Venezuelan Protesters Attack Nixon Cavalcade
In April-May1958, on a goodwill trip to Latin America, Vice President Richard Nixon engaged in angry debates with student groups in Peru and Uruguay. Then, in Caracas, Venezuela, a large crowd pelted his car, smashing the windows. Nixon escaped from the crowd and...
USSR Declares Atomic Testing Halt
https://youtu.be/QrNN5ZhsC1I In March 1958 the Soviet Union declared it was halting tests of atomic and hydrogen bombs. It called on the other nuclear powers, the United States and Britain, to do the same. Moscow warned that it would resume testing if their example...
Syria and Egypt form United Arab Republic
https://youtu.be/0KSXZNpyTfg In February 1958 Syria and Egypt formed the United Arab Republic. Although initially a political union between Egypt (including the occupied Gaza Strip) and Syria, Syria seceded from the union in 1961 after a...
John Birch Society
https://youtu.be/mide9z5q_3c In 1958 the John Birch Society, an American ultraconservative political advocacy group was founded by retired candy manufacturer Robert Welch to promote anti-communism and social conservatism. At its height,...
Eisenhower Warns of Communist Threat
Text of January 1958 address: The threat to our safety, and to the hope of a peaceful world, can be simply stated. It is communist imperialism. This threat is not something imagined by critics of the Soviets. Soviet spokesmen, from the beginning, have publicly and...
Mao’s Great Leap Forward
https://youtu.be/60_Q-kAZbXA The Great Leap Forward in the People's Republic of China was an economic and social campaign from 1958 to 1962 that was launched by Chairman Mao Zedong in an attempt to restructure the country from an...
President Eisenhower Illness
Although Dwight Eisenhower was the first American president to release information about his health while in office, his physicians and staff often misled the public about his condition. Eisenhower began chain smoking cigarettes at West Point. As...
Mao Zedong: Handling of Contradictions
On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People (关于正确处理人民内部矛盾的问题) was a 1957 essay by Mao Zedong that made a distinction between "contradictions amongst the people" and "counter-revolutionary contradictions." The stated policy was to "isolate...
Eisenhower Doctrine
https://youtu.be/1N1_JGG4XX8 In January 1957 President Eisenhower declared that US forces could be deployed to protect the territorial integrity and political independence of nations from overt armed aggression by any nation controlled by international communism....
Hungarian Uprising
https://youtu.be/_Vy5RGJNvGg In October 1956 a countrywide revolution arose against the Stalinist government of the Hungarian People's Republic and the domestic policies imposed by the USSR. In November 1956, after initially agreeing to negotiate the withdrawal of...
The Polish Revolution
The Poznań protests of 1956 (Poznański Czerwiec) were several massive protests against the communist government of the Polish People's Republic. In June 1956 demonstrations by workers demanding better working conditions at Poznań's Cegielski...
Birth of the US Interstate Highway System
https://youtu.be/6xd9cxRtt_k In June 1956, Eisenhower signed the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 into law. Under the act, the federal government would pay for 90 percent of the cost of construction of Interstate Highways. Each Interstate Highway was required to be a...
Pakistan and Tunisia Granted Independence
https://youtu.be/Usy9TpxQ5tY In 1947 British India was divided into the independent sovereign states of India and Pakistan. From 1947 to 1956 Pakistan was a monarchy within the United Kingdom and the other Dominions in the...
Syngman Rhee Re-elected South Korean President
https://youtu.be/iyWg0ed82bQ This newsreel seems to reflect American support for the virtual dictatorship of this anti-communist strong man. Syngman Rhee Wikipedia In May 1956 81-year-old Syngman Rhee won 70% of the popular South Korean vote with a voter turnout of...
Khrushchev Denounces “Dictator” Stalin
After the death of Josef Stalin in 1953, little criticism regarding his leadership was tolerated until, in a closed session of 1,500 delegates and visitors in 1956 First Secretary of the Communist Party Nikita Khrushchev denounced The Personality Cult of Josef Stalin...
Big Four Meeting in Geneva Reduces International Tension
https://youtu.be/1KURFzVpqm4 The stated mission of the November 1955 Geneva summit was to reduce international tensions between the leaders of "Big Four" nations France, Great Britain, USA and USSR. The world leaders discussed issues on security,...
President Eisenhower Has Heart Attack
At West Point, Dwight Eisenhower began chain smoking three or four packs of cigarettes a day. In September 1955 he suffered a massive heart attack after golfing in Denver, Colorado. Seven weeks later he left the hospital, and in February 1956 doctors...
Ngo Dinh Diem Becomes President of Vietnam
https://youtu.be/D8M6b6t_pwk In spring 1955 anti-French sentiment led Vietnamese nationalists to call for removal of Bảo Đại, who was head of Vietnam's provisional government. Ngo Dinh Diem then set up a referendum between himself and Bảo Đại for October 1955. In...
Congress Mandates In God We Trust on all U.S. Currency
https://youtu.be/A36Iq5qNukQ In 1955 the US Congress passed a bill requiring that "In God We Trust" appear on all American currency. Midst the Cold War threat of atheistic communism, the bill passed with bipartisan support and was signed into law by...
Georgy Malenkov Resigns
In 1953, Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov briefly succeeded Joseph Stalin as the leader of the Soviet Union. However, at the insistence of the rest of the Presidium, he relinquished control over the party apparatus in exchange for...
Southeast Asia Treaty Organization – SEATO
https://youtu.be/6_Hb8IDU4Tk Wikipedia In September 1954 the United States, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, Thailand and Pakistan formed the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). Although most of the SEATO member states were...
“Under God” phrase added to the Pledge of Allegiance
https://youtu.be/Xi8MXIq_0t0 In June 1954, In response to the perceived communist threat during the Cold War, President Eisenhower encouraged Congress to add the words "under God," to the pledge of allegiance. Today the Pledge reads: I pledge allegiance to the flag of...
Brown v. Board of Education
In the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka the justices ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. The case became one of the cornerstones of the civil rights movement,...
Edward R. Murrow vs. Joseph McCarthy
Edward Roscoe Murrow was an American broadcast journalist and war correspondent who first gained radio prominence with a series of live radio broadcasts from Europe during WWII. In the spring of 1954 the US Senate held a series of hearings to investigate...
Five Shot In U.S. Congress
In March 1954 four Puerto Rican nationalists wanting independence from US rule, shot 30 rounds from semi-automatic pistols from the balcony of the House of Representatives chamber in the United States Capitol. The nationalists unfurled...