Chapter 27: The Age of Affluence, 1945-1960

Chapter 27: The Age of Affluence, 1945-1960

with the objective of stabilizing the postwar world economy. The

American dollar was to be used as the benchmark for international

economic life.

economic organizations. The first would provide private development

loans for devastated European nations; the second would stabilize the

international economy.

construction techniques to build postwar suburban housing

developments. This method cut costs and enabled families (if they

were white) to purchase their own homes at remarkably low prices.

to deport millions of Mexican laborers who were once allowed to work

in the United States. The second attempted to end the system of

Indian reservations and to encourage Indians to assimilate into the

mainstream of American society. Both programs were soon eliminated.
1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
The Supreme Court ruled that racially segregated public schools were

unconstitutional, overturning the Court's 1896 "separate but equal"

doctrine.
1955 AFL and CIO merge
Having split apart during the Great Depression, these two labor

federations reunited, forming an organization whose member unions

represented 90 percent of America's unionized labor force.
Montgomery bus boycott
This successful yearlong protest against segregation in local public

transportation brought Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and his strategy of

nonviolent protest against racial inequality, to national attention.
1956 National Interstate and Defense Highway Act
Dwight Eisenhower sponsored this largest public works program in

American history, which eventually produced 42,500 miles of four-lane

highways across the entire nation.
1957 Peak of postwar baby boom
The years following World War II saw a temporary but dramatic

reversal of the decline in birth rates that had characterized the

twentieth century. Americans married earlier and bore one-third more

children per family than they had in the 1930s, creating an enormous

impact on schools, popular culture, employment opportunities, and

(eventually) old-age assistance programs as the generation moved

through its life cycle.
School desegregation battle in Little Rock, Arkansas
After Arkansas governor Orval Faubus used National Guard soldiers to

prevent court-ordered desegregation, President Eisenhower sent

federal troops to enforce integration and to protect the black children

who had enrolled in a previously all-white high school.

Led by Martin Luther King Jr., this organization of black ministers

helped coordinate the churches' support for nonviolent desegregation

campaigns.

Chapter 28: The Liberal Consensus Flaming Out, 1960-1968

declaration of independence plunged the country into a war for independence.

that the Vietnam War was an example of communist expansion.

sends military aid

French efforts in Vietnam, a fateful beginning to an involvement that would last

until 1973.
1954 French defeat at Dienbienphu
The French surrender in this battle, following Eisenhower's refusal to intervene

with U.S. forces, compelled France to sign an armistice agreement with the

Vietminh, and to begin withdrawal from Vietnam.
Geneva Accords partition Vietnam at 17th parallel
These agreements brought an end to the fighting in Vietnam, and provided for

the temporary division of the country into zones administered by France and the

Vietminh, pending national elections to be held in 1956.
1960 Sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina
The involvement of college students who were determined to occupy

segregated lunch counters until they were served or arrested opened

a new, imaginative and energetic phase in the civil rights movement.
John F. Kennedy elected president
The attractive young senator from Massachusetts defeated former

vice-president Richard Nixon in a campaign emphasizing a "new

politics" that raised many expectations for activism at home and

abroad.
1961 Peace Corps established

Third World countries to the West by proposing a program whereby

Americans would assist developing countries in a variety of grassroots

projects.

Freedom rides

Interracial groups of activists organized by the Congress of Racial

Equality (CORE) rode buses through the South to call attention to

continuing racial discrimination in interstate transportation. Violent

attacks on the riders led the Kennedy administration to take a more

active role in supporting racial equality.

Bay of Pigs invasion
Kennedy approved this CIA-sponsored invasion of Cuba by anti-Castro

exiles (originally planned by the Eisenhower administration). The

invasion failed because of planning errors, lack of popular Cuban

support, and Kennedy's refusal to provide open American military

support.
Berlin Wall erected
The continuing quarrel between the United States and the USSR over

the status of Berlin led the East Germans (with Soviet approval) to

erect a wall between East and West Berlin that would prevent

easterners from leaving the Soviet sector of the city.

1962 Cuban missile crisis
To defend Cuba from the United States, the USSR established bases

on the island equipped with nuclear-armed missiles that could reach

targets in the United States. Kennedy demanded their removal, which

led to a thirteen-day confrontation that brought the two superpowers

to the brink of nuclear war. Concessions by both sides led to a

resolution of the crisis.

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) founded
Forty students from Ivy League and Big Ten universities formed this new, radical

organization, and adopted the Port Huron Statement, a manifesto declaring that

more community participation was necessary for full political democracy to exist

in the United States.

Michael Harrington's The Other America
In his book, the activist and author described the persistence of

poverty, and people he called "the invisible poor," in an otherwise

affluent country


1963 Coup ousts Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam
The increasingly unpopular president of South Vietnam was overthrown and

assassinated by a military coup. Diem was originally sponsored by the United

States, but his overthrow had the acquiescence of U.S. authorities. A series of

ineffective governments in South Vietnam followed this coup.

Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique
This book provided the spark that helped create the women's rights

movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

Civil rights protest in Birmingham, Alabama
Public opinion, horrified by the televised sight of law enforcement

officials using dogs and fire hoses to break up peaceful

demonstrations, pressured the Kennedy administration to support

federal civil rights legislation.

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