Brinkley Chapter 28 Study Guide

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Describe the process by which the U.S. developed reliable ICBMs. Why was this military effort so critical to the space program?

A ballistic missile is powered early in its flight and then follows a non-powered trajectory to its target. During the Cold War, both the United States and the Soviet Union developed inter-continental ballistic missiles, known by the acronym ICBM, that were capable of reaching any target in each other's territory. ICBMs could deliver nuclear weapons in a manner that was virtually immune to defensive measures. Arms limitations treaties between the superpowers have reduced the number of ICBMs deployed by each side. Military interest in ballistic missiles was aroused by the success of German scientists during World War II. The V-2 rocket was launched late in the conflict and proved that, although not very accurate at that time, ballistic missiles could reach their targets without any effective interference by defenses. After the war, the United States made a strenuous effort to collect the remaining materials of the V-2 Program, along with Wernher von Braun and his team of German scientists and engineers. The Germans provided the initial nucleus of the American ballistic missile program after the war. An alternative technology to ballistic missiles is that of cruise missiles, which use rocket propulsion but have wings. For several years after World War II, cruise missiles were favored. The development of two cruise missiles, "Snark" and "Navaho," were funded at much higher levels than the first ballistic missiles. However, the cruise missiles proved to be unreliable with the technology of the time, and studies indicated that better accuracy and reliability could be achieved with ballistic missiles. As a result, the Air Force launched a study in 1951, towards the development of a two-stage ballistic missile with a minimum range of 5,500 nautical miles. The study marked the beginning of the Atlas Missile Program. Conventionally, ICBM is a term used only for land-based systems, in order to differentiate them from submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), which can also have an intercontinental range. As of this writing, only three countries have operational ICBM systems: the United States, Russia, and China. Other nations have ICBMs but not an organized ICBM system. From 1951 to 1954, the Atlas project was poorly funded and had a low priority. However, in late 1953, the Atomic Energy Commission achieved a breakthrough in nuclear weapons, making smaller and lighter bombs available. In early 1954, studies by the von Neumann Committee and the RAND Corporation both recommended that the Air Force pursue ICBMs. Project Atlas was given the Air Force's top priority status in May 1954. President Dwight D. Eisenhower elevated it to the highest national priority in September 1955.

How did the U.S. react to the establishment of Israel? How did Israel's neighbors react?

Although the United States supported the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which favored the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had assured the Arabs in 1945 that the United States would not intervene without consulting both the Jews and the Arabs in that region.At midnight on May 14, 1948, the Provisional Government of Israel proclaimed a new State of Israel. On that same date, the United States, in the person of President Truman, recognized the provisional Jewish government as de facto authority of the Jewish state (de jure recognition was extended on January 31, 1949). The U.S. delegates to the U.N. and top-ranking State Department officials were angered that Truman released his recognition statement to the press without notifying them first. On May 15, 1948, the first day of Israeli Independence and exactly one year after UNSCOP was established, Arab armies invaded Israel and the first Arab-Israeli war began.

Why was the United States so committed to stability in the Middle East? How was this approach implemented in Iran?

American petroleum companies had large investments in the oil-rich Arab regimes in the Middle East, so they became worried when the prime minister of Iran was resisting the presence of western corporations in his nation. The CIA joined with Iran military leaders that removed the prime minister from office.

What led to Fidel Castro's rise in Cuba? How did the United States deal with his new regime?

Castro joined an anti-corruption Orthodox Party movement in 1947 that tried and failed to overthrow Dominican Republic dictator, Rafael Trujillo. Castro graduated college in 1950, and opened a law office. Two years later, he launched a bid for Cuba's House of Representatives, but the election never happened. Cuban dictator, Fulgencio Batista squashed it after staging a coup and seizing power in March 1952. From there, Castro would discard any further attempts at legitimate party politics, launching his own offensive with more than 100 men who stormed the Moncada army barracks in 1953. That attack failed, many of the men died, and Castro was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Batista ordered Castro released from prison in 1955, after which, Castro ended up in Mexico, where he would plan another coup attempt. The next year, Castro, plus 81 men including Ernesto "Che" Guevara, and Fidel's brother, Raul sailed to the eastern coast of Cuba. They were ambushed. The Castro brothers and Guevara fled into the country's southeastern mountains. Following a series of offensives between 1957 and 1959, Castro would seize control from Batista in January that year, and solidify his power grab in July. Early on, Castro gained the support of many Cuban citizens with promises to restore political and civil liberties. But later, Castro began to take a more radical tone, nationalizing American businesses on the island, and further angering the US with an increasingly anti-American rhetoric, and aligning with the Soviet Union in a 1960 trade deal. The US officially cut all diplomatic ties with Cuba in January 1961. By April that year, the US government armed about 1,500 Cuban exiles to try and overthrow the regime at the Bay of Pigs. It failed. Cuba and the Soviet Union later strengthened their partnership. In 1962, the Soviet Union began secretly placing ballistic missiles in Cuba that were capable of firing nuclear weapons into American cities. That ushered in the Cuban missile crisis. Both the US and Soviet Union later stood down when the former agreed to remove its missiles stationed in Turkey and the Soviet Union removed its weapons from Cuba. Meanwhile, Castro instituted a one-party government, gaining control over all aspects of Cuban life. While that drove away many of Cuba's upper and middle class citizens, Castro expanded the country's social and educational services, free of charge, to all economic classes. Castro's economic power was further concentrated, but that didn't bode well for the Cuban economy, which failed to gain momentum. The country became increasingly dependent on Soviet policies while, at the same time, enduring the squeeze of a United States trade embargo. 1976 -- Cuba created the National Assembly, Castro became president of that body's State Council. 1980s -- Castro was recognized as one of the prime rulers of unaligned nations. And while the country still had strong ties to the Soviet Union, Castro regularly hinted his willingness to restore diplomatic ties with the US if the US ended the trade embargo. The Castro regime later released some 125,000 immigrants to the US, which overwhelmed America's immigration officials.

What led to the demise of Senator Joseph McCarthy and the end of the Red Scare?

