AMERICA AT M

IDCENTURY

1 9 5 2 – 1 9 6 3

THE EISENHOWER PRESIDENCY

DDE was the first 2-term Republican president since Grant, and he inspired confidence, “middle of the road” conservatism

He ran government in a business-like, cooperative manner, pursuing policies that helped private companies and allowed states and corporate interests guide domestic policy and the economy

Ike kept social security, and created the Departments of Health, Education and Welfare

Despite two small recessions, Ike presided over a modestly prosperous economy that saw an extensive increase in real wages

SUBSIDIZING PROSPERITY

The federal government helped subsidize this prosperity by providing loans for homes and assisting the growth of suburbs

The GI Bill of Rights gave educational grants to returning GI’s, low-interest mortgages, and business loans (roughly $50 billion insured loans by 1962)

The Federal Highway Act of 1956provided federal funding for the construction of an interstate highway system—the largest public works program in history (41,000 miles of highway by 1972!)

The National Defense Education Act of 1958 that gave $280 million in grants for state universities to upgrade their science facilities; $300 million in low-interest loans for college students, promoted teaching from elementary to university levels with incentives

The Soviet launching of Sputnik,directly led to the NationalDefense Education Act.

SUBURBAN LIFE

Suburban life helped to strengthen the domestic ideal of the nuclear family; and the suburban wife became the dominant figure in American culture—the model of efficiency, patience, and charm

Suburban middle-class life usually required two incomes; the expansion of female labor increased dramatically during the 50s; by 1960, 40% of women were employed

Rebirth of religious life coincided with the growth of suburban America; promoting conformity, and opposing social and political activism

ORGANIZED LABOR AND THE AFL-CIO

By the 1950s, trade unions reached a peak of membership and influence in the Democratic Party; the Republican sweep in the election of 1952 left unions without an ally in the White House

The AFL and CIO, though rivals, merged to protect and build on their recent gains; this merger marker the zenith of union membership

Though union membership declined after 1955, growth did take place in the public sector (government jobs: police, teachers, firefighters, and civil servants)

LONELY CROWDS AND ORGANIZATIONAL MEN

Sociologist David Riesman's study The Lonely Crowd argued that the new American was overly conforming, less individualistic, and more peer-oriented, taking cues from mass media

William H. Whyte’s Organizational Men argued that the old Protestant morals of hard work, thrift, and competitive struggle were now replaced with a strong sense of “belongingness as the ultimate need of the individual”

C. Wright Mills in his studies White Collar and The Power Elite that people sold not only their time and energy but their personalities; and that a small group of corporate executives, military men, and politicians dominated American society; facilitating the “Arms Race” creating a powerful military industrial complex (a term coined by President Eisenhower)

The era of “the men in gray flannel suits”

THE EXPANSION OF HIGHER EDUCATION

The postwar Baby Boom was paralleled by a tremendous expansion of higher education, assisted by the GI Bill and the National Defense Education Act

The shift from undergraduate education towards faculty research and graduate education was sparked by the government spending of defense projects

Colleges accepted the values of corporate culture as 20% of all graduates majored in business and other commercial fields—college was the ticket to a middle class lifestyle as more and more white-collar fields began requiring college degrees

HEALTH AND MEDICINE

New medicines, like antibiotics and new vaccines against diseases like polio allowed many Americans to live healthier lives (increased standard of living)

Doctor shortages meant that the poor and elderly, and those in rural areas, lacked access to these improvements

The AMA did nothing to increase the flow of new doctors, and the family doctor became extinct as more families went to large hospital complexes

Though both Truman and Eisenhower backed more government assistance for health care, the AMA discouraged any proposals for “socialized medicine” helping persuade Congress to block federal involvement in healthcare until the mid 1960s

YOUTH CULTURE

After WWII, the term “teenager” became commonplace in the American language

The 15 years following WWII saw this particular demographic became potent in population, purchasing power, and influence on society

The marketplace, schools, and mass media reinforced the notion of teenagers as a special, separate community

As consumers, the advertisers directed their attention to the youth market and helped to create a shared teenage American culture

ROCK ‘N’ ROLL

As television replaced radio as the dominant source of family entertainment, radio became a staple of teen usage as it became the dominant source of music

Car radios and small transistor radios became increasingly popular as music could now accompany other activities

Small independent record labels promoted black rhythm and blues artists, who had crossed over to young white audiences: Chess Records in Chicago had artists like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley

The more established companies offered “white-washed” cover versions of these songs that frequently outsold the originals

Alan Freed, a Cleveland disc jockey, promoted black artists and set the stage for the first major white “rock ‘n’ roll” artist, Elvis Presley

