Introduction to Eisenhower Years
In 1952 General Eisenhower was elected President on the Republican ticket. His victory over Governor Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois, the Democratic candidate, gave the nation the first Republican administration in 20 years. Richard M. Nixon of California became Vice President. In 1956 Eisenhower and Nixon were reelected.During his first campaign, Eisenhower had promised that he would go to Korea to seek means of speeding up negotiations for ending the fighting. He did so before his inauguration in January, 1953, but it was not until July that a truce—which brought victory to neither side—was signed.
The Domestic Scene
In spite of some recessions in business, in 1954, in 1957-58, and in 1960, the United States during the Eisenhower administration enjoyed a prosperity never known before. However, the danger of runaway inflation and the existence of unemployment were problems.
An outstanding event of the Eisenhower era was the unanimous decision by the Supreme Court in 1954 that racial segregation in public schools is illegal. This decision met with bitter opposition in much of the South. In 1957, President Eisenhower sent federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to support the right of black students to attend a formerly all-white high school. Gradual desegregation in the schools of several Southern states was begun, but the Deep South resisted. The emphasis on the civil rights of blacks was further reflected by the passage of federal civil rights bills in 1957 and 1960, the first since Reconstruction (1865-77). In 1960, blacks began to stage "sit-ins" at segregated lunch counters.
A controversy begun in 1950 by Senator Joseph McCarthy, who claimed that the federal government was Communist-influenced, continued into the Eisenhower administration. It died down after McCarthy was censured by a Senate committee in 1954.
The nation was shocked in 1957 when the Soviet Union became the first country to place an artificial satellite in orbit around the earth. This blow to American prestige was softened somewhat when the United States sent up its first satellite in 1958. Many others followed.
The Eisenhower administration stood for moderate conservatism and did not attempt to repeal basic New Deal measures. It proposed legislation extending social security coverage to millions of citizens not previously included; raising minimum wage levels; and providing some federal aid for education. The Labor Reform Act (1959) was designed to protect both union members and employers from corrupt union practices.The U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was created in 1953. Alaska and Hawaii became the 49th and 50th states, respectively, in 1959.
Alaska boundary dispute. The Alaska boundary dispute between Canada and the United States was settled in 1903 by a special commission. The dispute resulted from differing interpretations of an 1825 agreement. The agreement, made by Russia and the United Kingdom, ambiguously defined the border between Russian America (later Alaska) and northwestern Canada.Foreign Affairs
Under the Eisenhower administration the United States had two chief international aims: (1) to prevent the Cold War from becoming a full-scale shooting war and (2) to strengthen the non-Communist nations of the world.
At first, the administration's approach to the Cold War was mainly in terms of military strength. In 1954 the United States helped found the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). By a treaty with the Republic of China on Taiwan, the United States was pledged to defend Taiwan and certain nearby islands against attack by Communist China. By 1955 the United States negotiated and signed mutual security agreements that bound it to come to the defense of 44 countries. In 1957 Congress approved the Eisenhower Doctrine, pledging military assistance to Middle Eastern countries requesting it. The doctrine was put into effect in 1958 when United States marines and paratroopers landed in Lebanon.
Cold War tensions relaxed in 1955 when the leaders of the Big Four—Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States—met at Geneva, Switzerland. Also in that year, the four powers agreed to restore the independence of Austria and end their occupation of that country. In 1956, the United States condemned the Soviets' suppression of a revolt in Hungary, but joined with them in securing a cease-fire following the Anglo-French-Israeli invasion of Egypt. The United States and the Soviet Union held no nuclear tests during 1958-60. In 1959 Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev visited the United States and met with President Eisenhower.
In 1960, shortly before a scheduled meeting of the Big Four leaders at Paris, an American U-2 photo-reconnaissance plane was shot down over the Soviet Union. Demanding an end to American spy flights, Khrushchev refused to meet with Eisenhower and canceled a planned Presidential tour of the Soviet Union.