The 1950s Flashcards
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?
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.”
To deflect criticism related to the use of a campaign fund, Republican Vice Presidential candidate Richard Nixon gave a nationwide speech, termed the _____ Speech.
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.
What was General Eisenhower’s biggest campaign promise during the 1952 election?
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 in two.
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?
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.”
mutual assured destruction
Mutual assured destruction, or MAD, marked the end point 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 a first strike in order to retaliate. In turn, this required a massive arms race.
During the Eisenhower Administration, military spending was dictated by the principle of _____ _____.
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.
During a process known as _____, European nations provided independence to former colonies throughout the globe.
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.
In 1954, the United States was a participant in the Geneva Conference, regarding the fate of what nation?
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.
To establish a protective containment barrier against communism, President Eisenhower’s Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, established what international organization modeled on NATO?
The South East 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.
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?
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.
In 1954, the United Fruit Company asked President Eisenhower for assistance in protecting their assets in _____.
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 Guatamalan Civil War, which began in 1960, continued until 1996.
After Egypt seized control of the Suez Canal, how did the British, French, and Israelis respond?
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.
What was the Eisenhower Doctrine?
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.
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?
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.
What was the American reaction to the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik I and Sputnik II, the first two space satellites, in 1957?
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.
