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Sunday, April 15, 2012

Dwight D. Eisenhower


Served as president from 1953-1961
Era: The Cold War

American Identity and Culture
Although the Cold War was during Eisenhower’s presidency, many remember it as the “happy days.” This is because Americans did not have to deal with a depression or war or even difficult issues like they did during the previous decades. The nation had a booming economy and Americans were reaping its benefits. Millions of families had access to television sets in their homes that presented viewers with situation comedies, westerns, quiz shows, and professional sports. This culture portrayed on television provided common content for a common language. Americans also embraced conformity as it was a small price to pay for a nice home in the suburbs, a new car, good schools for children, and a vacation.
Economic Transformations and Globalization
During Eisenhower’s presidency, Americans were fairly prosperous. The unemployment rate was generally low and the inflation rate was less than two percent. Old guard conservatives wanted Eisenhower to cut taxes, however he believed in balancing the budget. The personal incomes of wage earners also increased by forty five percent during this time period. On the other hand, not everyone shared in this prosperity. The South had almost half of the country’s poor. Poverty increased in northern cities due to the fact that African Americans left the South to find jobs in the north because they had lost their jobs to new farm machines.
Environment
A legacy of the Eisenhower years was the passage of the Interstate Highway Act of 1956, which authorized the construction of forty two thousand miles of interstate highways linking all the nation’s major cities together. It justified the new taxes on fuel, tires, and vehicles to improve national security. The immense public works project created jobs, promoted trucking industry, accelerated suburban growth, and contributed to conforming national culture. However, the emphasis on trucks, cars, and highways ended up hurting the railroads and ultimately the environment.
Politics and Citizenship
Eisenhower practiced what he called “Moderate Republicanism.” This was his method of preserving the market economy and individual freedom while also assuring the public that the government would provide assistance to those that needed it. He wanted to balance the budget after years of deficit spending. Not only that, he accepted most of the New Deal programs and even extended some of them. Eisenhower succeeded in extending the Social Security program to more citizens, raising the minimum wage, and building additional public housing. He helped farmers by initiating a soil-bank program which reduced farm production and increased farm income. Strangely, Eisenhower opposed ideas on federal health care insurance and federal aid to education.
Slavery and its legacies in North America
In the court case Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka which challenged the “separate but equal” ruling established in Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court ruled that separate was inherently unequal and instructed states to integrate. Therefore, segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Southern states resisted by temporarily closing schools. Even though Eisenhower disagreed with the court’s ruling, he had a duty to uphold it. As a result, he sent federal troops to a school in Little Rock, Arkansas to protect nine African American students who were attending an all-white school there.
War and Diplomacy
After he became president in 1953, Eisenhower agreed to an armistice that ended fighting in Korea. He only sent troops into battle on one other occasion. Spending on defense was high however because he was determined to wage the Cold War. He emphasized nuclear superiority to prevent the outbreak of war. This policy of massive retaliation became known as “brinkmanship.” Eisenhower also used covert action as a new conduct of foreign policy. For example, the CIA played a major role in 1953 by aiding in the overthrow of a government in Iran that tried to nationalize foreign oil companies.

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