Chapter 37 - The Eisenhower Era, 1952-1960 Flashcards
IBM
“international business machines” expanded greatly during the sixties. They became the prototype for the dawning of the information age.
Information Age
a period of time in the sixties when technology grew very quickly. A pocket calculator had more computing power than computers made in 40’s and 50’s.
Ozzie and Harriet
a television show based in the fifties that depicted white collar american culture t the time. They depicted idyllic suburban families with a working husband, two children, and a wife who did not work outside the home.
The Feminine Mystique
a book written by feminist Betty Friedan that was a bestseller and gave fuel to women’s feelings. This book sparked the modern women’s movement.
Diner’s Club
the diner’s club introduced the first plastic credit card in 1949, which created an even bigger consumer culture at the time.
McDonald’s
the first mcdonald’s was opened in 1948 in San Bernardino, California. Mcdonald’s was the beginning of the fast food industry.
Disneyland
opened in 1955 in Anaheim California, disneyland was a new form of recreation that contributed to the new lifestyle in america.
Television
a new technology that gave rapid rise during the 50’s and sixties. Critics complained that the “picture tube” was degrading the public’s aesthetic, social, moral, political, and educational standards.
Elvis Presley
born in mississippi in 1935, he transformed popular music for the generation of baby boomers. He created a new musical idiom known as rock and roll. Traditionalists were repelled by presley.
Marilyn Monroe
a movie star with an ingenuous smile and mandolin-curved hips, helped to popularize new standards of sensuous sexuality.
Playboy
Magazine first published in 1955 that also helped spread sensuous sexuality.
The Affluent Society
a series of books published by john Kenneth Galbraith, who questioned the relation between private wealth and public good. His books went mostly unheard in the affluent 1950’s/
Adlai E. Stevenson
a nominated democrat in the presidential election of 1952. He was a eloquent and idealistic governor of illinois.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
the most popular candidate of the 1952 presidential election. He won the election with 33,936,234 votes.
Checkers Speech
the checkers speech saved nixon’s candidacy. It also showed the power of television, giving candidates the ability of speaking to their voters.
Joseph McCarthy
a republican senator from wisconsin. He attacked many political figures claiming they were communist. He created a lot of fear within the US until he verbally attacked the US army. He ended up dying of chronic alcoholism.
Jim Crow Laws
jim crow laws governed all aspects of existence of african americans from the schoolroom to the bathroom. These laws made african americans politically powerless, economically inferior, and kept them isolated from whites.
Emmett Till
Murdered in 1955 for whistling at a white woman by her husband and his friends. They kidnapped him and brutally killed him. his death led to the American Civil Rights movement.
Jackie Robinson
The first African American player in the major league of baseball. His actions helped to bring about other opportunities for African Americans.
NAACP
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Major player in gaining civil rights for blacks.
Thurgood Marshall
an American jurist and the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. Before becoming a judge, he was a lawyer who was best remembered for his high success rate in arguing before the Supreme Court and for the victory in Brown v. Board of Education. He was nominated to the court by President Lyndon Johnson in 1967.
Rosa Parks
United States civil rights leader who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery (Alabama) and so triggered the national civil rights movement (born in 1913)
Montgomery Bus Boycott
In 1955, after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus, Dr. Martin L. King led a boycott of city busses. After 11 months the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public transportation was illegal.
Martin Luther King Jr.
U.S. Baptist minister and civil rights leader. A noted orator, he opposed discrimination against blacks by organizing nonviolent resistance and peaceful mass demonstrations. He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Nobel Peace Prize (1964)
Earl Warren
controversial Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1953-1969); he led the Court in far-reaching racial, social, and political rulings, including school desegregation and protecting rights of persons accused of crimes; presided over the Brown v. the Board of Education case
Brown v. Board of Education
court found that segregation was a violation of the Equal Protection clause; “separate but equal” has no place
All Deliberate Speed
The Supreme Court declared segregation to be ended with all deliberate speed.
Little Rock Central High School
Eisenhower sent 10,000 National Guardsmen and 1,000 paratroopers to so blacks could enroll after desegregation.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Churches linked together to inform blacks about changes in the Civil Rights Movement, led by MLK Jr., was a success
Sit-ins
A form of protest used by black protesters to fight for their civil rights.
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee
One of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Played a major role in the sit-ins and freedom rides, a leading role in the 1963 March on Washington, the Freedom Summer, and the MFDP.
Dynamic Conservatism
Eisenhower’s philosophy of being liberal in all things human and being conservative with all things fiscal. Appealed to both Republicans and Democrats; balancing economic conservatism with some activism.
