HIS 377 – 20 Century American Foreign Relations
Lecture 7 Week 7
February 28th, 2013
Waging Peace – Eisenhower Confronts the Cold War
o RECAP:
o Expansion (empire)
o Power
o Order
o Uniqueness
o Cold War Themes:
o US-Soviet Tensions
o Nuclear World
o Renewed Geopolitics
o Rise of the Third World
US cant see the difference between nationalism and communism
US feels the need to steer undeveloped countries towards their path
o Liking Ike: The Eisenhower Administration
o Eisenhower is a republican from Kansas
o Supreme Commander Allied Forces Europe during WW2 under Democrats
o Won 1952 election in a landslide
o Re-elected in 1956
o The republicans still had an isolationist flair, but that was irrelevant as the US
had to step up to the plate now
o Eisenhower was the perfect person to shape post war America as he had
fought the wars
o Nixon was his Vice President
o John Foster Dulles was his Secretary of State
“Bull that carries around his own china shop”
o Eisenhower purposely chose these two as they were loud and controversial
o From National Security State to “New Look”
o Truman:
National Security Act, 1947
NATO, 1949
Truman Doctrine, 1950
NSC-68, 1950
• There is a fear that the proposed changes in NSC-68 could
bankrupt the country – they were far too large
• They put nuclear weapons on par with conventional weapons
o Eisenhower and the “New Look” (NSC 162/2)
The new look sought to reduce conventional forces and to build up a
massive nuclear arsenal Three Components of the New Look:
• Massive Retaliation and MAD
• Eisenhower had concluded that it would be cheaper to build up
the nuclear arsenal than it would be to build up the
conventional army
o They had to convince the Soviet Union that they would
use their nuclear arsenal
• System of Alliances
o NATO
o SEATO
o Baghdad Pact in response to Nassir
• Covert Action
o Cheap, no invasion, no declaration, plausible
deniability, no congress, etc
o Confronting Nationalism:
o The “Spirit of Bandung”
April 18-24, 1955
29 countries + observers
10 point Declaration
Led to creation of the Non-Alignment Movement, Belgrade, 1961
US were invited and they declined
US declines as they support independence, but most of their allies have
colonial interests and they have their own domestic racial problems to
contend with
The US was also very racist at this time and labelled many of the third
world countries seeking independence as communist
o The CIA and Covert Action: Iran, Guatemala and Congo
Iran:
• Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC)
• Mohammed Mossadeq wants to nationalize the AIOC
• Mossadeq is eventually replaced and a pro-western individual
is placed in power
• Op TX/AJAX
• Baghdad Pact (1955)
• The lesson of the Iranian Covert Operation was that covert
worked and that it was cheap due to the relative success they
had in Iran
Guatemala:
• US has no problems getting involved in South America – falls
under the Monroe Doctrine • The United Fruit Company pretty much ran Guatemala and
they dominated the country – built roads, infrastructure and
even ran the postal service – largest employer in the country
and had Alan Dulles as a board of director – John Foster Dulles
law firm represents the company
• Jacobo Arbenz Guzman nationalizes the land and pays the
company based on what their tax returns had stated – UFC had
been lying and wanted 17 million instead of the 600k
• They label Arbenz as a communist because he redistributed
land
• Alan Dulles called him a communist beachhead in the Western
hemisphere
• They initiate operation PBSUCCESS – they train Nicaragua
men and invade Guatemala – Arbenz is forced to step down or
fear death
• Castillo Armas comes to power
• Covert action seems like a valid option for change again except
there was blowback from PBSUCCESS
• Nixon goes on a goodwill tour to Latin America and he was
attacked while touring Venezuela – he goes back to
Washington and the Americans learn that there was some idea
that they were involved
Congo:
• The Congo Crisis takes place in 1961
•
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