Eisenhower’s 1950’s--- ELECTION OF 1952 – JAN. 1961 (DO NOT DO ELECTION OF 1960)
Topics and ideas for Spring Break Project:
POLITICS:
-Elections of 1952 & 1956
“I like Ike”
Richard Nixon’s (VP) Checkers speech on TV
Ike’s 40—20 second TV commercials
1st Inaugural Address, 1953
2nd Inaugural Address, 1957
Farewell Address, 1961****
John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State
Allen Dulles, CIA Director
1st full time “Press Secretary”
McCarthyism -2nd Red Scare
Interstate Highway Act, 1956
New—Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
The Communist Party U.S.A.
State and Local Governments Banning Books
MILITARY:
IN 1953:
-70,000 Ship Navy—more than all other nations in world combined
- 12 million men in Services—largest in World
- 115,000 planes—more than the rest of the world combined
- 1600 nuclear weapons by 1953 over 6,000 now (1961) thermonuclear H-bombs
added 2 per day on avg. in 8 years---(ICBM”S—SLBM’s-)
-Nuclear Submarines—USS Nautilus==Polaris nuclear missiles from subs
_age of Helicopters
“Operation Alert” simulated H-bomb attack on USA
Creation of Strategic Air Command
Ike “advised” to use Nukes 6 times—all against China
1954 Televised Hearings of Joseph McCarthy’s accusation that the US Army was full of Communists
COLD WAR:
“Chance For Peace Speech”
Stalin dies in 1953—Khrushchev becomes leader of USSR
End of Korean War, 1953
Formosa Doctrine- Quemoy & Matsu Incidents- almost nuke China
MASSIVE RETALIATION DOCTRINE
M.A.D.
DOMINO THEORY
French Indochinam-Vietnam—900 military advisors—1 billion in aid per year
Ho Chi Minh –communist leader of Vietnam—defeats French in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu
Geneva Conference 1955 spits Vietnam /North (communist)- South (Democratic) Ngo Dinh Diem
Promise of whole nation free elections violated**by USA/South
S.E.A.T.O—FORMED**
“OPEN SKIES” PROPOSAL—
SUEZ CRISIS, 1956 – ALMOST NUKE
EISENHOWER DOCTRINE
Operation Blue Bat—troops to Lebanon, 1958
U-2 spy plane shot down over USSR—Francis Gary Powers (pilot) trial in USSR—Ike’s denial
1960 Paris Summit—failure-- Khrushchev walks out because Eisenhower will not apologize for the U-2 incident.
Berlin Crisis, 1958 (wall will be built in 5-6 years)
“Atoms for Peace”
“New Look” foreign policy—Project Solarium—“roll back---not just “contain” communism
Operation Teapot
Failure of “massive retaliation doctrine” when Hungarian Revolution is crushed by the USSR in 1956
West Germany becomes part of NATO in 1955---in response, USSR groups “communist nations in eastern Europe into the “Warsaw Pact Nations” in 1956
Khrushchev comes to NYC in 1959---has “Kitchen Debates” with VP Richard Nixon
Cuban Revolution, 1959
Operation Peter Pan
FAMILY FALL OUT SHELTERS (BOMB SHELTERS) –LIFE MAGAZINE COVER STORY, 1959
CIA:
Operation Ajax—Iran- 1953
Operation Pbsuccess- Guatemala- 1954
Congo-(Leopoldville)
Bay of Pigs operation—planning
Science & Technology:
Boeing Co. –Seattle—1st jet passenger plane 707—passenger airline business explodes
Sputnik I & II (w/dog)
“Missile Gap”
U-2 High Altitude Spy plane
Military Industrial Complex Expands –Defense Industries
Television:
1946 6 stations—1956 442 stations
1951 7 million sets—1961-one for every person in USA
N.A.S.A.
Jonas Salk’s Polio vaccine distributed for free—“creeping socialism”
St. Lawrence Seaway completed
O.P.E.C- formed in 1960 –Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, Venezuela
Vanguard Missile Project
Werner Von Braun –N.A.S.A.
