Chapter 27: America at Midcentury 1952-1960

Note on Organization The following flashcards are characterized as follows = People = Congressional Acts/Executive Orders/Plans/Doctrines/Policy = Concepts = Supreme Court Cases = Organization/Group = Important Event

Dwight Eisenhower -Born Denison TX 1890, grew up Abilene Kansas, West Point, Directed North Africa & Western Europe invasions, 34th President 1953-1961; 8 millionaires & 1 plumber; reduce gov size, slash budget, promote hydroelectric & nuclear, turn over oil tidelands to states; image of passivity, truly ruthless; delegated authority, “reigned but did not rule,” defeated Democrat Adlai Stevenson

Martin Durkin -Union leader who headed the Labor Department; later resigned; the plumber in Eisenhower’s cabinet

Arthur Burns -Head of Council of Economic Advisers, only gov official other than secretary of state with weekly Ike appointments

William F. Buckley Jr. -Young conservative, recent Yale graduate, founded National Review 1955 & Christian Anti-Communist Crusade

Earl Warren -1953 Chief Justice, defended rights of persons accused of subversive beliefs, faced wrath of conservatives, Jencks v. United States, Yates v. United States, Brown v. Board Education of Topeka, Plessy v. Ferguson

Orval E. Faubus -Arkansas Governor, mobilize state’s National Guard to bar nine African Americans from entering Little Rock Central High School, claimed not good time; shut down Little Rock’s public high schools for 2 years

John Foster Dulles -Eisenhower’s secretary of state, “Dull, Duller, Dulles” holy war vs. atheism, unleash Jiang Jieshi, brinkmanship-never back down, pactomania-43 nations

Allen Dulles -Commander of CIA, OSS cloak-and-dagger operations veteran, brother of secretary of state

-Anticommunist, 1953 CIA helps him become president of the Philippines Ramon Magaysay -Anticommunist, 1953 CIA helps him become president of the Philippines

Ngo Dinh Diem -Anti-communist catholic, CIA installs him as president of South Vietnam, secret police/armed forces, block 1956 election to reunify Vietnam, mediator between ppl & heaven, alienated Buddhists, no land or corruption reforms

Gamal Abdel Nasser -1954 leader of Egypt, purchased arms from Czechoslovakia, recognized People’s Republic of China (US withdraws financing for Aswan dam), nationalized Britain’s Suez Canal

Fidel Castro -1959 overturned dictatorial regime in Cuba, confiscated American properties without compensation; 1st secretary of Cuban Communist Party http://americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/1688491?terms=Fidel+Castro

John Kenneth Galbraith -Economist, 1958 published The Affluent Society, study of postwar America, GNP increased 50%, demand consumer goods

David Riesman -Sociologist, 1950 The Lonely Crowd, new company people eager to follow peers not act independently

Rachel Carson -1962 Silent Spring, revealed fertilizers/herbicides/pesticides poisoned environment, former researcher for Fish & Wildlife Service, dramatized problems of insecticide DDT in food chain, death of songbirds; led many states to ban

Dr. Benjamin Spock -1946 Common Sense Book of Baby & Child Care, urge mothers not to work outside home, warm atmosphere, breast-feeding, more discussions less spanking, only Bible outsells

Billy Graham -Evangelist, religious salvation, aggressive anticommunism, supported McCarthyism, backed GOP demands to unleash Jiang’s troops, lash out at homosexuals & working wives

Michael Harrington -The Other America: Poverty in the United States (1962), poor cycle deprivation, can’t afford doctors, drop out school

Rosa Parks -Officer of Montgomery NAACP, Dec. 1, 1955, refused to get up so white man could sit on bus, sparked organized boycott

Southern Manifesto -1956, Over 100 congress members denounce Brown as abuse of judicial power, resorted to violence & economic reprisals; 1956 no black in school with whites in Deep South, few Upper

Civil Rights Act of 1957 -1st since Reconstruction, established a permanent commission on civil rights with broad investigatory powers, yet did not guarantee ballot to blacks; did not employ federal official to register African Americans to vote; under Eisenhower

Civil Rights Act of 1960 -Slightly strengthened provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1957; did not employ federal official to register African Americans to vote; under Eisenhower

Atoms for Peace Plan -Eisenhower proposes, both US & Soviets contribute fissionable materials to new UN agency for use in industrial projects; no Soviet response

The Eisenhower Doctrine -Proclamation that the US would send military aid and troops to any Middle Eastern nation threatened by Communist aggression; ex. 14,000 marines quell Muslim revolt in Lebanon

Voluntary Relocation Program -Provided Native Americans with moving costs, assistance in finding houses and jobs, living expenses until obtained work; part of termination of treaty relationships

National Defense Education Act -1958, passed after Sputnik, provided loans to students, teacher training funds, $ for instructional materials in sciences, math, languages

Dynamic Conservatism -Modern Republicanism; went along with Congress; extend social security 10 million, raise minimum wage, unemployment benefits, public housing to low income, Department of Health, Education & Welfare, St. Lawrence Seaway, freeways

New Conservatives -Radical right, Barry Goldwater, George Wallace, Ronald Reagan, criticized creeping socialism of Eisenhower, advocate traditional morals, condemn liberal Supreme Court

Pupil-Placement Laws -Permitted school boards to assign black and white children to different schools; Southern attempt to resist Brown decision, also deny state aid to desegregated schools

Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center -Rocky Mountain fortress where military crews scanned radar & satellite signals for signs of Soviet attack, 25 ton blast doors

Spirit of Geneva -1955 Eisenhower & Soviets meet, 1st East-West summit since WWII, talk of peaceful coexistence; no specific plan; Moscow suspended further atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons 1958, US does same

