fought back in
televised hearings and the Senate formally condemned him for conduct
unbecoming a member (McCarthyism)
Eisenhower Republicanism at Home
• General Eisenhower entered White House in 1953 pledging his administration
to a philosophy of dynamic conservatism—balance the federal budget and
guard the Republic from socialism
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find more resources at oneclass.com
• Eisenhower supported the transfer of control over offshore oil fields from the
federal gov’t to the states; he tired to curb the TVA by encouraging private
companies to compete
• In Operation Wetback, as many as 1 million Mexicans were apprehended and
returned to Mexico due to pressure from Mexican gov’t over illegal Mexican
immigration (braceros)
• Eisenhower sought to cancel the tribal preservation policies of Indian New
Deal—proposed to terminate the tribes as legal entities and revert to
assimilationist goals of the Dawes Act of 1887
• Eisenhower pragmatically accepted and legitimated many New Deal-like
programs
• Ike backed the Interstate Highway Act of 1956, a $27 billion plan to build
42,000 miles of highways; benefits to industries, exacerbated air quality, and
proved disastrous to cities
• Eisenhower balanced the budget only three times in his eight years in office
and in 1959 he incurred the biggest peacetime deficit in American history
(sharp downturn of 1957-1958 that left more than 5 million workers, economic
troubles helped the revive the Democrats)
A New Look in Foreign Policy
• Secretary of state John Foster Dulles promised not merely to stem the red tide
but to roll back its gains and liberate captive peoples (balance budget by
cutting military spending)
• Dulles and the policy of boldness in 1954—Eisenhower would relegate army
and navy to back seat and built up an air fleet of superbombers (massive
retaliation)
• Advantages thought to be paralyzing nuclear impact and its cheaper price tag
(Chinese)
• After Stalin’s death in 1953, the new Soviet premier, Khrushchev rejected
Ike’s proposals for peace at the Geneva summit conference in 1955 (open
skies proposal shot down)
• The new look in foreign policy proved illusory; in 1956 the Hungarians rose
up against their Soviet masters and appealed in vain to the US for aid, but
Moscow reasserted its domination
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Mccarthy"s crusade: eisenhower, in effect, allowed him to control personnel policy at the state. Department: mccarthy crossed the line by attacking the us army; soldiers fought back in televised hearings and the senate formally condemned him for (cid:1688)conduct unbecoming a member(cid:1689) ((cid:1688)mccarthyism(cid:1689)) In operation wetback, as many as 1 million mexicans were apprehended and returned to mexico due to pressure from mexican gov"t over illegal mexican immigration (braceros: eisenhower sought to cancel the tribal preservation policies of (cid:1688)indian new. Deal(cid:1689) proposed to terminate the tribes as legal entities and revert to assimilationist goals of the dawes act of 1887: eisenhower pragmatically accepted and legitimated many new deal-like programs. Ike backed the interstate highway act of 1956, a billion plan to build. French colonial war with indochina: french garrison stuck in dienbienphu in march 1954 and after the us held back, dienbienphu fell to the nationalists and conference at geneva halved.