Despite initial popularity among his fellow party members and the American public, McCarthy's career began to decline. Even some moderate Republicans withdrew their support from him because they felt the senator was hurting the presidential administration. Despite his waning support, President Eisenhower refrained from publicly reprimanding McCarthy. Apparently, the president refused to "go into the gutter" with McCarthy by initializing a public confrontation. Doing so would only create more chaos and generate more publicity for the senator .However, it became apparent that McCarthy's end was near. In June 1953, J.B. Matthews was appointed as McCarthy's research director. In July, Matthews published an article called "Reds in our churches" in the conservative American Mercury. In it, Matthews referred to the Protestant clergy as " the largest single group supporting the Communist apparatus in the United States." The result was a public outrage at Matthews as well as his boss McCarthy. McCarthy began his investigation of the Army Signal Corps Laboratory at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey in 1953. The laboratory had employed many Jewish engineers from New York. Many of the civilian employees there were members of the left-leaning Populist Front. In fact, Julius Rosenberg once worked there. Many of the workers have been inspected and cleared by the government. The army was already reexamining the entire workforce in 1953.Nevertheless, McCarthy insisted on opening up an investigation into the matter. McCarthy eventually gave up the investigation after months of quarreling with the army. After giving up his investigation on the Army Signal Corps, McCarthy's committee began to concentrate on Irving Peress, an Army dentist. Peress had invoked the Fifth Amendment when filling out the army's questionnaire. Even though he was put under military surveillance, Peress was still promoted to Major. The army eventually found the paperwork that called for his dismissal and Peress was quickly discharged. McCarthy then launched a campaign to criticize the army for allowing Peress to be promoted. When interrogating General Ralph Zwicker, the senator demanded that the general should reveal some names. Zwicker refused because he could not violate executive order. In response, McCarthy rudely insulted the general by comparing his intelligence to that of a "five year old child." McCarthy's treatment of the general generated a lot of hostility from the press and the American public. In retaliation for McCarthy's investigation, the Army accused McCarthy's aide Roy Cohn of trying to force the Army into giving special treatment to his friend G. David Schine. The Senate then started hearings into the Peress matter. The investigations and hearings between the Army and McCarthy was televised live to the public. For two months, Americans watched on as McCarthy bully witnesses and called "point of order" to make crude remarks. The climax came on June 9. Representing the Army was Joseph Welch. As the Welch was questioning Cohn, McCarthy intervened and said, "I think we should tell him that he has in his law firm a young man named Fisher, whom he recommended, incidentally, to do work on this committee, who has been for a number of years a member of an organization which was named, oh year and years ago, as the legal bulwark of the Communist party." Here, McCarthy was referring to Fred Fisher, a young associate in Welch's law firm. Fisher had refused to come to the hearings because he was once affiliated with the National Lawyers Guild. In response, Welch said he did not let Fisher come to the hearing because he did not want to hurt "the lad" on national television. Welch then urged McCarthy to drop the issue. Nevertheless, McCarthy persisted in questioning Fisher's background. At this point Welch exclaimed, Welch: You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency? At this point, the entire American public viewed McCarthy with disdain. On television, the senator from Wisconsin came off as cruel, manipulative and reckless. The hearings were not the only components that eroded McCarthy's credibility. Earlier in the year, the journalist Edward R. Murrow had aired a documentary that showed how McCarthy's charges were groundless and how he had used bullying techniques to harass individuals. By June, the senator's Gallup Poll ratings fell from 50% to 34%. On December 2, the Senate voted to censure Joe McCarthy by a margin of sixty-seven to twenty-two. Driven by depression from being censured, Joe McCarthy resorted to alcohol, which greatly worsen his health. On May 2, 1957, Joe McCarthy died from acute hepatitis and was buried in Appleton, Michigan.

What sort of individuals dominated Eisenhower's cabinet?

Eisenhower delegated the selection of his cabinet to two close associates, Lucius D. Clay and Herbert Brownell Jr.; Brownell, a legal aid to Dewey, became attorney general. John Foster Dulles, an attorney who also had close ties to Dewey, became the secretary of state. A conscientious "student of foreign affairs," Dulles had previously had a part in developing the both the United Nations Charter and the Treaty of San Francisco. He traveled nearly 560,000 miles (901,233 km) during his six years in office. Eisenhower sought out leaders of big business for many of his other cabinet appointments. Charles Erwin Wilson, the CEO of General Motors, was Eisenhower's first secretary of defense. In 1957, he was replaced by president of Procter & Gamble president, Neil H. McElroy. For the position of secretary of the treasury, Ike selected George M. Humphrey, the CEO of several steel and coal companies. His postmaster general, Arthur E. Summerfield, and first secretary of the interior, Douglas McKay, were both automobile distributors. Additionally, former senator, Sinclair Weeks, director of the National Association of Manufacturers. Several businessmen named to cabinet-level posts—Wilson, Humphrey, along with Harold E. Talbott (Eisenhower's first Air Force secretary) and Robert Tripp Ross, (a deputy assistant secretary of defense)—came under U.S. Senate scrutiny due their investments and possible conflicts of interest while in office; Talbott and Ross later resigned as a result. Other Eisenhower cabinet selections were made to cover various "political bases." Ezra Taft Benson, a high-ranking member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was chosen as secretary of agriculture; he was the only person appointed from the Taft wing of the party. Oveta Culp Hobby became the first secretary of the newly created Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; she was the second female cabinet secretary (after Frances Perkins). Martin Patrick Durkin, a Democrat and president of the plumbers and steamfitters union, was selected as secretary of labor. As a result, it became a standing joke that his first Cabinet was composed of "nine millionaires and a plumber." Most were wealthy corporate lawyers and business executives dominated the cabinet.

Contrast Eisenhower's attitude toward new social legislation with his approach to existing programs. What act of his presidency led to the largest public works project in American history?

Eisenhower did not really do a lot to create or work with new legislation and programs that were trying to be made. However, he resisted the pressure to get rid of existing legislation and even increased some programs, such as the Social Security system. The act that led to the largest public works project in history was the Federal highway Act of 1956, which gave $25 billion to build over 40,000 miles of interstate highway.

What factors caused the low unemployment rate and the great growth in GNP from 1945 to 1960? How widespread was the prosperity?

In the decade and a half after World War II, the United States experienced phenomenal economic growth and consolidated its position as the world's richest country. Gross national product (GNP), a measure of all goods and services produced in the United States, jumped from about $200,000-million in 1940 to $300,000-million in 1950 to more than $500,000-million in 1960. More and more Americans now considered themselves part of the middle class. The growth had different sources. The economic stimulus provided by large-scale public spending for World War II helped get it started. Two basic middle-class needs did much to keep it going. The number of automobiles produced annually quadrupled between 1946 and 1955. A housing boom, stimulated in part by easily affordable mortgages for returning servicemen, fueled the expansion. The rise in defense spending as the Cold War escalated also played a part. After 1945 the major corporations in America grew even larger. There had been earlier waves of mergers in the 1890s and in the 1920s; in the 1950s another wave occurred. Franchise operations like McDonald's fast-food restaurants allowed small entrepreneurs to make themselves part of large, efficient enterprises. Big American corporations also developed holdings overseas, where labor costs were often lower. Workers found their own lives changing as industrial America changed. Fewer workers produced goods; more provided services. As early as 1956 a majority of employees held white-collar jobs, working as managers, teachers, salespersons, and office operatives. Some firms granted a guaranteed annual wage, long-term employment contracts, and other benefits. With such changes, labor militancy was undermined and some class distinctions began to fade. Farmers -- at least those with small operations -- faced tough times. Gains in productivity led to agricultural consolidation, and farming became a big business. More and more family farmers left the land.

What philosophy shaped Martin Luther King, Jr.'s approach to civil rights protest? How did he become the principal leader and symbol of the movement?

