Eisenhower in the White House

1
Eisenhower in the White House

• How do new ideas change the way people live?

2
Eisenhower

• 1952 Eisenhower elected president serves 2
  terms
• Middle-of-the-road domestic policy policies were
  safe and not extreme
• Favored free enterprise and letting businesses
• and people make economic decision with little
  government interference
• Cut government spending 300 million surplus at
  the end of his second term

3

• Federal Highway Act of 1956 built over 40,000
  miles of highways helping economy to grow
  especially the automobile and oil industries

4
Rivalry with the Soviet Union

• Arms Race competition for military supremacy
• Both sides built more and more nuclear weapons
  which used energy stored in its atoms
• Each side had the power to destroy each other
  many times over
• Mid-1950s superpowers want to ease tensions
• July, 1955 Summit held in Switzerland

5

• Eisenhower, NATO members and Soviet Union attend
  tensions remained

6
Problems in 1956

• Egypt took over Suez Canal which was controlled
  by Europe
• Britain, France, and Israel send soldiers
• Soviet Union threatens to send soldiers but
  doesnt
• All armies pulled out of Egypt

7
Hungary

• New government told Soviet Army to leave
• Soviet leader Khrushchev refused had soldiers
  stop the revolt
• Eisenhower criticized this, but did not take
  further action

8
Space Race

• Competition to explore space
• Soviet launch first satellite, Sputnik, in 1957
• US set up space program headed by the National
  Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

9
Summary and Activity

• How did the interstate highway system help the
  economy of the United States?
• Explain the two areas in which the United States
  and the Soviet Union competed.
• Activity illustrate one of the areas of
  competition or how the highway system helped the
  economy