john foster dulles, secretary of state the practice, especially in international politics, of...

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 DullesBased 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

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

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 1957 - help was given to King Hussein who was under threat from left-wing groups in Jordan.

1958 - 10,000 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

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