Aim: What changes took place in the Cold War during the Eisenhower administration?

Objective Student will be able to tell how relations changed between the US and the Soviet Union during the 1950s.

6. A Change in the Cold War During the Cold War, a change took place in the nature of the Cold War. The Eisenhower years were marked by oscillation-a hardening and softening in attitudes and relations-on the part of the United States and the Soviet Union.

Question 1 What change took place in the Cold War in the late 1950s?

6.1 Southeast Asia President Eisenhower believed that it was necessary to stop the spread of communism in Southeast Asia. In the spring of 1954, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles put forth the domino theory. Simply stated, Dulled believed that the nations of Southeast Asia were like dominoes. If one nation became communist, then all of the other nations would soon follow.

Map of Southeast Asia After World War II, Southeast Asia faced the same Cold War problems that were facing the nations of Western and Eastern Europe

Secretary of State John Foster Dulles

Eisenhower and Dulles were interested in Vietnam, which was part of French Indochina. After WW2, the Viet Minh, a nationalist group, attacked the French. Led by Ho Chi Minh, the Viet Minh were made up of Communists that wanted to establish an independent communist nation in Vietnam.

Vietnam

Dien Bien Phu-The French Are Defeated The defeat of the French by the Viet Minh posed a major problem for Eisenhower and Dulles.

In 1954, talks were held in Geneva, Switzerland In 1954, talks were held in Geneva, Switzerland. Delegates from the United States, France, England, the Soviet Union, China, Laos, Cambodia and groups from Vietnam attended. At the talks, Vietnam would be divided into two nations-North and South. In 1956, elections would be held to unify the nation, but the South Vietnamese and the United States refused to sign the document. The US believed that the communists had a base of operations in Southeast Asia.

The Geneva Conference (1954)

Following the Geneva talks, the United States supported the idea of an alliance like NATO for Southeast Asia. In September 1954, the United States, England, France, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand formed the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). The countries promised to aid one other in case of attack and to protect Southern Vietnam and other non-Communist nations in Southeastern Asia.

Question 2 What was Dulles’ idea of a domino theory?

Question 3 What were the Geneva Accords?

Question 4 What nations belonged to SEATO?

6.2 The Middle East By the middle of the 1950s, the cold war had spread to the Middle East. Most of the area was controlled by either England or France until after World War 2. Now that the war is over, the two nations, weakened by the war, gave up most of their power there. However, the United States and the Soviet Union were interested in the area because of the area’s chief resource……oil. The Soviets also wanted access to the Mediterranean.

Middle East

In 1948, the Jewish state of Israel was formed out of a part of Palestine. Many European Jews had fled to Palestine after the Holocaust and this angered the Arab population who were residing there. The Arabs of Palestine and other Arabs of the region were against the idea of having a Jewish nation in their region, so they attacked Israel. In these wars, the Israelis, backed by the United States, were able to defeat the Arabs and gained more land. The support of Israel caused anger in the Arab world, so they asked the Soviets for help.

Israel Becomes Independent (1948)

Question 5 Why were the United States and the Soviet Union interested in the Middle East?

Question 6 Why were the Arab nations of the Middle East get angry with the United States? What did they do?

The tension building between the United States and the Soviet Union was increased by the events in Egypt. At the start of the Cold war, both the United States and the Soviet Union were interested in forming an alliance with Egypt. When the Egyptians used American weapons to attack Israel, the US refused to sell arms to Egypt. Egypt then asked the Soviet Union for help. The US cancelled a dam building project soon after. In 1956, Egypt took over the Suez Canal and was attacked by the British and French.

When Israel attacked Egypt in 1956, the British and French attacked Egypt as well. Although allied with England and France, the United States did not enter the fighting. The United States used the UN Security Council to end the crisis.

The Suez Crisis

Question 7 What was the Suez Crisis?