Elvis led the way for the white rockers, Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and the Everly Brothers

Chuck Berry was able to cross over to be the most influential black artist with his hits “Johnny B. Goode,” “Carol,” and well…a whole lot more; other black artists like Fats Domino and Little Richard were able to cross over and become household names as well

Buddy Holly“Not Fade Away” Elvis Presley

“Hound Dog” Jerry Lee Lewis“Great Balls of Fire”

Fats Domino“Ain’t That A Shame”

Chuck Berry“Maybellene”

ALMOST GROWN: DEVIANCE AND DELINQUENCYIronically, teenagers were torn between their identification with youth culture and

the desire to become adults as quickly as possible

Rock music conveyed this message by unleashing these youthful passions in “dangerous ways” as it was linked to juvenile delinquency

Films like Rebel Without a Cause and The Wild One, that showcased newcomers James Dean and Marlon Brando, highlighted the different reactions between youths and adults helping to expand the generation gap

Tough, moody, vulnerable, violent, and fullof rebellious passions, these contradictingtraits were the staple of 50s icons MarlonBrando and James Dean.

TELEVISION

TV’s development as the main source of mass media was more rapid and less jarring due to the prior experience of radio

The high cost of TV changed the way advertisers sponsored shows: instead of sponsoring an entire show, they bought time slots (commercials), producing 30-second slick ads to sell their products

TV replicated the radio format: situation comedies (sitcoms), as radio personalities like Jack Benny and George Burns, Milton Berle, etc. transferred their acts to TV

By the late 50s, sitcoms featured the idealized suburban white American family: Father Knows Best, Leave it to Beaver, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet

The variety show also took form as comedy one-acts, interviews, stand-up, and music combined into a full-on show highlighting new talent: Ed Sullivan’s show was perhaps the most influential in introducing America to new artists

TV helped introduce overnight fads and sensations, and the attention span of American audiences lessened as they were bombarded with new ideas and products daily

Prime-time shows made no references to contemporary political issues and avoided being tainted with communist influences

Edward R. Murrow’s See it Now briefly introduced America to political discussion but was off the air by 1955

TV did bring important congressional hearings (McCarthy) before mass audiences and slick ads began to shape presidential campaigns

CULTURE CRITICS

Critics denounced mass media as the degradation of American culture; both radicals and conservatives blasted the new mass culture as parasitical, middle-of-the road, and tepid

Filmmakers like Elia Kazan and Nicholas Ray made films that went against the grain of American culture (On the Waterfront, Panic in the Streets, In a Lonely Place, Bigger Than Life)

The Beats offered the sharpest dissent of American mass culture

Led by Jack Kerouac (On the Road) they distrusted power, progress, and materialism; despised conformity; and celebrated spontaneity, jazz, open sexuality, drug use, and “outcast” culture

The Beats (beatniks) foreshadowed the mass youth rebellion of the 60s with the likes of William Burroughs and Allan Ginsberg

Jack Kerouac was the founding voiceof the Beat Generation, offering publicreadings of his works, often accompaniedby jazz music—the rhythms and looseprose complementing each other

THE COLD WAR CONTINUES…

Eisenhower favored a reliance on American nuclear superiority

Secretary of State John Foster Dulles called for a policy of rollback to reverse communist gains; Dulles coined the phrase “massive retaliation” to describe the possible US response to Soviet aggression

This strategy of DETERRENCE would lead to an arms race as no one dared to attack, but stockpile weapons instead; deterrence assured “mutually assured destruction” (MAD) and the Eisenhower-Dulles strategy of dealing with the cold war would be known as “brinksmanship”

Stalin died in 1953 and Nikita Khrushchev assumed power; he called for a “peaceful coexistence” but rebellions in the Eastern Block forced him to squash Poland and Hungary, placing the US and the Soviets right back at the brink of war

In 1960, the Soviets shot down a U-2 spy plane; Eisenhower refused to apologize, and this furthered the gap in US-Soviet relations

COVERT ACTION

Ike favored covert action and the CIA sponsored paramilitary operations in hostile or instable regimes when newly emerging nations sought to recover resources from foreign investors: overthrew the government in Iran to help secure oil concessions; overthrew the government in Guatemala to protect the United Fruit Company

Ike rejected European appeals to help seize and return the Suez Canal to Britain, and helped to end the conflict, but not resolve the issue; Ike’s and the US support of Israel continued to be an issue in US-Arab relations

US provided France with massive military aid in its struggle to hold on to Indochina (Vietnam); Ike rejected the use of ground troops, but he believed that if Vietnam fell to the communists, the rest of Southeast Asia would fall: “the domino theory”