Martin Luther King, Jr. became the predominant leader in the Civil Rights Movement to end racial segregation and discrimination in America during the 1950s and 1960s and a leading spokesperson for nonviolent methods of achieving social change. His eloquence as a speaker and his personal charisma, combined with a deeply rooted determination to establish equality among all races despite personal risk won him a world-wide following. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Price in 1964 and was selected by Time magazine as its Man of the Year. His "I Have a Dream" speech, which is now considered to be among the great speeches of American history, is frequently quoted. His success in galvanizing the drive for civil rights, however, made him the target of conservative segregationists who believed firmly in the superiority of the white race and feared social change. He was arrested over 20 times and his home was bombed. Ultimately, he was assassinated on April 4, 1968, on the balcony of a motel where he was staying in Memphis. A monument to Dr. King was unveiled in the national capital in 2012. His tactics for achieving social change were drawn from those of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (known as Mahatma, "great soul"), who had used nonviolent civil disobedience to bring about change in his native India (as he had done with some success previously to win concessions for Indian immigrants living in South Africa's apartheid system). Gandhi's methods included boycotts of British goods and institutions. (Like Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi was repeatedly arrested and ultimately was assassinated by a fanatic.) Although King stressed nonviolence, even when confronted by violence, those who opposed change did not observe such niceties. Protestors were beaten, sprayed with high-pressure water hoses, tear-gassed, and attacked by police dogs; bombings at black churches and other locations took a number of lives; some, both black and white, who agitated for civil rights such as the right to vote were murdered, but the movement pressed on. King was the most prominent leader in the drive to register black voters in Atlanta and the march on Washington, D.C., that drew a quarter-million participants. His message had moved beyond African Americans and was drawing supporters from all segments of society, many of them appalled by the violence they saw being conducted against peaceful protesters night after night on television news. He also drew from Thoreau and Christian doctrine.

Describe how the prewar groundwork in antibiotics and immunization flowered after 1945. What major diseases were virtually eliminated in the U.S.?

More vaccines were developed to control childhood diseases. After the war the health of children was generally better than at any other time in history. Vaccines against polio, measles and rubella were developed in the 1950's and 1960's. Tests were also developed for defects in babies such as the amniocentesis for spina bifida and Down's Syndrome. Treatments were also developed for children with heart disease. After 1945, major advances were also made in birth control. In earlier times there had been advances in rubber sheaths but they were seen more as a protection against syphilis as opposed to a form of birth control. The cap or diaphragm had been developed in the 1880's but its availability had been very much limited as people were kept in the dark as to its very existence. Marie Stopes did much to change attitudes as to give women more freedom when concerning birth control. However, pre-war social conventions had done much to prevent the total spread of her ideas throughout Britain. Many social conventions had been swept away during the war and by the 1950's the contraceptive pill had been introduced as was seen as a way of giving women more control over their own destiny - and certainly taking this away from domineering men. By the 1960's, the contraceptive pill was widely available, as was the IUD (Intrauterine device). This had first been developed in 1909 but was more widely available after 1945. Certain types of IUD were also linked to pelvic infection and septic abortions as late as the 1970's and 1980's. Such concerns did much to stymie its use. Many very significant medical advances were also made after 1945. One of the most important was the discovery of DNA by Wilkins, Crick and Watson. These three were also helped by the work done by Rosalind Franklin. DNA is the substance that makes life - a human cell that contains genes, which are made up of chromosomes, the basis of living tissue. This has in turn allowed the study of disease caused by defective genes such as in cystic fibrosis and Down's Syndrome. In recent years, researchers have been able to identify specific genes that are responsible for specific diseases. New drugs have also been created post-1945. The success of penicillin during the war, prodded researchers to study other moulds. Streptomycin, found in chickens, was used successfully to treat TB. This treatment was pioneered primarily in America after 1946. Streptomycin was also found to be capable of treating many other diseases that penicillin could not. However, it was found that too much use of streptomycin could lead to the TB germ developing a resistance to its use. After 1951, streptomycin was used with Isoniazid in the fight against TB. This again was developed in America. By the 1970's, five antibiotics existed which could be used against TB. In recent years, despite this array of drugs against TB, there have been fears that TB can be resistant to all drugs that have been developed to fight it. The recent rise of TB in the more depressed areas of Britain's cities has concerned many doctors. The problems with streptomycin did lead scientists to study why drugs lost their effectiveness and also why some people suffered side effects when they were used and others did not. The development in pharmacology has been a major development since 1945. Since 1945, there has been a greater use of steroids in medicine. These were used to relieve pain and inflammation. Cortisone was used in injection form to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Cortisone also had the important side effect of reducing the body's immune system. This made it useful to prevent the rejection of skin and kidney transplants. This in turn lead to the idea of using drugs to suppress the growth of cancers using cytotoxins. The use of ultrasound and magnetic resonance since 1945 has also made it easier to diagnose disease. Ian Donald, Professor of Midwifery at Glasgow developed ultrasound in the 1950's for looking at unborn babies. Magnetic Resonance Imaging can be used to detect diseases without the use of radiation making it less harmful to the patient. Three-dimensional CAT scans can also be used. The less use of radiation the better as some patients can be harmed by exposure to large doses of radiation. MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) does away with this problem. The use of modern equipment such as the endoscope has also allowed for the internal examination of patients without the need for surgery. Kidney dialysis was first tried in 1914 but only became more widely available in the 1960's. The introduction of long term and repeated dialysis gave hope to patients who almost certainly would have died without this particular development. Surgery in general has witnessed major developments since 1945. Far more operations can be carried out now on areas of the body that were rarely touched before 1945. Christian Barnard's heart transplant was on an organ that few surgeons would have operated on. His pioneering surgery inspired others to do likewise and now heart operations are very common, as is surgery on organs such as the liver and kidneys etc. Microsurgery and keyhole surgery are common place now - as is the use of lasers in surgery. The major - though not exclusive - developments in surgery are as follows: Post 1953: the development of a successful heart lung machine allowed more complicated heart surgery to take place. Techniques have improved greatly here with coronary bypasses to improve blood supply to the heart since 1953 and the replacement of heart valves since the 1960's. Artificial arteries have also been developed to improve blood flow. After 1961, pacemakers were introduced to maintain a regular heart beat. From 1960 on, lasers were used to treat eye tumours etc. Transplant surgery has also developed aided by drugs like cortisone, azathioprine and cyclosporin which have helped to reduce rejection. The first successful kidney transplant was done in Boston in 1954; the first heart transplant was in 1967 (performed by Christian Barnard); the first liver transplant was in 1963; the first heart and lung transplant was in 1982 and the first brain tissue transplant was in 1987. Since 1945, there have been massive strides in the treatment of cancer. The use of a combination of drugs, radiotherapy and surgery have greatly increased a cancer patient's chances of survival. During the 1950's, research linked smoking to lung cancer and other external factors have also been identified - such as excess sunlight potentially causing skin cancer. It is now thought that 15% of all cancers are caused by viruses.

Why was so much of rural America still mired in poverty as late as 1960?

Most rural Americans were farmers. By 1956, farmers were only receiving 4.1% of the national income. The farm population was also decreasing as much of the population was migrating into or absorbed into cities. The farm prices were also falling and many black sharecroppers and tenants were still living below the subsistence level.

What was the extent of hard core poverty in the otherwise prosperous nation? What groups predominated in this "hard core"?

Of all people considered poor in America, 80% of them had recently become poor and would no longer be in poverty after they got a job. The other 20% were stuck in poverty and were unable to get out of it. Groups in the "hard core" included the elderly, African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans. The Native Americans were the single poorest group in the nation because of government policy.

What impact did the Soviet launching of Sputnik have on U.S. education and the space effort?