Creeping Socialism
An expression used in modern times to describe America`s so-called drift towards a socialistic society, was coined by author F.A. Hayek in his book The Road to Serfdom.
Interstate Highway Act
Signed by Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956, this act constructed over 41,000 miles of interstate highway, and was the biggest public works project of its day
AFL-CIO
In December 1955, the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations ended their twenty-year rivalry and merged to create this, under the leadership of George Meany.
John Foster Dulles
United States diplomat who (as Secretary of State) pursued a policy of opposition to the USSR by providing aid to American allies (1888-1959).
Strategic Air Command
main instrument in american policy of massive retaliation in the event of provocation; essentially long range fliers capable of remaining in air for extended periods of time to fly across continents and drop atomic weapons (used b-47 bombers, kc-97 tankers to refuel mid-flight); main means of atomic war before inter-continental missile era.
Massive Retaliation
The “new look” defense policy of the Eisenhower administration of the 1950’s was to threaten “massive retaliation” with nuclear weapons in response to any act of aggression by a potential enemy.
Military-industrial Complex
Eisenhower first coined this phrase when he warned America against it in his last State of the Union Address. He feared that the combined lobbying efforts of the armed services and industries that contracted with the military would lead to excessive Congressional spending.
Ho Chi Minh
Vietnamese Communist revolutionary leader who was prime minister (1945–55) and president (1945–69) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). He was a key figure in the foundation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945, as well as the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Việt Cộng (NLF or VC) during the Vietnam War.
Dien Bien Phu
climactic confrontation of the First Indochina War between the French Union’s French Far East Expeditionary Corps and Viet Minh communist-nationalist revolutionaries
Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngô Đình Diệm was a South Vietnamese politician. A former mandarin of the Nguyễn dynasty, he was named Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam by Head of State Bảo Đại in 1954.
Southeast Asia Treaty Organization
The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was an international organization for collective defense in Southeast Asia created by the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, or Manila Pact, signed in September 1954 in Manila, Philippines.
Shah of Iran
Mohammad Reza Shah was Shah of Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979.
Gamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was the second President of Egypt, serving from 1956 until his death. Nasser led the 1952 overthrow of the monarchy and introduced far-reaching land reforms the following year.
The Suez Crisis
The Suez Crisis, also named the Tripartite Aggression and the Kadesh Operation or Sinai War, was an invasion of Egypt in late 1956 by Israel, followed by the United Kingdom and France.
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Country
Countries that produce oil and sell it to the world.
Teamsters
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is a labor union in the United States and Canada.
Jimmy Hoffa
American labor union leader and author who served as the President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union from 1958 until 1971. He vanished in late July 1975.
Landrum-Griffin Act
deals with the relationship between a union and its members. The LMRDA grants certain rights to union members and protects their interests by promoting democratic procedures within labor organizations.
Missile Gap
Cold War term used in the US for the perceived superiority of the number and power of the USSR’s missiles in comparison of their own.
National Defense and Education Act
U.S. federal legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower on September 2, 1958, that provided funding to improve American schools and to promote postsecondary education.
U-2 Spy Plane
The Lockheed U-2, nicknamed “Dragon Lady”, is an American single-jet engine, ultra-high altitude reconnaissance aircraft operated by the United States Air Force and previously flown by the Central Intelligence Agency.
Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista Zaldívar was the elected President of Cuba from 1940 to 1944, and U.S.-backed dictator from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown during the Cuban Revolution.
Fidel Castro
Cuban revolutionary and politician who governed the Republic of Cuba as Prime Minister from 1959 to 1976 and then as President from 1976 to 2008.
Richard Nixon
American politician who served as the 37th President of the United States from 1969 until 1974, when he became the only U.S. president to resign from office.
Kitchen Debate
Kitchen Debate was a series of impromptu exchanges (through interpreters) between then U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev at the opening of the American National Exhibition at Sokolniki Park in Moscow on July 24, 1959.
John Kennedy
American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination
New Frontier
The term New Frontier was used by liberal Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy in his acceptance speech in the 1960 United States presidential election to the Democratic National Convention at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as the Democratic slogan to inspire America.
Alaska
Alaska, northwest of Canada, is the largest and most sparsely populated U.S. state. 49th state to enter the union on January 3, 1959
Hawaii
Admitted to the union on August 21, 1959 as the 50th state after decades as a territory
Catch-22
Catch-22 is a satirical novel by American author Joseph Heller
Arthur Miller
merican playwright, essayist, and figure in twentieth-century American theater.
Catcher in the Rye
-The Catcher in the Rye is a 1951 novel by J. D. Salinger. A controversial novel originally published for adults, it has since become popular with adolescent readers for its themes of teenage angst and alienation.
George Orwell
-English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic.