“New Look” -Defense program, more bang for buck, emphasize nuclear, reduce conventional forces, spurred soviets seek more rubble for the ruble; Republicans

Greenbrier Bunker -112,000 sq. ft. bunker 700 ft beneath Greenbrier resort in West Virginia; dormitories, restaurant, clinic, decontamination showers, legislative chambers

CIA Covert Action -1957 half personnel, 80% budget, foreign leaders on payroll, supporting political parties, subsidizing federal newspapers & labor unions

CIA Appeals to Thinkers to avoid Communism -intellectual conferences, jazz concerts, film rights Orwell’s 1984 & Animal Farm, subsidize Encounter magazine, college students

Domino Theory -Eisenhower warns that if Vietnam falls to Communists, then Thailand, Burma, Indonesia, & all of Asia would fall like dominos

Silicon Valley -Began with opening of Stanford Industrial Park 1951, apricot and cherry orchards gave way to industrial parks, Fairchild Semiconductor & Hewlett-Packard, traffic congestion, housing developments, smog, similar along Boston's Route 128

Executives -Replaced capitalists, rewarded in careers for “fitting in,” conformity and teamwork not creativity and individuality; David Riesman

Baby Boom Generation -76 million Americans born between 1946 & 1964, home construction, college enrollments, reinforce women at home

The Silent Generation -College students conservative, conformist, careerist, seek security above all, well-rounded

Television -Ownership soars to 9/10 homes by 1960, more than bathrooms, ABC/CBS/NBC gobble TV stations, sell advertising, TV Guide outsells other periodicals, TV dinner, Davy Crockett; McCarthy, Nixon’s “Checkers” speech, Kennedy; more national culture

Slum Clearance -By 1949, few units called for in the Housing Act had been built; 320,000 later constructed, urban removal of poor and colored, razed low-income, ex. Chavez Ravine for Dodger Stadium

El Barrio -Located in New York, by 1960 had larger Puerto Rican population than in San Juan; 1 million

Rock and Roll -Alan Freed starts craze in NY, Bill Haley, Rock Around the Clock, Elvis Presley; Dick Clark’s American Bandstand decade’s biggest TV hit, after 1955 The Blackboard Jungle parents see as devil music

Jencks v. United States -1957 Supreme Court rules accused has right to inspect government files used by the prosecution

Yates v. United States -1957 Justices overturn convictions of Communist party officials under Smith Act, difference between unlawful concrete acts & teaching revolutionary ideology; ended further prosecution of communists

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka -1954, declared segregation of public education unconstitutional, feelings of inferiority in status, violate = protection clause of 14th amendment, inherently unequal, combined lawsuits of 4 states and District of Columbia; Citizens Councils & KKK declare void

John Birch Society -Grass-root network, struggles vs. taxes, gun control, sex education in schools; denounced Eisenhower as agent of communist conspiracy, liberality = treason

Southeast Asia Treaty Organization -Created in 1954, military alliance patterned on NATO, implemented provisions of the Manila Pact & the Pacific Charter http://americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/253587?terms=southeast+asia+treaty+organization

National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam -1960 Insurgency backed by North Vietnam, opposed Diem, soon controlled half of South Vietnam

Southern Christian Leadership Conference -1975 Formed by Martin Luther King Jr. & colored ministers, nonviolent crusades against 2nd class citizenship, depend on domestics instead of leaders

Beats -Nonconformist writers, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, scorn materialism, romanticize outcasts, spontaneity

Mark I -1944 Developed by International Business Machines & Harvard, computer, decipher axis codes, 500 miles wiring

ENIAC -1st electronic computer, developed by US army to improve artillery accuracy, insects attracted to heat/light, reduce processing time, operating instructions

Interstate Highway System -Eisenhower asks Congress $40 billion for 41,000 mile project, 90% financed by taxes, everybody except inner-city poor benefits, largest/most expensive public works scheme in American history, single project, superhighways, speed movement ppl/goods, tourism, construction, suburban, homogenize nation, railroads decline, urban decay, bulldozed minority

Decline of McCarthy -Accused army of harboring communist spies when aide no draft deferment, 1954 televised senate investigation, senate votes to censure; Loyalty Day 1955, teacher oaths, fund HUAC

Little Rock Incident -Sept. 1957, Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus prevent 9 African Americans from entering Little Rock Central High School; Eisenhower sees as national security liability; federalized Arkansas National Guard, 1st time since Reconstruction dispatch federal troops to protect blacks’ rights; strengthened determination of African Americans for desegregation

Distant Early Warning Line -After no Soviet response to Atoms for Peace Plan, across Aleutians & Alaska, 24 hr electronic defense system, alert of over the pole invasion

Operation Ajax -1953 CIA’s orchestrated coup to overthrow Iranian government; replace prime minister with Shah Reza Pahlavi; fear old pm might open oil fields to Soviets

Operation Pbsuccess -1954 CIA mercenaries overthrow Jacobo Guzman’s elected government in Guatemala; he had nationalized & redistributed United Fruit Company land

The Suez Crisis -Nasser nationalizes British-owned Suez Canal, Britain-France-Israel prepare attack 1956, Eisenhower forces withdrawal; swelled anti-western sentiment, US protector of western interests in Middle East, Eisenhower doctrine

Salk & Sabin Vaccines -April 1955 announcement, effective against poliomyelitis, afflicted drops to 5700 in 1958, raised American life expectancy

Operation Wetback -1953-1955 Under Eisenhower, deported 3 million undocumented immigrants, many Mexicans continued to cross border, (bracero program peaked in 1959)

Sputnik -Soviet Union launches 1st artificial satellite (Little Traveler), dashed American myth of tech superiority, missile gap, Sputnik II with dog, Flopnik, led to NASA & National Defense Education Act; $1.5 education spending, 3.6 million students