Just six years earlier America had been at war in Korea against the forces of “international Communism.” In his first term Ike stressed that the nation was “in peril” as a result of the communist threat. The frenzy of the McCarthy era remained white hot through 1954, and in 1956 the invasion of Hungary made the Soviets look like ruthless beasts. The early phase of the space race alarmed Americans and drew their eyes upward to search the nighttime skies for Soviet rockets. Yet now, at the close of 1959, Eisenhower, at his paternal and unruffled best, assured his people that the cold war could
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