Record of the 84th Congress (First Session)

Archive Report

Eisenhower Successes and Failures

Divided responsibility for government brought an unexpectedly harmonious session of Congress in 1955, with nothing resembling the “cold war of partisan politics” predicted by President Eisenhower if the Democratic party came into control of the Legislative Branch.1 Administration measures fared about as well during the first session of the 84th Congress as in the preceding Republican Congress.

Democrats supported presidential policies they held to be “for the good of the country”—many of them policies originated during the New Deal and the Fair Deal—but attempted in many cases to carry them farther than the President desired. At the same time, the President received stronger support from the right wing of his own party than during the first two years of his administration. This ...

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