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

by William I. Hitchcock

His foreign and security policies combined restraint and vigilance in equal measure. Eisenhower showed less restraint in his use of covert operations. In Guatemala, Iran, Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, Cuba, and Congo, Eisenhower gave CIA director Dulles carte blanche to cause havoc. The CIA in the 1950s triggered coups, plotted assassinations, and shipped arms and cash to authoritarian regimes. Dulles also urged upon Ike an aggressive use of the U-2 spy plane, which led to the disastrous events of May 1960. Eisenhower was a cold warrior, and there was brutality in the means he adopted to wage that ideological conflict. To be fair, all the postwar presidents have succumbed to the temptations of shadow

warfare. Historians will continue to debate the consequences of Eisenhower’s use of the CIA, but they will have to balance that story against the remarkable record of Great Power stability and the absence of large-scale conflict that marked his presidency.

He balanced three budgets and came close on five others. Fewer federal dollars in the economy translated into sharp recessions in 1953–54 and 1958, with unemployment spiking significantly in 1958. Still, Ike demonstrated real creativity: he found a way to expand defense spending, boost the minimum wage, widen social security, and invest in infrastructure—especially highways, school construction, and public housing—all while maintaining tight fiscal policies.