“Roll-Back”

1. “Roll-Back” • In reality – never happened • Rather than “roll-back” Ike developed a policy of containment called the “New Look” • Meant preventing the extension of Soviet Communism • Believed that if the USSR had no opportunity to expand – the Soviet system would collapse in on itself

2. Eisenhower’s “New Look” • Ike  Containment (New Look) By: • Setting up alliances to encircle the USSR (ex. SEATO) • Using military power to protect vulnerable areas (ex. West Berlin) • Assisting forces fighting Communism (ex. Diem’s govt. in South Vietnam) • Using the CIA for covert operations more extensively than before

3. Eisenhower’s “New Look” (cont’d) • Symbolized by the appointment of John Foster Dulles  secretary of state • Ike and Dulles felt there was a need for massive retaliation and “brinkmanship” • Both were determined not to let the US get pulled into another conventional war like Korea

4. Massive Retaliation • Strategy: In case of attack from an aggressor, a state would retaliate with force disproportionate to the size of the attack • The Aim: to deter an adversary from initially attacking • For it to work: • Must be made public knowledge • Must believe have a second-strike capability • Adversary(s) must believe the defending state is willing to use nuclear weapons on a massive scale

5. Massive Retaliation

6. MAD(Mutually Assured Destruction) • Massive retaliation works on the same principles as mutually assured destruction • But includes the caveat (warning) that even a minor conventional attack on a nuclear state could conceivably result in all-out nuclear retaliation

8. Brinkmanship • Term originally coined by Dulles • Theory of pushing the military to the brink of war in order to convince another nation to follow your demands. • Policy was used to coerce the USSR into backing down militarily and was based on the belief the US nuclear superiority would force concessions

9. Dulles’ quote from Life

11. Ike  Containment (New Look) By: • Despite the aggression of brinkmanship, Ike aware of the dangers of nuclear war • Also negotiated w/ the Soviets  • US-Soviet Summits in 1955 & 1960

12. The USSR’s “New Course” • Beria executed as a traitor (Dec. 1953) • Malenkov  idea of a “New Course” w/ the West – Khrushchev later adopted and renamed it “peaceful coexistence” • Move away from the Leninist doctrine of the inevitability of war • Meant that Communism & capitalism should accept the continuing existence of one another, rather than using force to destroy each other

13. A “New Course” (cont’d) • Khrushchevbelieved that if capitalism was deprived of further opportunities for expansion, it would die out due to its own inherent weaknesses • Thus, no need to risk nuclear war