1950s Flashcards

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1
Q

In 1952, General Dwight Eisenhower ran for President against Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, a Democrat. What campaign slogan did General Eisenhower’s supporters adopt?

A

Their slogan was “We Like Ike,” from Eisenhower’s nickname. Eisenhower’s simple campaign resonated with voters, in contrast to Stevenson’s intellectually driven effort, which earned him and his followers the sobriquet “Eggheads.”

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2
Q

To deflect criticism related to the use of a campaign fund, Republican Vice Presidential candidate Richard Nixon gave a nationwide speech, termed the _____ Speech.

A

Checkers

During a speech watched by some 60 million viewers, Nixon explained his position to the audience and claimed that the only gift he’d received was Checkers, his family’s cocker spaniel.

The speech was a success, introduced Nixon to a nationwide audience as a humble family man, and helped propel the Republicans to victory.

One additional result was that Checkers received hundreds of cans of dog food.

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3
Q

What was General Eisenhower’s biggest campaign promise during the 1952 election?

A

Eisenhower promised to end the war in Korea.

The Korean War had devolved into a stalemate, with both sides at virtually the same position they had occupied before the war began. After his inauguration, Eisenhower kept his word and the Korean Peninsula was divided into two.

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4
Q

President Eisenhower’s Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, announced a strategy known as “brinkmanship” in the United States’ dealings with the Soviet Union. What did the brinkmanship strategy entail?

A

Under brinkmanship policy, the United States would push dangerous situations to the brink of war, with the intention of making the Soviet Union back down in matters of foreign policy.

Each side possessed nuclear weapons, so Eisenhower rarely let Dulles pursue matters to the true “brink.”

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5
Q

What is mutually assured destruction?

A

Mutually assured destruction, or MAD, marked the endpoint if the Cold War turned “hot.” As a theory, MAD contended that both the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. would avoid nuclear confrontation because it would result in the destruction of both countries.

MAD required each nation to have enough nuclear weapons to survive the first strike in order to retaliate. In turn, this required a massive arms race.

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6
Q

During the Eisenhower Administration, military spending was dictated by the principle of _____ _____.

A

massive destruction

Spending under massive destruction focused primarily on nuclear weapons and air power (as opposed to more conventional weapons such as tanks), designed to destroy as much as possible in a limited amount of time.

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7
Q

During a process known as _____, European nations provided independence to former colonies throughout the globe.

A

decolonization

One of the earliest nations to achieve independence was India in 1947, and Britain only rarely fought to keep her colonies.

France was more reluctant to give up her colonies. A French force attempted to retake French Indochina (Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam) and was defeated at Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam.

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8
Q

In 1954, the United States was a participant in the Geneva Conference, regarding the fate of what nation?

A

Vietnam

The Conference was called after the French were defeated by Vietnamese forces. Vietnam was divided in two, with the North under the control of Communist forces, and the South under the control of American allies.

Eisenhower provided the South Vietnamese government with $1 billion in aid.

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9
Q

To establish a protective containment barrier against communism, President Eisenhower’s Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, established what international organization modeled on NATO?

A

The southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO) was established in the Philippines in 1954 and was comprised of France, the United States, Pakistan, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand, and Australia.

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10
Q

In 1954, the Central Intelligence Agency, with the knowledge of President Eisenhower, incited a coup d’etat in an effort to access which country’s oil supplies?

A

Iran

With the cooperation of the British (British Petroleum – “BP” owned the oil fields), the Iranian government was overthrown and replaced with a monarch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

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11
Q

In 1954, the United Fruit Company asked President Eisenhower for assistance in protecting their assets in _____.

A

Guatemala

Eisenhower and the CIA were concerned that the country’s government was under the control of the U.S.S.R. and dispatched military and financial aid to the country to aid anti-government rebels.

The Guatemalan Civil War, which began in 1960, continued until 1996.

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12
Q

After Egypt seized control of the Suez Canal, how did the British, French, and Israelis respond?

