2. Facts about the 1950s
FACTS about this decade.  Population: 151,684,000 Unemployed: 3,288,000 Life expectancy: women 71.1, men Car Sales: 6,665,800 0  Average salary: $2,992 Labor force male/female: 5/2 Cost of a loaf of bread: $0.14 Bomb shelter plans, like the government pamphlet You Can Survive, become widely available

3. The Korean War 1950-1953 Korea was split North and South after WWII
Communist North Korea invades Capitalist South
UN and US send troops to South
US forces push N Korea back over the border, then forward toward China
China enters the war, pushes US back
War stalemates, ends as a stalemate
Never officially ends, result is Status Quo Ante-Bellum
US troops still on border
Example of Containment

5. Brown v. Board of Ed 1954
School system in Topeka, KS was segregated, Brown family sues to send child to “white” school
Decision overturns Plessy v. Ferguson (Separate but Equal)
Rules that school segregation is un-constitutional
Paves the way to strike down all segregation laws
Ike uses National Guard to enforce de-segregation

8. The Cold War in the 1950s Containment / Domino Theory still dominate
Development of H-Bombs
Kruschev replaces Stalin
Peaceful Co-existence?
US intervention in Guatemala\
Dien Bien Phu – Start of US involvement in Vietnam
Massive Retaliation Doctrine
Sputnik (1957)
Castro in Cuba

9. 1950s Culture TV Culture 90% saturation by 1960 Rock Music
Fueled by record sales / youth culture
Fashion
Jeans as rebel look
Poodle skirts
Cars
Big
Fast Food

12. Eisenhower (1953-1961) General – WWII D-Day Start of Arms Race
Interstate Highway system
Guatemala Interventions
Start of Vietnam
Brown v. Board of Ed.
Federal De-Segregation
New Youth Culture
Quote: “beware the rise of the military industrial complex”