IKE: 1955-1961

Warsaw Pact

• Communist military alliance formed by the Soviet Union & its

Eastern European satellites to oppose NATO.

Khrushchev “Thaw”

• Period from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s.

• De-Stalinization:

  * Khrushchev's

  *Secret Speech" denounced Stalin

  Ousted pro-Stalin officials in his power struggle after Stalin's death in 1953.

  * Peaceful coexistence with other nations (US, China, Yugoslavia)

  • Repression & censorship in the Soviet Union were reversed

  • Millions of Soviet political prisoners were released from
    Gulag labor camps

  • Periods of tension continued though! Suez Crisis (1956) & Eisenhower Doctrine (1957) for example.

Sino-Soviet Split

• Tension between China (PRC) & the USSR.

• 3 Major Causes:

1. Khrushchev De-Stalinization Speech denounced "cult of personality" communism (i.e. Stalin & Mao)

2. Hungarian Revolution

* Mao criticized USSR for failure to silence reactionary forces before they caused problems in Hungary, Germany and Poland

3) Khrushchev's "Peaceful Co-Existence" with the West

Interstate Highway Act

• Authorized the building of 41,000 miles of expressways

• Cold War Reason:

> Concern for moving military men & material throughout the U.s

S. in case of Soviet attack.

• Impact:

• Migration of middle & upper classes out of eities (urban problems for lower classes)
  Encouraged the development of suburbs
  Unified the country
  Americans purchased ears in record numbers

Hungarian Revolution

-CAUSES:

Poverty

Hungarians were poor, yet much of the food and industrial goods they produced was sent to Russia.

Russian Control

> The Hungarians were very patriotic, and they hated Russian control - which included censorship, the vicious secret police (called the AVH after 1948) and Russian control of what the schools taught.

Catholic Church

• The Hungarians were religious, but the Communist Party had banned religion, and put the leader of the Catholic Church in prison.
  Help from the West

• Hungarians thought that the United Nations or the new
  US president, Eisenhower, would help them.
  De-Stalinization

* When the Communist Party tried to de-Stalinize

Hungary, things got out of control. The Hungarian leader Rakosi asked for permission to arrest 400 trouble makers, but Khrushchey would not let him.

-REVOLUTTON:

(October 23): there were riots of students, workers and soldiers. They smashed up the statue of Stalin, and attacked the AVH and Russian soldiers.

• (October 24): Imre Nagy took over as Prime Minister. He asked Khrushcher to take out the Russian troops.

• (October 28): Khrushchev agreed, and the Russian army pulled out of Budapest.
  (October 29 - November 3): The new Hungarian government introduced democracy, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion (the leader of the Catholie Church was freed from prison). Nagy also announced that Hungary was going to leave the Warsaw Pact.
  (November 4): at dawn, 1000 Russian tanks rolled into Budapest. By 8.10 am they had destroyed the Hungarian army and captured Hungarian Radio - its last words broadeast were 'Help! Help! Help"!' Hungarian people - even children - fought them with machine guns. Some

4000 Hungarians killed fighting the Russians.

-EFFECTS:

Hungarians: 1,000 killed & 13,000 wounded.

Soviets: 722 killed & 1.251 wounded

200,000 Hungarian refugees fled into Austria.

.

Russia stayed in control behind the Tron Curtain - no other country tried to get rid of Russia troops until Czechoslovakia in 1968.

• People in the West were horrified - many British
  Communists left the Communist Party.

• The West realized it eould do nothing about the Iron

• Curtain countries - but this made Western leaders even

Suez Crisis/Sinai War

• Causes:

• The attack followed Egypt's decision of July 26, 1956 to nationalize the Suez Canal, after the withdrawal of an offer by Britain and the United States to fund the building of the Aswan Dam, which was in response to Egypt recognizing the People's Republic of China during the height of tensions between China and Taiwan.

• Israel felt threatened by attacks being launched from the Gaza Strip by Palestinians backed by the Egyptians.

• War:

• Israeli forces began arriving in Egypt on 29 October 1956 at the start of "Operation Musketeer"

". a combined mission with the

British and French, aimed at regaining control of the Suez Canal.

• Effeets:

• The Suez Crisis marked the last significant attempt Britain made to impose its military will abroad without U.S. support.

• The crisis also marked the final transfer of power from Europe to the new superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union.

• The imposed end to the crisis signaled the definitive weakening of Britain and France as global powers.

• Nasser's standing in the Arab world was greatly improved, with his stance helping to promote pan-Arabism.

  After the Suez Crisis, Iraq became the main bases for the British in the region while the French concentrated their forces in Beirut, Lebanon.

• The incident demonstrated the weakness of the NATO alliance in its lack of planning and co-operation beyond the European stage.

• From the point of view of General Charles de Gaulle, the Suez events demonstrated that France could not rely on allies; the British had initiated a ceasefire in the midst of the battle without consulting the French, while the Americans had opposed politically.

• Israel gained military confidence from the confliet.

• The Israelis also became aware of the difference between air superiority and air supremacy.

• In future warfare Israel made sure of air supremacy, especially when conducting large troop movements.

Lebanon Crisis/Eisenhower Doctrine

• U.S. commitment to defend the Middle East against attack by any Communist country or Communist ally (containment)

• Context:

• Lebanon: Pro-Soviet nations Syria & Egypt attempted to overthrow pro-Western government → Eisenhower sent the Sixth Fleet & 14,000 Marines to defend Lebanon → prevented overthrow

• President Dwight D. Eisenhower, announced his "Eisenhower

Doctrine," in a message to Congress on January 5, 1957.

