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Eisenhower Administration Essay

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President Eisenhower’s response to McCarthyism, Civil Rights Movement and Social Welfare programs Dwight David Eisenhower served as the President of the United States of America for eight years between the periods of 1953 and 1961. These were amazing eight years that gave birth to a New World. The era of Eisenhower’s Presidency is identified by many Americans as the period of quietness. Americans were content and seasons were good as they no longer worried about the great crash or depression. Families bought their homes in suburbs. During these times there are other things which happened dramatically. International affairs and more specifically the Cold War threatened the occurrence of another global war. Technology advanced in ways never …show more content…

Eisenhower did not combat McCarthy until there was much damage done on the reputation of America both locally and internationally. This demonstrated a weakness in the political skills by Eisenhower. The accusations of the senator grew wilder and bred a destructive atmosphere of suspicion and denunciation among many loyal American citizens. Many appeals reached the White House demanding that Eisenhower speaks against McCarthy. Eisenhower’s response was that it was the responsibility of McCarthy’s fellow senators to discipline one of their members. The Presidency, he claimed should not be concerned with issues of Congress. He loathed McCarthy’s smear tactics and hated the man, but he also shared the belief that communist subversion in America should be checked by loyalty oaths, by investigations and where necessary by other stern measures (Soames, 488). One of the greatest failures of President Eisenhower was his handling of civil rights. Eisenhower however did not like to deal with issues of race. Nonetheless, he could not avoid matters like the Courts ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. The ruling in this case was that isolation of people on racial grounds was not constitutional in public schools. Eisenhower did not like this ruling and therefore did not endorse it. He did not comment on the decision; his silence on this issue was used to encourage resistance to desegregation. White citizens in different parts of the South

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