· Popular Music in Memphis
o Elvis Presley
§ 19 years old
§ Overton Park – Memphis’s outdoor amphitheater
§ July 1954
§ Headliner country star Slim Whitman
§ Elvis’s first record
· Sun Records
§ First big show
§ Crowd went wild for “That’s All Right”
o Start of rock ‘n’ roll
§ Elvis combined blues, country music, and riveting performance style
§ Made for teenagers
· Brought teens together around jukeboxes, in cars, at sock hops, and at private parties
§ Enormous consumer power of emerging youth culture
§ Post war teenagers
· Most affluent generation of young people in American history
· Ability and eagerness to purchase
o Records
o Phonograph players
o Transistor radios
o Clothing
o Makeup
o Cars
· Helped define affluent society of post war era
o Memphis
§ Halfway between St. Louis and New Orleans
§ Grew in World War II
· Lumber mills, furniture factories, chemical manufacturing supplementing the cotton market
§ Diversity of popular theater and music
· Opera house, brass bands, vaudeville and burlesque, minstrel shows, jug bands, and blues clubs
§ Legally segregated between blacks and whites
§ Class differences among whites
· Elvis moved from Mississippi to Memphis in 1949 like many other poor rural whites
o Presleys poor enough to qualify for public housing
· All-white middle-class like James Conaway considered people like the Presleys “white trash”
o Not above or below negroes; from a different universe
o Gloria Wade-Gales
§ Lived in all-black Foote Homes housing project in Memphis
§ Acknowledged lack of power but believed in strength
§ “Surviving meant being black, and being black meant believing in our humanity.”
o Challenge to class and racial barriers
§ Elvis
· Dreamy shy boy who turned to music for release
· Wide range of music styles from Memphis
· Influence from choir at Assembly of God Church
· Beatle Street
o Main black thoroughfare of Memphis
o One of nation’s most influential centers of African American music
o Attracted both black and white fans
· Performed with black contestants in amateur shows
· Distinct style of music
· Said that “colored folks been singing and playing it just like I’m doing now, man, for more years than I know.”
§ White teenagers
· Dissatisfied with cloying pop music
· Turned to rhythmic drive and emotional intensity of black rhythm and blues
· Adopted rock ‘n’ roll
o Was an attitude, a celebration of being young, and a sense of having something that adult authority could not understand or control
o Expression of revolt against conformity
o Elvis as international star
§ Signed onto RCA Records in 1956
§ Topped charts and blurred musical boundaries
§ Television appearances made him more popular
· Uproar of sexual performance style
§ Established rock ‘n’ roll as interracial phenomenon
§ Rock ‘n’ roll heralded shift in American society
· American Society at Midcentury
o Economist John Kenneth Galbraith
§ The Affluent Society (1958) – most famous work
· Gave label to postwar America
§ American capitalism had been successful
§ Thought Americans needed to spend less on themselves and more on public funds
§ Most Americans considered strong economic growth fact of postwar period
o The Eisenhower Presidency
§ Dwight D. Eisenhower landslide victory in 1952
· First full two-term presidency since Grant
· Conservative vision of community
o America is corporate commonwealth
§ Like Hoover’s “associative state”
o Believed industrial strife, high inflation, and fierce partisan politics could be fixed through cooperation, self-restraint, and disinterested public service
o Limits to New Deal
o Encouraged voluntary relationship between business and government
§ Often chose to remain in the “middle of the road”
· Easily satirized by liberals and intellectuals for baldness, verbal gaffes, vagueness, and contradictory pronouncements
· Majority of American population agreed with Eisenhower
· Kept conservative and liberal wings united
· Appealed to many Democratic and independent voters
§ Wanted to run government like a business while letting states and corporate interests guide domestic policy and economy
· Appointed 9 businessmen to first cabinet
o Three from GM
o Charles Wilson
§ Former GM chief
§ Secretary of Defense
§ Famous aphorism
· “What was good for our country was good for General Motors, and vice versa.”