A

The combined British, French, and Israeli forces launched an attack and seized the Canal.

Eisenhower, who hadn’t been advised of the attack, was livid, refused to support the operation militarily or morally, and led the United Nations in condemning the action.

Eventually, under American pressure, the combined forces withdrew.

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13
Q

What was the Eisenhower Doctrine?

A

Under the Eisenhower Doctrine, the United States vowed to aid any nation resisting communist forces with material and financial aid.

As an example, in 1954 Eisenhower dispatched 14,000 Marines to Lebanon to prevent a civil war from breaking out between communists and Western-allied forces.

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14
Q

Shortly after Joseph Stalin’s death, Nikita Khrushchev took control of the Soviet Union, claiming to desire “peaceful coexistence” with the West and decrying Stalin’s crimes against humanity.

How did Khrushchev respond to the 1956 revolution in Hungary which threw out the Communist government?

A

Khrushchev sent tanks into Hungary, restoring the country’s Communist government. In the wake of the Suez Crisis, Eisenhower launched no protest.

Khrushchev’s actions in Hungary ended the brief “thaw” which had followed Stalin’s death.

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15
Q

What was the American reaction to the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik I and Sputnik II, the first two space satellites, in 1957?

A

The American reaction can only be described as shock; American technical supremacy over the U.S.S.R. had always been presumed.

Further, the rockets which launched the satellites confirmed that the U.S.S.R. was not only ahead in satellite technology, but in rocket technology as well.

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16
Q

What Congressional action resulted from the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik I and II?

A

In response to the Soviet launch, Congress established the National Air and Space Agency (NASA), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the National Defense and Education Act, which included massive funding for scientific research at the university level.

A space race, as a corollary to the arms race, was underway.

17
Q

In 1958, Nikita Khrushchev repeated Stalin’s demand that the United States and the Western powers evacuate West Berlin. How did President Eisenhower lower tensions between the countries?

A

President Eisenhower invited Khrushchev to a meeting at Camp David, where the two men discussed the issue, and the Soviet demand was dropped.

A second meeting, scheduled for 1960 in Paris, was canceled when a U.S. spy plane was shot down over Soviet territory.

18
Q

In 1959, Vice President Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev engaged in the _____ _____ about the merits of communism and capitalism.

A

Kitchen Debate

The debate between the two took place at an exhibition in Moscow, where the United States had shipped an entire “typical” American house. The house, modest by American standards, shocked and impressed Soviet visitors, and provided a much-needed boost after Sputnik.

Nixon’s stature as a public statesman was raised as a result of the debate, which was televised in the United States.

19
Q

In 1959, Communists seized control of _____, only 90 miles from U.S. territory.

A

Cuba

Led by Fidel Castro, the Communists deposed Fulgencio Batista, the U.S.-backed President of Cuba. Eisenhower immediately gave the Central Intelligence Agency permission to begin training Cuban dissidents, who would participate in the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.

20
Q

Beginning in 1956, the United States embarked upon the largest public construction project since the erection of the Great Pyramids. What was the project?

A

The Interstate Highway System, which has cost an estimated $456 billion to date and constructed some 47,182 miles of roads.

In honor of President Eisenhower, who signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, the Interstate Highway System is officially known as the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways.

21
Q

Termed a “vast wasteland” by its critics, the _____ revolutionized popular culture during the 1950s.

A

television

With only three networks in 1957, viewing options were limited and Americans generally watched the same programming. Family events soon centered around popular shows such as I Love Lucy or My Three Sons (which prompted the invention of the TV dinner, so that families could watch and eat simultaneously).

22
Q

Which J.D. Salinger novel features seventeen-year-old Holden Caulfield as its protagonist?

A

The Catcher in the Rye

Published in 1951, The Catcher in the Rye explored themes of alienation, young adulthood, preservation of childhood innocence, and death.

