A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 12

President Eisenhower was a Republican and would probably be considered much too liberal in today's Republican party.  Eisenhower didn't set out to destroy the New Deal programs that had proven both popular and successful.  He was responsible for building an interstate highway system that made travel much easier across the country.

Eisenhower,probably reluctantly, used the National Guard to enforce desegregation in Arkansas after the Supreme Court's Brown vs. Topeka decision.  The Court declared that the doctrine of "separate but equal" was unconstitutional.

Arkansas Governor Orville Faubus was defiant.  Faubus ordered National Guardsmen to block the entry of African-American students to Little Rock's Central High School.  Faubus used the blatantly transparent lie that it was necessary to prevent mob violence.  But Eisenhower successfully enforced the Supreme Court's decision.

The tensions of the Cold War were always a concern.  The Soviet Union upstaged the United States in 1957 with the launch of its Sputnik satellite and aroused concern that the United States was falling behind the Soviet Union technologically and scientifically.

The Eisenhower years were also marked by economic recessions, which have been consistent with Republican administrations.

More to come