chapter 37 domestic issues and cold war in the...
TRANSCRIPT
Chapter 37
Domestic Issues and Cold
War in the 1950s
Goal
How successfully did Eisenhower
address Cold War fears?
Election of 1952
Dem – Adlai Stevenson – IL gov
Rep - Dwight D. Eisenhower
Popular WWII hero
Running Mate: Richard Nixon
Accused of taking gifts and doing special
favors
“Checkers Speech”
Campagin
“I Like Ike”
Nixon attacked Dems for corruption, soft
on Communism
TV influence - Ike appeared in short,
tightly-scripted TV spots
Last minute – said he would go to Korea
personally to end war
Results: Eisenhower defeated Stevenson 442-89
-Ike’s characteristics: sincere, fair, liked affection of people,
wanted harmony more than justice, grandfatherly stability
President Dwight D. Eisenhower 1953-1961
Republican
Presidential Rankings: C-Span Survey, 2009
1. Abraham Lincoln
2. Franklin Roosevelt
3. George Washington
4. Theodore Roosevelt
5. Harry Truman
6. John Kennedy
7. Thomas Jefferson
8. Dwight Eisenhower
9. Woodrow Wilson
10. Ronald Reagan
11. Lyndon Johnson
12. James Polk
13. Andrew Jackson
14. James Monroe
15. Bill Clinton
16. William McKinley
17. John Adams
18. George H.W. Bush
19. John Quincy Adams
20. James Madison
21. Grover Cleveland
22. Gerald Ford
23. Ulysses Grant
24. William Taft
25. Jimmy Carter
26. Calvin Coolidge
27. Richard Nixon
28. James Garfield
29. Zachary Taylor
30. Benjamin Harrison
31. Martin Van Buren
32. Chester Arthur
33. Rutherford Hayes
34. Herbert Hoover
35. John Tyler
36. George W. Bush
37. Millard Fillmore
38. Warren Harding
39. William Harrison
40. Franklin Pierce
41. Andrew Johnson
42. James Buchanan
Korea
End of Korean War - visited and
threatened nukes = ceasefire in 1953
A “New Look” in Foreign Policy
Sec of State John Foster Dulles – not just
stop but roll back communist gains,
liberate captive people, balance budget w/
less military spending
– Contradictory goals?
A “New Look” in Foreign Policy
Answer: policy of boldness
Strategic Air Command – airfleet of
superbombers equipped with nuclear
bombs
– More “bang for the buck”
Army and navy takes backseat to nukes
Paralyzing impact at cheaper cost
Ended up too rigid and too expensive
Massive Retaliation
Any Soviet or Chinese aggression
would be countered with a U.S.
nuclear attack
John Foster
Dulles
Time Magazine
Man of the
Year, 1955
An H-bomb would wreak total destruction on an area 20 miles
in diameter plus additional destruction and radiation well
beyond the circle
Soviet development of the hydrogen bomb
made “massive retaliation” less practical
Both sides would lose in a thermonuclear
war
MAD became an important deterrent for
nuclear war for the next four decades
Brinksmanship: never backing down even
if it meant going to brink of nuclear war
-all prepare for nuclear war – bomb shelters
Goal
How successfully did Eisenhower
address Cold War fears?
Source: U.S.
News and
World Report,
May 27, 1955
Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh (leader) fought to liberate Vietnam from
French colonialism
US supported self-determination, but changed as Vietnam
becomes more communist during the Cold War
By 1954 – US taxpayers paying 80% of costs for French
to stay ($1bil a year)
French crumble under Viet Minh guerilla pressure -
defeated at Dien Bien Phu in 1954
Dulles, Nixon, Chairman of Jt. Chiefs of Staff want
American bombers to bail out French – Ike holds back
Cold War in Asia
Geneva Conference (1954) – Geneva Accords
Split Vietnam in ½ at 17th parallel
Ho Chi Minh agrees, Vietnam-wide elections in 2 years
Pro-West govt in South under Ngo Dinh Diem
Elections never held
US didn’t sign it but promised economic and military aid to Diem autocratic regime if they make social reforms
17th Parallel
Vietnam in
1954
(Saigon)
Diem’s failure to hold elections began a civil war in 1956
Eisenhower and
Secretary of State
John Foster Dulles
(from left) greet South
Vietnam's President
Ngo Dinh Diem at
Washington National
Airport, May 8, 1957
Warsaw Pact
included all countries controlled by the
Soviets behind the Iron Curtain
Counter to NATO
Thaw in the Cold War?
Nikita Khrushchev emerged after Stalin’s
death in 1953
Sought “peaceful coexistence” with
the Western democracies
Khrushchev set out to improve
living conditions in
the USSR
Goal was to out-
compete the West
economically rather
than resorting to
war
USSR agreed to leave Austria in 1955
Geneva Summit, July 1955
First peace conference since 1945
U.S., U.S.S.R., Britain and France
discussed European security and
disarmament
-- No concrete agreements reached, but
optimistic
1956 – Khurshchev denounced Stalin’s actions
Hungarian Uprising, 1956
With the thaw, Eastern Bloc nations
began to seek more freedom
Soviets crushed uprising
US says no to appeals for help
Army and navy not ready due to nuclear
buildup instead – nuclear sledgehammer
too heavy to use in a minor crisis
Open Skies?
Mutual inspection of US and SU –
Khrushchev says no!