The book continues to be popular today, although critics have decried its frequent use of profanity and depiction of prostitution.

23
Q

Who was the man in the gray flannel suit?

A

The man in the gray flannel suit was the “common man” of the 1950s, commuting to white-collar jobs in the city. During the period, conformity and outward appearances of wealth were particularly prized.

The term comes from a popular book, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, written by Sloan Wilson and published in 1955.

24
Q

Published in 1953, the novel _____ _____ presented a cynical critique of bureaucratic reasoning, presaging much of the attitude of the 1960s.

A

Catch-22

Joseph Heller’s popular novel gave birth to the term “Catch-22.” In the novel, John Yossarian, a bombardier, wants to be grounded from flying further missions, but to do so needs to be found mentally “unfit to fly” in a mental examination. However, requesting a mental examination is proof that one is sane, and therefore fit to fly.

25
Q

What author published Atlas Shrugged in 1957?

A

Ayn Rand

Atlas Shrugged, in the words of critic Edward Younkins, presents “an apocalyptic vision of the last stages of the conflict between two classes of humanity – the looters and the non-looters. The looters are proponents of high taxation, big labor, government ownership, government spending, government planning, regulation, and redistribution.”

26
Q

What was the Beat Generation?

A

The term Beat Generation was used to describe the anti-materialistic literary movement that began in the late 1940s and stretched into the 1960s.

Writers such as Jack Kerouac and poets such as Allen Ginsberg existed in a world populated, in Ginsberg’s words, by “angel-headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night.”

27
Q

Who broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947?

A

Jackie Robinson

The game had been restricted to white players since the late 1800s. Robinson’s playing was magnificent despite racial prejudice, as he was named Rookie of the Year in 1948. Robinson’s spectacular on-field play and his refusal to fight with his adversaries earned him respect and struck a blow for Civil Rights.

28
Q

How did the Cold War influence the struggle for civil rights in the 1950s?

A

During the 1950s, the United States sought to appeal to a number of emerging nations in Asia and Africa to offset communist influence. Part of this appeal was centered upon greater rights for minorities, as the Soviet Union commonly publicized civil rights abuses.

29
Q

In 1954, the Supreme Court reached a unanimous decision in the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education. What did this case hold?

A

Brown v. Board of Education held that the doctrine of “separate but equal” was unconstitutional, ending the doctrine first established in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).

The case arose out of Topeka, Kansas’s separate schools for black children. The Court wrote “[w]e conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”

30
Q

After the Supreme Court ruled that “separate but equal” was unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education, several school districts refused to integrate. How did President Eisenhower respond?

A

When Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus used troops from the Arkansas National Guard to block nine black students from registering at Little Rock’s Central High, Eisenhower dispatched federal troops to force the school to integrate.

After a further standoff, in which the Little Rock schools closed for a year, desegregation was finally established.

31
Q

Who was Rosa Parks?

A

In 1955, Rosa Parks, tired after a long day of work, refused to give up her seat in the colored section of a bus to a white passenger, after the white section had been filled.

Arrested upon arrival at her destination, Parks’s refusal prompted the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

32
Q

The 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott marked the emergence of _____ _____ _____ _____ as a civil rights leader.

A

Martin Luther King Jr.

King was instrumental in organizing a boycott of Montgomery, Alabama’s bus system in December 1955. The Boycott ended when a court ordered the public transportation system to be desegregated.

33
Q

After the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. organized what group to coordinate desegregation efforts throughout the South?

A

Dr. King organized the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which coordinated civil rights efforts and directed non-violent protests throughout the South.

34
Q

How did blacks and sympathetic whites protest the Woolworth Department Stores’ refusal to serve blacks at lunch counters in 1960?

A

They organized a sit-in, occupying counters reserved for whites, ordering coffee, and being refused service. The non-violent protests spread throughout the South.

On July 25, 1960, segregation at Woolworth’s Greensboro store ended; the first blacks served were Woolworth’s employees.