Cold War Presidents
Harry Truman
• Truman Doctrine
• Shifted focus from diplomatic to military
emphasis to stop U.S.S.R.
• Intervention in Korean War
• Authorizes research in more powerful nuclear
weapons (H-Bomb)
• Agrees with NSC-68’s recommendation for
open-ended defense spending
The Korean War
Dwight D. Eisenhower
• Claims the center of American politics and
uses this to advocate a policy of calming
reassurance
• By ending the Korean War and partially
accepting U.S.S.R.’s sphere of influence, Ike
oversees a long period of economic expansion
at home
• Suburbia becomes both a goal of middle class
and a cover up for wealth inequality in the
country
Dwight D. Eisenhower
• Religion is seen as a way to fight communism
• The family unit begins changing from women
waiting several years to marry to marrying
immediately after high school and having
children
• This “idyllic” life proves to be vacant for a
great deal of women
• U.S.S.R. launches Sputnik and sparks fear that
American has been passed by technologically
Dwight D. Eisenhower
• In his farewell address, Eisenhower warns of
the “military-industrial complex” and how it
can foment aggressive military intervention in
world matters
• Urges caution to the American public
concerning the influence defense industries
wield and their effect on the democratic
process
The PGM-11 Redstone - the World's First Nuclear Missile
displayed in Grand Central Station, NYC July 7, 1957
John F. Kennedy
• In his inaugural address, JFK draws a red line
concerning communism’s spread by saying the
U.S. will pay any price, monetary or personnel,
to “assure the survival and success of liberty”
• This sets the stage for military intervention in
Vietnam
• The Berlin Wall is erected and the partition of
East and West Germany is sealed for the next
30+ years
Construction of the Berlin Wall, 1961
Conrad Schumand jumping from East Berlin to West Berlin, over
the barbed wire that would soon become the Berlin Wall
An East German soldier ignores orders to let no one pass and
helps a boy cross the newly formed Berlin Wall - 1961
Watching the construction of the Berlin Wall, West Berlin, 1962
John F. Kennedy
• In response to Soviet accomplishments in the
space race, JFK announces that within the
next decade, the U.S. will land on the moon
• With arms escalation increasing rapidly and
victory in the space race seen as pretigious,
scientific research spending increases rapidly
• The side benefit to huge civilian scientific
spending (specifically NASA) is that better
rockets to launch spacecraft also produce
better rockets to launch nuclear weapons
(Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles – ICBM)
John F. Kennedy
• Signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty with
U.S.S.R. that halted above ground testing of
nuclear weapons (because nature)
• Orders the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba
• Diffuses the Cuban Missile Crisis with
diplomacy instead of direct military
engagement with Cuba and U.S.S.R.
• Gets assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald for
his efforts
Aerial shot of the Soviet missile launch pads on
during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962
A map of the Cuban Missile Crisis which indicates the strike range
of Soviet nuclear missiles being placed in Cuba
Lyndon Johnson
• Vows to continue JFK’s plans for domestic and
global political change
• Though he promised during the campaign that
he wouldn’t send U.S. soldiers into Vietnam,
he begins official military intervention
• The unpopular war in Vietnam distracts from
Johnson’s plans for the Great Society
Lyndon Johnson
• Youth counterculture, college students, and
draft aged people begin protesting the war
across the country
• Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) forms
and seeks to start a grass-roots movement
that urged a “participatory democracy”
• Hippies, the “New Left”, anti-war activists, civil
rights leaders, militant ethnic groups (e.g.
Black Panthers), and “realists” (where did we
hear that term used before?) demonstrate for
U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam
17 year old Jan Rose Kasmir offers a flower to soldiers
during the Pentagon anti-war protest in 1967
Richard Nixon
• During the campaign, Nixon claimed he had a
“secret plan” to end the war in Vietnam
• He didn’t have one
• But faced with mounting opposition to the
war, Nixon begins drawing down troop levels
in Vietnam
• The “Nixon Doctrine” begins trading arms and
weapons with the South Vietnamese in
exchange for U.S. troops coming home
Richard Nixon
• Anti-war activists are happy with the draw downs
and expect the war to be over soon
• But then the U.S. invades Cambodia after secretly
bombing communist bases there
• This is seen by many to be a betrayal of the
promise to end the war
• The invasion devastates Cambodia and allows the
Khmer Rouge (evil, evil, evil, evil people) to seize
power and slaughter millions
• In 1973, a cease-fire is signed and the U.S. leaves
Vietnam entirely
• North Vietnam eventually overruns South
Vietnam
National Guardsmen surround Vietnam protesters at People's
Park in Berkeley, California. May 15, 1969
Richard Nixon
• Nixon goes to China to open up trade with the
communist country
• Following his visit to China, Nixon meets with
U.S.S.R. and signs the Strategic Arms Limitation
Treaty (SALT) in 1972
• SALT blocked the creation of antiballistic missile
systems
• U.S., U.S.S.R., and China engage in détente
• Détente: easing of tensions
• Allows all sides to recognize that they have
mutual interests and that the U.S. and U.S.S.R.
were equal in world affairs
Richard Nixon
• Nixon is eventually tied to a burglary into the Democratic Party
headquarters in the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C.
• After many months of congressional hearings looking into the
Watergate break-in, Nixon finally turns over audio recordings
proved he attempted to cover up the crime
• Nixon makes an incredibly stupid, dumb, dumb, dumb mistake
• Not that he committed the crime, but that he recorded himself
talking about it
• Just prior to being impeached by the House (and assuredly
convicted in the Senate), Nixon resigns the Presidency
• Spiro Agnew, Nixon’s Vice President had previously resigned
because he was caught bribing people and cheating on his taxes
• Gerald Ford is appointed the Vice President and succeeds Nixon as
the only U.S. President to never have been elected
Gerald Ford
Homework
• Watch the two videos from class
(Eisenhower’s farewell address and Kennedy’s
speech on the Cuban Missile Crisis)
• Write a response (2-3 paragraphs) that:
• Explains Eisenhower’s warning to the American public
• How the U.S. response to the Cuban Missile Crisis may
have caused the American public to disregard
Eisenhower’s warning