History from 1945-Present Discussion week 2

America and the Cold War: The Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy Years, from Sage American History, is

available under a Creative Commons Attribution -NonCommercial- ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License . ©

2014, Henry J. Sage.

The Eisenhower Years

Dwight David Eisenhower was born in Texas in 1890, one of six brothers who grew up in Abilene, Kansas.

He entered West Point in 1911 and served in the Army during the 1920s and 30s under such illustrious

officers as George Patton and Douglas MacArthur. Recognized early for his powerful intelligence and

devotion to duty, he held important positions in the years preceding World War II and helped develop

doctrine for armored warfare. When World War II broke out, he was brought to Washing ton to work for

General George C. Marshall, the Army Chief of Staff, serving as Chief of the War Plans Division.

In 1942 General Eisenhower went to Europe to take command of American forces for the invasion of

North Africa, Operation Torch, in 1942. He was subsequently named Supreme Commander Allied Forces

Europe and planned and oversaw Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy on D -Day, June

6, 1944. As Supreme Commander, he dealt with many challenging personalities, including Winston

Churchill, French General Charles de Gaulle, British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, senior Soviet

Russian officials and his military and civilian superiors in Washington.

A measure of Eisenhower’s character is revealed in a message he prepared in advance of the landings in

Normandy on D -Day:

Our landings in the Cherbourg- Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have

withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best

information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty

could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.

Fortunately, the general never had to release that message.

When World War II ended in Europe, General Eisenhower accepted t he surrender of German leaders

and took steps to reveal the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps. (He accurately predicted that at

some future time people would deny that the events called the Holocaust ever occurred. His quotation

about that prediction is inscribed on the rear wall of the Holocaust Memorial in Washington, DC.)

Following the war, General Eisenhower replaced George C. Marshall as Chief of Staff of the Army. Partly

as a reward for his service, and mostly because of his demonstrated leadership skills, Eisenhower held

several important positions following his retirement from active duty. In 1948 he became president of

New York’s Columbia University, a position which allowed him to be involved in high -level discussions of

American foreign policy. In the process, he made many useful contacts and learned more about the

workings of the American political system. (He once claimed to have been so little involved in politics

that he had never even voted.) Until President Harry Truman decided to run f or reelection in 1948, the

Democrats had been considering Eisenhower for their candidate. In 1952 a movement began among

senior Republicans to nominate General Eisenhower as their candidate for president.

0014 Eisenhower faced a strong challenge from conservative Senator Robert Taft of Ohio, the front runner for

the nomination, who was known as “Mr. Republican.” Following a tough battle at the Republican

Convention, Eisenhower won the nomination on the first ballot. He selected California Senator Richard

Nixon for vice president. With his grandfatherly image and the slogan “I like Ike,” he comfortably

defeated Democratic candidate Democratic Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois with almost 58% of the

popular vote. Eisenhower thus became the first former general t o enter the White House since Ulysses

S. Grant.

When Dwight D Eisenhower assumed the presidency on January 20, 1953, twenty years of Democratic

Party occupancy of the White House ended. President Eisenhower was the only former general to

occupy that office in the 20th century, and he was extremely well prepared for the position. What

served the former soldier well as he entered office when Cold War tensions threatened was his

experience in dealing with other world leaders during the Second World War. He dealt with future

adversaries such as top generals of the Russian Army, prickly allies like France's Charles de Gaulle, and

powerful Allied leaders like Winston Churchill. As leader of the largest and most complex military

operation ever undertaken by America ns—the invasion of Europe and conquest of Nazi Germany —he

had management experience of the highest order.

President Eisenhower and the Cold War. President Eisenhower's most significant challenges came in

the area of foreign -policy. Tensions had begun to ar ise between the Soviet Union and the West even

before World War II was over. The Soviets had recently developed a powerful nuclear arsenal, and the

death of Joseph Stalin in 1953 heightened the uncertainty of relations with the communist world. Thus,

by the time Eisenhower took office in January 1953, the Cold War, which had been underway for

practically a decade, had reached a dangerous level. Anti- Soviet feelings ran deep; the McCarthy era was

in full swing. Americans, enjoying products that had sprung from the technologies and events during

World War II and dealing with civil rights issues, were not completely focused on foreign affairs.

