Part 2 The Threat of World Communism!!

I.Patton was (kinda) right during WWII! General Patton said we should just fight the Russians while we had the army in place, we were going to fight them sooner or later, why not right now? II.The Soviets expand post WWII Russia annexes Eastern Poland and establishes communist governments in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Yugoslavia

III. The First Domino Domino Theory; If one country falls to communism, others will follow, just like a long line of dominos The Korean War; Between the Communist North and the Democratic South Eisenhower wins 1952 election with the promise to end the Korean War Korean War never ends, merely an armistice, or a cease fire, still in place today DMZ – Demilitarized zone at 53 rd Par.

IV.Cold War Terms and Ideas Containment; communism needs to be stopped from spreading (at the root of the Domino Theory) Massive retaliation; If we have enough nuclear weapons, we won’t have to worry about an attack because our counter-attack will so great Brinkmanship; We needed to show the Communists we were willing to take the world to the edge of war

MAD – Mutual Assured Destruction; the idea that there would be less chance of thermonuclear a war if we were assured that both would be obliterated as a result Hydrogen or H-Bomb; a bomb with 500 times the destructive capacity of the bombs dropped on Japan Atoms for Peace; Eisenhower, the idea that nuclear advancements could be used in other pursuits, agriculture, medicine… did not stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons

V.SEATO – NATO for SE Asia September 8, 1954 Collective Security; an attack on one is an attack on all Included Australia, France, New Zealand, Pakistan, The Republic of the Philippines, Great Britain, US Occurred shortly after the French got their hats handed to them in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh)

VI.Eisenhower Doctrine Extend military and financial aid to any country in the Middle East threatened by Communism Applied specifically to the general area of the Middle East

VII.China Policy Nationalist forces of Chiang Kai-shek fled mainland China for Formosa (Taiwan) Chinese Communists began missile attack in the summer of 1958 Eisenhower warned the US would not “retreat in the face of armed aggression” US influenced Chiang to give up his plans on invading mainland China China want the US out of that area completely.

VIII.Summits, Spying & Sputnik Premier Nikita Khrushchev (USSR) tours the US, impressed by our corn, talks with Eisenhower U-2 Spy plane shot down 1200 miles inside Soviet Union, Francis Gary Powers caught, confessed to spying Guilty during trial, sentenced to 10 years Sputnik, first Soviet satellite launched in space, if they can do that, why not put a warhead on the end of that missile?

Sputnik II launched with a dog on board National Defense Education Act – gave millions for science education NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration established to carry out a program of space exploration and defense applications

The End of Part 2