Living on the Edge: 1950s Brinksmanship

1. Living on the Edge:1950s Brinksmanship What were the Cold War policies of the 1950s?

2. Essential Questions • During the Cold War what were the most significant periods of direct or indirect military confrontation and what were the periods of détente? • How did the Unites States respond to decolonization and nationalist movements in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East and attempt to compete with the Soviet Union for allies? • What caused increased American involvement in the Middle East? • How did Cold War trigger debates over the merits of a large nuclear arsenal, the “military-industrial complex,” and the appropriate power of the executive branch in conducting foreign and military policy?

3. Modern Republicanism • “We Like Ike” Eisenhower defeats Adlai Stevenson in 1952 & 1956 • Nixon’s “Checkers Speech” TV’s role • “Modern Republicanism”: moderate - extended social security, raised min. wage & funds for public housing, - opposed federal health insurance & aid for education, aimed to balance budget • Federal Highway Act of 1956 – 42,000 miles linking all major cities $25 billion • Democrats regain House & Senate in 1956

4. Eisenhower “Brinkmanship” - John Foster Dulles & Allen Dulles • Mutual security agreements. • “New Look”“massive retaliation”. • M. A. D. (SANE) – 18,000 nukes by 1960 • “Domino Theory” • CIA & covert operations • Eisenhower Doctrine • “$ Diplomacy” – Part II

5. EUROPE: • 1953 - Death of Stalin • 1955 - Warsaw Pact created. Geneva Summit Nikolai Bulganin “Open Skies”“Spirit of Geneva” • 1956 Khrushchev denounces Stalin, Hungarian Revolt crushed end of 1st thaw • 1957 - Sputnik I & II – 1957  NASA & NDEA • 1958 Berlin Crisis II “malignant tumor”“We will bury you” • 1959: Khrushchev Camp David visit, Nixon in Moscow-Khrushchev “Kitchen Debate.” • 1960 U-2 Incident - “Open Skies”? Nikita Khrushchev ’55-’64 Francis Gary Powers Laika the Dog Sputnik U-2

6. Middle East: • 1953  CIA sponsored coup in Iran • P. M. Mohammed Mossadegh  nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. - The Shah Reza Pahlavi 2. 1956  Suez Crisis - Nasser. • “Eisenhower Doctrine” 3. 1958  Civil War in Lebanon – 14,000 marines sent 4. OPEC Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries founded (1960)

7. Latin America: Bad Neighbor Policy? • 1954  United Fruit Co.  CIA covert ops. in Guatemala overthrows Jacobo Arbenz government - 40 years of dictatorship • 1958 - Nixon attacked by angry mob in Venezuela on his “Good Will Tour” • 1959  Fidel Castro’s Communist Revolution in Cuba overthrows Fulgencio Batista

8. Asia: • 1953  end of the Korean War. • 1954  French defeated in Vietnam. • Geneva Accords - “Domino Theory” • 1955-1961 $1 billion in aid to Ngo Dinh Diem • Taiwan Straits crisis 1954-1955 – Mutual Defense Treaty 1955 • SEATO (1955) Southeast Asian Treaty Organization • 1964  China explodes its first atomic bomb.

9. Ike’s Farewell Address, Jan. 17, 1961 “…This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”