Those who have examined the political career of General Eisenhower (as he preferred to be called even

after becoming president) have generally agreed that he was a shrewd observer of the world scene. Yet

he was sometimes naïve in his understanding of American political practice. He seemed to some to be

working too hard to appease his political opponents, lacking the experience of having dealt with a “loyal

opposition.” At the same time, he guided American foreign affairs in a cautious, measured fashion.

No American politician could ignore the threat posed by the Soviet Union, especially as the nuclear arms

race had begun to produce weapons of stupefying power, thousands of times more powerful than the

bombs which had destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Assisting in the formulation of Eisenhower's

foreign policy was Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, who took a stern view o f the Soviets. Dulles’s

brother, Allen Dulles, was Director of Central Intelligence (CIA) and contributed to the administration's

harsh view of the Soviets.

Like all postwar presidents, including his predecessor, Harry Truman, President Eisenhower felt that the

greatest threat to America came from an expansive, monolithic communism centered in the Soviet

Union. He stated in his first inaugural address that, “Forces of good and evil are massed and armed and

0015 opposed as rarely before in history. Freedom is pitted against slavery, lightness against dark,” those

being reasons why he named John Foster Dulles as Secretary of State. The Eisenhower- Dulles foreign

policy was, at least in its rhetoric, harsher than that of President Truman; Dulles coined the phrase

“ma ssive retaliation,” which was to be used if the Soviets became aggressors.

Eisenhower was comfortable allowing Secretary Dulles to heat up the rhetoric of the Cold War while he

himself worked more quietly behind the scenes to reduce international tension. The new president was

far more clever than his critics at the time realized. An avid golfer, Eisenhower had a putting green

installed on the south lawn of the White House, and a popular ditty had the president “putting along” as

the world around him seethe d. In fact, the president was deeply engaged in monitoring foreign affairs

and was well aware of how dangerous the world had become.

When the Hungarians revolted against their Soviet oppressors in 1956, there were calls for the United

States to intervene to help the freedom fighters. Even if Eisenhower had been tempted to act, however,

getting aid to landlocked Hungary would have been a monumental undertaking. The Soviets quickly

repressed the revolt in any case. Yet the episode led some to believe that the United States under

President Eisenhower was slow to respond to calls from assistance by those beleaguered by

international communism.

In 1954 when the French Army found itself in a critical situation in Indochina, President Eisenhower

declined to support the French at Dien Bien Phu with military assistance. He did, however, offer military

and economic aid to South Vietnam. He defended his action by describing what became known as the

Domino theory —that if one nation fell to communism, other nations would certainly follow.

An additional crisis erupted in the Middle East in 1956. In 1955 the Soviet Union had begun arms

shipments to Egypt. In response, Israel strengthened its defenses and requested arms from the United

States, a request that president Eisenho wer rejected, fearing a Middle East arms race. When United

States canceled a loan offer of $56 million to Egypt for construction of the Aswan Dam, Egyptian leader

Gamal Abdel Nasser, who had grown closer to the Soviet Union, took action to nationalize the Suez

canal and extract tolls from users. Israel responded by advancing troops toward the Suez Canal, and

Britain and France began airstrikes against Egypt. British and French leaders called for assistance from

the United States, but president Eisenhower refused on the grounds that he did not support the use of

force in the settlement of international conflicts.

Fearing that the Soviets would come to dominate the Middle East, Eisenhower and his Secretary of State

Dulles requested a resolution from Congress authorizing the president to extend economic and military

aid to Middle Eastern nations. He based his request on the following principle:

We have shown, so that none can doubt, our dedication to the principle that force shall not be

used internationally for any aggressive purpose and that the integrity and independence of the

nations of the Middle East should be inviolate. Seldom in history has a nation's dedication to

principle been tested as severely as ours during recent weeks. …

0016 Let me refer again to the requested authority to employ the armed forces of the United States

to assist to defend the territorial integrity and the political independence of any nation in the

area against Communist armed aggression. Such authority would not be exercised except at the

desire of the nation attacked. Beyond this it is my profound hope that this authority would

never have to be exercised at all. ( Dwight D. Eisenhower, Message to Congress, January 5,

1957. )

Congress responded by granting the president the authority to u se force to protect nations threatened

by communism. This policy became known as the “Eisenhower Doctrine.” While deploring the use of

force, Eisenhower recognized that the threat of force could be a deterrent to its use. In response to a

request from the President of Lebanon, President Eisenhower sent 5,000 Marines into that country to

protect Lebanon’s territorial integrity. They remained there for three months.

