Eisenhower Era

1. Eisenhower Era

2. Truman Out, Eisenhower In • Just before the end of the Korean War, the U.S. held its 1952 presidential election • Many Americans believed that Truman was not tough enough for the Cold War • USSR developed the atomic bomb • China fell to Communism • Korean War was at a stand-still • Truman decided against running for re-election

3. Dwight D. Eisenhower won the election easily • A WWII general, he was a hero to many Americans • People believed they could trust Eisenhower to be tough in the Cold War

4. Eisenhower’s Economic/Domestic Policies • Believed the key to victory in the Cold War was two-fold • Strong military • MASSIVE weapons build-up • Strong economy • The U.S. had to show the world that the free-market (Capitalist) system was better than Communism • Economic prosperity would prevent Communism from growing more popular in the U.S.

5. Eisenhower’s Foreign Policy • Believed the U.S. could not defeat Communism through a series of small wars (like Korea) • Communism should be prevented from spreading in the first place • Threatened the use of nuclear weapons if a Communist country tried to seize any territory by force • Policy was named “Massive Retaliation”

6. Massive Retaliation information • Eisenhower stated that nuclear weapons were indeed more expensive than traditional bombs, but that they gave “more bang for the buck.” • Increased the U.S. arsenal from approximately 1,000 bombs in 1953 to approximately 18,000 when he left office in 1961 • Spending included new technology • B-52 bomber: designed to fly across continents and drop nuclear weapons anywhere in the world • Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs): capable of delivering a strike anywhere in the world

7. The Hydrogen Bomb • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dG76lkGC8w • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nop3tfseBqU&feature=endscreen

8. Russia’s Space Launch • Russia shocked the world on October 4, 1957 with the launch of its first satellite, Sputnik

9. Americans were afraid the U.S. was falling behind the Soviet Union • Eisenhower insisted this wasn’t true, saying that the Soviets had only “put one small ball into the air.” • Congress was afraid the U.S. was falling behind in scientific research • Created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to research rocket development and space exploration • Created the National Defense Education Fund to pay for training and education in science, math, and foreign languages

10. Brinkmanship • The new policy from Eisenhower was quickly tested • Shortly after the Korean War ended, the Chinese Communists threatened to seize territory from the Nationalists living on Taiwan and several other small islands near Taiwan • Eisenhower saw Taiwan as an “anticommunist barrier” and asked Congress for permission to use force to defend it • Eisenhower warned the Chinese that an attempt to invade Taiwan would received a U.S. response, including the possible use of nuclear weapons • China backed down

11. The fact that President Eisenhower was so willing to threaten nuclear war in order to maintain peace worried some, but others strongly defended the policy: • “You have to take chances for peace, just as you must take chances in war. Some say that we were brought to the verge of war. Of course we were brought to the verge of war. The ability to get to the verge without getting into the war is the necessary art. If you try to run away from it, if you are scared to go to the brink, you are lost. We’ve had to look it square in the face. We walked to the brink and we looked it in the face. We took strong action.”

12. Covert Operations • Eisenhower recognized that Brinkmanship would not work for every situation • To prevent Communist uprisings in other countries, Eisenhower began using covert, or hidden, activities conducted by the CIA • Many operations took place in developing nations – nation’s whose economies are mostly based on agriculture • A large percentage of these developing nations blamed American capitalism for their problems and looked to the Soviet Union as a model of how to become more industrialized • Triggered fear that these nations would ally themselves with the Soviets

13. Many of the U.S.’s covert operations followed the model of the Marshall Plan and Truman Doctrine, relying on financial aid • Where the threat of Communism seemed most strong the CIA staged operations to overthrow anti-American leaders and replace them with pro-American leaders • Iran in 1953 • Guatemala in 1954

14. Stalin and Kruschev

15. Showdown in Hungary • 1953: Josef Stalin died and a struggle for power in the Soviet Union lasted for 3 years • 1956: Nikita Kruschev emerged as the new leader of the USSR • Kruschev delivered a secret speech to other Soviet nations where he criticized Stalin’s policies • He argued there were many ways to build a Communist society • The CIA obtained a copy of the speech, and (with Eisenhower’s permission) broadcast the speech to all of Eastern Europe • Hearing Kruschev’s speech further discredited Communism, and riots broke out in Eastern European countries where the Soviet Union was becoming less popular

16. The riots were especially violent in Hungary, and by late October of 1956 a full scale uprising had begun • Kruschev was willing to allow greater freedom among Soviet nations than Stalin had been, he had never meant to imply that he would tolerate an end to the Communist Bloc in Eastern Europe • Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest and crushed the uprising

17. The effects of the Hungarian uprising were felt by all of the Communist Bloc • Kruschev had previously supported a peaceful co-existence with capitalist countries, but he accused those same countries of trying to start a rebellion amongst the Soviet nations • He began to build up the Soviet’s arms feverishly • In 1958 Kruschev demanded that the U.S., Great Britain, and France withdraw their troops from West Berlin • The U.S. relied on Brinkmanship to force Kruschev to back down