· Appointed men congenial to corporate interests to Federal Trade Commission, Federal Communications Commission, and Federal Power Commission
· Secured passage of Submerged Lands Act in 1953
o Transferred $40 billion worth of offshore oil lands from government to Gulf states
o Greater role in states and private companies
o Cost Treasury billions
§ Greater federal responsibility from New Deal
· Rejected Republican calls to dismantle Social Security
· Moderate expansion of Social Security and unemployment insurance and small increases in minimum wage
· Created Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
o Appointed Oveta Culp Hobby as secretary
§ Second woman to hold cabinet post
· Continued agricultural parity payments designed to sustain farm prices
o Federal agriculture spending went from $1 billion to $7 billion from 1952-1960
§ Hesitant to use fiscal policy to pump up economy
· Economy was in recession after Korean War in 1953 and 1958
o Unemployment reached 7.5%
· Refused to cut taxes or increase spending to stimulate economy
o Feared starting inflationary spiral
· Real wages for average family rose 20% during Eisenhower’s presidency
· Low inflation and steady growth
o Greater prosperity to most Americans
· Created “an atmosphere of greater serenity and mutual confidence”
o Subsidizing Prosperity
§ Federal government played crucial role in subsidizing programs that helped American families reach middle-class status
§ Federal aid
· Buy homes
· Attend college and technical schools
· Live in new suburbs
· Began in New Deal and World War II
· Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
o Established in 1934
o Extended government’s role in subsidizing housing industry
o Insured long time mortgage loans by private lenders for home building
o Attracted private capital and revolutionized the industry
o FHA mortgage loan required less than 10%for down payment and spread low-interest monthly payments over thirty years
· Long-range drawbacks of FHA
o Insurance went overwhelmingly to new residential developments
§ Hastened decline of older, inner-city neighborhoods
§ Bias towards suburban, middle-class communities
§ FHA policy to favor construction of single-family housing
· Discouraged multi-unit housing
§ Refused loans for reconstruction of older structures and rental units
§ Required “unbiased professional estimate” before loan guarantee
o Discriminated against racially mixed communities
§ Inscribed racial and income segregation in suburbia
· Suburbs built as planned communities
o Levittown
§ Opened in Hempstead, Long Island in 1947
§ 1,500 acres of former potato fields
§ Developed by William Levitt
· Called it the “General Motors of the housing industry”
· First entrepreneur to bring mass production techniques to housing
§ Materials were precut and prefabricated and put together by unskilled, nonunion workers
§ More than 17,000 houses and 82,000 people
§ No residents were African American
· Owners were only allowed to rent out houses to people of the Caucasian race
· 1944 Servicemen’s Readjustment Act
o Known as the G.I. Bill of Rights
o Provided veterans with low-interest mortgages and business loans
§ Subsidized growth of suburbs
o Nearly 10 million veterans received tuition and training benefits in 1956
o Loans from Veteran’s Administration totaled more than $50 billion by 1962
· Federal Highway Act of 1956
o Authorized $32 billion for construction of a national interstate highway system
§ Money came from new taxes on gasoline, oil, tires, buses, and trucks
§ Revenue held separately in a Highway Trust Fund
o Single largest public works program by 1972
§ 41,000 miles of highway
§ $76 billion
o Stimulated automobile industry and suburb building
o Accelerated decline of American mass transit and older cities
o 1970
§ One of world’s nets roads
§ One of worst public transportation system
· New initiatives for aid of education
o After Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, America thought they weren’t training enough scientists and engineers
o Eisenhower administration wanted to strengthen education in science, technology and mathematics
· National Defense Education Act (NDEA)
o Allocated $280 million in grants in 1958
§ Matching grants from states
o State universities upgraded science facilities
o $300 million in low-interest student loans
§ Only had to repay half if they taught elementary school or high school afterwards
§ Fellowship support for students who wanted to teach at colleges and universities
o New importance on high quality education
· Suburban Life
o Suburban boom strengthened the domestic ideal of the nuclear family as the model for American life
o The picture of the perfect suburban wife became a dominate image in television, movies and magazines
§ Efficient
§ Patient
§ Charming
o Suburban domesticity was usually presented as women’s only path to happiness and fulfillment
§ Cultural image often masked existence defined by housework, child care, and boredom
o Betty Friedan
§ Wife, mother, and journalist
§ Began a systematic survey of her Smith College classmates
§ Found a “ strange discrepancy between the reality of our lives as women and the image to which we were trying to conform”
§ Expanded her research and in 1963 published The Feminine Mystique
- Landmark book that articulated the frustrations of suburban women and helped to launch a feminist movement
o For millions of suburban families the middle class life could be achieved only with 2 incomes
o Expansion of the female labor force was a central economic fact of post war world II
§ Grew from 17 million in 1946 to 22 million in 1958
§ 40 percent of women were employed full-time or part-time
§ 30 percent of all married women worked outside of the home
o Married women looked to supplement income and ensure a middle-class standard of living for their families
§ The opportunity to move to a more fashionable neighborhood, to purchase a new car, or take a family vacation often depended upon a wife’s second income
o The postwar rebirth of religious life was strongly associated with suburban living
§ In 1940, less than half of the American population belonged to institutionalized churches
§ By the mid-1950’s nearly three quarters of identified themselves as church members
o A church building boom was centered in the expanding suburbs
o Norman Vincent Peale and Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
§ Best selling religious authors
§ Offered reassurance and the “power of positive thinking”
§ Stressed individual solutions to problems, opposing social or political activism
§ Their emphasis on the importance of belonging , of fitting in, meshed well with suburban social life and the ideal of family-centered domesticity
o California came to embody postwar suburban life
o Center of the lifestyle was the automobile
§ Cars were a necessity for commuting to work
§ California also led the nation in the development of drive-in facilities: motels, movies, shopping malls, fast-food restaurants, and banks
§ More than 50, 000 miles of highways would be constructed around Los Angeles alone
o Orange County
§ Southeast of Los Angeles
§ The “centeress city”
§ Emerged as the dominant form of the community
o Contemporary journalists, novelists, and social scientists contributed to the popular image of suburban life as dull, conformist, and people exclusively by the educated middle class
o John Cheever
§ Won the National Book Award for the Wapshot Chronicle
o Writers tended to obscure the real class and ethnic differences found among and between suburban communities
o Many new suburbs had a blue-collar cast
· Organized labor and the AFL-CIO
o By the mid-1950s American trade unions reached a high point in their penetration of the labor market
§ Reflected the gains made during the organizing drives in core mass-production industries during the New Deal and World War II
o Union influence in political life increased
§ The republican swept to power in 1952, meaning was without an ally in the White House
o American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) pushed for a merger of the two groups as the way to protect and build on the movement’s recent gains.
