Politics

Politics in the 1950s and 1960s
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s the main issue that dominated American politics was The Cold War. Eisenhower was elected president in the 1950s, and during his presidency he did his best to prepare America for the event of a nuclear war with Russia. His successor, John F. Kennedy, brought youth back to the White House in the 1960s. Perhaps Kennedy’s greatest achievement was his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Instead of invading Cuba when the U.S. found Russian Missiles on its shores, Kennedy kept a cool head – deciding to quarantine Cuba, thus allowing diplomacy to prevail.  Civil Rights also dominated the 1950s and 1960s. Eisenhower took some of the first steps of integration by sending the army to integrate the schools in Little Rock, Arkansas. Later, after seeing the brutality against peaceful protests in the south, Kennedy threw his weight behind the Civil Rights Movement. Kennedy’s martyrdom allowed his Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson to successfully pass the Civil Rights Bill in 1964.