Eisenhower Paper 3/Eisenhower and Khrushchev Paper 2

What is some important context for Eisenhower’s domestic policy?

• Civil rights movement was growing

• Red Scare/McCarthyism was growing and fear of communism was getting bigger

• US had a large budget deficit

What is some important context for Eisenhower’s foreign policy?

• Stalin died—> Nikita Khrushchev came into office

• Khrushchev wanted peaceful coexistence and de-stalinization which gave hope for a cooling of Cold War tensions

• NSC-68 —> buildup military to fight communism, triple defence forces

  • massive retaliation and brinksmanship

• Tensions growing in Middle East —> Eisenhower Doctrine where Eisenhower pledges US military and economic aid to help defend middle eastern countries from communism

What were the main foreign developments in Europe during Eisenhower’s presidency?

• No agreement made at Geneva Summit about Germany’s reunification or nuclear bans

• Warsaw Pact: East Germany joins in response to West Germany joining NATO

• Tensions grow in Europe as the Soviets look very aggressive and anti-freedom

  • German workers rise up —> military destroys

  • Hungarian revolution —> Soviets sent tanks and 25,000 killed

• Khrushchev did visit the United States and Camp David for more historic talks aimed at helping solve the Berlin disagreement, though nothing happened

What nuclear advancements were made during this time that either heated or cooled Cold War tensions?

• Hydrogen bomb developed by both nations

  • 1,000 x more powerful than A-bomb

  • shows nuclear buildup and nuclear arms race

• Sputnik: Satellite developed by USSR

  • begins space race, US very angry

  • NASA created

• ICBM’s

  • intercontinental ballistic missiles —> long range nuclear strike creates big cold war risk

• IRBM’s

  • intermediate range ballistic missiles —> short range nuclear missiles set up crises that will occur in Cuba and Turkey

• U2 plane incident —> US spy plane shot down over Russia which broke down trust

  • cooling efforts of 1960 broke down

What were some of Eisenhower’s domestic policies? What were the impacts?

• “New Look” —> Balance Cold War military commitments with economic stability

• “Modern Republicanism” —> Eisenhower wanted to find a middle ground between the New Deal and Republic economics

  • wanted to reduce domestic spending and reduce government’s role in subsizing agriculture

    • Agricultural Act of 1954

• Tried to fight crop surplusses through the Soil Bank Act in which farmers were paid not to farm on certain parts of their land

  • prices still dropped

• Brought more people under social security and expanded it so more farmers could fall under it

• Created Department of Health, Education, and Wellfare

  • supports disabled children

What happened with Eisenhower in Guatemala?

• Eisenhower wanted to focus more on Latin American than Truman did

  • Monroe Doctrine said Latin America was in US sphere of influence

• Guatemala:

  • extreme poverty

  • most of land owned by the elites

  • United Fruit Companuy was underpaying workers and overtaxing

  • US got most of Profits

• Jacobo Arbenz

  • Democratically elected and wanted to help workers

  • Nationalized the land that the UFC had so they could no longer exploit profit and peasants would get more money

• UFC/CIA relations:

  • Dulles (Secretary of State) is a big investor in UFC

  • Army tells Eisenhower he has communist intentions

  • CIA plans and executes coup using covert operations and right-wing dictator Carlos Castillo Armas takes power

• Impact:

  • Guatemala is under a dictatorship and returns to extreme poverty

  • Human rights fall in guatemala, civil war breaks out a decade later

  • US looks strong and aggresive, bad relationship with Latin America

  • Gaddis: “US would lose its soul through CIA” liberty, democracy, etc.

What did Eisenhower do for civil rights? What were the impacts?

• Eisenhower wanted civil rights progress to be slow

• Thought people would have to get used to changes slowly and you could not desegregate quickly

• Got involved in Little Rock Crisis by sending in 101st airborne division paratroopers to guard protesters on their way to school