Cold War in the Middle East
Iran, 1953
-began resisting power of W. companies
controlling oil
-CIA engineered a coup in 1953 – installed
shah of Iran Mohammed Reza Pahlevi
-left a bitter legacy of resentment – Pahlevi
became a repressive dictator
1979, the Iranian Revolution saw
the overthrow of the Shah and capture
of 50 U.S. hostages
who were held for
444 days
President Eisenhower and
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Gamal Abdel Nasser – president of Egypt in 1956
Needs funds to build Aswan Dam on Nile for irrigation
and power
GB and US offer $ - Nasser courts Soviets and recognizes
communist China – US withdraws offer
Nasser nationalizes Suez Canal
October 1956 – GB, France, Israel attack Egypt
US expected to get involved – Ike says no
UN has to come in to restore order
Suez Crisis, 1956
Crisis in
the Suez
Canal
Eisenhower Doctrine (1957)
US military and economic aid to Middle
Eastern nations threatened by communism
– In Egypt, the problem was nationalism, not
communism
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (1960)
S. Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, Venezuela –
control oil prices and wealth
OPEC
The Continuing Cold War -1958 – Scientists urge stopping nuclear tests – polluting
atmosphere
March – Soviets proclaim suspension, Oct – US does
Distrust and suspicion
Lebanon (July, 1958) – Egyptians and communists
threaten Lebanon
Asks for aid under Eisenhower Doctrine – several 1000
troops sent and restored order w/o bloodshed
South East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO)
Intended to be the “NATO” of Southeast Asia
U.S. pledged to prevent communism in Vietnam & Taiwan
U.S. sent military advisers to help South Vietnam
Domino Theory dictated U.S. policy in Southeast Asia
-if one country in a region fell to communism, they all would
-MUST get involved
Taiwan Strait Crisis China began shelling islands in Taiwan Strait
controlled by Chiang Kai-shek (in Taiwan after
Fall of China)
China claims islands of Quemoy & Matsu
Eisenhower sent US 7th fleet to aid Taiwan
Cold War in Latin America
Guatemalan leader Jacobo Árbenz
Guzman
Guatemala, 1954
-President Guzman had nationalized 500,000 acres
belonging to the United Fruit Co. of Boston,
showing strong communist sympathies
-CIA supported coup to overthrow Guzman once he
accepted arms from Soviet Union
-World opinion condemned US role in coup
Guatemalan rebels,
supported by the
CIA, overthrew
socialist leader
Jacobo Árbenz
Guzman in 1954.
Election of 1956
Rep - Dwight D. Eisenhower
Health issues, but nation is prosperous
Dem – Adlai Stevenson
-Platform – Ike didn’t govern, only golfed,
fished, and hunted
Votes: 457 to 73
Space Race
Sputnik I & II - Soviet satellite launched on Oct
4, 1957 (184 pds, 1,120 pds with dog)
Rattled US self-confidence
If Soviets can launch heavy objects into space,
they can fire intercontinental ballistic missiles
Rocket fever in US
National Aeronautics & Space Administration
(NASA) - $ billions to missile development
Many failures, some televised
Explorer 1 – US satellite launched
1960 – several satellites and tested own ICBMs
Schools focused on math and science
The R-7 rocket carrying Sputnik
“Awake at Last,” Edwin Marcus, 1957
U.S. technological superiority now
seemed over.
The U.S. public demanded that the
missile gap be eliminated
“What was
That?” Thomas
Flannery, Baltimore Sun,
1957
National Defense Education Act, 1958
-$887 mil in loans to college students in
grants to improve teaching science
Berlin Crisis, 1958
Khrushchev issued an ultimatum – gave western
powers 6 mo. to leave city – refused
Visitations eased Cold War conflict
Nixon visits SU (1958)
Kitchen Debate – the virtues of consumerism are
better than Soviet economic planning
Khrushchev visits US (1959)
Discussion of disarmament – no plan in place
Camp David – Khrushchev takes back ultimatum
Eisenhower and Khrushchev at
Camp David, 1959
U-2 incident -May 1960 – US U-2 spy plane shot down
over the USSR – pilot taken hostage
-Resulted in the worst U.S.-Soviet
relations since the Stalin era
A U-2 spy plane (similar to the one shot down)
Pilot Francis Gary Powers in Soviet custody
-Incident occurred 10 days before the
planned Paris Summit
-Eisenhower admitted he authorized
the flight but refused to apologize
-Khrushchev called off the summit
Wreckage of Francis Gary Powers’ U-2 spy plane
Fulgencio Batista – ironfisted dictator of Cuba since 1930s
1959 – Fidel Castro ousted Batista in revolution
Denounced US imperialism, took US properties and pursued a land-distribution program
Castro in Cuba
Castro with
Argentine
revolutionary,
Che Guevara,
in 1961
Castro and revolutionaries during the 1959 revolution
US cut off sugar imports from Cuba
Castro made his dictatorship a satellite of SU
Anti-Castro Cubans headed for US (Florida) – 1
mil between 1960-2000
US broke diplomatic relations and imposed a
strict embargo on trade
Invoke Monroe Doctrine to keep SU out?
Khrushchev said Monroe Doc is dead
If Cuba is attacked, SU will shower US with missiles
Castro and Khrushchev in 1961
U.S. began plotting the overthrow of Castro
Eisenhower’s Farewell Address
(1961): warned Americans of the
dangerous growth of the military-
industrial complex
Admired for dignity, decency, good will,
moderation
More aggressive in last years – vetoed 169
times
No moral crusade for civil rights
Despite being a general – restraint in use of
military power
Legacy