America at Midcentury: Under the Shadow of the Cold War

1. 27 America at Midcentury 1952-1963

2. America at Midcentury1952-1963 • Under the Cold War’s Shadow • The Affluent Society • Youth Culture • Mass Culture and Its Discontents • The Coming of the New Frontier • Conclusion

3. Chapter Focus Questions • How did the Eisenhower administration’s foreign policy respond to Cold War challenges? • On what foundations did the nation’s post-World War II prosperity rest? • What ideals did America’s suburban life evoke, and how did these ideals correspond to suburban realities?

4. Chapter Focus Questions (cont’d) • What explains the emergence of a distinct youth culture in 1950s’ America? • What criticisms did television and the 1950s’ mass culture evoke? • Who was John F. Kennedy, and why did his New Frontier seem so promising to many Americans?

5. North America and Memphis

6. Popular Music in Memphis • Memphis was a rapidly growing segregated city with whites and blacks of various classes. • Elvis Presley listened to both “white” and “black” music. • Elvis blended black styles of music with white styles to help create a new style of music.

7. Popular Music in Memphis (cont'd) • Rock ‘n’ roll united teenagers and gave them the feeling that it was their music (and misunderstood by adults).

8. Under the Cold War’s Shadow

9. Dwight D. Eisenhower hosts a group of Republican National Committee women

10. Under the Cold War’s Shadow • Eisenhower took office in 1953 as the confrontation with communism dominated America’s foreign relations. Eisenhower developed new Cold War strategies, from reliance on nuclear weapons to use of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for covert action, to forestall an all-out nuclear conflict.

11. Under the Cold War’s Shadow (cont’d) • He ended the Korean War and avoided military involvement in Indochina. In 1961, he felt compelled to warn the nation of the growing dangers posed by a “military industrial complex” largely of his own making. Soon, John F. Kennedy, would discover just how difficult it was to escape the Cold War frame in shaping American foreign policy.

12. The Eisenhower Presidency • Eisenhower inspired confidence and adopted a middle-of-the-road style. • He ran the government in a businesslike, cooperative manner, pursuing policies that helped private companies and allowing practices that harmed the environment. • He rejected calls from conservatives to dismantle the welfare state.

13. The Eisenhower Presidency • Eisenhower ended the Korean War but kept up anti-Communist rhetoric, treating the Cold War as permanent. • Although his presidency included two brief recessions, he presided over an extensive increase in real wages.

14. The “New Look” in Foreign Affairs • Stalin’s death did little to thaw U.S.-Soviet relations. • Eisenhower favored a reliance on American nuclear superiority in favor of more expensive conventional forces. • Secretary of State John Foster Dulles called for a policy of rollback to reverse communist gains.

15. The “New Look” in Foreign Affairs • The “new look” conflicted with Eisenhower’s cautious approach. Ike refused to intervene to aid anticommunist uprisings in East Berlin and Hungary. • In 1960 the Soviets shot down an U.S. spy plane and relations were frozen.

16. The “New Look” in Foreign Affairs (cont'd) • Sputnik alarmed Americans, leading to creation of NASA for space and missile research and greater federal aid to science and language education.

17. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev enjoys a bite to eat

18. Covert Action • Eisenhower favored covert action over direct confrontation. • Under Allen Dulles, the CIA grew in size, budget and operations. • The CIA sponsored paramilitary operations in hostile or unstable regimes when newly emerging nations sought to recover resources from foreign investors.

19. Covert Action (cont'd) • Covert operations did little to lessen Anti-Americanism in the Third World.

20. Global Interventions • American interventions in Iran overthrew a popular but leftist government and helped secure oil concessions from the restored Shah. • Support for Israel was challenged when Ike rejected European appeals to help seize and return the Suez Canal to Britain.

21. Global Interventions (cont'd) • In just one of several actions, the CIA-sponsored coup overthrew the government of Jacobo Arbenz Guzman in Guatemala.

22. MAP 27.1 The United States in the Caribbean, 1948–66

23. Global Interventions • The United States provided France with massive military aid in its struggle to hold on to Vietnam. • Ike rejected the use of U.S. ground troops, but believed that if Vietnam fell, the rest of Southeast Asia would fall like dominoes. • Vietnam was temporarily divided at the 17th parallel.

