The 1950s People

John Foster Dulles (1888-1959) was Eisenhower's Secretary of State until April of 1959, when he resigned from office because of illness. (Dulles died a month later.) Dulles was an international law...

Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) ran against Eisenhower for president as the Democratic candidate in both 1952 and 1956. The relatively young Illinois governor offered a clear alternative to Ike. Eisenh...

Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971) started his career as a faithful follower of the murderous Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. After Stalin's death in 1953, Khrushchev took over as Communist Party Chairma...

Elvis Presley (1935-1977) was born to a poor family in East Tupelo, Mississippi. When he was a teenager, the Presleys moved to Memphis, where Elvis graduated from high school and took a job as a tr...

Sherman Adams (1899-1986) was an important political adviser to President Eisenhower. As governor of New Hampshire, Adams was one of the moderate eastern Republicans who first urged Ike to run for...

Richard Nixon (1913-1994) was a Republican congressman from California whom Eisenhower chose as his vice-presidential running mate in 1952. Nixon had developed a reputation as a fierce anticommunis...

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) was the son of pacifist Mennonite parents, but he chose to study war as a cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He was spotted as a promising o...