7 - Post-War America ('45-'60)

Question 1

Legislation/Events

Question 2

FP in Europe

Answer 2

• NATO ‘49
  
  • USSR created the Warsaw Pact ‘55 to counter NATO, which it saw as an ‘aggressive alliance’
• Hungary
  
  • In ‘56 Khrushchev began relaxing Stalinist control over E.Europe until moderate communists threatened to leave the Warsaw Pact - he sent in tanks and had their leader shot
  • The rebels had asked for US intervention, but it was considered too risky
• Berlin
  
  • The West initially refused to recognise E.Germany, and Khrushchev threatened to cut off roads that access W.Berlin, and if by ‘59 they hadn’t, there would be ‘dire consequences’, but he backed down
  • First Eisenhower-Khrushchev summit in ‘59, but no progress made on Berlin, & ‘60 summit failed after USSR found & shot down US spy plane over USSR
• Austria
  
  • Eisenhower was involved in the Austrian State Treaty of ‘55, ending Austria’s Occupation after 8 years of East-West negotiations
  • Eisenhower worried Austrian neutrality could lead to West German neutrality and threaten American security
  • Occupation forces to withdrawn
  • compensation to USSR for German assets
  • established Austria’s neutral status
  • Austria becomes a stable and prosperous country
    ___
• Eisenhower also met with British, French, and USSR leaders in Geneva ‘55, Eisenhower proposed the US & USSR exchange military establishment blueprints

Question 3

FP in Suez

Answer 3

• ‘56 Nassar (Eygpt leader) took control of Suez Canal from Britain & France, who invaded the Canal Zone with Israel w/out US support
• US forced them to back down w/ financial sanctions
  
  • Britain & France clearly no longer superpowers, unable to act w/out US support
    ___
• The Eisenhower Doctrine ‘57 - offered military aid to any Arab country who needed it; Eisenhower believed relationships with east were needed for oil and to protect against the Communist bloc
  
  • Eygpt & Syria were already moving towards the USSR due to the US’s familiar Western ‘colonial’ mentality

Question 4

FP in Asia

Answer 4

• Chinese Civil War
  
  • US gave aid to Chiang Kai-shek/Nationalists
  • ‘49, Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan
  • US refused to acknowledge the P.R.China & instead only had diplomatic relations with the R.O.China government in Taiwan
• Tensions w/ the P.R.China
  
  • Capitalist-Commnist hatred for eachother
  • both saw the Korean war as a sign of aggression
  • US-Taiwan defence treaty ‘54 - US military bases established in Taiwan
  • US put trade embargo on China
  • China excluded from the UN
  • ‘55 & ‘58 China threatened to shell Taiwanese islands, US hinted at using a Nuclear bomb/military action & China stepped down