o George Meany
§ Head of the AFL
§ Epitome of the modern labor boss
§ Originally a plumber
§ Worked his way through the AFL bureaucracy and had played a leading role on the National War Labor Board during World War II
§ Pushed the AFL closer to the Democratic Party
§ Believed unions must focus on improving the economic well-being of their members
o Walter Reuther
§ Meany’s counterpart in the CIO
§ Originally a tool-and-die maker in the auto shops of Detroit
§ Come to prominence as a leader of the United Automobile Workers during organizing drives of the 1930’s and 40’s
§ Believed that American unions ought to stand for something beyond the bread-and-butter needs of their members
§ Supported broader social vision including racial equality, aggressive union organizing, and expansion of the welfare state
o Meany and Reuther believed a merger of their organizations offered the best strategy for the labor movement
o In 1955, the newly combined AFL-CLO brought some 12.5 million union members under one banner
§ Meany was president and Reuther was the director of the Industrial Union Department
o Merger marked the apex of trade union membership
§ Share of labor market began a slow and steady decline
§ Union membership helped bring the trappings of middle-class prosperity to millions of workers and their families
- Home ownership, higher education for children, travel, and comfortable retirement
o AFL-CIO showed little commitment in bringing unorganized workers into the fold
§ Scandals involving union corruption and racketeering hurt the labor movement’s public image
o In 1957, the AFL-CIO expelled the International Brotherhood of Teamsters because of its close ties with the organized crime
o Congress passed the Landrum-Act in 1959 after highly publicized hearings into corruption
§ Widened government control over union affairs
§ further restricted union use of secondary boycotts during strikes
o during the 1950’s and 60’s union membership increased dramatically
§ only 400,000 government works belonged to unions in 1955
§ by early 1970’s, the figure reached 4 million
· Lonely crowds and organization men
o David Riesman’s “The Lonely Crowd” (1950)
§ Most ambitious and controversial critique of postwar suburban America
o Riesman argued that modern America had created the “other-directed” man
§ Peer-oriented
§ Previously, America had cultivated “inner-directed” people
- Self-reliant individualists who early on in life had internalized self-discipline and moral standards
§ Riesman thought Americans were less likely to take risks and act independently
o William H. Whyte’s “Organization Man” (1956)
§ Study of the Chicago suburb of Park Forest
§ Offered a picture of people obsessed with fitting into communities and jobs
o Whyte believed middle-class suburbanites strove mainly for a comfortable, secure niche in the system
§ They held to a new social ethic
o C.Wright Mills
§ “White Collar” (1951)
- Analyzed the job culture that typified life for middle-class salaried employees, office workers, and bureaucrats
§ “The Power Elite” (1956)
- Argued that a small, interconnected group of corporate executives, military men, and political leaders had come to dominate American society
· Expansion of higher education
o American higher education experienced rapid growth after the war
§ The number of students enrolled colleges and universities went from 2.6 million in 1950 to 3.2 million in 1960
§ Doubled to 7.2 million in 1970, as the baby boom generation came
o Reasons to the rapid increase…
§ GI Bill
§ National Defense Education Act
§ Government spending on research and development in universities
o 20 percent of all college graduates majored in business or other commercial fields by the mid 1950’s
§ The degree was a gateway to the middle-class
§ Became a requirement for a whole range of expanding white-collar jobs in banking, insurance, real estate, marketing, ect.