• It was his foreign policy statement telling the world that the United States would use the armed forces in response to imminent or actual aggression to the country.

• He put the Soviets on notice, saying that other countries taking stands against Communism would be given assistance by the United States.

Common Market (European Economic Community) [European Union (1993)]

• Developed out of the OEEC (Organization of European Economic

Cooperation (1948) and the Marshall Plan: lowered tariffs & cooperated on coal & steel production.

* 1957 - Common Market: European Economie Community

• France, West Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium &

Luxembourg = huge production

1993 - EU: European Union

More nations join; reflected growing integration & interdependence: the euro

Watkins v. United States

• ISSUE: The balance between government security and individual rights.

• DECISION: The Court finally denied HUAC the authority to punish uncooperative witnesses who refused to "name names" of former Communist party members, etc.

• EFFECTS: McCarthyism ending.

Sputnik

• Launched by Soviets on October 4, it became the first artificial space satellite.

• Americans feared Soviets could reach the U.S. with nuclear missiles now.

• The Gaither Report:

• Congressional committee findings:
  The US was behind the USSR in missiles.
  Recommendations:

  .

  Increase missile development

  Increase conventional military forces

  Increase defensive fallout shelter construction

  • The Missile Gap:

  • No missile gap existed

  > U2 spy planes revealed the USSR did not have more missiles

  IKE had to alleviate fear → created NASA

  Missile development

  • Space exploration

  * Federal aid to promote science & math education in schools.

Space Race

• NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act as a reaction to the Soviet lead in rocket technology evident in Sputnik.

• April 12, 1961 → Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space.

• May 5, 1961 → Alan Shapard becomes the first American in space.

• "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth."

• President John E. Kennedy, May 25, 1961

• February 20, 1962 → John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth.

• July 21, 1969 → US Apollo 11 lands on the Moon (Neil

• Armstrong, Buzz. Aldrin walk on the Moon: Michael Collins orbits in the Command Module).

Mao’s Great Leap Forward

• Campaign led by Mao Zedong and aimed to rapidly transform the country from an agrarian economy into a communist society through rapid industrialization and collectivization.

• Chief changes in the lives of rural Chinese included the introduction of a mandatory process of agricultural collectivization, which was introduced incrementally.

• Private farming was prohibited, and those engaged in it were labeled as counter revolutionaries and persecuted.

• Restrictions on rural people were enforced through public struggle sessions, and social pressure, although people also experienced forced labor.

Rural industrialization, officially a priority of the campaign, saw disastrous results.

• The Great Leap ended in catastrophe, resulting in tens of millions of deaths.

• Estimates of the death toll range from 18 million to 45 million, with estimates by demographic specialists ranging from 18 million to 32.5 million.

• Historian Frank Dikötter asserts that "coercion, terror, and systematic violence were the very foundation of the Great Leap Forward" and it "motivated one of the most deadly mass killings of human history"

• The years of the Great Leap Forward in fact saw economic regression, with 1958 through 1962 being the only period between 1953 and 1985 in which China's economy shrank.

Cuban Revolution

• CAUSES:

• Fulgencio Batista, who had served as the elected President of Cuba from 1940 to 1944, became President for the second time in March 1952, after seizing power in a military coup and cancelling the 1952 elections.

• Although Batista had been a relative progressive during his first term, in the 1950s he proved far more dictatorial and indifferent to popular concerns.

• While Cuba remained plagued by high unemployment and limited water infrastructure, Batista antagonized the population by forming lucrative links to organized crime and allowing American companies to dominate the Cuban economy.

• During his first term as President, Batista had been supported by the Communist Party of Cuba, but during his second term he became strongly anti-communist, gaining him political support and military aid frot? the United States.

• Batista developed a powerful security infrastructure to silence political opponents, leading John F. Kennedy to describe the Cuban government as a "complete police state" in 1960.

• In the months following the March 1952 coup, Fidel Castro, then a young lawyer and activist, petitioned for the overthrow of Batista, whom he accused of corruption and tyranny. However, Castro's constitutional arguments were rejected by the Cuban courts.

• After deciding that the Cuban state could not be overthrown through legal means, Castro resolved to launch an armed revolution.

• To this end, he and his brother Raúl founded a paramilitary organization known as "The Movement"

", stockpiling weapons and

U2 Spy Plane Incident

• Khrushchev had visited the US in September 1959.

• The "Spirit of Camp David" created a positive atmosphere.

• May 1, 1960 → U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union.

• US claimed it was a weather plane that had gotten lost.

• Soviets revealed they had captured Powers who was still alive.

• US had to admit responsibility.

  Paris Summit: IKE refused to apologize → reconnaissance was necessary for security.

• Khrushchev was furious & cancelled IKE's planned visit to Moscow.

• Talks concerning Berlin and a possible test-ban treaty halted.

• Increased tensions between US & USSR.

IKE’s Farewell Address

• Military-industrial complex (MIC) is a concept commonly used to refer to policy relationships between governments, national armed forces, and the industrial sector that supports them.

• These relationships include political approval for research, development, production, use, and support for military training, weapons, equipment, and facilities within the national defense and security policy.

• The term gained popularity after its use in the farewell address speech of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.