Dwight David Eisenhower

Birth-Death: (1890 - 1969 ) Term: (1953-1961 )

The launch of Soviet Sputnik in 1957 signified the beginning of a new age, the Space Age. Over the next four years, the Americans and the Soviets sent men and women into space, and satellites to the moon and the sun. The United States was also fighting Communism on the ground. Major financial help was given to the French to sustain their positions in Vietnam. The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was formed to oppose any Communist aggression in the Far East and the United States sent destroyers to Taiwan during the Quemoy-Matsu incident.

Major Events with Dwight Eisenhower

1954 - Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas

    The Fourteenth amendment adopted by the United States following the Civil War included freed blacks as citizens and guaranteed all citizens equal rights and equal treatment under the law. In 1896, long after the end of Reconstruction, in Plessy v. Ferguson the Supreme Court reaffirmed the legality of segregation by stating that it was constitutional as long as facilities were "equal."

    In 1954 the time was right to challenge this law under the 14th amendment. It was usually the case that the racially segregated schools were not equal. When the law went to the Supreme Court, judge Earl Warren stated that "separate educational facilities were inherently unequal." It was after this decision that desegregation had unofficially began.

1955 - Suez Crisis

    The leader of Egypt, Colonel Nasser, asked both the United States, the USSR, and the International Bank for financial support in the building of the Aswan dam. Although full support was given, Great Britain, United States and the International Bank withdrew their offer. Egypt was leaning more and more towards the Soviet Union and it was soon obvious that Nasseršs main objective was to become leader of the Middle East.

    Nasser soon nationalized the Suez canal. He refused to permit the British and the French to oversee the canal and hešd also refused the Israelites to use the canal because they were still legally at war. Israel sent troops to intervene, and so did Great Britain. The United States did not want to intervene, and advised the United Nations to interfere instead. The UN troops came in, cleared the canal, and took care of the situation.

1957 - Eisenhower Doctrine

    The Eisenhower Doctrine was basically the Truman Doctrine applied to the Middle East. Since the United States did not want to "lose" any countries to Communism in the Middle East, it was ready to spend money to prevent this from happening.

1957 - Sputnik Launched

    The Soviet Union was the first country to launch a man made satellite into an Earth orbit. Sputnik (satellite in Russian) was the simplest satellite, yet it scared the American public, as it was clear that the Soviets had beaten the United States to space. The space race had begun.

1960 - The U2 Incident

    On May 1, 1960, a U2 high altitude spy plane was shot down over central Russia. At first the United States said that it was a meteorological plane that had drifted off course. The story, however, was quickly disproven as the planešs equipment remained intact during the crash and, the pilot, Francis Powers, had survived. The United States finally admitted that the U2 was a spy plane, however Eisenhower refused to give an official apology and thus the summit conference between Eisenhower and Krustchev never happened.