On October 4, 1957, exactly 55 years ago, scientists in the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1. This launch of the first satellite to orbit the Earth was a coup for the Soviet Union, a Communist country and America's principal international rival in the Cold War. The Soviets' history-making accomplishment created both paranoia (Americans feared that the Soviets were spying on them), and concern that the Soviets had beaten Americans into space. And so, just as Sputnik jump-started the space race, that little aluminum sphere also jolted the nation's education system: educators quickly seized on the launch to push for more government money. The effect was huge. In 1958, Congress approved $1 billion for the National Defense Education Act, or NDEA, the first of an alphabet soup of more than a dozen programs meant to help US students compete with the Soviets. It also involved the federal government to an unprecedented extent with all levels of American education. In addition, the federal government took several other remarkable actions: * President Eisenhower established the position of Presidential Science Advisor; * The House and the Senate reorganized their committee structures to focus on science policy; * Congress created the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA), charging it to create a civilian space program; * Congress tripled funding for the National Science Foundation to improve science education. And at the local level: schools began focusing on gifted students, handpicking them for upper-level courses, and they also began receiving matching funds for math, science and foreign languages. Baby-boomer families began buying educational toys — telescopes and plastic models of the human body. And second language instruction quickly found its way to elementary schools (a very smart move, since those youngsters are very receptive to learning another language).

What were the key factors that converged in the postwar period to ignite the civil rights movement?

One key factor was the legacy of World War II. Many black men and women served during the war and had a broader view of their place in the world. Another factor was the urban black middle class. Much of the force for the movement came from leaders from these communities along with college and university students. These people had more freedom than rural blacks so they were more aware of the oppression and obstacles and what could be done about them. One other factor was television and pop culture. Blacks were all too aware of the white majority since they were excluded from it most of the time.

What led to increasing animosity toward the United States on the part of many Latin Americans? What did the Guatemalan incident reveal about American intentions?

The Red Scare had left America with a crippling fear of communists, so when America began to be fearful of Jacobo Arbenz Guzman and the Guatemalan government, they completely toppled the government.

Describe the process that led to large pockets of poverty-stricken minorities in cities, especially in the North and Southwest. Why did so many of these people remain poor at a time of growing national affluence?

One of the biggest reasons was the migration of African Americans into industrial cities. They would come to the Northern cities like Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and New York, from the South. Hispanic neighborhoods were increasing as Mexican and Puerto Ricans migrated as well. Mexicans would cross the border at Texas and California. Some believed these people stayed in poverty because of their backgrounds. They were unable to adapt to the needs of the modern industrial city. Others believe the cities were a "culture of poverty" between the crime, violence, hopelessness, etc. Lots of other people believe it is a combination of declining blue-collar jobs, not enough support for the minority-dominated public schools, and barriers to advancement that were rooted in racism.

Describe how commercial television drew on the concepts and corporate structure of the radio era. How did the medium simultaneously unify and alienate Americans?

Perhaps the most important factor influencing advertising in the 1950s was the growth of TV and its maturation into a viable ad medium. By 1951, regular live network service reached the West Coast via microwave transmitters, establishing coast-to-coast national coverage. As with radio, early TV programming was advertiser-sponsored. Advertising agencies produced TV shows, with networks providing little more than facilities, airtime and occasional guidance. Programming typically promoted the name of the sponsor and not the star: "Hallmark Hall of Fame," "Texaco Star Theater," "Colgate Comedy Hour," "Goodyear TV Playhouse" and "Kraft Television Theater." Large U.S. agencies such as JWT, McCann-Erickson, Young & Rubicam and Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn benefited from handling major packaged and durable goods advertisers such as Procter & Gamble Co., Bristol-Myers, Westinghouse Electric and Colgate-Palmolive. Likewise, Madison Avenue continued to profit from spiraling TV spending. In 1949, TV spending was $12.3 million; within two years, it had grown to $128 million. By 1954, TV had become the leading medium for advertising. Network radio suffered losses as major stars and their audiences moved to TV. By 1960, TV approached 90% household penetration. Spokespersons became readily identified with the products they represented, as product demonstrations gained significance in this visual medium. Betty Furness, a B-movie actress of the 1930s, became spokeswoman for Westinghouse appliances in 1949 on "Studio One." For 11 years her popularity soared, as did the popularity of Westinghouse refrigerators, stoves and other household appliances. Demonstrations also helped differentiate similar packaged goods. Notable televised product demonstrations included Band-Aid brand's "Super-Stick" bandages clinging to an egg in boiling water and Remington shaver's peach test in which a razor was used to shave peach fuzz. Other memorable TV spots included the stop-motion antics of Speedy Alka-Seltzer; Old Gold's dancing cigarette boxes; Dinah Shore singing "See the USA in Your Chevrolet"; newsman John Cameron Swayze's matter-of-fact delivery of "It takes a licking and keeps on ticking" for Timex watches; and animated depictions of the Ajax Pixies, Tony the Tiger, Hamm's beer bear and beer mavens Bert and Harry Piel. Picked as one of the best ads of the 20th century by Advertising Age, the TV spot for Anacin pain reliever showed how beneficial and intrusive TV advertising could be. Through slogans, demonstrations, mnemonics and repetition, Anacin positioned itself as the "tension headache" remedy by repeating the phrase "Fast, fast, fast relief" and diagramming an imaginary headache with lightning bolts and hammers. The ad's tactic of repetition drew harsh criticism for agency Ted Bates & Co., yet it increased Anacin's sales. However, the system of advertiser control over program content and scheduling that evolved in the heyday of radio was not a practice the networks were eager to see exported to TV. As the stakes mounted and the competition between the networks intensified, broadcasters increasingly wanted the authority to remove weak programs and strategically schedule strong ones to maintain viewer numbers during the valuable evening hours. At first, advertisers were resistant, but the networks had an ally in economics. As the '50s progressed, production costs rose dramatically to the point where many advertisers began to feel the strain. The introduction of color broadcasting in 1953 added to those expenses. Increasingly programs that had started the decade with a single sponsor retreated to "alternate sponsorships," with one advertiser sponsoring a program one week, another the next. By 1957, Lucky Strike and Richard Hudnut shared "The Hit Parade," and Stopette deodorant and Remington Rand alternated on "What's My Line?" Ad agencies remained an important part of the process, however. An agency might produce a program and offer it to two different clients on an alternate basis or it might switch sponsors. The Kudner Agency produced "The Texaco Star Theater" for its client, Texaco, for example, but when Texaco decided to withdraw in 1953, Kudner sold the program to another of its clients, General Motors Corp., and it became "The Buick-Berle Show." Control over content finally shifted from advertiser to network in the wake of the quiz show scandal of the late 1950s. Long a staple on radio and TV, quiz shows were among the most popular programs on both media. Revlon sponsored "The $64,000 Question" (which debuted in 1955) and controlled program content so tightly that corporate heads chose the games' winners and losers. Revelations in 1958 about a similar quiz show, "Twenty-One," shocked the nation when it was reported that contestant Charles Van Doren had been given the answers to questions in advance. Congressional hearings ensued, and the networks established control over the content of their broadcasts by 1959. Further revolutionizing TV was the 1952 presidential race between Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower and Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson. Rosser Reeves of Bates developed the strategy for Gen. Eisenhower's TV ads. A firm believer in the TV spot, Mr. Reeves is remembered for his promotion of the "unique selling proposition," or USP, to break through the ad clutter in the mass media. He positioned Gen. Eisenhower as "The man from Abilene" and a "Man of peace." In a series of brief TV spots, "Eisenhower Answers America," Mr. Reeves prerecorded the candidate as if he were speaking directly to the American people. Mr. Reeves then intercepted a tour bus at Radio City Music Hall in New York and filmed average Americans asking the candidate questions such as, "Mr. Eisenhower, are we going to have to fight another war?" Careful editing showed the citizen's questions matched with the prerecorded answers. Gen. Eisenhower was reluctant to participate, but acquiesced to Mr. Reeves' persuasive arguments. Gen. Eisenhower won the election, although critics charged that Mr. Reeves had denigrated the office of presidency by selling it like toothpaste. But the objections were too late, as TV and politics now formed an inextricable union.