Gemini Space Program
National Defense and Education Act, 887$ million for science and language education---college loans begun***
Oppenheimer removed by Eisenhower from H-bomb project
1958 halts underground and atmospheric testing of Nukes
invention of Transistor—1948’---led to huge growth of ELECTRONICS INDUSTRY
Printed circuits on silicon wafers
Computers-IBM
“information Age”
Civil Rights:
Ike appoints new Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren---1 0f the 2 MOST SIGNIFICANT CHIEF JUSTICES IN AMERICAN HISTORY---BEGINS A PERIOD OF “JUDICIAL ACTIVISM” THAT RESHAPES AMERICAN SOCIETY***
Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas (grouped together several cases including one from South Carolina)*** 1954
“Declaration of Constitutional Principles”—Southern Congressmen’s Manifesto****response to brown decision***
WHITE CITIZENS COUNCILS ARE CREATED IN MANY CITIES TO FIGHT INTEGRATION IN THE SOUTH
Emmett Till Murder, 1954
Montgomery Bus Boycott—rise of MLK jr.—Rosa Parks, 1955
MLK JR. ‘S 1ST MARCH ON DC—1957 --@ the Lincoln Memorial –Get out the vote rally—30,000
Highlander Folk School Training Site for Civil Rights Protestors
C.O.R.E. and James Farmer
Motown Records in Detroit – Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, The Impressions
Freedom Songs
John Coltraine and Jazz
Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, Nina Simone
State of Virginia –certain counties close public schools to avoid integration
Little Rock Central High School, 1957—Little Rock 9, OrvalFaubus, Governor of Arkansas calls out National Guard to prevent students from entering HS in violation of Brown----IKE sends 101st Airborne Division—US Military enters the South for the 1st time since Reconstruction*** and stays for entire year to escort students to school**** next year Gov. closes all public schools to avoid integration.
Thurgood Marshall, NAACP Legal Defense Fund
Operation Wetback, 1954
Native American “TERMINATION” POLICY
Eisenhower’s 1st inaugural address
Voting Rights in the South---Poll Taxes and Literacy Tests prevent Blacks from Registering
Civil Rights Acts of 1957 & 1960
Creation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference—with MLK Jr. as head***
Greensboro-North Carolina A&T student sit-ins, 1960
THE SIT-IN MOVEMENT –STUDENTS TAKE DIRECT ACTION
Ella Baker from SCLC---meets with Students from across the South at Shaw University in Raleigh North Carolina and they form the Student non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC-“snick”) led by students John Lewis (now a congressman from Georgia) and Diane Nash
USA In General:
Mafia controls Labor Unions—Congressional Hearings of Dave Beck and Jimmy Hoffa
Post Industrial Era begins white collar workers outnumber blue collar workers for first time ever by 1956
Women in “pink-collar” jobs---
Stereotypes of Women’s Roles on TV---“Leave it to Beaver”
Rock & Roll “cross-over” music –a mix of African-American Rhythm and Blues and White Bluegrass etc… “Cool Jazz” – Miles Davis; Buddy Holly-Sam Cooke-Hank Williams Sr.- Jerry Lee Lewis—Chuck Berry –Little Richard—Frank Sinatra-Dean Martin
Sexual Revolution—Kinsey Reports---THE PILL (1960) –Playboy’s 1st issue, 1955
60% of Americans now Middle-Class--- largest ever %
Movies:
Attack of the 50ft Woman
Rebel Without a Cause
Wild Ones
Blackboard Jungle
James Dean
Marlon Brando
Grace Kelly
Cary Grant
TV shows: Ed Sullivan Show—I Love Lucy—Father Knows Best, Leave it to Beaver
1st Credit Card -1950 –“Diner’s Club”
1st MacDonald’s Drive-thru Restaurant, 1954
Disneyworld, 1955
TV advertising 10 Billion a year ---especially to baby boom teens etc—
Religion on TV---Billy Graham—Televangelist
Professional Sports leagues grow due to TV exposure***
In 1953:
USA largest petroleum producer in the world—more than the rest of the world combined
(this will change by 1961—we become a net oil importer—still produce a lot but our consumption goes up 4X in this decade alone**)
USA produces 1/3rd of grain in entire world
USA produces ½ of all cotton in world
90% of Natural Gas
½ of world’s manufactured goods
Alaska Statehood
Hawaii Statehood
Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge, 9 million acres set aside by IKE
Influential Authors/Artists:
Gunnar Myrdal—“An American Dilemma,” – race problem in America****
David Riesman—“The Lonely Crowd,” ---stability through conformity***
John Kenneth Galbraith—“The Affluent Society,” Harvard Economist---why if we are so rich there are 30% in poverty???
