the american odyssey

THE AMERICAN ODYSSEY

Chapter 17: The Uneasy PeaceSection 3: Cold War in the Atomic Age

Main Idea of the Section Soviet nuclear tests and the launching of

a Soviet satellite made the arms race more deadly – and made peace more imperative – than at any time in history.

Vocabulary of the Section Massive retaliation Brinkmanship Military-industrial complex

Key Historic Figures of the Section Dwight D. Eisenhower (Ike) Harry Truman John Foster Dulles Nicolay Bulganin Nikita Khrushchev

Living With Fear (p.577-578) The dawn of the atomic age terrified

Americans. To help calm the public’s jangled nerves, Truman organized the Federal Civilian Defense Administration to show people they could survive a nuclear war.

Americans learned how to build bomb shelters, how to keep from panicking, how to cope with radiation injuries, and more.

Living With Fear Scary as nuclear bombs were, most

Americans thought the best way to prevent nuclear war was to have more and better bombs than the Soviets

After a heated debate, Truman ordered scientists to develop a deadly hydrogen bomb.A superbomb

Eisenhower Elected (p.578-579) Eisenhower walked into the presidency at

the height of cold war tensions: China had just fallen, the Korean War dragged on, and the H-bomb heated up the arms race.

The American still believed “Ike” would lead the country through dangerous times.

Does anybody know Adlai Stevenson was?

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Eisenhower Elected Stalin died in 1953. With the death of Stalin and Eisenhower’s

bluffs about a nuclear attack led Communist delegates to seek a resolution to the Korean War.

Veiled threat Eisenhower found in John Foster Dulles a

secretary of state who equaled his own fierce anti-communism and command of world affairs.

John Foster Dulles

John Foster Dulles

Eisenhower and Dulles working together

A New Strategy (p.579-580) Instead of depending on costly armies

and navies to limit wars as Truman did, Eisenhower relied on cheaper air power and nuclear weapons.

He reduced the manpower of the army and navy, while increasing the number of air force personnel.

A New Strategy To reinforce the scaled down military,

Eisenhower and Dulles pledged to meet any aggression with massive retaliation – an instant nuclear attack.

To back up this tough stance, they circled the Soviet Union and China with American military bases and allies.

A New Strategy Eisenhower’s new foreign policy came with

criticism.Critics called the new foreign policy

brinkmanship – the art of never down from crisis.The policy posed two dangers:

1. It gave the United States only two choices – either fight a nuclear battle or do nothing.

2. It also led the Soviets to develop more powerful bombs

This created what Churchill created a “balance in terror.”

Eisenhower Wages Peace (p.580-581) The Russians were developing an H-bomb

of their own at this time in 1953. Ike felt it was necessary for us to develop

an even stronger version of the H-bombThe Bravo H-Bomb

On March 1, 1954, the Bravo H-Bomb was tested in the South Pacific.It sent radioactive ash over 7,000 square miles.It accidentally killed 23 Japanese w/ radiation

poisoning.

Bravo H-Bomb

Eisenhower Wages Peace The radioactive fallout from H-Bomb

tests led people worldwide to clamor for a halt in the arms race.

Eisenhower met with Soviet leaders Nikolay Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss disarmament. Although the conference yielded few results,

the two powers were talking again.

The Deep Freeze Returns (p.581-583) The thaw in relations was short-lived Two events revived tensions:

1. In 1956 Khrushchev ordered troops to crush an uprising in Hungary.

○ Hungary had attempted to leave the Warsaw Pact.2. In 1957 the Soviets launched Sputnik, leading the

United States to launch the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) – the start of the space race.

○ Sputnik was the first orbital satellite.3. The U.S. put a greater emphasis on math and science

in schools and for the training of more scientists and engineers.

Sputnik

The Deep Freeze Returns Pressure to rein in arms production

remained strong. In 1957 a group of business, scientific, and publishing leaders organized SANE – the Committee for Sane Nuclear Policy – to lobby for arms reductions.

That same year the publication of On the Beach whipped up public support for a halt in H-bomb tests.

The Deep Freeze Returns On the beach described a nuclear war

between the United States and Russia that made the Northern Hemisphere uninhabitable and sent radioactive dust into the Southern Hemisphere.

By 1957, 63% of Americans wanted an end to H-bomb testing

The Deep Freeze Returns In 1963 the United States and the Soviet

Union bowed to a growing world outcry and signed a test-ban treaty prohibiting nuclear testing in the atmosphere.

The treaty permitted test underground and in outer space.

The Deep Freeze Returns By the end of his presidency,

Eisenhower had become deeply concerned about the power of the military-industrial complex – the vast, interwoven military establishment and arms industry.

Ike saw it as a potential threat both to civil liberties and democracy itself.