· Health and Medicine
o New antibiotics such as penicillin were manufactured and distributed on a mass basis
§ After the war, they became widely available to the general population
§ Federal support for research continued after the war with the reorganization of the national Institutes of Health in 1948
o By 1960, many dreaded epidemic diseases had virtually disappeared from American life
§ Tuberculosis
§ Diphtheria
§ Whooping cough
§ Measles
§ Poliomyelitis
o Most celebrated achievement of postwar medicine was the victory over poliomyelitis
§ Between 1947-1951 killed an annual average of 39,000 Americans
§ Crippled those who didn’t die
§ In 1952, 58,000 cases were reported
- Most from crowded swimming pools or other gathering places
o In 1955, Jonas Salk pioneered the first effective vaccine against poliomyelitis
§ Used a preparation of killed virus
§ A national wide program of polio vaccination virtually eliminated polio by the 1960’s
o Benefits of “wonder drugs” and advanced medical techniques were not shared equally by all Americans
§ More sophisticated treatments and expensive new hospital facilities increases the costs of health care
§ The very poor and many elderly Americans found themselves unable to afford modern medicine
§ Thousands of communities lacked doctors or decent hospital facilities
§ Critics of the medical establishment charged that medical specialists and large hospital complexes has increased the number of unnecessary surgical operations
§ The decline of the general practitioner
- meant fewer physicians made house calls
- more and more people went to hospital emergency rooms or outpatient clinics for treatment
o The American Medical Association(AMA)
§ Certified medical schools
§ Did nothing to increase the flow of doctors
§ Lobbied hard against efforts to expand government responsibility for public health
o Number of physicians per 100,000 people declined between 1950-1960
§ Shortage was made up by doctors trained in other countries
o Eisenhower and Truman’s Plans
§ Truman had advanced a plan for national health insurance, to be run along the lines of Social Security
§ Eisenhower proposed a program that would offer government assistance to private health insurance companies
§ AMA denounced both proposals as “socialized medicine
- Helped block direct federal involvement in health care until the creation of Medicare (for the elderly) and Medicaid (for the poor) in 1965
· Health and Medicine
o Improvements in medical care allowed many Americans to enjoy longer, healthier lives
§ Penicillin was manufactured on a mass basis
· After the war, became widely available to the general population
§ Federal support for research continued after the war with the reorganization of the National Institutes of Health in 1948
o By 1960, many deadly diseases virtually disappeared from American life
§ Tuberculosis
§ Diphtheria
§ Whooping cough
§ Measles
o Poliomyelitis
§ 1947-1951: crippled those it did not kill
§ Struck an annual average of 39,000 Americans
§ 1952: 58,000 cases reported
§ 1955: Jonas Salk pioneered the 1st effective vaccine against it
· Virtually eliminated polio by the 1960s
o More sophisticated treatments increased the costs of health care
§ Poor and elderly found themselves unable to afford modern medicine
§ Rural areas and small towns lacked doctors of decent hospital facilities
o Critics stated…
§ The medical establishment increased the number of unnecessary surgical operations
· Especially for women and children
§ Fewer physicians made house calls
§ More and more people went to hospital emergency rooms or outpatient clinics for treatment
o American Medical Association (AMA)
§ Certified medical schools
§ Did nothing to increase the flow of new doctors
· Number of physicians per 100,000 people decreased between 1950-1952
· Shortage was made up by doctors from other countries
§ Lobbied hard against efforts to expand government responsibility for public health
o Harry Truman had advanced a plan for national health insurance
o Dwight Eisenhower proposed a program to offer government assistance to private health insurance companies
§ AMA denounced both programs as “socialized medicine”
· Helped block direct federal involvement in health care until the creation of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965
· Youth Culture
o The term “teenager” entered standard usage at the end of WWII
§ “a separate entity whose influence, fads, and fashions are worthy of discussion apart from the adult world”
o Teenagers often found themselves caught between :
§ Their desire to carve out their own sphere
§ The pressure to become an adult as quickly as possible
· The youth market
o Birthrates accelerated during the late 1930s & more rapidly during the war years
§ These babies were now teenagers
· Older siblings of the “baby boomers”
o Demographic growth of teens and postwar economic expansion created a large youth market
§ Advertisers focused on the special needs and desires of young consumers
· Cosmetics
· Clothing
· Radios
· Phonographs
· Cars
o 1959, Life summarized the new power of the youth market
§ “Counting only what is spent to satisfy their special teenage demands, the youngsters and their parents will shell out about $10 billion this year, a billion more than the total sales of GM.”
o Advertisers found that teenagers often played a critical role as “secret persuaders” in family purchase decisions
o Special market research organizations sprang up
§ Eugene Gilbert & company and Teen-Age Survey Incorporated
· Served business clients who were eager to attract teen consumers and instill brand loyalty
o 1950s and 1960s:
§ Teenagers had a major voice in determining America’s cultural fads
o Many parents thought that the overwhelming youth culture was dangerous to their authority
o Increasing uniformity of public school education contributed to public recognition of the status of teenagers
§ 1900: 1/8 of teens were in school
§ 1950s: 6/8 teens were in school
o Social scientists stressed the importance of peer pressure to understand teen behavior
· “Hail! Hail! Rock n’ Roll!”
