American History
Chapter 15 Section 4
Eisenhower’s Cold War Policies
Truman’s Failed Foreign Policy
• Many Americans
believe President
Truman's foreign policy
was not working by the
end of 1952 because
The Soviet Union had
acquired the atomic
bomb and consolidated
its hold on Eastern
Europe.
We Like “Ike”
• Republican Dwight D.
Eisenhower, war hero
from World War II won
the 1952 presidential
election in a landslide.
• Eisenhower believed
the two keys to victory
in the Cold War were a
strong military and a
strong, free enterprise
economy.
Massive Retaliation
• Eisenhower also
thought that
conventional wars cost
too much money.
• He believed the United
States had to prevent
wars by threatening
nuclear war.
• This policy became
known as massive
retaliation.
Basically, more atomic bombs, less soldiers!
• Eisenhower cut
military spending
to $34 billion by
increasing the
number of nuclear
bombs from 1,000
in 1953 to 18,000
in 1961 and
reducing the size of
the army.
Brinkmanship
• Eisenhower supported
brinkmanship—the willingness
to go to brink of war to force
another nation to back down.
• Some thought this policy was
dangerous, but Eisenhower
used the threat to end the
Korean War and protect
Taiwan.
• To end the Korean War,
Eisenhower told the Chinese
that the United States would
continue the war under
“circumstances of our own
choosing”—a hint at nuclear
attack.
Crisis in Egypt
• In 1955, Egypt seized the Suez
Canal from an Anglo-French
company that controlled it.
– Egypt wanted to use the profits
from the canal to pay for a dam
they were planning to build.
• In response, Britain and France
invaded Egypt.
• The Soviet Union offered to
help Egypt by attacking Britain
and France.
• Eisenhower threatened a
nuclear war with the Soviets.
• Britain and France retreated.
Covert Operations
• Eisenhower knew that
brinkmanship would
not work all the time.
• He knew it would not
stop Communists from
starting revolutions
within countries.
• Eisenhower used
covert—or hidden—
operations to prevent
revolutions.
CIA
• These were run by the
Central Intelligence Agency,
or CIA.
• Many of these operations
took place in developing
nations, or nations with
mostly agricultural
economies.
• Many of these nations
blamed American capitalism
for their problems.
• They looked to the Soviet
Union as a model for
industrialization.
Eisenhower had two strategies…
• Americans feared that these
nations would stage Communist
revolutions, so the United States
and Eisenhower had two
strategies to prevent other
nations from aligning with the
Soviet Union:
1. The United States offered
financial aid (money) to many of
these nations.
2. In places where the
Communists were stronger, the
CIA used covert operations. The
CIA overthrew anti- American
leaders and replaced them with
pro-American leaders.
Covert Operations: Iran
• Covert operations worked
in Iran.
• There the prime minister
overthrew the Shah of
Iran and then wanted to
make an oil deal with the
Soviet Union.
• The CIA organized riots
and a coup, and the
prime minister was
overthrown.
• The Shah returned to
power.
Covert Operation: Guatemala
• In Guatemala, the president won
his office with Soviet support.
• In 1951, Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán's
land reforms took over large
estates, which some of the
estates were owned by
Americans.
• Then Guatemala received
weapons from Czechoslovakia (a
Communist nation).
• The CIA responded to Guzmán's
land reform program by arming
(giving weapons) Guatemalan
opposition and trained them in
secret camps in Nicaragua and
Honduras.
Sometimes covert operations did not work
• By 1956, Nikita Krushchev had
emerged as the leader of the
Soviet Union, taking over after
Stalin death.
• The CIA got a copy of a speech
Krushchev made in which he
attacked Stalin’s policies.
• The CIA broadcast the speech
in Eastern Europe.
• In 1956 a revolt in Hungary
began.
– The Soviets moved troops into
Hungary and stopped the
revolt.
Eisenhower Doctrine
• In 1957 Eisenhower asked Congress to allow the use of
the military to stop communism in the Middle East.
• This became known as the Eisenhower Doctrine.
• American troops went to Lebanon to protect its
government.
• In 1958 Khrushchev demanded that the United States
and its allies take their troops out of West Berlin.
• The United States threatened to use military force to
protect Berlin.
– The Soviet Union backed down again.
U-2 Incident
• Khrushchev visited Eisenhower in
the United States in late 1959.
• They planned to hold a summit
(formal meeting of two super
powers) in Paris in 1960.
• Before the summit began, an
American U-2 spy plane was shot
down over the Soviet Union.
• As a result of the destruction of
the American U-2 spy plane,
Krushchev broke up the summit
after Eisenhower refused to
apologize for the incident.
Military Industrial Complex
• As Eisenhower prepared
to leave office, he
delivered a farewell
address. In his speech,
• He warned Americans to
be on guard against the
new relationship that was
developing between the
military and the defense
industry and its influence
in a democracy.