John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State

 The practice, especially in international politics, of seeking advantage by creating the impression that one is willing and able to push a highly dangerous situation to the limit rather than concede

 Proposed by Dulles  Based on a threat of massive retaliation  Kept peace by promising to use all its force, including Nukes.  “Going to the brink, or edge of war”

 US increased air force  Massive production of Nuclear Weapons  Began the arms race when the USSR answered  Caused large fear of Communist attack for the next 30 years

Iran and Guatemala

 1953 – CIA persuaded Shah to replace P.M.  People remained loyal to Shah, P.M. fled  Constitutional Monarch – Authoritarian  US gained 40% of Iranian oil fields Iranian PM, Mohammad Mossadegh, placed oil industry under gov. control (1951) Led by G.B. Western nations boycotted Iranian oil Iranian economy faltered US feared Mossadegh would turn to Soviets for help.***

 Felt Guatemalan gov. had communists sympathies  Gave 200,000 acres US owned land to peasants  CIA’s actions:  Psychological attacks  Propaganda campaign  trained an army to invade and capture head of gov. and his forces  Army’s leader became dictator  4 decades of instability and civil war in Guatemala

 U.S. Soviet relations thawed after Stalin’s death in 1953  Soviets recognized West Germany, but formed Warsaw Pact  Geneva Conference, July 1955  First meeting since WW2  “Open Skies” proposal rejected ▪ Guard against surprise attack ▪ Soviets viewed as US trick to learn weapon whereabouts  No specific accomplishments, but viewed by World as movement towards peace Soviet Prime Minister Nikolai A.Bulganin, US- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, French Prime Minister Edgar Faure and British Prime Minister Anthony Eden

GB, France, Israel join forces to invade Egypt Britain/US agreed to help Egypt finance construction of dam at Aswan on Nile Leader Gamal Abdel Nassar began strengthening ties with Communists nations US/GB withdrew aid Nassar seized Suez canal Eygpt sent terrorist raids into Israel

 USSR, Egypt’s ally, threatened missiles  US warned it would not tolerate such action  UN imposed a cease-fire in Nov.  Canal reopened but under Egyptian management  Soviet prestige rose in Middle East

 US would defend the Middle East against attack by any communist country.  Congress approved it  Gave president authority at his discretion to use American forces to protect Middle East.

 April help was given to King Hussein who was under threat from left-wing groups in Jordan.  ,000 marines went to the Lebanon to protect President Camille Chamoun from Muslim extremists.  Created a great deal of anti-Americanism in the Middle East  OPEC – Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (1960)  1959 decided that Eisenhower Doctrine should be brought to an end.

 Khrushchev’s open criticism of Stalin’s crimes against the people ushered in 2 thoughts:  Is Soviet becoming less oppressive?  Can we break away from Soviet control?

 US sent aid for food and meds, send aid to UN for refugees, accepted refugees, but sent No Military aid – embittered many Hungarians Hungary had many years of clashes over freedom Khruschev agreed to more reform- minded leader, Nagy, asked Soviet troops forced to leave country Hungarians then demanded right to leave Warsaw Pact USSR sent tanks, killed 30,000 Hungarian Protestors (1956)

 US thought it was ahead of USSR in military technology  Had nuke warheads that could be accurate at 1,500 to 3,000 miles  USSR launched first satellite October 4, 1957  Increased US fears of nuclear attack  felt US falling behind in science/tech  Change in US school systems  improvement in Math, Science, Languages

 First attempt was HUGE failure  named “Flopnik” or “Stayputnik”  January 31, 1958  US launched first satellite successfully  Now race to build better weapons-delivery systems and satellites were on

 At Geneva Summit in 1955, Eisenhower put forth an “open skies policy” policy  USSR rejected it  US still flew “U-2” planes over USSR to take pictures  By 1960, Eisenhower wanted to discontinue program b/c wasn’t really a secret anymore

 Eisenhower feared it may jeopardize effectiveness with new USSR leader, Khruschev  Was talked into one more U2 flight by Dulles/CIA  US thought at first Plane was taken down by a Soviet SAM-2 Missile.

 US lied about U2 mission  USSR lied about what actually happened to make missile defenses look better  Khrushchev felt incident made him look bad, denounced US at next summit  Eisenhower no longer effective as a peacemaker  Hope for nuclear test ban treaty was gone  1960s opened with tensions as high as ever