Describe the ideas of the several writers of the 1950s who explored the growing tensions between organized, bureaucratic society and the tradition of individualism. What was The Organization Man?

Popular authors included: J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye (1951) Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952) E. B. White, Charlotte's Web (1953) Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (1953) Allen Ginsberg, Howl (1956) Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged (1957) Dr. Seuss, The Cat in the Hat (1957) Jack Kerouac, On the Road (1957) The Organization Man is a bestselling book by William H. Whyte, originally published by Simon & Schuster in 1956. It is considered one of the most influential books on management ever written. While employed by Fortune Magazine, Whyte did extensive interviews with the CEOs of major American corporations such as General Electric and Ford. A central tenet of the book is that average Americans subscribed to a collectivist ethic rather than to the prevailing notion of rugged individualism. A key point made was that people became convinced that organizations and groups could make better decisions than individuals, and thus serving an organization became logically preferable to advancing one's individual creativity. Whyte felt this was counterfactual and listed a number of examples of how individual work and creativity can produce better outcomes than collectivist processes. He observed that this system led to risk-averse executives who faced no consequences and could expect jobs for life as long as they made no egregious missteps. Whyte's book led to deeper examinations of the concept of "commitment" and "loyalty" within corporations. Whyte's book matched the fictional best seller of the period, The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit (1955) by Sloan Wilson in inspiring criticism that those Americans inspired to win World War II returned to an empty suburban life, conformity, and the pursuit of the dollar. Marxist theorist Guy Debord discusses Whyte's observations about advanced capitalism in The Society of the Spectacle (1967).

How did black music influence the development of rock music? To what extent was the audience multiracial?

Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll or rock 'n' roll) is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, from African American musical styles such as gospel, jump blues, jazz, boogie woogie, and rhythm and blues, along with country music. In the crossover of African American "race music" to a growing white youth audience, the popularization of rock and roll involved both black performers reaching a white audience and white musicians performing African American music. Rock and roll appeared at a time when racial tensions in the United States were entering a new phase, with the beginnings of the civil rights movement for desegregation, leading to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that abolished the policy of "separate but equal" in 1954, but leaving a policy which would be extremely difficult to enforce in parts of the United States. The coming together of white youth audiences and black music in rock and roll inevitably provoked strong white racist reactions within the US, with many whites condemning its breaking down of barriers based on color. Many observers saw rock and roll as heralding the way for desegregation, in creating a new form of music that encouraged racial cooperation and shared experience. Many authors have argued that early rock and roll was instrumental in the way both white and black teenagers identified themselves.

Why did rock 'n' roll, and especially Elvis Presley, become so popular in the 1950s? What was the role of radio and, later, TV?

Rock n' Roll and Elvis Presley became popular in the 1950s through the rise of counterculture and young peoples desire for something new and rebellious. Elvis' music, and rock'n roll more generally, signified a shifting tide in American society among youth. Youth became interested in upsetting the status quo and listening to and being involved in things that were once considered taboo like rock'n roll. Radio and TV helped to spread this music because it provided a medium for people to hear and learn of new artists and music styles quickly.

After the U.S. won the race to the moon, what direction did the American space program take?

Russia had already beat America at launching their satellite, Sputnik, in to space, and now U.S hoped to beat them in a different race - by sending manned vehicles in to space. NASA created the Mercury Project as an initial effort. The Apollo Project followed the Mercury and Gemini Projects and aimed to send a man to the moon. Instead of focusing on traveling to far off planets, NASA focused on making space travel easier and more practical - with the creation of the "space shuttle". These were more airplane like devices which could be launched by a missile, but also be capable of navigating through space and landing on earth. However, the seven deaths which occurred during the first attempt at launching a shuttle (The Challenger) stalled the program for two years. The End Alan Shepard, May 5, 1961 did make it into space, but the Soviets had beat US again, and sent Yuri Gagarin months before. The Gemini Project followed the Mercury Project, and on February 2, 1962 sent John Glenn to be the first man to orbit the Earth. On July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, and Michael Collins successfully traveled into orbit around the moon. Armstrong and Aldrin were then able to land on the surface of the moon for the first time in history. Six more lunar missions followed before the government began to cut funding for these projects. Work again resumed in the late 1980s, but more for commercial purposes. Space shuttles launched and repaired communication satellites, and also sent the Hubble Space Telescope in to orbit (1990). The major space inventions that were created greatly changed the American Aeronautics industry and was lead to many new developments and technologies for future purposes.

Describe the response of the political power structure of the Deep South to the Brown v. Board of Education and Brown II rulings. How did the Little Rock episode illustrate the conflict?

Texas Attorney General John Ben Shepperd organized a campaign to generate legal obstacles to implementation of desegregation. In 1957, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus called out his state's National Guard to block black students' entry to Little Rock Central High School. President Dwight Eisenhower responded by deploying elements of the 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to Arkansas and by federalizing Arkansas's National Guard. Also in 1957, Florida's response was mixed. Its legislature passed an Interposition Resolution denouncing the decision and declaring it null and void. But Florida Governor LeRoy Collins, though joining in the protest against the court decision, refused to sign it, arguing that the attempt to overturn the ruling must be done by legal methods. In Mississippi fear of violence prevented any plaintiff from bringing a school desegregation suit for the next nine years. When Medgar Evers sued to desegregate Jackson, Mississippi schools in 1963 White Citizens Council member Byron De La Beckwith murdered him. Two subsequent trials resulted in hung juries. Beckwith was not convicted of the murder until 1994. In 1963, Alabama Gov. George Wallace personally blocked the door to Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama to prevent the enrollment of two black students. This became the infamous Stand in the Schoolhouse Door where Wallace personally backed his "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" policy that he had stated in his 1963 inaugural address. He moved aside only when confronted by General Henry Graham of the Alabama National Guard, who was ordered by President John F. Kennedy to intervene. In Little Rock, Arkansas a white mob was trying to prevent blacks from entering the Central High School so they were blocking the entrances. President Eisenhower had to step in and send the National Guard and troops down to stop them.

What was the importance of the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott?

