Discussion Questions- Chapter 37

1. The 1950s is sometimes known of as the age of anxiety due to the constant threat that the Cold War poses in terms of a nuclear arms race. The race to develop the biggest, most destructive bomb led each side to be forward, patriotic, and hostile in their approaches towards foreign relations, seen also in the space race  with Sputnik. A subculture of mistrust emerged, and Alger Hist. McCarthy accused George Marshall (Marshall Plan) of being a communist. The U2 Incident was when a spy plane over soviet Russia was shut down and he didn't press the self destruct button, so he and his plane were captured and interrogated. The soviets therefore got a hold of our military technology and any intelligence the pilot might have had.
2. Eisenhower balanced assertiveness with restrain in his foreign policy in Vietnam, the Middle East, and Europe seen in the spirit of Geneva, where when Eisenhower asked Khrushchev for arms reductions, he was open to the suggestion. Eisenhower focused on strategies of deterring the enemy and scaring them into not taking action, showing both assertiveness and restraint. After the French decided to leave South Asia at Dienbeinphu, a void was created where communism could grow, marking America's real interest inVietnam. A conference at Geneva split Vietnam into North and South, north winding up communist. The Eisenhower Doctrine declared that the United States would help the Middle East if threatened by communist, this showed restraint. However, the coup placing Pahlavi as an essential dictator showed assertiveness. Brinkmanship, created by John Foster Dulles, means willing to go the the brink of war to roll back Communism. This is where the Strategic air command and expansion of the nuclear arsenal. With this, you can't fight conventional wars- you have to do all or nothing. Assertiveness is shown in our oration and rhetoric, but restraint has to be shown when the time for action is nye. This can be seen in the rebellion in Hungary, Vietnam, and the Middle East- especially with the Egyptian Crisis.
3. Eisenhower ushered in a time of conservatism and caution with McCarthyism, the rooting out of perceived communists and the formation of the House of Un-American Activities Committee. However, social change was rampant with the development of rock and roll, Marilyn Monroe as the sex icon of the nuclear age, and women's places in the workplace- while job opportunities were increasing, they was a huge pushback against women's rights, and confining their sphere of influence to the home and family matters. Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton explored mental illness in their poetry as some of the first modern female poets, the Beat generation ran gritty with Ginsberg and Kerouac, Ralph Ellison wrote about the struggles of black men, the Civil Rights movement progressed with early leadership from Dr. King, art progressed with the gestural abstraction in Jackson Pollock, Ansleim Keifer used Neo-German Expressionism to express the shame of German citizens, and Judy Chicago expressed feminist notions in her piece "The Dinner Party", America became the center for the avant-garde, rather than Europe.