Nations on Edge The Cold War Chapter 26

H Bomb Developed as a result of Soviets exploding atomic bomb in 1949 67 times more powerful than A bomb Deadly race begun to develop the strongest nuclear weapon November 1, 1952: U.S. explodes first H bomb to win the race August 1953 Soviets explode their own thermonuclear weapon

Brinkmanship President: Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961) Secretary of State: John Foster Dulles Cold War was moral crusade against Communism Dulles proposed U.S. could prevent spread of Communism by promising to use all its force, including nuclear weapons Brinkmanship: policy under which U.S. was willing to go to the edge of an all-out war Build up air force and trimmed army and navy

Eisenhower

Dulles and Eisenhower

Central Intelligence Agency Just recently formed in 1947 the agency: used spies to gather info from abroad carried out secret operations to weaken or overthrow unfriendly governments Iran: Oil industry nationalized by prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh Ownership taken away from private industries (Britain) British protest Iranian oil, U.S. fears Iran will look to Soviets for help 1953: U.S. sends several millions to anti-Mossadegh supporters to get them back in power Western companies able to regain power Guatemala: 1954: Guatemala gives 200,000 acres of American owned land to peasants (communist sympathies?) CIA trained army to invade: Guatemalan army won’t support the Guatemalan president who then must resign (Jacobo Arbenz Guzman) Army’s leader (Carlos Castillo Armas) became dictator

Warsaw Pact NATO: National Atlantic Treaty Organization Warsaw Pact: signed on April 4, 1949 Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium System of collective defense whereby member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by an external party Warsaw Pact: May 6, 1955, West Germany, despite strenuous objections from the USSR, joined NATO. Two weeks later the USSR, joined by Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania, formed the Warsaw Pact to counter the perceived threat from NATO.

Europe’s Alliances 1950

Steps toward Peace Geneva Summit: 1955 Eisenhower met with Soviet leaders Proposed “open skies”: allow flights over territories to guard against surprise nuclear attacks Soviets reject proposal “Spirit of Geneva” seen as step toward peace

Other Incidents Suez Canal: 1955 Hungarian Riot: 1956 U.S. and Britain offer to help Egypt finance dam at Aswan on Nile River Egypt tried to get further aid from Soviets U.S. withdraws loan offer Egypt nationalizes Suez canal (owned by France and Britain) Israel also affected joined France and Britain in sending troops to seize Mediterranean end of canal UN steps in to stop fighting Countries withdraw and Egypt remains on control Hungarians revolt Soviet control Call for democratic government Imre Nagy Hungarian Communist leader formed new gov’t Denounced Warsaw Pact and promised free elections Soviet tanks roll in and killed @ 30,000 Hungarians while 200,000 more fled to the west Nagy was executed U.S. and UN did not get involved (satellites aren’t covered under containment policy)

Suez Canal

Hungarians atop a Soviet tank outside parliament during the Hungarian Uprising, Budapest 1956

Containment Policy Truman Doctrine: promise to support free peoples who resisted communism Eisenhower Doctrine: U.S. would defend Middle East against an attack by any Communist country Nikita Khrushchev: leader of Soviet Union following Stalin’s death believed that Communism would take over the world in a peaceful triumph two superpowers could coexist peacefully and compete economically and scientifically

Space Race 1957: Soviets launch first artificial satellite Sputnik Triumph for Soviet technology U.S. pours $ into space program but first attempt was humiliating failure Explorer I was successful on Jan 31, 1958

Launching of Sputnik

U-2 Incident U2’s fly at high altitudes without detection Used infrared cameras to photograph troop movement and missile sites Eisenhower wanted to discontinue flights because press and Soviets knew of flights Dulles persuaded one last flight: May 1, 1960: piloted by Francis Gary Powers Soviets shot down plane and captured Powers; sentencing him to 10 years in prison Khrushchev wanted apology and flights called off but Eisenhower refused to apologize Conference of arms race called off and Eisenhower’s invite revoked