In 1957, containment was extended to the Middle East through the Eisenhower Doctrine. The Eisenhower Doctrine extended economic and military aid to any nation in the Middle East that was threatened by Communist takeover. This was designed to stop the influence of the Soviet Union and to establish the US as a power in the Middle East. In 1958, Eisenhower put the doctrine into practice when the Government of Lebanon was under attack by a group backed by the Soviet Union and Egypt.

Question 8 Where was the Eisenhower Doctrine put to use?

Eisenhower Doctrine VI The action which I propose would have the following features. It would, first of all, authorize the United States to cooperate with and assist any nation or group of nations in the general area of the Middle East in the development of economic strength dedicated to the maintenance of national independence. It would, in the second place, authorize the Executive to undertake in the same region programs of military assistance and cooperation with any nation or group of nations which desires such aid. It would, in the third place, authorize such assistance and cooperation to include the employment of the armed forces of the United States to secure and protect the territorial integrity and political independence of such nations, requesting such aid, against overt armed aggression from any nation controlled by International Communism. These measures would have to be consonant with the treaty obligations of the United States, including the Charter of the United Nations and with any action or recommendations of the United Nations. They would also, if armed attack occurs, be subject to the overriding authority of the United Nations Security Council in accordance with the Charter. The present proposal would, in the fourth place, authorize the President to employ, for economic and defensive military purposes, sums available under the Mutual Security Act of 1954, as amended, without regard to existing limitations. . . .

6.3 Latin America and the Caribbean Another important area for the United States to address was the idea of communism in Latin America and the Caribbean, or more to the point, the Western Hemisphere. When a government favoring communism wanted to take over Guatemala, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) took action. The CIA was able to back an anti-communist government in Guatemala. This occurred in 1954.

Map of Latin America and the Caribbean

The Coup in Guatemala Carlos Castillo Armas Jacobo Arbenz Guzman Supported by the CIA and the US Government Jacobo Arbenz Guzman Communist Leader of Guatemala

In 1959, fighting broke out in Cuba over control of the Cuban government. The government of Cuba led by US-supported Fulgencio Batista was overthrown by Fidel Castro (who ruled for 49 years), a communist leader. The United States recognized the government of Castro, who, in true communist fashion, made an alliance with the Soviet Union. The US stopped dealing with the Castro government when in 1960, he made a trade agreement with the Soviets.

The United States refused to import Cuban sugar, so Castro took over all American sugar companies that closed in Cuba. Relations grew worse between the United States and Cuba. Eisenhower, in one of his last presidential actions, decided to end all relations with the Cuban government because he feared a communist government in the Western Hemisphere.

Question 9 Who helped to put down a Communist takeover in Guatemala?

Question 10 Why were events in Cuba important during Eisenhower’s second term?

The Cuban Revolution (1959)

6.4 Coexistence Relations between the United States and the Soviet Union improved during the second term of President Eisenhower. From 1956, Eisenhower and the Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev followed a policy of coexistence, a policy by which both nations recognized each other’s right to exist in peace. This policy became part of US-USSR relations following the death of Joseph Stalin. Leaders of the Soviet Union were willing to work with the west.

Election of 1956

Nikita Khruschev

One of the changes following the death of Joseph Stalin was the nations of the world were willing to participate in summit conferences, much like they done in the years following WW1 and WW2. The first major summit conference occurred in Geneva, Switzerland in 1955. Although no major agreements were signed, it showed a willingness of both sides to work together to solve common interests. As tensions eased at the end of the 1950s, the US and USSR held more informal summits.

On May 1, 1960, just before the US and USSR were to meet in Paris, a special US plane called the U-2 was shot down by the Soviet Union. American planes had been flying and taking pictures of Soviet military camps without their permission…we spied on them. At the Paris summit, Premier Khruschev spoke out on the incident, criticized the spying and demanded the US stop these missions. He asked for an apology from Eisenhower and stoppage in the summit.

U-2 Incident (1960

Question 11 What is coexistence?

Question 12 What did the Geneva Summit signal?

Question 13 What caused the break-up of the 1960 Paris Summit meeting?