The Eisenhower Administration

As president, Dwight Eisenhower (1953-61) presided over eight years of relative peace and moderate economic growth at home while his foreign policy initiatives, including U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, shaped the global order for decades to come.

Learning Objective

Summarize the Space Race and the domestic and foreign policies of Eisenhower's presidency

Key Points

Eisenhower, who had the option of being a Democratic nominee, chose to run for the Republican ticket in 1952 to combat Robert Taft's position of non-interventionism.
Eisenhower's dedication to ending the Korean War and his stance against government corruption and communism made him a clear choice for president in 1952.
Eisenhower made great strides in Cold War policy, including overtures to the Soviet Union, meeting with Spain's Fascist leader, Francisco Franco, and signing the armistice stifling the Korean War.
Working with Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and CIA director Allen Welsh Dulles, Eisenhower intensified CIA activities under the pretense of resisting the spread of communism in poorer countries, particularly in Africa. He also significantly increased the U.S. involvement in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. The Space Race began under Eisenhower's administration when he established NASA in response to the Soviets launching Sputnik. The Space Race lasted well into the 1980s.
In domestic affairs, Eisenhower expanded Social Security, kept the national debt low, reduced taxes, and limited immigration. Despite an ambiguous stand on the civil rights, he also introduced first civil rights legislation since 1875.

Terms

Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO)
An international organization for collective defense in Southeast Asia created by the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, or Manila Pact. The formal institution was established on February 19, 1955. Primarily created to block further communist gains in Southeast Asia, it is generally considered a failure because internal conflict and dispute hindered general use of it military.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
The thirty-fourth President of the United States, serving from 1953 until 1961. He was previously a five-star general in the United States Army during World War II, serving as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe. He had responsibility for planning and supervising the invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch in 1942-43 and the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944-45 from the Western Front.
Space Race
A 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the Soviet Union and the United States, for supremacy in spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the missile-based nuclear arms race between the two nations that occurred following World War II, enabled by captured German rocket technology and personnel. The technological superiority required for such supremacy was seen as necessary for national security, and symbolic of ideological superiority. It spawned pioneering efforts to launch artificial satellites, unmanned space probes of the Moon, Venus, and Mars, and human spaceflight in low Earth orbit and to the Moon.
Eisenhower Doctrine
A term referring to a speech by President Dwight David Eisenhower on January 5, 1957, within a "Special Message to the Congress on the Situation in the Middle East." Under it, a Middle Eastern country could request American economic assistance or aid from U.S. military forces if it was being threatened by armed aggression from another state.
Spanish Miracle
A term given to a broadly based economic boom in Spain from 1959 to 1974. The international oil and stagflation crises of the 1970s ended the boom that started following U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower's efforts to establish diplomatic relations with Franco's Spain, which ended the country's post-war isolation.
Fifth Party System
A term referring to the era of American national politics that began with the New Deal in 1932 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This era emerged from the realignment of the voting blocs and interest groups supporting the Democratic Party into the New Deal Coalition following the Great Depression. For this reason it is also often called the New Deal Party System. It followed the Fourth Party System, usually called the Progressive Era. Experts debate whether it ended in the mid-1960s, the early 1980s (when the Moral Majority took off), the mid-1990s, or possibly continues to the present.

Full Text

INTRODUCTION

The presidency of General Dwight David Eisenhower, from 1953 to 1961, was a Republican interlude during the Fifth Party System, following 20 years of Democratic control of the White House. It was a period of peace and prosperity, and interparty cooperation, even as the world was polarized by the Cold War. His main legacy is the Interstate Highway System. He sent the Army to Arkansas to enforce court orders regarding racial integration, created NASA, and made the space race against Russia a high priority. He emphasized advanced technology to keep down the expense of a large military manpower. He supported the conservative fiscal and taxation policies of the Taft Republicans. Ike, as he was popularly known, expanded the Social Security program but otherwise did not try to change the surviving "New Deal" welfare programs. A self-described "progressive conservative," President Eisenhower warned against the military-industrial complex. He is consistently ranked by scholars and political historians as one of the ten greatest American presidents.

The official White House portrait of Dwight D. Eisenhower

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his 1954 State of the Union address, became the first president to publicly state his support for prohibiting age-based denials of suffrage for those 18 and older.

ELECTION of 1952

Eisenhower was a favorite of the New Dealers during the war, especially Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Hopkins. Rejecting Democratic efforts to nominate him in 1948 and 1952, Eisenhower instead chose to run for the Republican Party nomination in 1952. His goal was to prevent Robert Taft's non-interventionism—including opposition to NATO—from becoming public policy. Eisenhower's choice for vice-president on his ticket was Richard Nixon. He saw Nixon's strong vocal opposition against communism as an asset to his campaign. In the 1952 U.S. presidential election, Eisenhower easily defeated Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson II and became the first career soldier since Ulysses S. Grant to be elected President.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Eisenhower's presidency was dominated by the Cold War and the prolonged confrontation with the Soviet Union. When Joseph Stalin died in 1953, Eisenhower sought to extend an olive branch to the new Soviet regime in his "Chance for Peace" speech, but continued turmoil in Moscow prevented a meaningful response and the Cold War deepened.

In 1953 Eisenhower opened relations with Spain under Fascist leader Francisco Franco. Despite its undemocratic nature, Spain's strategic position in light of the Cold War and Anti-Communist position led Eisenhower to build a trade and military alliance with the Spanish through the Pact of Madrid, ultimately bringing an end to Spain's isolation after World War II, and bringing about the Spanish Miracle.

