Dwight Eisenhower

Question 1

Term

Answer 1

January 20, 1953 – January 20, 1961

Question 2

Party

Answer 2

Republican

Question 3

Hydrogen Bomb

Answer 3

• Brinkley 763 & 785
• In 1950 the Truman administration approved the development of the new hydrogen bomb.
• The United States successfully detonated the first hydrogen bomb in 1952.
• The Soviet Union tested its first hydrogen bomb a year later.
• Derives its power from fusion.

Question 4

Interstate Highway and Defense Act

Answer 4

• Brinkley 789
• Signed by Eisenhower in June of 1956
• Appropriated $25 billion for highway construction
• Created 40,000 miles of road that stretched across the country
• Was a crucial factor in the steady decline of railroads

Question 5

Brown v. the Board of Education

Answer 5

• Brinkley 799-800
• On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court announced its decision in the case of Brown v. the Board of Education.
• The court rejected the decision of the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson( which stated that communities could provide blacks with separate facilities as long as they were equal to those of whites)
• The Brown decision came from efforts of black opponents of segregation and NAACP lawyers
• The following year, the court had to issue another decision (known as “Brown II”) to provide rules for implementing the 1954 decision.

Question 6

Little Rock Nine

Answer 6

• Brinkley 800
• Consisted of 9 African-American students that were for the first time attending Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
• At the school they encountered an angry white mob that was trying to prevent the implementation of the desegregation.
• Governor Orval Faubus refused to assist the black students.
• Presidents Eisenhower responded to the blockade by federalizing the National Guard and sending troops to restore order and ensure that the decision would be obeyed.

Question 7

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Answer 7

• Brinkley 800-801
• On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man which subsequently resulted in her arrest.
• African-Americans seized the opportunity to create a civil disobedience which involved boycotting the Montgomery Bus Service.
• Blacks carpooled or walked to work rather than boarding a bus, thereby causing a economic downfall for the bus service.
• In 1956, a Supreme Court decision ruled that segregation on public transportation be illegal.

Question 8

Civil Rights Act of 1957

Answer 8

• Brinkley 801
• Signed in 1957 by Eisenhower.
• Declared and provided federal protection for African-Americans that wished to vote.
• Passed by a Democratic congress

Question 9

Election of 1956

Answer 9

• Brinkley 802
• Eisenhower ran for a second term, although his health was declining.
• The Democratic opposition was Adlai Stevenson (Eisenhower’s same opponent in the previous election)
• Eisenhower won by a landslide, receiving nearly 57% of the popular vote and 457 electoral votes compared to Stevenson’s 73.
• Democrats remained in control of both houses of Congress.

Question 10

Army-McCarthy Hearings

Answer 10

• Brinkley 802-803
• Began in 1954 when Senator Joseph McCarthy attacked Secretary of Army Robert Stevens and the armed forces as a whole.
• Following the incident, Congress organized a special investigation of the charges.
• The hearings were aired on television which increased the rapid decline in followers of McCarthy.
• In December 1954, the Senate voted to condemn him for “conduct unbecoming of a senator.”
• Joseph McCarthy died 3 years later, apparently a victim of alcoholism.

Question 11

Massive Retaliation

Answer 11

• Brinkley 803-804
• The idea of Massive Retaliation was introduced by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles.
• Announced in 1954
• The idea was that the US would respond to communist threats to its allies not by conventional forces, but relying on “the deterrent of massive retaliatory power” (nuclear weapons)

Question 12

Dien Bien Phu

Answer 12

• Brinkley 804
• In early 1954, 12,000 French troops became surrounded in a siege at the village of Dien Bien Phu.
• Although American intervention was the only logical method to prevent the complete collapse of the French military effort, President Eisenhower refused to permit direct American intervention.
• On May 7, 1954, the French defense fell at Dien Bien Phu, without receiving American assistance.

Question 13

Suez Crisis

Answer 13

• Brinkley 805
• The nationalistic Egyptian government began to develop a trade relationship with the communist Soviet Union.
• The trade began to infuriate the American goverment, especially John Foster Dulles.
• In 1956, Dulles ordered the cessation of American assistance in the building of the Aswan Dam in order to punish General Gamal Abdel Nasser.
• In response, Nasser seized the Suez Canal from the British, insisting that he would complete the Aswan Dam with profits from the canal.

Question 14

Fidel Castro

Answer 14

• Brinkley 806
• In 1957, Fidel Castro led a resistance movement against the Batista regime.
• On January 1, 1957, Castro took control of Cuba and established a new government.
• When Castro began receiving assistance from the Soviet Union in 1960, the United States cut its ties with Cuba.
• Castro soon created an alliance with the Soviet Union once Cuba became isolated from the United States.

Question 15

U-2 Crisis

Answer 15

• Brinkley 806-807
• In 1958, Nikita Khrushchev renewed the demands that the NATO powers abandon West Germany.
• Eisenhower and Khrushchev made arrangements to meet in each others respective nation
• Khrushchev’s visit to the US went smoothly; however, before Eisenhower traveled to Russia the Soviet Union declared that they had shot down an American U-2 spy plane in Russian territory.
• Khrushchev lashed out and canceled the meetings.