24. Global Interventions (cont'd) • Eisenhower backed the repressive and unpopular Diem regime in South Vietnam.

25. The Affluent Society

26. A crowded commuter train

27. The Affluent Society • John Kenneth Galbraith’s book, The Affluent Society (1958), gave a label to postwar America. While American capitalism had worked “quite brilliantly” since World War II, Americans, he argued, needed to spend less on personal consumption and more on schools and social services.

28. The Affluent Society (cont’d) • The deeply-held popular belief in the right to a continuously expanding economy and a steadily increasing standard of living—even against the backdrop of global anxieties associated with the Cold War—shaped American social and political life.

29. Subsidizing Prosperity • The federal government helped subsidize this prosperity by providing loans for homes and assisting the growth of suburbs. • One of the first planned communities was built by William Levitt and encompassed 17,000 homes, without a single African-American resident.

30. An aerial view of 1950s tract houses

31. Subsidizing Prosperity • The federal government: • paid for veterans’ college education; • built an interstate highway system; and • following the Russian launch of a satellite, spent millions on education • Meanwhile, Cold War military spending supported well paying civilian jobs, jealously protected by politicians.

32. Suburban Life • Suburban life: • strengthened the domestic ideal • provided a model of the efficient, patient suburban wife for television • Suburban growth corresponded with an increase in church attendance.

33. FIGURE 27.1 The Growth of the Suburbs, 1950–70

34. Suburban Life • Popular religious figures stressed the importance of fitting in, while rebels such as Betty Friedan (The Feminine Mystique, 1963) challenged conformist assumptions. • California came to embody postwar suburban life, with the cars connecting its components.

35. Suburban Life (cont'd) • Many suburbs were segregated on lines of class and national origin—workers, Jews, Italians or Irish—challenging ideals.

36. FIGURE 27.2 L.A. County Population 1920–80

37. Organized Labor and the AFL-CIO • In the mid-1950s, trade unions reached a peak of membership and influence, especially in the Democratic Party. • The merger of the AFL and the CIO marked the zenith of the unions. • Labor corruption led Congress to pass the Landrum-Griffin Act widening control over union activities.

38. Organized Labor and the AFL-CIO (cont'd) • Total membership numbers declined after 1955 but new inroads were made in the public sector.

39. Lonely Crowds and Organizational Men • Critics found the suburbs as dull and conformist—obscuring the real class and ethnic differences • David Reisman (The Lonely Crowd, 1950) • Americans had become overly conforming, less individualistic, more peer-oriented • William Whyte (Organization Man, 1956) • culture of conformity

40. Lonely Crowds and Organizational Men (cont’d) • Critics found the suburbs as dull and conformist—obscuring the real class and ethnic differences • C. Wright Mills • argued that a small, interconnected power elite was emerging

41. The Expansion of Higher Education • The postwar baby boom accompanied by an expansion of higher education, assisted by extensive federal aid. • Enrollments grew from 2.6 m. in 1950, to 3.2 m. in 1960, to 7.5 m. in 1970 • Draft deferments • military service fell to the lower class

42. The Expansion of Higher Education (cont'd) • Colleges accepted the values of corporate culture with 20 percent of all graduates majoring in business.

43. Health and Medicine • New medicines and new vaccines against diseases allowed many to live healthier lives. • Doctor shortages meant that poor and elderly Americans and those in rural areas lacked access to these improvements. • The AMA did nothing to increase the flow of new doctors and discouraged any national health insurance.

44. Health and Medicine (cont'd) • Alfred Kinsey’s studies of human sexuality alarmed many but led to more open discussion of sex.

45. Youth Culture

46. The marquee at the Paramount Theater

47. Youth Culture • The term—and concept—of “teenager” entered American life after WW II. The fifteen years following World War II saw unprecedented attention to America’s adolescents.

48. Youth Culture (cont’d) • Deep fears were expressed about everything from teenage sexuality and juvenile delinquency to young people’s driving habits, hairstyles, and choice of clothing.

49. Youth Culture (cont’d) • At the same time, advertisers and businesses pursued the disposable income of America’s affluent youth with a vengeance, indirectly promoting growth of the youth culture.

50. The Youth Market • Young people’s numbers grew and their purchasing power increased to $10 b. a year by 1959. • The marketplace, schools, and mass media reinforced the notion of teenagers as a special community. • Psychologists and popular writers began to address “teen” issues and advised parents on how to raise teenagers.