During his campaign, Eisenhower had promised to end the stalemated Korean War (1950-1953). This promise was fulfilled on July 27, 1953 by the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement. Defense treaties with South Korea and the Republic of China were signed, and the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) alliance was formed in an effort to halt the spread of Communism in Asia.

Eisenhower, working with Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and CIA director Allen Welsh Dulles, intensified CIA activities under the pretense of resisting the spread of communism in poorer countries. The CIA in part deposed the leaders of Iran in Operation Ajax, of Guatemala through Operation Pbsuccess, and possibly the newly independent Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville). In the Republic of Congo, the Soviet Union and the KGB had intervened in favor of popularly elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. The U.S. CIA gave weapons and covert support to pro-Western and Democratic CIA assets Joseph Kasavubu and his subordinate, Colonel Joseph Mobutu. The initial struggle came to a close in December 1960, after Kasavubu and Mobutu overthrew Lumumba and proceeded to turn the country (later known as Zaire) into an autocracy, which was unstable long after the end of Eisenhower's term.

Eisenhower also increased U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia. In 1954, he sent Allen Welsh Dulles as a delegate to the Geneva Conference, which ended the First Indochina War and temporarily partitioned Vietnam into a Communist northern half (under Ho Chi Minh) and a non-Communist southern half (under Ngo Dinh Diem). The U.S. strongly rejected the Geneva Agreement. In February 1955, Eisenhower dispatched the first American soldiers to Vietnam as military advisors to Diem's army. After Diem announced the formation of the Republic of Vietnam (RVN, commonly known as South Vietnam) in October, Eisenhower immediately recognized the new state and offered military, economic, and technical assistance.

In 1956, Eisenhower warned Britain repeatedly not to use force to regain control of the Suez Canal, which Egypt had nationalized. Regardless, Britain, France, and Israel made war on Egypt and seized the canal. Eisenhower used the economic power of the U.S. to force his European allies to back down and withdraw from Egypt. It marked the end of British imperial dominance in the Middle East and opened the way for greater American involvement in the region. During his second term, Eisenhower became increasingly involved in Middle Eastern affairs, sending troops to Lebanon in 1958 and promoting the creation of the Baghdad Pact between Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan, and Iran, as well as Britain.

After the Suez Crisis the United States became the protector of unstable friendly governments in the Middle East via the "Eisenhower Doctrine." Designed by Secretary of State Dulles, it held the U.S. would be "prepared to use armed force ... [to counter] aggression from any country controlled by international communism". Further, the United States would provide economic and military aid and, if necessary, use military force to stop the spread of communism in the Middle East.

Eisenhower in the Oval Office

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Oval Office, February 29, 1956, photo by unknown.

SPACE RACE

The "Space Race" originated from the missile-based nuclear arms race between the the U.S. and Soviet Union that occurred following World War II, as both countries sought to recruit German engineers who worked on ballistic missile programs that could be utilized to launch objects into space. Americans were astonished when Soviets were the first to launch a satellite (Sputnik) into space on October 4, 1957. The Soviet Union also later beat the U.S. for the first human in space, Yuri Gagarin, on April 12, 1961.

Eisenhower came under heavy criticism after the Sputnik launch, and his administration responded to this crisis with many strategic initiatives, including the creation of NASA in 1958 and a speeding up of the American space program. Under Eisenhower, the NASA's human spaceflight program started and visionary projects such as Saturn and the F-1 rocket engine were funded. Those initiatives were necessary for success in the subsequent administrations' effort to win the Space Race.

DOMESTIC AFFAIRS

Eisenhower was a conservative whose policy views were close to Taft. They agreed that a free enterprise economy should run itself. He did not attempt to roll back the New Deal—he expanded Social Security. His major project was building the Interstate Highway System using federal gasoline taxes. While his 1952 landslide victory gave the Republicans control of both houses of the Congress, Eisenhower believed that taxes could not be cut until the budget was balanced.

On June 17, 1954, Eisenhower launched Operation Wetback in response to increasing illegal immigration to the United States. As many as three million illegal immigrants had crossed the U.S. Mexican border to work in California, Arizona, Texas, and other states. Eisenhower opposed this movement, believing that it lowered the wages of American workers and led to corruption. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) sent about 80,000 immigrants back to Mexico.

During the early stages of the Civil Rights Movement, President Eisenhower denied backing with strong opinion the 1954 Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education in the public arena. However, In 1957, he sent federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas after Governor Orval Faubus attempted to defy a federal court order calling for desegregation of Little Rock public schools. The soldiers escorted nine African-American students, who became known as the Little Rock Nine, to Little Rock Central High School. Eisenhower also proposed to Congress the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and of 1960 and signed those acts into law. The 1957 act for the first time established a permanent civil rights office inside the Justice Department and a Civil Rights Commission to hear testimony about abuses of voting rights. Although both acts were much weaker than subsequent civil rights legislation, they constituted the first significant civil rights acts since 1875.

Democrats attacked Eisenhower for not taking a public stand against Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist campaigns. Privately he held McCarthy and his tactics in contempt and worked behind the scenes to weaken McCarthy, in particular by putting together a task force headed by Herbert Brownell, Sherman Adams, and Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. to oversee the defense of the Army., leading to the pivotal Army-McCarthy hearings which led to his downfall in 1954.

Eisenhower retained his popularity throughout his presidency. In 1956, he was re-elected by an even wider margin than in 1952, again defeating Stevenson, and carrying such traditionally Democratic states (at the time) as Texas and Tennessee.

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