Although criticized in some quarters for his inaction in the Suez Crisis, Eisenhower was as aware as

anyone on the planet of the horrors that could be unleashed by another widespread war, now made an

even more terrifying prospect because of the spread of nuclear weapons. With new and more powerful

hydrogen bombs being built, the Eisenhower administ ration followed a policy designed to use the threat

of nuclear war only as a deterrent to the Soviet Union in case vital United States interests should be

threatened. Eisenhower also rejected any possible use of atomic or nuclear weapons in defense of

French Indochina or Taiwan. In retrospect, Eisenhower's cautious policy has been deemed wise and

prudent, given the volatility of international relations in the 1950s. The rhetoric of “massive retaliation”

was strong, but a first use of nuclear weapons probabl y never entered President Eisenhower’s

consciousness; like General MacArthur, he abhorred the use of atomic or nuclear weapons. His recent

biographer, Jim Newton describes Eisenhower in these words:

Shrewd and patient, moderate and confident, Ike guided Am erica through some of the most

treacherous moments of the Cold War. He was urged to take advantage of America’s military

advantage in those early years —to finish the Korean War with nuclear weapons, to repel

Chinese aggression against Taiwan, to repulse th e Soviets in Berlin, to rescue the French

garrison at Dien Bien Phu. … Eisenhower was not complacent, nor was he reckless or unhinged.

(See Jim Newton, Eisenhower: The White House Years (New York: Doubleday, 2011.)

Dwight Eisenhower might be considered a gr eat American for things he did not do as well as for those

he did. Later in his life he reflected: “The United States never lost a soldier or a foot of ground in my

administration. We kept the peace. People ask how it happened —by God, it didn't just happen , I'll tell

you that.”

Sputnik: The Space Race Begins. In the years following World War II blustering Soviet propaganda had

provided ammunition for comedians who suggested that the Russians were all talk and no action. When

they exploded their first nuclear device in 1949, however, the jokes quickly fell flat. When the Soviet

Union launched the first Earth satellite, Sputnik, in 1957, the reaction among many Americans was close

to panic. Fears of the military use of space ran rampant, and the United States was placed on a crash

course to match the Soviet achievement. The American educational system came under severe criticism

0017 suggesting that “Ivan” was far better educated than “Johnny,” especially in math, science and

engineering.

With the knowledge that the missiles used by the Soviets to launch satellites into space could also be

used to rain warheads on the United States, Eisenhower authorized surveillance flights by U- 2 aircraft

over the Soviet Union. The high flying spy planes were thought to be invulner able to anti-air missiles,

but in 1959 a U -2 aircraft (left) piloted by Major Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet

Union. The administration initially issued denials, but when pictures of the U.S. airman and the downed

aircraft were shown on Soviet television, it was clear that the story was real. When President

Eisenhower refused to issue an apology, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev canceled a scheduled summit

meeting with the president, which further heightened tensions. Despite President Eis enhower’s caution,

the world was still a dangerous place.

Shortly before his departure from the White House, President Eisenhower, following the example first

set by George Washington, delivered a farewell address to the nation on radio and television, in which

he cautioned the American people of the forces that threatened to take over the direction of American

foreign policy. The speech has become known as his “ Military-Industrial Complex Speech.” In the

course of his remarks he said:

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence,

whether sought or unsought, by the military -industrial complex. … We must never let the weight

of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. …

Today … the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery,

has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs

involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. … The

prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and

the power of money is ever present -- and is gravely to be regarded.

Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society’s

future, we —you and I, and our government —must avoid the impulse to live only for today,

plundering for our own ease and convenience the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot

mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political

and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to

become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.…

Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must

learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose.

Because this need is so sharp and apparent, I confess that I lay down my official responsibilities

in this field with a definite sense of disappointment. As one who has witnessed the horror and

the lingering sadness of war, as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this

civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years, I wish I could

say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight.…

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