The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s

by William I. Hitchcock

He took credit for ending the war in Korea, stamping out the fires of war over Suez and Lebanon, halting Chinese threats to Quemoy, and keeping West Berlin free. America had built global alliances in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia and enhanced the role of the United Nations as the world’s parliament. The national defenses had been built up to a state of high readiness “sufficient to deter and if need be destroy” any enemy. The age of the ballistic missile and the space satellite had dawned. The Polaris missile, housed in submarines that silently knifed through the ocean depths, stood ready to strike anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice. A fleet of nuclear-powered warships cruised the oceans, while thousands of jet-propelled bombers and fighters could strike at targets around the world. The Age of Eisenhower had shaped and implemented a warfare state of unprecedented size and lethality. The nation’s gross national product had passed the half-trillion mark, and the average American family enjoyed an income 15 percent higher than it did in 1952.