o Demands of the new teen market reshaped the nation’s popular music
o Television broadcasting was replacing radio as the center of family entertainment
§ People began using radios in new ways
§ Production of portable transistor radios & car radios grew rapidly in the 1950s
· Listeners tuned them in for diversion from or an accompaniment to other activities
§ 1950: 2,700 AM stations on air
· 70% given to record shows
o Concentrated on popular music
§ Pop ballads, novelty songs, show tunes
o Recording industry:
§ Small independent record labels started recording African American rhythm and blues artists
§ Atlantic Records
· Most influential galaxy of artists
o Ray Charles
o Ruth Brown
o Joe Turner
§ Chess
· Blues-based artists
o Chuck Berry
o Bo Diddley
§ In New Orleans
· Imperial
o Fats Domino
· Specialty
o Little Richard
§ African Americans “crossed over” by adding millions of white teens to their fan base
§ Older companies (RCA, Decca, MGM, Capitol) ignored black music
· They wanted to offer “cover” versions by white pop singers
o Pallid imitations, artistically inferior to the originals
§ Racism was still a powerful force in American life
· Limited how closely white kids could identify with black performers
· Because of power of major companies, white covers usually outsold black originals
· Some disc jockeys refused to play covers
o Attracted enthusiastic audiences (both black and white)
· Alan Freed (disc jockey)
o Popularized the term “rock n’ roll”
§ Describing black rhythm and blues that he played on the air
§ Stage was then set for white rock n’ roll artists
· Elvis Presley
o Reinvented American Pop music
o Challenged the old lines separating black music from white
o Symbol of rebellious youth
· Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis
§ Chuck Berry
· African American who was adept at capturing teen spirit with humor, irony, and passion
o Defined what it meant to be young in postwar America
· Almost Grown
o Teens remade landscape of pop music into their own turf
o Dollar value of annual record sales tripled between 1954 and 1959
§ From $213 million to $603 million
o New magazines that were aimed at teens flourished in postwar years
§ Modern Teen
§ Teen Digest
§ Dig
o Most teens focused on the rituals, pleasures, and sorrows surrounding teens
§ Behaviors patters among white teenagers exhibited a new kind of youth
· At the same time, a more pronounced identification with adults
o Teens seemed to be determined to become adults as quickly as possible
o Postwar affluence multiplied the number of two-car families
§ Easier for 16 year olds to get driving privileges
· Formerly reserved for 18 year olds
o Girls began dating
§ Wearing brassieres, nylon stockings, and using cosmetics at an earlier age than before
§ Factors contributing to this trend:
· Continuing decline in age of first menstruation
· Sharp drop in the age of marriage after WWII
· Precocious social climate of junior highs
§ Idea of “going steady” became common in high school
o Teenagers often felt torn between their identification with youth culture and the pressure to assume adult responsibilities
§ Many young people had part time jobs, along with school & social life
· Many teen-oriented magazines, music, and movies gave advice and sympathy
· Deviance and Delinquency
o Many adults blamed rock n’ roll for the decline in parental control over teens
§ Opposition to rock n’ roll played on long-standing racist fears that white females may be attracted to black music & performers
o Undercurrent for all of this opposition:
§ Anxiety over the more open expression of sexual feeling by performers & audiences
o Increase in juvenile delinquency
§ Many magazines, books, and newspaper stories asserted that criminal behavior among the nation’s young was chronic
o Most attention went to:
§ Gang fights
§ Drug and alcohol abuse
§ Car theft
§ Sexual offenses
o US Senate established a special subcommittee on juvenile delinquency
§ Convinced much of the public that youthful criminals were terrorizing the country
· Public perception of the problem was exaggerated
o Juvenile delinquency tells more about anxieties over family life & erosion of adult authority
§ Teenagers seemed more loyal to peer culture than their parents
§ Growing importance of mass media brought efforts to regulate forms believed to cause juvenile delinquency
o 1954: Fredric Wertham
§ Published Seduction of the Innocent
· Argued that crime comic books incited teens to criminal acts
· Mass culture could overwhelm the traditional influences of family, school, & religion
· Eventually the comic book industry adopted a code to limit violence & crime
o Movies indicated that teens & their parents interpreted youthful deviance in different ways
§ The Wild One
· Adults thought the film was a critique of mindless gang violence
· Teenagers identified with the main character
§ Rebel Without a Cause
· Suggested that parents can cause delinquency when they fail to conform to conventional roles
· MISSING DANNYS PART
· Covert Action
o Eisenhower combined the overt threat of massive retaliation in his “new look” approach to foreign affairs
§ Heavy reliance on covert interventions
§ Support of CIA
o Eisenhower was a supporter of covert operations during WWII
§ During his presidency…
· CIA sponsored covert paramilitary operations became a key facet of American foreign policy
· American public wary of direct US military interventions
o CIA promise of cheap, quick, and quiet ways to depose hostile or unstable regimes, or prop up more conservative governments under siege by indigenous revolutionaries
