CHAPTER 21-4

FOREIGN POLICY

-During the 1950s the Eisenhower administration labored to contain communism

-Especially in Asian and Africa

  • Ike used diplomacy, military power and secret activities to do this

-Ike and Sec of State John Foster Dulles expand the nation’s alliances

-NATO is established

  • US take leading role in alliance with western Europe

-SEATO is established

  • Created with the help of the US to control activities in SE Asia

-CENTO

  • US answer to problems in the middle east
  • Central Treaty Organization

-OAS

  • Promoted by the US to handle problems in Latin America
  • Organization of American States

-All these alliances were formed to counterbalance the influence of the Soviet Union

INFLUENCE OF DULLES – John Foster Dulles – Sec of State

-Ikes foreign policy greatly influenced by Dulles

-1940s

  • Dulles has years of experience in high level diplomacy in Asian
  • Dulles denounces a foreign policy of only “containment”
  • He advocates “liberation” from communism
  • Quote pg 650
  • Dulles threatens “massive retaliation” against communist aggression
  • “If you are scared to go to the brink (of nuclear war) you are lost”
  • Dept of Defense responds
  • Decreases size of regular army
  • Increases size of nuclear arsenal

-Eisenhower was less willing to use nuclear weapons

  • “there is no alternative to peace” – Ike continues Truman’s policy of containment

WAR AND PEACE IN ASIA

-Containing communism became a global challenge for Ike

-In Asia the end of one conflict was the beginning of another

End Of The Korean War

-December 1952

  • Ike keeps campaign promise
  • Goes to Korea
  • Peace process initially not successful
  • Ike threatens nuclear war

-July 1953

  • Korean conflict stops
  • Border settled at 38th parallel

Southeast Asia

-French try to regain control of Indochina after the Japs left in 1945

-People of Indochina countries did not want France back

  • They wanted to rule themselves
  • Began an independence movement
  • Headed by communist Ho Chi Minh
  • Movement known as the Vietminh
  • Wanted to rid Vietnam of the French
  • US stays out of direct conflict
  • Supplied weapons and supplies to French

-1954

  • Vietminh surround French troops at Dien Bien Phu
  • French ask US to bomb communist positions
  • Ike believes a French loss would lose the entire area to the communists
  • Dulles favors full military support of the French
  • Ike gets no support from Congress or other European nations
  • Decides to stay out of the war

-May 1954

  • Dien Bien Phu falls
  • French withdraw from Indochina

-1954

  • Genva Conference
  • Vietnam divided into North and South
  • North – Ho Chi Minh’s communist take control
  • South – US backed Ngo Dihn Diem government set up
  • Diem’s government was dictatorial, inefficient and unpopular
  • Communist guerillas begin to fight the government
  • US provides Diem government most of the money to fight the guerillas
  • Ike had kept the US out of the war but tied our prestige on the survival of Diem’s unpopular and dictatorial government

THE EISENHOWER APPROACH

-When it came to solving foreign problems, Ike preferred using diplomacy and covert (secret) activities carried out by the CIA

In Iran and Guatemala

-1953

-Iranian PM seizes control of Anglo-American Oil Co.

-Ike becomes concerned

  • Ike afraid Iran was lining up with the Soviet Union
  • This would endanger our oil supplies

-Ike orders CIA to secretly fund a revolt led by a young Shah of Iran

  • Later US signs an agreement allowing US, France and GB to share in Iranian oil production

-1954

-CIA helps remove unfriendly government of Guatemala

  • Guatemalan government under Jacobo Guzman had seized the property of the American United Fruit Co.
  • US learns that Guzman was getting weapons from communist countries
  • Ike is concerned that this might be the beginning of the communist getting a foothold in Latin America
  • Ike’s administration funds a coup that overthrows the Guzman government

-Both revolutions were made to look like that they were initiated within the nation itself

  • Later people learn that it was orchestrated by the US CIA

-Dulles believed that the events in Vietnam, Iran and Guatemala were evidence that the USSR was attempting to spread communism