C. Wright Mills---“The Power Elite,”—“bible of “New Left”, SDS-Students for a Democratic Society****
Pete Seeger---Folk Music
Artists—Abstract Expressionism—Jackson Pollock, William DeKooning, Mans Hoffman, Mark Rothko, Edward Hopper
Psychedelic Prose: Kurt Vonnegut Jr. –“Slaughter House Five,”
Joseph Heller, “Catch-22,”
MLK jr- “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,”
Ralph Ellison—“The Invisible Man,”
Lorraine Hansberry—“A Raisin in the Sun,”
JD Salinger-“A Catcher in the Rye,” –“My parents would have two hemorrhages a piece if I tell you my whole goddam autobiography or anything,” The struggles of a good kid in a “seemingly” perfect world—if you do this right, your life will turn out perfect---Why can’t I be perfect or do it right---it must be me---Coming of Age in a postwar America
Rod Sterling’s TV Show—“Twilight Zone,”—fantasy fiction—Kafkaesque—each story with a moral and surprise ending***amazing stuff*** --
“There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.” Rod Sterling, 1959, Introduction to every episode-- THE SHOW GLORIFIED THE YOUNG—A GRADUAL EROSION OF CONFIDENCE IN THEIR ELDERS---THE SO CALLED “TRUTHS’—IN THE MORAL CODES—THE YOUNG SAW THROUGH THE “FAKE’ CONFORMIST “QUIET” COVER-UP OF REAL ISSUES—A MIRROR OF THE MIND CONTROLLING COMMUNIST “BIG BROTHER” SOCIETY—MANDATING CONFORMITY*
Arthur Miller-playwright—2 plays specifically---“The Crucible,” a criticism of the McCarthyistic “Witch Hunts” of the 2nd Red Scare & “Death of a Salesman,” a critique of “The American Dream,”—but also of conformity and materialism--- and how is it that you can work hard have dreams and NOT BE SUCCESSFUL—in an age when “seemingly” everyone is---at least that what you see, hear, and read--- IT MUST BE ME—
- “I saw the things that I love in this world. The work and the food and the time to sit and smoke. And I looked at the pen and I thought, what the hell am I grabbing this for? Why am I trying to become what I don’t want to be… when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am.” Willy Loman –“Death of a Salesman”
Two others are similar in their critique of the materialism and conformity of the 50’s:
Sloan Wilson—“The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit,” &
William Whyte—“The Organization Man”
Tennessee Williams – “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” –about the Mendacity (lies) of a Southern Family---and the complicated rules in Southern Jim Crow Society and Culture--- “Wouldn’t it be funny if that was true,” – I’m a rich man… I’m a mighty rich man… [but} a man can’t buy his life with it, he can’t buy it back.”
Beat Movement:
Protest against Conformity—The Establishment---Materialism—Racism---Nukism - The MAN—THE ADULTS THAT SHAPED A WORLD THAT WOULD EXPLODE DUE TO RIOTS AND NUCLEAR BOMBS---HOW IS THAT AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT TO DO???---Bohemian Hedonists—NYC (Greenwich Village) SF (City Lights Bookstore) “Cool Jazz” Miles Davis—similar to “lost generation” artists of 1920’s---Antebellum Utopian Communes focusing on transcendentalism—Walt Whitman---Thoreau—had communes—DRUGS TO EXPAND YOUR MIND--- Sexual Freedom ----BEATS BECOME HIPPIES IN THE 60’S---BUT ARE NOT POLITICAL---WHERE SOME OF THE “COUNTER-CULTURE ARE VERY POLITICAL IN THE 1960’S---SOME NOT—SOME SAYS WHO CARES
LED BY CURRENT AND FORMER COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LITERARY TALENTS *** ALLEN GINSBERG—“HOWL”—JACK KEROUAC—“ON THE ROAD,” WILLIAM BURROUGHS—“NAKED LUNCH”
“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving, hysterical, naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night....”
Allen Ginsberg-“Howl,” –Beat Poet