o CIA director Allen Dulles
§ Brother of secretary of state and former leader of CIA’s WWII precursor
§ CIA’s mandate was to collect and analyze information
· Did much more under Dulles’s command
o Thousands of covert agents stationed all over the world carried out a wide range of political activities
o Some agents arranged large, secret financial payments to friendly political parties
§ Conservative Christian Democrats in Italy and in Latin America or foreign trade unions opposed to socialist parties
o Soviet Union tried to win influence
§ Africa, Asia, and Latin America
§ Attempted to appeal to a shared “anti-imperialism”
§ Offered modest amounts of foreign aid
§ Normally, Communists played only small roles in 3rd world independence movements
§ Issue of race and popular desire to recover national resources from foreign investors inflamed already widespread anti-European and anti-American feelings
§ When new nations or familiar allies threatened to interfere with US regional security arrangements or expropriate the property of American businesses…
· The Eisenhower administration turned to covert action and military intervention
· Intervening around the World
o CIA produced a swift, major victory in Iran in 1953
§ Iran’s popular prime minister had nationalized Britain’s Anglo-Iranian Oil Company
· State Department worried this would set a precedent in the oil-rich Middle East
§ Kermit Roosevelt (CIA chief in Iran) organized and financed an opposition within the Iranian army and on Teheran streets
· Led to CIA led movement that forced the prime minister out of office and replaced him with Riza Shah Pahlavi
o Proved his loyalty to American sponsors by renegotiating oil contracts
§ Assured American companies 40% of Iran’s oil concessions
o Rivalry between Israel and its Arab neighbors
§ Complicated US policy in the rest of the Middle East
§ Arab countries launched an all-out attack on Israel in 1948
· Immediately after the US and the Soviet Union recognized its independence
· Israel repulsed the attack, drove thousands of Palestinians from their home, occupied territory, and seized lands
· Arab states refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist and subjected it to a damaging economic boycott
· Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians languished in refugee camps
· Eisenhower believed that Truman had been too hasty in encouraging the Israelites
o But most Americans supported Israel as a refuge for a people who had suffered persecution (especially during the Holocaust)
§ Israel was a reliable US ally in an unstable region
· Arab nationalism continued to vex American policymakers
o Culminated in the Suez crisis of 1956
§ Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser looked for American and British economic aid
· Dreamed of building the Aswar High Dam on the Nile to create more arable land and provide cheap electricity
o When negotiations broke, Nasser announced he would nationalize the strategically sensitive Suez Canal
§ Turned to Soviet Union for aid
o Eisenhower refused European appeals for the US to help seize the canal and returned it to the British
o When British, French, and Israeli forces attacked Egypt in October 1956….
§ The US sponsored a UN resolution for calling for cease-fire and withdrawal of foreign forces
o British and French forces withdrew and eventually so did the Israelis
o Eisenhower won a major diplomatic battle through patience and pressure, but did not succeed in bring lasting peace
o CIA intervention in Guatemala
§ Fragile democracy had taken root in 1944
§ President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman aggressively pursued land reform and encouraged the formation of trade unions
§ 2% of Guatemalan population owned 72% of the farmland
§ Arbenz challenged the long standing dominance fo the American based United Fruit Company
· Threatened to expropriate hundreds of thousands of acres that United Fruit was not cultivating
· Company had powerful friends in the administration and began intensive lobbying for US intervention
· United Fruit linked the land reform program to the evils of communism
o Spent $7 million training antigovernment dissidents based in Honduras
§ The American navy stopped ships bound for Guatemala and seized their cargoes
§ June 1954: US sponsored military invasion began
· Citizens resisted by seizing United Fruit buildings
· US Air Force’s bombing saved the invasion effort
· Guatemalans appealed in vain to the UN for help
o Eisenhower denied any knowledge of CIA activities
· Widespread terror followed
o Unions were outlawed and thousands were arrested
§ United Fruit circulated photos of Guatemalans murdered by the invaders
· Labeled them “victims of communism”
§ Castillo Armas was assassinated and a decades long civil war ensued between military factions and peasant guerrillas
§ American intervention in Guatemala increased suspicion of and resentment against American foreign policy throughout Central and Latin America
· Nixon declared that the new Guatemalan government had earned “the overwhelming support of the Guatemalan people”
o CIA intervention in Vietnam
§ From 1950 to 1954, the US poured in $2.6 billion into the fight against the nationalist Vietminh movement
· Led by Communist Ho Chi Minh
§ Vietminh forces surrounded 25,000 French troops at Dien Bien Phu in March 1954
· French asked US to intervene
§ Dulles and Nixon recommended the use of nuclear weapons and a commitment of ground troops
§ Domino theory