  • Dulles argues that new nations should choose sides between communism and democracy

Third World Democracy

-1955

-29 nations from Asia and Africa meet calling for racial equality and self-determination

-2000 of the delegates saw themselves as the “Third World”

  • more than ½ the world’s population
  • They declare that they would remain independent of both the
  • “First World” – the west
  • “Second World” – the Soviet Union

-Policy of neutralism hotly debated

-Some compare neutralism to isolationism

  • Defended it as a necessity

-Others attack the policy of neutralism

  • Dulles “no nation has the right to remain neutral in a conflict between ‘tyranny and freedom’”

MIDDLE EAST POWDER KEG

-1950s

-US is drawn into Middle East affairs

-Before WWII, US began to exploit the areas oil reserves

-After the war US was committed to protecting the needed oil

-Many Americans also interested in the survival of Israel

  • Established as a Jewish homeland in 1948

-Middle was a powder keg ready to explode

  • Arab nations believe that Israel was on land belonging to the Palestinians
  • Palestinians threaten to destroy Israel

-Deep divisions also existed between Arab nations

  • Poverty and discontent widespread

-Soviet expansion threatened US oil supplies

-1956

  • First explosion
  • Egypt
  • President Nasser wanted to gain military superiority over Israel
  • Egypt signs an agreement with the Soviet Union
  • Weapons for cotton
  • US tries to befriend Egypt by offering a loan to help build a dam across the Nile

-Dulles cancels the loan when Nasser stays friendly with both the Soviet Union and China

  • Nasser responds by seizing the Suez Canal – July 1956

-British, French and Israel ally to attack Egypt and reclaim the canal

  • Invaded Egypt without US support in October

-World on the verge of another major war

-UN tries to handle the situation

  • US votes with the Soviet Union in condemning France, GB and Egypt
  • Pressure from US and USSR forces France, GB and Egypt to withdraw their troops

-Suez Crisis greatly embarrassed the US

  • 3 of its allies acted alone
  • May have crushed the Western alliance
  • But a Soviet action to crush a rebellion in Hungary convinced them to close ranks again

THE EISENHOWER DOCTRINE

-After the Suez conflict the USSR offered Egypt to help build the Aswan dam

-Ike concerned it would allow the USSR a foothold in the region

-January 1957

  • Ike asks Congress for authority to use US military forces in the Middle East to defend and Middle East country that requested help against forces of “international communism”
  • Congress overwhelmingly passes the “Eisenhower Doctrine”

-1958

  • Lebanon asks US to send troops to protect its government
  • Lebanon president was afraid Soviet Union and Egypt were encouraging a revolt in his country

-July 1958

  • US soldiers enter Lebanon
  • Remained until new elections established a stronger govt

-Showed that the US was willing to take a strong role in the area

-Middle East was still plagued by

  • Poverty
  • Rivalry
  • Strife
  • Threat of communist aggression

THE NATO ALLIANCE

-1953

  • Ike attempts to strengthen NATO
  • Under a unified command
  • Strongly opposed by France
  • Concerned of a German resurgence

-Western defenses strengthened

  • West Germany allowed to rearm and joined NATO

-Other difficulties faced by NATO

  • European socialists and communists regard US as a materialistic nation
  • Claim US workers are exploited
  • Claim only a few ‘trusts’ really profit
  • Conservatives believe Europe would be ‘Americanized’
  • France and GB blame the US for their loss of power

-Soviet aggression convinces Europe to stay friends with the US

  • Political uprising in two Soviet satellite nations
  • Soviets reassert their power
  • 1956
  • Anti-Soviet riots break out in Poland
  • Soviets agree to Polish demands for more freedom
  • 1956
  • Hungary
  • Peaceful protests turn into open fighting
  • Communists leaders try to put down unrest
  • Hungarians turn against them
  • October 30, 1956
  • Less than 1 week of fighting
  • Budapest radio
  • “You have won!”
  • For 5 days Hungarians were free
  • November 4, 1956
  • Soviet tanks and troops enter Budapest
  • Overwhelm defenders
  • US expresses sympathy for Hungarians
  • Little else done to help
  • Did not want to risk war

