Affluence and Its Discontents, 1954-1963 © 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved. Chapter 28.

Affluence and Its Discontents, 1954-1963

© 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved.

Chapter 28Chapter 28

Foreign Policy, 1953-1960

• Anticommunist rhetoric subsided

• Bipolar confrontations between United States and the Soviet Union over European issues– Nuclear deterrence– Subtle, complex power plays in the Third

World

(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

Eisenhower Takes Command

• Korean War prisoner exchange issue

• Communist Control Act (1954)

• Army-McCarthy hearings (1954)

• U-2 planes

• “Hidden-hand” Presidency


The New Look and Summitry

• Nikita Khrushchev and “peaceful coexistence”• "New Look" and “massive retaliation”• Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO)• Central Treaty Organization (CENTO)• United States Information Agency (USIA)• “Summit” meetings• Challenges to the Soviets in Eastern Europe

– John Foster Dulles and liberation from Communism

– Poland and Wladyslaw Gomulka

– Hungary and Imre Nagy(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

Covert Action and Economic Leverage

• Battle to contain Communism shifts to 3rd World• CIA Covert Action

– Philippines

– Iran

– Guatemala

• Trade and Aid– Mutual Security Program

– Military Assistance Program


America and the Third World

• Economic elites and dictators abroad won U.S. support against political opponents by pointing fingers at supposed “communists”

• U.S. supported measures that were supposedly “anticommunist” – These measures often meant suppression of

political and social change


Latin America

• “Yankeephobia”

• Fulgencio Batista

• Fidel Castro

• Review of policies toward Latin America


Nasserism and the Suez Crisis of 1956

• Gamal Abdel Nasser

• Suez Crisis

• "Nasserism"

• "Eisenhower Doctrine“

• Sukarno


Vietnam

• Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh– Dien Bien Phu (1954)

• Geneva Peace Accords (1954)• Domino Theory• Ngo Dinh Diem• National Liberation Front (NLF)• Eisenhower’s farewell address

– Greatest danger not Communism, but U.S. military-industrial complex


Affluence – A “People of Plenty”

• Postwar period overall tremendous economic boom for U.S.

• David Potter “A people of plenty”


Economic Growth

• 1950s: midpoint of steady economic growth from WWII through early 1970s

• National Security policy keeps energy and raw materials flowing to U.S. from abroad

• Emergence of new industries– Chemicals– Electronics

• Suburban life and the automobile• John Kenneth Galbraith

– The Affluent Society

Highways and Waterways

• Highway Act (1956)– National security justification– Private sector economic benefits– Victory of automobile

• Government aided development in the West– Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of

Reclamation



Steady Growth of Gross National Product, 1940-1970


Auto Sales, 1940-1970

Labor-Management Accord

• Labor militancy subsides

• AFL-CIO (1955)

• Expansion of benefits packages to workers

• Job security high, fringe benefits high, real wages rise


Political Pluralism

• C. Wright Mills, sociologist– Critique of corporate leaders as members of

small “power elite”

• Pluralism: public policymaking stemmed from wide participation in public debate by a broad range of different interest groups


A Religious People

• Cold War against Atheistic Communism increased public symbolism of American religion– “Under God” added to Pledge of Allegiance

– “In God we Trust” made the national motto

• Pluralism in religion– Will Herberg Protestant-Catholic-Jew (1955)

– “Judeo-Christian tradition”

• Religious leaders as celebrities– Norman Vincent Peale The Power of Positive Thinking

(1952)

– Evangelists Oral Roberts and Billy Graham(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

Discontents of Affluence

• Body of social criticism evolved in the 1950s, especially with regard to:– Conformity– Youth– Mass culture– Discrimination– Inequality


Conformity in an Affluent Society

• William H. Whyte, Jr.– The Organization Man (1956)

• David Riesman– The Lonely Crowd (1950)

• Vance Packard– The Hidden Persuaders (1957)

• Betty Friedan


Restive Youth

• Frederick Wertham The Seduction of the Innocent

• Elvis Presley• Chuck Berry• The Blackboard Jungle (1955)• Rock and Roll becomes mass consumption

product– Beach Boys


The Mass Culture Debate

• Criticism of conformity and of youth culture merged into debate over “mass culture”

• “Good” vs. “bad” art in the marketplace• Television

– 3 dominant players: NBC, CBS, ABC– FCC’s Newton Minlow: TV as a “vast

wasteland”– Television transformed the American home


The Limits of the Mass Culture Debate

• Many critics of mass culture refused to question the distribution of political and economic power

• Regulation vs. censorship


The New Suburbs and Gender Ideals

• New consumer technology reallocated (but not reduced) women’s household chores

• “Separate spheres”: public and private• Benjamin Spock

– Baby and Child Care (1946)