· Eisenhower feared that the loss of one country to Communist would lead to others
§ Geneva accord
· Established a cease-fire and a temporary division along the Vietnam 17thparallel into northern and southern sectors
· The US refused to sign the accord
§ SEATO
· Eisenhower administration created the pact treaty
· Ike’s Warning: Military Industrial Complex
o National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy
§ Claimed 25,000 members
o Small but well-publicized actions against civil defense drills took place in big cities
§ People marched streets instead of entering bomb shelters
o Eisenhower found it difficult to restrain the system he helped create
§ In his Farewell Address, warned the nation about the dangers of what he termed the military industrial complex
· JFK the New Frontier
o Election of 1960
§ Election featured the first ever televised presidential debates
§ Political analysts have long argued over the impact of encounters
§ Both candidates emphasized foreign policy
§ Close election
· JFK did not fare well in the South
· First Catholic president
o New Frontier Liberalism
§ Advocated liberal programs
· Minimum wage
· Greater federal aid for education
· Increased social security benefits
· Medical care for the elderly
· Support for public housing
o NASA
§ Established under Eisenhower in response to the Soviet success with Sputnik
§ Kennedy announced that the US’s goal was to land a man on the moon by the end of the decade
o Strengthened the executive branch
§ White House staff assumed many of the decision making and advisory functions previously held by cabinet members
· Increased congressional oversight and confirmation proceedings
· White House aides lacked an independent constituency
o Their power and authority was derived directly to the president
§ Kennedy strengthened a pattern whereby American presidents increasingly operated through small groups of fiercely loyal aides
· Often acted in secret
· Kennedy and The Cold War
o Kennedy’s approach to foreign policy shifted
§ Aggressive containment à efforts at easing U.S.—Soviet tensions
§ At first, Kennedy considered it his task to confront the Communist threat
· State of the Union Address, January 1961, Kennedy told Congress that America must seize the initiative in the cold war
§ State Department
· Dean Rusk: conservative
§ Secretary of Defense
· Robert McNamara
o A Republican and Ford Motor Company executive determined to streamline military procedures and weapons buying
§ CIA director
· Allen Dulles
o Between 1960 and 1962
§ Defense appropriations increased by nearly a third
· $43 billion to $56 billion
§ Expansion of Eisenhower’s policy of covert operations, deploying the army’s elite Special Forces as a supplement to CIA covert operations in counterinsurgency battles against third world guerrillas
§ President wanted greater flexibility, secrecy, and independence in the conduct of foreign policy
o Limits on the ability of covert action
§ Became apparent in Southeast Asia
§ Laos
· The US had ignored the 1954 Geneva agreement and installed a friendly military regime, the CIA-backed government could not defeat Soviet-backed Pathet Lao guerillas
· The president arranged with the Soviets to neutralize Laos
§ Vietnam
· Communist Vietcong guerrillas launched a civil war in South Vietnam against Saigon, Kennedy sent reinforcements to support the rule of Ngo Dinh Diem
· Kennedy’s approach reflected an analysis of the situation in that country by two aides, General Maxwell Taylor and Walt Rostow
o “The Communists are pursuing a clear and systematic strategy in Southeast Asia
· BY 1963, Diem’s army was un able to contain the Vietcong rebellion even with 16,000 support and combat troops in South Vietnam
· Many South Vietnamese even hated Diem, including highly respected Buddhist monks and their students
o News reports showed footage of Buddhists burning themselves to death on the streets of Saigon – the ultimate protest against Diem’s repressive rule
o Also showed the mounting casualty lists of U.S. forces in Vietnam
· Fall 1963
o President Diem was killed
§ Latin America
· Kennedy looked for ways to forestall various revolutionary movements that were gaining ground
o Millions of peasants were forced to relocate to already crowded cities
· Alliance for Progress
o A ten-year, $100 billion plan to spur economic development in Latin America
o The US committed $20 billion to the project with the Latin nations responsible for the rest
o Main goals
§ Greater industrial growth and agricultural productivity
§ More equitable distribution of income
§ Improved health and housing
o Intended to be similar to the Marshall Plan that would benefit the poor and middle classes of the continent
§ Helped raise growth rates in Latin American economies
§ Did little to aid the poor or encourage democracy
§ Eventually degenerated into just another foreign aid program, incapable of generating genuine social change
· The Cuban Revolution and The Bay of Pigs
o The direct impetus for the Alliance for Progress was the Cuban Revolution of 1959, which loomed over Latin America
§ The U.S. economic domination of Cuba that began with the Spanish-America War had continued through the 1950s
· All of the oil production
· 90% of its mines
· Half of its railroads and sugar and cattle industries
· Havana, the island’s capital, was an attractive tourist center for Americans
§ Early 1950s
· A peasant based revolutionary movement, led by Fidel Castro, begain gaining strength in the rural districts and mountains outside Havana
§ New Year’s Day 1959