When the French troops lost at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, Vietnam became divided at the 17th Parallel with the US now supporting the democratic South Vietnamese

THE ELECTION OF 1960

John F. Kennedy won the Democratic nomination, he began his political career as a senator from Massachusetts; and stressed his youth, good looks, affluent life style, and WWII record

VP Richard Nixon won the Republican nomination and ran on his anti-communist experience, foreign affairs experience of 8 years in the Eisenhower administration

The political debates were the first ever televised, which gave the advantage to JFK whose good looks and charm overshadowed Nixon’s uneasiness and not-so-great looks; yet the debate was a good one (and some argued that if you listened to it on the radio, Nixon was clearly the winner)

JFK’s victory was narrow (about 100,000 votes)

JFK’s inauguration brought out a bevy of intellectuals who heard him inspire a sense of sacrifice among young Americans; JFK’s administration promised to be exciting, stylish, and contemporary—a modern-day Camelot (the King Arthur legend, made more contemporary by the musical of that name)

IKE’S FAREWELL ADDRESS

A growing public anxiety over nuclear weapons led to small but well-publicized protests; in his farewell address, Eisenhower expressed his own doubts when he warned the nation of the growing “military industrial complex” (the combination of military might and the highly profitable arms industry, whose alliance did not correspond with the interests of the general public)

THE NEW FRONTIER

JFK proposed a long-stalled liberal domestic agenda that include a higher minimum wage, SS benefits, medical care for the elderly, support for public housing, and fighting poverty; he also supported efforts to improve employment equality for women

The Peace Corps found thousands of young men and women volunteering overseas for two-year stints to help out underdeveloped countries

JFK was committed to stimulate the country’s economy by cutting business taxes, and at the cost of a higher deficit, encouraged more investment, keep labor costs low, and curb price increases to slow inflation

JFK’s committed the country to space exploration announcing that America will put a man on the moon by the end of the decade (achieved 1969)

JFK’s strong presence helped to strengthen the executive branch, as he surrounded himself with what he deemed “the best and the brightest” group of incredibly loyal supporters (including his brother Robert as Attorney General)

JFK AND THE COLD WAR

JFK sought to change the US’s military policy from containment to easing tensions; he continued to use the CIA in a series of covert operations, and created the Green Berets (special forces) to supplement these affairs; this reflected his flexibility, secrecy, and independence in the conduct of foreign policy

JFK’s efforts to stop communist movements in Vietnam failed as American allied-South Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh Diem was overthrown and assassinated, furthering the US involvement in Vietnam

Alliance For Progress was a plan to stall revolutionary movement in Latin America by giving $100 billion dollars in aid over ten years with the hope of promoting industrial growth and agricultural productivity (a “Marshall Plan for Latin America”)

THE BAY OF PIGS

The Cuban Revolution of 1959, and the rise of Fidel Castro was at first applauded by Americans, until Castro began communist reforms like land redistribution

Ike cut off aid and Castro turned to the Soviet Union for aid; completely severing US-Cuban diplomatic relations

JFK inherited Ike’s CIA-backed plan to invade Cuba using Cuban exiles to overthrow Castro

It was a complete failure, strengthened Castro’s international standing, a complete international embarrassment for JFK, but it did not stop him from pursuing other options for Castro’s removal

1962: THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS

After the Bay of Pigs, Castro turned to Khrushchev for help, and the Soviets began shipping missiles to Cuba, building launching

In October of 1962, the US acquired evidence of these launching sites and in response JFK ordered a blockade of Cuba (thwarting pressures for invasion)

Basically, what led to a standoff of who’s going to fire the first shot led to Khrushchev backing down and withdrawing their missiles; in response the US removed its missiles from Turkey

THE BERLIN WALL

Another crisis JFK faced was the Berlin Wall, preventing East Germans from entering the Democratic West Germany

Though unable to stop it, the US and Soviets set up a “hot line” as a means of direct communication for times of crisis

Signed in Aug. 1963, the Limited Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty outlawed nuclear testing in the atmosphere, outer space, and underwater (more symbolic than substantive, as the arms race did not slow—the Soviets ever eager to keep up)

NOVEMBER 22, 1963

JFK was assassinated in Dallas, raising his status to a martyr, destroying the hopes and ambitions of a generation that pledged to “ask what they could do for their country”

Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president, and he furthered JFK’s liberal domestic agenda, known as the Great Society (focusing on ending poverty, promoting civil rights, and education), but would have to deal with a “bitch of a war” that would end of American optimism and create a sense of cynicism for the next two decades