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Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/

The Eisenhower Era

Introduction Against the backdrop of the Cold War, Americans dedicated themselves to building a

peaceful and prosperous society after the deprivation and instability of the Great

Depression and World War II. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the general who led the United

States to victory in Europe in 1945, proved to be the perfect president for the new era.

Lacking strong conservative positions, he steered a middle path between conservatism

and liberalism, and presided over a peacetime decade of economic growth and social

conformity. In foreign affairs, Eisenhower’s New Look policy simultaneously expanded

the nation’s nuclear arsenal and prevented the expansion of the defense budget for

conventional forces.

WE LIKE IKE After Harry Truman declined to run again for the presidency, the election of 1952

emerged as a contest between the Democratic nominee, Illinois governor Adlai

Stevenson, and Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had directed American forces in

Europe during World War II. Eisenhower campaigned largely on a promise to end the

war in Korea, a conflict the public had grown weary of fighting. He also vowed to fight

Communism both at home and abroad, a commitment he demonstrated by choosing as his

running mate Richard M. Nixon, a congressman who had made a name for himself by

pursuing Communists, notably former State Department employee and suspected Soviet

agent Alger Hiss.

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Figure 28.9 Dwight D. Eisenhower was the perfect presidential candidate in 1952. He had never before run for office or even cast a vote, and thus had no political record to be challenged or criticized.

In 1952, Eisenhower supporters enthusiastically proclaimed “We Like Ike,” and

Eisenhower defeated Stevenson by winning 54 percent of the popular vote and 87 percent

of the electoral vote. When he assumed office in 1953, Eisenhower employed a

leadership style he had developed during his years of military service. He was calm and

willing to delegate authority regarding domestic affairs to his cabinet members, allowing

him to focus his own efforts on foreign policy. Unlike many earlier presidents, such as

Harry Truman, Eisenhower was largely nonpartisan and consistently sought a middle

ground between liberalism and conservatism. He strove to balance the federal budget,

which appealed to conservative Republicans, but retained much of the New Deal and

even expanded Social Security. He maintained high levels of defense spending but, in his

farewell speech in 1961, warned about the growth of the military-industrial complex,

the matrix of relationships between officials in the Department of Defense and executives

in the defense industry who all benefited from increases in defense spending. He disliked

the tactics of Joseph McCarthy but did not oppose him directly, preferring to remain

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above the fray. He saw himself as a leader called upon to do his best for his country, not

as a politician engaged in a contest for advantage over rivals.

Figure 28.10 The above map shows the resounding victory of Dwight D. Eisenhower over Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 election. Stevenson carried only the South, where whites had voted for Democratic Party candidates since the time of the Civil War.

In keeping with his goal of a balanced budget, Eisenhower switched the emphasis in

defense from larger conventional forces to greater stockpiles of nuclear weapons. His

New Look strategy embraced nuclear “massive retaliation,” a plan for nuclear response

to a first Soviet strike so devastating that the attackers would not be able to respond.

Some labeled this approach “Mutually Assured Destruction” or MAD.

Part of preparing for a possible war with the Soviet Union was informing the American

public what to do in the event of a nuclear attack. The government provided instructions

for building and equipping bomb shelters in the basement or backyard, and some cities

constructed municipal shelters. Schools purchased dog tags to help identify students in

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the aftermath of an attack and showed children instructional films telling them what to do

if atomic bombs were dropped on the city where they lived.

Government and industry allocated enormous amounts of money to the research and

development of more powerful weapons. This investment generated rapid strides in

missile technology as well as increasingly sensitive radar. Computers that could react

more quickly than humans and thereby shoot down speeding missiles were also

investigated. Many scientists on both sides of the Cold War, including captured Germans

such as rocket engineer Werner von Braun, worked on these devices. An early success for

the West came in 1950, when Alan Turing, a British mathematician who had broken

Germany’s Enigma code during World War II, created a machine that mimicked human

thought. His discoveries led scientists to consider the possibility of developing true

artificial intelligence.

However, the United States often feared that the Soviets were making greater strides in

developing technology with potential military applications. This was especially true

following the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik the first manmade satellite, in October

1957. In September 1958, Congress passed the National Defense Education Act, which

pumped over $775 million into educational programs over four years, especially those

programs that focused on math and science. Congressional appropriations to the National

Science Foundation also increased by $100 million in a single year, from $34 million in

1958 to $134 million in 1959. One consequence of this increased funding was the growth

of science and engineering programs at American universities.

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Figure 28.11 The launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik frightened many in the United States, who feared that Soviet technology had surpassed their own. To calm these fears, Americans domesticated Sputnik, creating children’s games based on it and using its shape as a decorative motif.

In the diplomatic sphere, Eisenhower pushed Secretary of State John Foster Dulles to

take a firmer stance against the Soviets to reassure European allies of continued

American support. At the same time, keenly sensing that the stalemate in Korea had cost

Truman his popularity, Eisenhower worked to avoid being drawn into foreign wars. Thus,

when the French found themselves fighting Vietnamese Communists for control of

France’s former colony of Indochina, Eisenhower provided money but not troops.

Likewise, the United States took no steps when Hungary attempted to break away from

Soviet domination in 1956. The United States also refused to be drawn in when Great

Britain, France, and Israel invaded the Suez Canal Zone following Egypt’s

nationalization of the canal in 1956. Indeed, Eisenhower, wishing to avoid conflict with

the Soviet Union, threatened to impose economic sanctions on the invading countries if

they did not withdraw.

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Introduction
WE LIKE IKE