· After years of guerilla war, the rebels entered Havana and seized power amid great public rejoicing
· Castro seemed a hero to many North Americans as well
· However, Castro’s land-reform program, involving the seizure of acreage from the tiny minority that controlled much of the fertile land, threatened to set an example for other Latin American countries
· Castro had not joined the Cuban Communist Party, but he turned to the Soviet Union after the US withdrew economic aid
o Began to sell sugar to the Soviets
o Nationalized American-owned oil companies and other enterprises
o Eisenhower established an economic boycott of Cuba in 1960, then severed diplomatic relations
§ Plans to invade Cuba
· The secret arming and training of Cuban exiles
· Based on the assumption that a U.S.-led invasion would trigger a popular uprising of the Cuban people and bring down Castro
· Kennedy went along with the plan, but did not supply an Air Force cover for the operation
· April 17, 1961
o A ragtag army of 1,400 counterrevolutionaries led by CIA operatives landed at the Bay of Pigs
§ Sit in Cuba of an unsuccessful landing by fourteen hundred anti-Castro Cuban refugees in April 1961
o Castro’s efficient and loyal army easily subdued them
§ The debacle revealed that the CIA had fail to understand the Cuban Revolution
· No popular uprising against Castro
· The invasion strengthened Castro’s standing among the urban poor and peasants
o Attracted by his programs of universal literacy and medical care
· Castro stifled internal opposition
o Cuban intellectuals and professionals fled to the United States
· Kennedy reluctantly took the blame for the abortive invasion
o His administration was censured time and again by third world delegates to the United Nations
· American liberals criticized Kennedy for plotting Castro’s overthrow while conservatives blamed him for not supporting the invasion
· Despite the failure, Kennedy remained committed to getting rid of Castro and keeping up the economic boycott
· The CIA continued to support anti-Castro operations and launched at least eight attempts to assassinate the Cuban leader
· The Missile Crisis
o The aftermath of the Bay of Pigs led to the most serious confrontation of the war: the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962
o Cuban missile crisis
§ Crisis between the Soviet Union and the United States over the placement of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba
o Frightened by U.S. belligerency, Castro asked Soviet Union for help
§ Khrushchev
§ Shipped Cuba a large amount of sophisticated weaponry
· Intermediate-range nuclear missiles.
§ Early October, U.S. recon planes found camouflaged missile silos dotting the island
§ Aides demanded an immediate bombing of Cuban bases
§ Kennedy’s aggressive attempts to exploit Cuba in the 1960 election now came back to haunt him
· Critics would accuse him of weakness in failing to stand up to the Soviets
§ Kennedy went on national tv on October 22
· Announced
o Discovery of the missile sites
o Demanded the removal of all missiles
o Ordered a strict naval blockade of all offensive military equipment shipped to Cuba
o Requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council and promised than any missiles launched from Cuba would bring a “full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union”
§ October 26/27
· Khrushchev yielded, ordering 25 Soviet ships off their course to Cuba
§ US and Soviet Union made a deal
· Removal of missiles in return for a pledge from the US not to invade Cuba
· Removal of American weapons from Turkey, as close to the USSR as Cuba is to the US
§ November 20
· Public announcement
o The withdrawal of Soviet missiles
o Respect Cuban sovereignty
o The crisis had passed
§ The Soviets began the largest weapons buildup in their history
§ Kennedy made gestures toward peaceful coexistence with the Soviets
§ Both sides had been “caught up in a vicious and dangerous cycle in which suspicion on one side breeds suspicion on the other, and new weapons beget counter weapons”
o Washington and Moscow set up a “hot line”
§ Direct phone connection to permit instant communication during times of crisis
o Limited Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty
§ August 1963
§ US, USSR, Great Britain
§ Prohibited aboveground, outer space, and underwater nuclear weapons tests
§ Eased international anxieties over radioactive fallout
§ Underground testing continued to accelerate for years
§ More symbolic than substantive (psychological breakthrough)
· The Assassination of President Kennedy
o Assassination
§ The assassination of JFK in Dallas on November 22, 1963 sent the entire nation into shock and mourning
§ Kennedy ascended to martyrdom
§ Millions had identified his strengths as those of American society
· Intelligence
· Optimism
· Wit
· Charm
· Coolness under fire
§ Kennedy placed television at the center of American political life
· Tv riveted a badly chocked nation
§ Lee Harvey Oswald
· Accused killer
· Obscure political misfit
· He was assassinated as well
§ Although a special commission headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren found the killing to be the work of Oswald acting along, many Americans doubted this conclusion
§ Kennedy’s death led to a lot of non-provable conspiracy theories
o We will never know what Kennedy might have achieved in a second term
§ When he was alive he demonstrated a capacity to change and grow in office
· Launched new initiatives toward peaceful coexistence
· At the time of his death, US and USSR relations were the best since the end of WWII
