1953-1961 34th President Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower 1953-1961 34th President Republican

Background Information Born Texas 1890 3 of 7 sons Excelled in sports Graduated from West Point Supreme Allied Commander Europe (WW2) Planned and executed D-Day Five Star General His election ended Democrat rule for past 20 years

Decade of 1950’s Cold War hysteria and threat of nuclear destruction loomed over America (Second Red Scare) Containment war in South Korea Domestically (click each term to watch videos): post war prosperity, Levittown & suburbs, rock-n-roll, GI Bill of Rights Civil Rights Movement in high gear (Emmett Till, Rosa Parks, MLK Jr.)

Expansion of Federal Government Most lasting legacy: National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956. Cost $26 billion over 10 year period. 42,000 miles of interstate highways linking all the major cities. (used fed money to build highways in name of national defense) Click to watch  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPHe8ET33Hg Authorized the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) following the launching of Sputnik in 1957. Build missiles and explore space…win in the “space race”!

National Interstate Highway Act

Eisenhower & The Cold War Most of Eisenhower’s attention for both terms focused on foreign policy and international crises arising from Cold War John Foster Dulles: Sect. of State and major contributor to his foreign policy Critical of Truman’s “Policy of Containment” (too passive) Wanted the U.S. to push Communist powers to the “brink of war”. Believed they would back down because of our nuclear superiority. Policy known as “brinkmanship”

Third World Unrest Colonial Empires collapsed after WW2 1947-1962 dozens of colonies in Asia and Africa gained their independence (India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Ghana) Lacked stable political and economic institutions; looking for foreign aid—U.S. or Soviet Union.

Containment Challenges in Asia Korea (ended in 1953) Indochina (Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam). French lost control U.S. gave over 1 billion in economic and military aid to South Vietnam to stop communism from spreading (domino theory) SEATO: 8 nation defense pact to prevent the fall of communism in southeast Asia Great Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Thailand, Pakistan, U.S.

The Middle East Difficult balancing act of maintaining friendly ties with oil-rich Arab nations and the new, democratic state of Israel (1948) If either side (Arab nations vs Isreal) saw the United States as “favoring” the other, what might result?

Eisenhower Doctrine U.S. pledged economic and military aid to any Middle Eastern country threatened by communism U.S. replaced G.B. and France as the leading Western influence in the Middle East 1953: CIA overthrow of Iranian leader, Mossadegh, who was more favorable to allowing US oil companies to profit off their resources “675,000 barrels of oil a day cannot be ignored”

U-2 Incident Russians shot down a high-altitude U.S. spy plane over the Soviet Union Pilot Gary Powers captured by Soviets U.S. conducting regular spy flights over the Soviet territory to find out about their missile program Tensions once again grew!

Military Industrial Complex In his farewell speech to the nation, he warned against the powerful influence of what he called the “military industrial complex”. When war becomes a business, we will always have war.