Unit 5 · 1945–1993

Cold War Years

The United States and the Soviet Union competed for decades. At home, people marched for equal rights, and Americans even walked on the Moon.

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  No. 33Harry S. Truman1945–1953 · DemocraticHe ended World War II, began the Cold War, and desegregated the armed forces.
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  No. 34Dwight D. Eisenhower1953–1961 · RepublicanThe general who helped win World War II built interstates and warned about a “military-industrial complex.”
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  No. 35John F. Kennedy1961–1963 · DemocraticThe youngest elected president — he aimed for the Moon and stared down a nuclear crisis.
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  No. 36Lyndon B. Johnson1963–1969 · DemocraticHe signed the biggest civil-rights laws in a century — and sank into the Vietnam War.
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  No. 37Richard Nixon1969–1974 · RepublicanHe opened China and ended a war — then resigned over the Watergate cover-up.
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  No. 38Gerald Ford1974–1977 · RepublicanThe only president never elected president or vice president.
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  No. 39Jimmy Carter1977–1981 · DemocraticA Georgia farmer-engineer who made peace between Egypt and Israel — and later built houses for the poor.
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  No. 40Ronald Reagan1981–1989 · RepublicanA former actor who argued for lower taxes, a stronger military, and the end of the Cold War.
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  No. 41George H. W. Bush1989–1993 · RepublicanA World War II pilot who managed the Cold War's end and a swift Gulf War — then lost over a tax pledge.