The Montgomery Bus Boycott, a seminal event in the Civil Rights Movement, was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. The campaign lasted from December 5, 1955—the Monday after Rosa Parks, an African American woman, was arrested for refusing to surrender her seat to a white person—to December 20, 1956, when a federal ruling, Browder v. Gayle, took effect, and led to a United States Supreme Court decision that declared the Alabama and Montgomery laws requiring segregated buses to be unconstitutional. Many important figures in the Civil Rights Movement took part in the boycott, including Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy. White backlash against the court victory was quick, brutal, and, in the short-term, effective. Two days after the inauguration of desegregated seating, someone fired a shotgun through the front door of Martin Luther King's home. A day later, on Christmas Eve, white men attacked a black teenager as she exited a bus. Four days after that, two buses were fired upon by snipers. In one sniper incident, a pregnant woman was shot in both legs. On January 10, 1957, bombs destroyed five black churches and the home of Reverend Robert S. Graetz, one of the few white Montgomerians who had publicly sided with the MIA. The City suspended bus service for several weeks on account of the violence. According to legal historian Randall Kennedy, "When the violence subsided and service was restored, many black Montgomerians enjoyed their newly recognized right only abstractly... In practically every other setting, Montgomery remained overwhelmingly segregated..." On January 23, a group of Klansmen (who would later be charged for the bombings) lynched a black man, Willie Edwards, on the pretext that he was dating a white woman. The City's elite moved to strengthen segregation in other areas, and in March 1957 passed an ordinance making it "unlawful for white and colored persons to play together, or, in company with each other . . . in any game of cards, dice, dominoes, checkers, pool, billiards, softball, basketball, baseball, football, golf, track, and at swimming pools, beaches, lakes or ponds or any other game or games or athletic contests, either indoors or outdoors." Later in the year, Montgomery police charged seven Klansmen with the bombings, but all of the defendants were acquitted. About the same time, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled against Martin Luther King's appeal of his "illegal boycott" conviction. Rosa Parks left Montgomery due to death threats and employment blacklisting. According to Charles Silberman, "by 1963, most Negroes in Montgomery had returned to the old custom of riding in the back of the bus."

What led to the Suez crisis of 1956? What position did the United States take?

The Suez Crisis, also named the Tripartite Aggression (in the Arab world) and Operation Kadesh or Sinai War (in Israel), was an invasion of Egypt in late 1956 by Israel, followed by the United Kingdom and France. The aims were to regain Western control of the Suez Canal and to remove Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser from power. After the fighting had started, political pressure from the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Nations led to a withdrawal by the three invaders. The episode humiliated Great Britain and France and strengthened Nasser. On 29 October, Israel invaded the Egyptian Sinai. Britain and France issued a joint ultimatum to cease fire, which was ignored. On 5 November, Britain and France landed paratroopers along the Suez Canal. The Egyptian forces were defeated, but they did block the canal to all shipping. It later became clear that the Israeli invasion and the subsequent Anglo-French attack had been planned beforehand by the three countries. The three allies had attained a number of their military objectives, but the Canal was now useless. Heavy political pressure from the United States and the USSR led to a withdrawal. U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had strongly warned Britain not to invade; he now threatened serious damage to the British financial system by selling the US government's pound sterling bonds. Historians conclude the crisis "signified the end of Great Britain's role as one of the world's major powers". The Suez Canal was closed from October 1956 until March 1957. Israel fulfilled some of its objectives, such as attaining freedom of navigation through the Straits of Tiran, which Egypt had blocked to Israeli shipping since 1950. As a result of the conflict, the United Nations created the UNEF Peacekeepers to police the Egyptian-Israeli border, British Prime Minister Anthony Eden resigned, Canadian Minister of External Affairs Lester Pearson won the Nobel Peace Prize, and the USSR may have been emboldened to invade Hungary. The US remained neutral.

What did the Hungarian Revolution and the U-2 incident illustrate about the nature of the United States-Soviet relationship in the late 1950s and into 1960?

The US and Soviet Union were unable to work cooperatively together and ultimately made their relationship much worse.

What unique factors combined to stimulate the rapid population expansion and economic growth that characterized the American West, and especially the Los Angeles area, in the post-World War II era?

The West and the Southwest grew with increasing rapidity, a trend that would continue through the end of the century. Sun Belt cities like Houston, Texas; Miami, Florida; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Phoenix, Arizona, expanded rapidly. Los Angeles, California, moved ahead of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as the third largest U.S. city and then surpassed Chicago, metropolis of the Midwest. The 1970 census showed that California had displaced New York as the nation's largest state. By 2000, Texas had moved ahead of New York into second place. A lot of the growth came from federal spending on things like dams, power stations, highways, etc. The increase in automobiles, which in return improved the highway system gave stimulus to the petroleum industry which gave way to rapid growth in the oil fields that were in Texas and Colorado. State governments were investing large amounts into their universities. The warm dry climate of the West also attracted people from the East which improved the economic growth. After World War II, more than 10% of all the new businesses started in Los Angeles.

What was the appeal of Levittown and similar suburban developments? How did typical suburbs transform family life and shape women's attitudes? What role did race play in suburbanization?