• “Juvenile delinquency”• Father Knows Best and Leave it Beaver• Hugh Hefner and Playboy

Women’s Changing Roles• Increase in women entering the workforce• Percentage of married mothers with jobs outside

the home:– 1948: 25%

– 1959: 40%

• Birth Control pill (1960)• Jobs for women: nurses, school teachers,

telephone operators, secretaries– Paid less, few opportunities for advancement, no active

labor unions

– Limited opportunities in professional schools or societies

The Fight Against Discrimination, 1953-1960

• Thurgood Marshall

• Earl Warren


The Brown Cases

• Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954)

• South becoming more like the rest of the country• Racial composition of other parts of U.S.

becoming more like the South• “Massive resistance“ and the "Southern

Manifesto"• White Citizens Councils• Emmitt Till


The Montgomery Bus Boycott and Martin Luther King Jr.

• Direct Action campaigns

• Rosa Parks

• Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)


The Domestic and International Politics of Civil Rights

• Civil Rights Act of 1957– Commission on Civil Rights

• Little Rock Central High School– Orval Faubus, segregationist governor of Arkansas

• Racial conflict in the U.S. “not helpful to the influence of the U.S. abroad”

• 1956 and 1958 elections: Divided government– Republican Eisenhower popular and reelected– Democrats extend control over Congress

American Indian Policy

• “Termination”

• “Relocation”

• Cut back Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)

• Termination and Relocation fail


Growth of Spanish Speaking Populations

• Immigration from Puerto Rico

• Bracero program

• "Operation Wetback“

• Salt of the Earth (1954)

• League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)


Urban-Suburban Issues

• “Redlining”

• Federal Housing Authority

• “Urban renewal” programs


Debating the Role of Government

• Eisenhower and moderate Republicanism– Expanded Social Security system– Raised minimum wage– Improved unemployment benefits– New Department of Health, Education and

Welfare


The New Conservatives

• Barry Goldwater– Conscience of a Conservative (1960)

• William F. Buckley, Jr.– God and man at Yale– National Review

• Young Americans for Freedom (YAF)


Advocates of a More Active Government

• Gaither Report (1957)• Henry Kissinger• Rudolf Flesch

– Why Johnny Can’t Read (1955)

• Sputnik (1957)• National Defense Education Act (1958)• National Aeronautics and Space Administration

(1958)• John Kenneth Galbraith and Michael Harrington


The Kennedy Years: Foreign Policy

• John Fitzgerald Kennedy– Groomed for political leadership– Service in Congress

• House of Representatives

• Senate

– Jackie Kennedy


The Election of 1960

• John F. Kennedy vs. Richard M. Nixon• Televised debates• Kennedy campaign

– "New Frontier“– Civil Rights– Flexible Response– Lyndon Johnson

• Media-driven Kennedy White House


Kennedy’s Foreign Policy Goals

• Peace Corps

• "Alliance for Progress"


Cuba and Berlin

• Fidel Castro

• Bahia de Cochinas (Bay of Pigs, 1961)

• Operation Mongoose

• Berlin Wall (1961)

• Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)


Southeast Asia and “Flexible Response”

• Kennedy followed Eisenhower’s lead in supporting Diem regime– U.S. must put down communist-led “wars of

national liberation” before they succeeded– Green Berets– CIA overthrow of Diem regime– Military regime installed


The Kennedy Years: Domestic Policy

• Kennedy was slow to depart from Eisenhower’s cautious fiscal policies– Fearful of running federal budget deficits

greater than those of previous administration


Policymaking Under Kennedy

• Kennedy endorsed tax breaks as means of promoting economic growth

• Area Redevelopment Bill (1961)


The Civil Rights Movement, 1960-1963

• Kennedy cautious on Civil Rights at first• “Sit-in” movement• Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)• Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee

(SNCC)• “Freedom rides”• Birmingham, Alabama (1963)• “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom”

(1963)– “I Have a Dream” speech


Women’s Issues

• Phyllis Schlafly– A Choice, Not an Echo (1964)

• Fannie Lou Hamer• Betty Friedan

– The Feminine Mystique (1963)

• Presidential Commission on the Status of Women

• Equal Pay Act (1963)


The Assassination of John F. Kennedy

• Lee Harvey Oswald

• Jack Ruby

• Warren Commission

• Kennedy’s death source of conspiracy theories


Conclusion

• Post-1953: cold war fears abated– Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy eased tensions

with the Soviet Union

• 1953-1963 in the U.S. saw steady economic growth

• Kennedy’s “New Frontier” grew out of 1950s criticisms

• Issues of Vietnam, Civil Rights, and government aid to poor left for Kennedy’s successors


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Affluence and Its Discontents, 1954-1963 © 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved. Chapter 28.

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Transcript of Affluence and Its Discontents, 1954-1963 © 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved. Chapter 28.