Dwight D. Eisenhower

President-Republican 1953-1961

Policy of BrinkmanshipWould use military

force to stop the spread of Communism

Domino theory – theory that if one country fell to Communists, neighboring countries would follow

CIA grew in importance during his administration

Nikita Khrushchev In the power struggle

triggered by Stalin's death in 1953, Khrushchev, after several years, emerged as the leader of the Communist Party

On February 25, 1956, he secretly denounced Stalin's purges and ushering in a less repressive era in the Soviet Union (de-Stalinization)

Led the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War, serving as premier from 1958 to 1964.

A New Red A New Red ScareScareU.S. citizens in 1950s feared

Communists wanted to take over the world. This fear was

known as the Red Scare.

Communists in Communists in Government?Government?

Many Americans worried that Communist sympathizers and spies might be secretly working to overthrow U.S. govt.

Alger Hiss, former State Dept. official Accused of passing govt. secrets

to Soviet agents Convicted of perjury and spent

several years in prison Julius & Ethel Rosenberg

Accused of passing secrets of atomic bomb to Soviets

Found guilty and sentenced to death – executed in 1953

McCarthyismMcCarthyismIn 1952, U.S. Senator Joe McCarthy began holding Senate hearings

McCarthy turned the hearings into witch-hunts, destroying numerous people’s reputations on rumor and weak evidence

Numerous Americans accused of having ties to the Communist Party

McCarthyismMcCarthyism 1950 - McCarthy claimed he had a list

with the names 205 Communists who worked in the State Dept. Later reduced # to 81, then to 57 Refused to show list to anyone

McCarthy led Senate hearings in which he bullied witnesses and made exaggerated charges

McCarthyism came to mean accusing someone of disloyalty without having any evidence

McCarthy lost his following in 1954 when he made false accusations against the Army on television

Red Scare "Look!"

screams the hero, staring directly into the camera, "You fools! You're in danger! Can't you see? They're after you! They're after all of us! Our wives... our children... they're here already! You're next!

Red Scare

Geneva Summit-July 1955 Meeting in Switzerland with Soviet

diplomats Eisenhower proposed an “open skies”

policy; the U.S. and Soviet Union would allow flights over each other’s territory to guard against surprise nuclear attacks

Soviet Union rejected proposal “Spirit of Geneva”

Hungarian Revolution 1956

First major threat to Soviet control since the beginning of the Iron Curtain

Revolt began as a student demonstration on October 23rd

an estimated crowd of 50,000 gathered in central Budapest

A proclamation declaring independence and demanding the withdrawal of Soviet troops was read.

By 8:00 that evening the crowd had grown to over 200,000 and moved to the Parliament Building to express their demands.

Crowd surrounded the headquarters of the state radio station in hopes of broadcasting their demands to the nation.

Fired upon by Hungarian Secret police

The Hungarian Revolution had begun.

Leader of movement-Imre Nagy

Hungarian Revolution 1956 The Hungarian Army joined with the citizens.

Fighting raged for five days culminating in the expulsion of the Soviet forces from the city.

The revolt spread quickly across Hungary and the government collapsed;

On November 4, a Soviet infantry force accompanied by artillery and 1000 tanks smashed into the city.

By November 7 the uprising had been crushed. Over 2,500 Hungarians and 700 Soviet troops

were killed in the conflict, and 200,000 Hungarians fled as refugees.

Role of the United States?

Suez Crisis

1955-Great Britain and the U.S. agreed to help Egypt finance construction of the Aswan High Dam

President of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser, played Soviet Union and the U.S. off of each other

In 1956, Secretary of State John F. Dulles withdrew the offer

Suez CrisisSuez Crisis In response to U.S. withdrawal

of funds to construct the dam, Nasser announced the nationalization of the Suez Canal Company on July 26, 1956

Canal had been a joint British-French enterprise which had owned and operated the Suez Canal since its construction in 1869.

Eisenhower administration led by U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles tried to reach a diplomatic settlement

Suez CrisisSuez Crisis But on September 9

Britain and France secretly backed Israeli forces to attack across Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on October 29, 1956

Came within 10 miles of the canal

The Eisenhower administration concerned about the possibility that the Soviets would intervene to assist Nasser, pressured Britain and France to accept a United Nations ceasefire on November 6.

Eisenhower DoctrineEisenhower Doctrine

Announced in January 1957 in response to the Suez Crisis of 1956

Aimed at Middle Eastern countries Under the doctrine, a country could request

American economic assistance and/or aid from U.S. military forces if it was being threatened by armed aggression from another state

Russians launch Russians launch SputnikSputnik

The Russians have beaten America The Russians have beaten America into space—they have the into space—they have the

technological edge!technological edge!

Russians launch Russians launch SputnikSputnikImpact of SputnikImpact of Sputnik

Congress establishes the Congress establishes the National Aeronautics and National Aeronautics and

Space Agency (NASA)Space Agency (NASA) to to conduct research in rocket conduct research in rocket

and space technologyand space technology

Congress also passed the Congress also passed the National National Defense Education ActDefense Education Act, which provided , which provided money for education and training in money for education and training in science, math and foreign languagesscience, math and foreign languages

Interstate Highway System

On June 29, 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. The bill created a 41,000-mile “National System of Interstate and Defense Highways”

Purpose: eliminate unsafe roads, inefficient routes, traffic jams in case of atomic attack on our key cities

U-2 IncidentU-2 IncidentCol. Francis Gary Powers’ spy

plane was shot down over Soviet airspace in 1960

U-2 Incident U.S. spy plane shot down in Soviet

Union U.S. denied that it was a spy plane;

said it was a weather plane Soviets captured pilot – Francis

Gary Powers Had to admit we were spyingadmit we were spying Incident cools Soviet-U.S. Incident cools Soviet-U.S.

relationsrelations

“Military Industrial Complex” Farewell Address, January 17, 1961 Warned that the development of an immense

military establishment and a large arms industry was new in the American experience

Eisenhower cautioned that the federal government’s collaboration with an alliance of military and industrial leaders, though necessary, was vulnerable to abuse of power.

Ike advised American citizens to be vigilant in monitoring the “military-industrial complex”