The appeal was to be able to live beyond the noise, pollution, overcrowding and disease of the city, while still close enough to enjoy the benefits of its industrial and cultural vitality. The Levitts certainly did not invent the business of building suburbs, but in many ways, they perfected it. Abraham, a horticultural enthusiast, was heavily involved in the landscaping and gardening of the community. Alfred, the quieter of the two sons, experimented with progressive ways of designing and constructing homes while his brother Bill marketed and sold them with vigor. Bill later became the public face of the company, loved (and later reviled), gracing magazine covers and dubbed the "King of Suburbia." The Levitts experimented with and implemented wholly new methods of building a community, taking division of labor and efficiency to the extreme, transforming "a cottage industry into a major manufacturing process." 7 They divided the construction of each home into twenty-seven steps starting with the laying of a concrete base. Construction workers were trained to do one step at each house (which were spaced 60 feet apart) instead of building each house up from scratch individually. The Levitts' homes were affordable, planted in a picture-perfect, carefully controlled community, and were equipped with futuristic stoves and television sets. The houses were simple, unpretentious, and most importantly to its inhabitants, affordable to both the white and blue collar worker. And the Levitts took more than the homes themselves into consideration—they designed community streets along curvilinear patterns to create a graceful, un-urban grid like feel, and directed cars going through the development to the outside of the community so Levittown would not be disturbed by noisy traffic. Even the maintenance of houses and yards were meticulously governed; buyers agreed to a laundry list of rules that, for example, prohibited residents from hanging laundry to dry outside their homes. Despite such meticulousness in community planning, all was not serene in Levvittown. The Levitts' level of control over the appearance of Levittown did not stop at the yards and houses, but extended to the appearance of the inhabitants themselves. Bill Levitt only sold houses to white buyers, excluding African Americans from buying houses in his communities even after housing segregation had been ruled unconstitutional by the courts. By 1953, the 70,000 people who lived in Levittown constituted the largest community in the United States with no black residents. Originally, the Levitts' racist policy was enshrined in the lease itself, which stipulated that "the tenant agrees not to permit the premises to be sued or occupied by any person other than members of the Caucasian race." 10 That provision was later struck down in court as unconstitutional, but Bill Levitt continued to enforce racial homogeneity in practice by rejecting would-be black buyers. Activist groups across the U.S. and even individuals within Levittown, who united under the Committee to End Discrimination in Levittown, protested the Levitts' racist policies. In 1955, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) sued federal mortgage agencies which had helped future homeowners finance the purchase of homes in the community, basing the suit on the denial of six black veterans from purchasing homes. Thurgood Marshall, the lawyer who had successfully argued Brown v. Board of Education, represented the plaintiffs, but a Philadelphia court dismissed the suit after ruling that the federal agencies were not responsible for preventing housing discrimination. Though the Levitts made it an unofficial policy not to sell homes to minorities, they could not legally prevent an existing homeowner from reselling their home to black buyers. In 1957, William and Daisy Myers, a black couple with young children, bought a house in Levittown, Pennsylvania from the former owners. The Myers family faced endless harassment as well as implicit and explicit threats of violence from other residents in the community, with little help from the local police to keep the mobs of angry racists from congregating outside their home day and night. Through perseverance and courage, however, Myers outlasted their harassers and eventually succeeded in filing criminal charges against the worst members of the mob. The specter of communism was also heavily implicated in the Myers struggle, as members of both sides of the conflict hurled charges of socialism at their opponents. White residents of Levittown and other still segregated communities across the country took to blandly referencing their "Americanism" as justification for racial exclusivity, and painted those who sought to enforce integration as that which was at the time perceived as the most un-American of allegiances, communist. Indeed, the very charters of Levittown and suburbs across America were closely intertwined with the preservation of the capitalist American way in the face of growing Soviet international influence. Though the government attempted to address the severe housing shortage by launching some public housing programs, those programs were viciously vilified by right-wing politicians as a form of socialism. Senator Joseph McCarthy himself called public housing projects "breeding ground[s] for communists." The Levitts and McCarthy joined forces in promoting Levittown as a more American, capitalist alternative to public housing solutions. McCarthy posed with washing machines to be placed in Levittown homes, and praised Levittown as a model of the American way. Bill Levitt himself once said, "No man who owns his own home and lot can be a Communist, he has too much to do." Later, Levitt vilified those who questioned his segregationist policies as communists. It wasn't only segregationists who used the charge of Communism to their advantage. U.S. writer Pearl Buck once compared the architectural and racial uniformity of the Levittown as reminiscent of the conformity of Communist China. The construction and growth of Levittown was a godsend for many houseless families, but it was also a battleground for divisive conceptions of race and political differences in the United States. Journalist David Kushner, the author of a book about the Myers experience, wrote of that less told story of Levittown's history, "It epitomizes how systematically people can be shut out of a dream—and yet how heroically they can take it back." Sadly, the experiences of the Myers in Levittown were not unique, but were echoed in houses, apartments and streets across the nation. How was segregation still such a real, persevering and violent part of communities long after residential segregation laws had been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1917? During the Great Depression, President Roosevelt had launched a federal agency called the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC), meant to protect struggling homeowners from losing their homes. The HOLC later implemented a system of rating neighborhoods with letter grades to help more systematically discern property values. While racially homogenous and primarily white neighborhoods generally received higher grades, the agency deemed those neighborhoods housing minorities or, "an undesirable element," in the official language, with its lowest ratings. Later, the Federal Housing Authority continued to use those HOLC standards when issuing mortgages. As historian Jackson has written, "For perhaps the first time, the federal government embraced the discriminatory attitudes of the marketplace. Previously, prejudices were personalized and individualized; FHA exhorted segregation and enshrined it as public policy." The rating system eventually contributed to reinforcing segregation as real estate agents and landlords steered white buyers to white communities, and African Americans to poorer developments. The system also enforced the perception that the entry of racial minorities into a community resulted in a drop in property values. As one neighbor of the Myers family told Life magazine during the standoff, "He's [William Myers] probably a nice guy, but every time I look at him I see $2,000 drop off the value of my house." While federal policies encouraged home ownership as a way to reinforce the capitalist spirit of the nation and real estate marketing celebrated home ownership as the key ingredient to an ideal domestic existence, government bureaucrats, real estate agents and landlords all implemented policies which helped exclude a large portion of American society from realizing that dream. After the financial success of the Levittown in Long Island, Levitt and Sons went on to build two more Levittowns, one in Pennsylvania and one in New Jersey. The uniform houses and immaculate lawns of the Levittown version of Suburbia made an indelible impression in the American mind, and an image of the winding roads of Levittown still conjures associations of a peaceful, wholesome Leave it To Beaver-type existence.

How did the Korean War end?

The fighting ended on 27 July 1953, when an armistice was signed. The agreement created the Korean Demilitarized Zone to separate North and South Korea, and allowed the return of prisoners. However, no peace treaty has been signed, and according to some sources the two Koreas are technically still at war. As a war undeclared by all participants, the conflict helped bring the term "police action" into common use. It also led to the permanent alteration of the balance of power within the United Nations, where Resolution 377—passed in 1950 to allow a bypassing of the Security Council if that body could not reach an agreement—led to the General Assembly displacing the Security Council as the primary organ of the UN.

How had the use of computers expanded by the mid-1950s? What company dominated the computer market in these years?

The first significant computer of the 1950s was the UNIVAC, which was developed initially for the U.S. Bureau of the Census by the Remington Rand Company. The was the first computer able to handle both alphabetical and numerical information easily. The computer became popular when it predicted that Eisenhower would have a landslide victory over Stevenson. Remington Rand had limited success in marketing the computer, but in the mid-190s, the International Business Machines Company introduced its first major data-processing computers and began to find a wide market for them among businesses in the United States and abroad.

How did the labor union movement change in the 1950s? What problems surfaced?

The formation of the AFL—CIO in 1955 visibly testified to the powerful continuities persisting through the age of industrial unionism. Above all, the central purpose remained what it had always been-to advance the economic and job interests of the union membership. Collective bargaining performed impressively after World War II, more than tripling weekly earnings in manufacturing between 1945 and 1970, gaining for union workers an unprecedented measure of security against old age, illness, and unemployment, and, through contractual protections, greatly strengthening their right to fair treatment at the workplace. But if the benefits were greater and if they went to more people, the basic job-conscious thrust remained intact. Organized labor was still a sectional movement, covering at most only a third of America's wage earners and inaccessible to those cut off in the low-wage secondary labor market.

Why did vacation travel, especially to national parks, expand in the 1950s?

The interstate highway system allowed people to travel more often. People began going to national parks more often as well to do things like hike, fish, camp, and hunt.

How had the economic attitudes of many corporate leaders changed by the time of the Eisenhower administration?

The most notable difference was that they tried to coexist and work with the Keynesian welfare state that was launched from the New Deal.

Explain the expanded role of advertising and consumer credit. Why can it be said that the prosperity of the 1950s and the 1960s was substantially consumer-driven?

