history test 6
Who won the presidential election of 1956 and what does it mean that "his coattails were not so stiff or broad as in 1952"? 865
Dwight D. Eisenhower won the presidential election of 1956 and his coattails were not so stiff or broad because he failed to win a Republican majority in either house of Congress;
Explain the factors that caused Cuba to become a Communist country in 1959. 866
From 1933-1959, a right-wing dictator named Fulgencio Batista ruled Cuba. Batista had encouraged huge investments in American capital in Cuba, and Washington in turn gave him political support. Open corruption and oppression under Batista's rule led to his ousting in January 1959 by the 26th of July Movement, which afterwards established communist rule under the leadership of Fidel Castro. Castro then denounced the Yankee imperialists and began to expropriate valuable American properties while pursuing a land-distribution program. Washington's response was to cut off imports of Cuban sugar. Castro then retaliated with further confiscations of American property in Cuba and became a left-wing dictatorship and a military and economic satellite of the Soviet Union. Since 1965, the state has been governed by the Communist Party of Cuba.
Explain how television impacted the 1960 presidential elections. 867
In 1960, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon squared off in the first televised presidential debates in American history. The Kennedy-Nixon debates not only had a major impact on the election's outcome, but ushered in a new era in which crafting a public image and taking advantage of media exposure became essential ingredients of a successful political campaign. At a time when the need for strong leadership was all too obvious, two vastly different candidates vied for the presidency: John F. Kennedy, a young but dynamic Massachusetts senator from a powerful New England family, and Richard Nixon, a seasoned lawmaker who was currently serving as vice president. With little more than a single unremarkable term in the U.S. senate under his belt, the 43-year-old Kennedy lacked Nixon's extensive foreign policy experience and had the disadvantage of being one of the first Catholics to run for president on a major party ticket. Nixon, by contrast, had spent nearly eight years as the country's second-in-command after an illustrious career in Congress during which he cast crucial votes on a variety of domestic issues, became one of global communism's most outspoken critics and helped expose Alger Hiss' alleged espionage attempt-all by the age of 39. The rivals campaigned tirelessly throughout the summer of 1960, with Nixon inching ahead in the polls to gain a slim lead. During the first debate both candidates presented their positions forcefully and those people who heard the debate on the radio felt the outcome was a draw. However, those who watched it on television overwhelmingly felt that Kennedy had won the debate. The difference appeared to be that Kennedy stared directly into the camera as he answered each question. Nixon, on the other hand, looked off to the side to address the various reporters, which came across as shifting his gaze to avoid eye contact with the public; a damaging blunder for a man already known as "Tricky Dick." Before the first debate, both men declined the services of CBS's top makeup artist. Bronzed and glowing from weeks of open-air campaigning, Kennedy was more than ready for his close-up-though sources later claimed that the naturally telegenic senator still got a touch-up from his team. Nixon, on the other hand, had a pale complexion and fast-growing stubble that together lent him a perpetually grayish pallor; The vice president cleaned up his act for the next three debates, but the damage had been done. (Source: History.com)
. What was the "Eisenhower Doctrine"?
In order to suppress growing Soviet influence in the Middle East following the Suez Crisis of 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower appeared before a joint session of Congress on January 5, 1957, to present a policy that will become known as the Eisenhower Doctrine. Under the Eisenhower Doctrine, a Middle Eastern country could request American economic assistance or aid from U.S. military forces if it was being threatened by armed aggression.
6. Explain how Jackson Pollack and Andy Warhol's work typified a new era in American art. 868-869
Jackson Pollock pioneered abstract expressionism. Andy Warhol canonized on canvas mundane items of consumer culture like soup cans and soda bottles ("canonized in this context means that ordinary objects were catapulted to the status of "reverence" through his work) Abstract Expressionism was a post-World War II art movement that began in the late 1940s and became a dominant trend in western painting during the 1950s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris. This art form was characteristic of any number of artists working (mostly) in New York, who had quite different styles, and whose work may have been neither especially abstract nor expressionist. This type of art typically projects an image of being rebellious, anarchic, highly idiosyncratic and, some feel, nihilistic. (Source: Wikipedia)
What factors shaped Latin American attitudes toward the U.S. in the 1950's? 866
Latin America resented the fact that the U.S. was giving billions of dollars in aid to Western European countries and only spending millions of dollars in aid in the needy countries of South America. Additionally, Washington's CIA directed coup that ousted a leftist government in Guatemala in 1954, the United States ongoing support of dictators who claimed to be combating communism and its continued intervention in Latin American affairs strained relations between the U.S. and Latin American countries.
Who was Khrushchev and what caused a "fiasco" at the summit conference between Khrushchev and Eisenhower in May, 1960. 866
Nikita Khrushchev was a Soviet statesman who led the Soviet Union during a portion of the Cold War as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and later as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964. On the eve of the conference the Soviets shot down an American U-2 spy plane which had been flying over Russia and Washington denied the charge. What the US didn't know was that the Russians had recovered parts of the plane and the pilot, Gary Powers, who had bailed out and was alive. When faced with this evidence Eisenhower took personal responsibility for the denials and Khrushchev stormed into the conference cursing the U.S. and the conference collapsed.
