On the strength of his success leading the U.S. military to victory in Europe in World War II, Dwight Eisenhower became the first Republican elected to the Presidency since before the Great Depression. He won both the 1952 and 1956 elections with landslides. His administration was largely consumed with the containment of the Soviet Union and communism. He won congressional support for the Formosa Resolution of 1955, whereby the United States guaranteed to defend Taiwan His support for the French in Indochina led to support for the South Vietnamese government and to the beginning of the Vietnam War. Domestically, Eisenhower was a moderate conservative who expanded social security, covertly opposed Joseph McCarthy, and appointed a Democrat to the Supreme Court. Eisenhower condemned the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956, but took no direct action to oppose it.
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