Until about 1953, U.S. advertising and consumerism were catching up. Products such as clothing, refrigerators, automobiles and appliances-unavailable or in short supply during World War II-were again plentiful. Pent-up demand for consumer products fueled a steady growth in manufacturing. Conversely, the latter part of the decade was for consumers a period of acute consumption anxiety. Marketers continued to offer "new and improved" products to maintain high consumer demand. That focused selling technique relied on newly popular methods such as motivational research, demographic targeting and generational marketing. The postwar years also saw a huge increase in population. From 1945 to 1964, a global "baby boom" occurred, which fueled a housing boom. By the close of the decade, one-third of the U.S. population lived in suburban areas surrounding metropolitan centers, lured by the increase in transportation options and affordable housing for America's new middle class. That, in turn, fueled a need for appliances and other necessities to fill those new homes, and marketers rushed to introduce a vast array of products while manufacturers churned out new appliances, automobiles and consumer electronics. Many advertised products promoted labor-saving automation for increased productivity and leisure time. Heating and cooling products, kitchen and laundry appliances, furniture and decorating accessories, and frozen and prepared foods all promoted time-saving benefits. Capitalism claimed the technical innovations of wartime and transformed them into labor-saving convenience products. The aerosol spray can was a by-product of the war's South Pacific "bug bomb." Adding a spray top transformed the "bug bomb" into a dispenser for everything from processed cheese, whipped cream, shaving cream, hairspray and deodorant to furniture polish. Nylon, initially developed for parachutes, replaced expensive silk in stockings. Plastics and Styrofoam found new applications in everything from furniture to insulation. Advertising during this period reflected a conscious return to traditional family values. In a single generation, lingering memories of the Great Depression and war were replaced by positive futuristic portrayals of the idealized modern family—mother, father, son and daughter—enjoying the comforts of their new home, the convenience of their automobile and added leisure time together. Children were targeted for the first time, as advertising tapped their newfound affluence. Phonographs, records, radios, magazines, clothing and soft drinks, among other products, found a receptive teen audience. Advertising also portrayed society's upward mobility and prosperity, its technological superiority and its renewed optimism. For example, the necessity of becoming a two-car family was heavily promoted throughout the 1950s—a decade that began with 59% of American families owning a car. Within a few years, many families owned at least one car while many owned several. By the mid-1950s, automobiles surpassed packaged goods and cigarettes as the most heavily advertised products. Car owners of the mid-1950s began to see their vehicles as extensions of themselves. Ever-changing designs pushed consumers to replace their cars yearly—not for lack of performance, but for lack of style. Automobile design, with its distinctive fins and heavy emphasis on chrome, and advertising reflected the nation's infatuation with new technology, jet planes and the atomic age. Perhaps the most important factor influencing advertising in the 1950s was the growth of TV and its maturation into a viable ad medium. By 1951, regular live network service reached the West Coast via microwave transmitters, establishing coast-to-coast national coverage. As with radio, early TV programming was advertiser-sponsored. Advertising agencies produced TV shows, with networks providing little more than facilities, airtime and occasional guidance. Programming typically promoted the name of the sponsor and not the star: "Hallmark Hall of Fame," "Texaco Star Theater," "Colgate Comedy Hour," "Goodyear TV Playhouse" and "Kraft Television Theater." Midcentury advertising was a fertile ground for critics. As the Cold War raged, critics claimed that new mind-control methods were used to manipulate unsuspecting consumers. Motivational research tapped into hidden desires to help advertisers influence consumers to purchase goods through their need for security, sex, social acceptance, style, luxury and success. The leading proponent of motivational research was consultant Ernest Dichter. Mr. Dichter and his associates claimed to use psychological tools to analyze consumer buying habits and attitudes toward products, brands, packages, colors and other motivations. He proposed that one of the main dichotomies advertisers should resolve was what he called "the conflict between pleasure and guilt" among adults more affluent than their Depression-era parents. Many ad agencies formed motivational research departments, and new brand personalities were born. The Marlboro man (from Leo Burnett Co.), Maidenform woman (Norman, Craig & Kummel) and Hathaway shirt man ( Ogilvy & Mather) brought parity products (those with no easily discernible differences from others in the same category) to life and offered such attachments as emotional security, reassurance, creativity and power. Vance Packard introduced motivational research to a Cold War-weary public in his best-selling book, "The Hidden Persuaders." Revealing little about advertising technique, its ostensible subject, the book instead fueled Americans' fear of manipulation and mind control and became one of the most widely read "exposes" of advertising since the 1930s.

Why did John Foster Dulles move the United States toward the policy of massive retaliation?

When Dwight D. Eisenhower became U.S. President in January 1953, Dulles was appointed and confirmed as his Secretary of State. As Secretary of State, Dulles still carried out the "containment" policy of neutralizing the Taiwan Strait during the Korean War, which had been established by President Truman in the Treaty of Peace with Japan of 1951, but he felt this was too passive. Dulles also supervised the completion of the Japanese Peace Treaty, in which full independence was restored to Japan under United States terms. As Secretary of State, Dulles concentrated on building up the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and forming other alliances (a phenomenon described as his "Pactomania") as part of his strategy of controlling Soviet expansion by threatening massive retaliation in event of a war. In the 1950s, he worked alongside to reduce the French influence in Vietnam as well as asking the United States to attempt to cooperate with the French in the aid of strengthening Diem's Army. Over time Dulles concluded that it was time to "ease France out of Vietnam". In 1950 he also helped initiate the ANZUS Treaty for mutual protection with Australia and New Zealand. Dulles strongly opposed communism, believing it was "Godless terrorism". One of his first major policy shifts towards a more aggressive position against communism occurred in March 1953, when Dulles supported Eisenhower's decision to direct the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), then headed by his brother Allen Dulles, to draft plans to overthrow the Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh of Iran. This led directly to the coup d'état via Operation Ajax in support of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who became the Shah of Iran. In 1954, Dulles became the architect of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). The treaty, signed by representatives of Australia, Britain, France, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand and the United States, provided for collective action against aggression. In 1954 Dulles lobbied Eisenhower on behalf of the American United Fruit Company to instigate a military coup by the Guatemalan army through the CIA under the pretext that democratically-elected President Jacobo Árbenz's government and the Guatemalan Revolution were veering toward communism. Dulles had previously represented the United Fruit Company as a lawyer, and remained on its payroll, while his brother, CIA Director Allen Dulles, was on the company's board of directors. Dulles was named Time's Man of the Year for 1954. Dulles was one of the pioneers of massive retaliation and brinkmanship. In an article written for Life magazine, Dulles defined his policy of brinkmanship: "The ability to get to the verge without getting into the war is the necessary art." Dulles' hard line alienated many leaders of nonaligned countries when on June 9, 1955, he argued in a speech that "neutrality has increasingly become obsolete and, except under very exceptional circumstances, it is an immoral and shortsighted conception." Throughout the 1950s Dulles was in frequent conflict with those non-aligned statesmen he deemed excessively sympathetic to Communism, including India's V.K. Krishna Menon. In November 1956, Dulles strongly opposed the Anglo-French invasion of the Suez Canal zone in response to the Suez Crisis. During the most crucial days he was hospitalized after surgery and did not participate in Washington's decision-making. However, by 1958 Dulles had become an outspoken opponent of President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and prevented him from receiving arms from the United States. This policy allowed the Soviet Union to gain influence in Egypt. Dulles served as the Chairman and Co-founder of the Commission on a Just and Durable Peace of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America (later the National Council of Churches), the Chairman of the Board for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and a Trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation from 1935 to 1952. Dulles was also a founding member of Foreign Policy Association and Council of Foreign Relations.


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