4. Compare and contrast the diverging racial strategies that were used by the 1960 presidential candidates toward Martin Luther King. 868
On October 19, 1960 Martin Luther King Jr., was arrested in Atlanta for leading a civil rights protest. Supporting King might have cost Kennedy votes in the South. But against the advice of several key campaign strategists, he called Coretta Scott King on October 26 to offer help in securing her husband's safe release. Nixon, eyeing white southern votes, declined to comment publicly on the arrest and avoided communication with Mrs. King. Kennedy was subsequently endorsed by Martin Luther King Sr., father of the civil rights leader. The African-American vote went heavily for Kennedy across the nation, providing the winning margin in several states. As Election Day approached, momentum seemed to be running toward the Kennedy-Johnson ticket. However, in the final days of the campaign, the immensely popular President Eisenhower began a speaking tour on behalf of Republican candidates. Several key states seemed to shift toward Nixon, and by Election Day pollsters were declaring the election a toss-up. On November 8, 1960, John F. Kennedy was elected president in one of the closest elections in U.S. history. In the popular vote, his margin over Nixon was 118,550 out of a total of nearly 69 million votes cast.
Explain why scientists urged the halting of nuclear testing and why it failed. 866
Shortly after the US dropped the atomic bomb on Japan, the scientists who had developed the bomb formed the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, an organization dedicated to alerting the world to the dangers of nuclear weaponry. Early contributors included J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Manhattan Project, and Albert Einstein, who dedicated the final years of his life to promoting nuclear disarmament. They believed that humanity was close to nuclear annihilation and developed a "doomsday clock" showing just how close we were to destroying the earth. With the development and testing of the first Hydrogen Bomb or H-Bomb in November, 1952, a weapon one thousand times more powerful than the bombs used at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, scientists and some government officials argued against its development but US officials ultimately reasoned that it would be unwise for them not to develop any weapon that the Soviet Union might eventually possess and the development of the H-bomb committed the United States to an arms race with the Soviet Union.
Compare and contrast the 1960 Republican and democratic presidential candidates. 866-867
The 1960 Republican presidential candidate was Richard Millhouse Nixon. For the previous eight years he had been the Vice-President to President Dwight D. Eisenhower. He was viewed as both a gifted party leader by some and a ruthless opportunist by others. He had been a no-holds barred campaigner in the past but his new persona presented as a mature, seasoned statesman. The 1960 Democratic presidential candidate was John Fitzgerald Kennedy. He was a youthful, millionaire Senator from Massachusetts who presented as a former war hero, having saved his fellow crewmen when their PT boat was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer. He had shrewdly accumulated impressive early primary victories overcoming the reluctance of many party bosses to nominate a Roman Catholic (the concern being that a Catholic president would be beholden to the Pope in Rome). Despite his choice of Lyndon Baines Johnson, the then Senate Majority Leader from Texas, many Southern democrats were still not appeased (Southern democrats who had problems with both a Catholic president and a potential president who supported desegregation were offset by a large groundswell of Northern democrats who supported those propositions).
7. What were the goals of "The Beat Generation" and what were they reacting to? 870, 872-873
The Beat Generation was a literary movement started by a group of writers that emerged in the 1950's and explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized throughout the 1950s. Authors included: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder, Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and others. The central elements of Beat culture were the rejection of standard narrative values, making a spiritual quest, the exploration of American and Eastern religions, the rejection of economic materialism, explicit portrayals of the human condition, experimentation with psychedelic drugs, and sexual liberation and exploration. (source: Wikipedia)
Why did Eisenhower persuade Congress to pass the Landrum-Griffin Act and why was the Taft-Hartley Act also expanded? 865
The Landrum-Griffin Act was a US labor law that regulated labor unions' internal affairs and their officials' relationships with employers. It was a legislative response to widespread publicity about corruption in certain American labor unions during the 1950s. The Act instituted federal penalties for labor officials who misused union funds, who had been found guilty of specific crimes, or who had violently prevented union members from exercising their legal rights. The act also contained provisions that strengthened parts of the Taft-Hartley Act.
What was "sputnik" and how did it affect the American psyche physically and psychologically? 865-866
The Soviet Union began the "Space Age" with its launch of Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite. The spacecraft, named Sputnik, after the Russian word for satellite, was launched at 10:29 p.m. Moscow time on October 4, 1957. It affected the American psyche by creating a perception of American weakness, complacency, and a "missile gap," which contributed politically to the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960, who emphasized the space gap and the role of the Eisenhower-Nixon administration in creating it.
5. What was Eisenhower warning against when he used the term "military-industrial complex" in his Farewell Address? 868
The military-industrial complex is a nation's military establishment, as well as the industries involved in the production of armaments and other military materials. In his 1961 farewell address, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower famously warned the public of the nation's increasingly powerful military-industrial complex and the threat it posed to American democracy. Eisenhower's presidency coincided with significant military buildup in the United States for both the Korean War and the Cold War against the Soviets. Eisenhower worried about the nation's military growth, and the escalation of the Cold War, throughout his presidency. He tried to cut budgets for military services during his presidency, upsetting many in the Pentagon. Today, the United States routinely outspends every other country for military and defense expenditures. (Source: History.com)
3. What did the "Kitchen Debate" reveal about the premises of the ideological conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the Cold War? 867
To promote cultural exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union, both governments agreed to sponsor exhibits in each other's countries during the summer of 1959. The Kitchen Debate was the third such debate and took place in Moscow in the kitchen of a cut-away of an American suburban model home. Vice-President Richard Nixon and Premier Nikita Khrushchev squared off and engaged in an impromptu debate that ranged from foreign policy to the relative merits of communism and capitalism to the significance of technological innovation for citizens. The "kitchen debate" was front-page news in the United States the next day. For a few moments, in the confines of a "modern" kitchen, the diplomatic gloves had come off and America and the Soviet Union had verbally jousted over which system was superior-communism or capitalism.
