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

by William I. Hitchcock

As a candidate Eisenhower had denounced what he called the creeping socialism of the New Deal and declared that if Americans wanted “security” they could go to jail and have their meals and housing provided for free. But once in office he adopted a far more generous, and indeed progressive outlook on the provision of social security benefits for working Americans. Eager to sever any link to the heartless policies of the previous Republican administration, Eisenhower unambiguously embraced the principle of social security in his 1953 State of the Union address. “The individual citizen must have safeguards against personal disaster inflicted by forces beyond his control,” he insisted. Three weeks later he used a homely metaphor to reassure Americans: “It is a proper function of government to help build a sturdy floor over the pit of personal disaster, and to this objective we are all committed.” Eisenhower would be no Herbert Hoover.