TROUBLE IN LATIN AMERICA

-US worried about communism in Europe, Asia and Africa

  • It ignored Latin America
  • Great poverty
  • Concentration of power in the hands of a few
  • Breeding grounds for instability

-Latin America thought of itself as the “forgotten neighbor”

  • Received little aid from the US
  • Saw billions of $ going over to Asia, Europe and Africa

-1958

  • VP Nixon makes a goodwill trip to Latin America
  • Faced hostile demonstrations in some countries
  • Peru and Venezuela
  • Mobs threw rocks and beat sticks against his car
  • Shocking attacks bring to light the neglect of the US toward Latin America’s problems

-Event is Cuba

  • Further sour US-Latin America relations

-1959

  • Fidel Castro leads a resistance movement
  • Forced the resignation of corrupt dictator Fulgencio Batista
  • Castro becomes a popular figure in the US
  • Hopes of the 2 nations becoming friends
  • Hopes soon dashed
  • Castro makes friends with the communists
  • He denounces the US
  • Seizes private property
  • Castro seeks military support from the Soviet Union
  • Ike responds
  • Cut the quota of sugar the US imports from Cuba
  • Breaks off relations with the Castro government

THAWS IN THE COLD WAR

-During Ike’s administration the cold war spread to all continents

-There were signs of a little ‘thaw’

-1953

  • Stalin dies
  • Soviet people allowed a little more freedom
  • New premier – Nikita Khrushchev
  • Denounces Stalin as brutal tyrant
  • Soviets talk of a peaceful coexistence
  • Said that war in the atomic age would be so horrible that
  • “the living will envy the dead”

-July 1955

  • Ike meets with the leaders of the Soviet Union, France and GB in GenevaSwitzerland
  • Ike makes a strong plea for nuclear disarmament
  • Quote page 656
  • Summit settled nothing however

-Summer 1958

  • Superpowers argue over the city of Berlin
  • Soviets threaten to cut off Western access to the city unless the West recognizes East German government
  • Crisis cools down
  • Both sides work to ease world tensions

-1959

  • VP Nixon and Khrushchev exchange visits
  • Khrushchev meets with Ike at Camp David
  • Make plans for a second summit

-May 1960

  • Thaw is short lived
  • 2 weeks before the second summit was to be held
  • American U-2 surveillance plane is shot down over the Soviet Union
  • CIA had sent a spy (Gary Powers) to photograph nuclear sites and missile bases.
  • Khrushchev denounces Ike as a prisoner of the “war mongers”
  • Refuses to take part in a second summit
  • East/West relations once again turn cold

EISENHOWER’S FAREWELL

-Frustrating close to Ike’s administration

  • U-2 incident
  • Failure of East/West relationships

-1959

  • Dulles dies
  • Ike takes over the foreign policy direction himself
  • Traveled widely to Europe, Asia, Middle East, and Latin America
  • Promoting “peace and goodwill”
  • Promoting “a better understanding of America”
  • Still unable to lessen the tensions of the cold war and the threat of nuclear confrontation

-Ike remains popular President

  • As close as a ‘father figure’ the US had since Washington

-Ike gives a farewell address similar to Washington

  • Warned against the influence of the military-industrial complex
  • Quote pg 657
  • Especially impressive coming from Ike
  • A man who had spent most of his life as a soldier

VISUALIZING HISTORY PG 651,652,653

LINKING ACROSS TIME PG 653

CRITICAL THINKING PG 653

CURRICULUM CONNECTION PG 654

FACT OR FICTION PG 654

VISUALIZING HISTORY PG 654

DID YOU KNOW PG 655

SIDELIGHT PG 654

USING MAPS PG 655

VISUALIZING HISTORY PG 656

CRITICAL THINKING PG 656

SECTION 4 ASSESSMENT PG 657