The widening of the Cold War: alliances and shifts -> Eisenhower, Dulles and Brinkmanship Flashcards
What was Eisenhower’s strategy?
To create a global network of alliances in order to encircle the USSR and China with pro-US allies
What was the strategy based on?
The USA providing a nuclear umbrella for its regional allies while they provided ground forces for regional defence against Soviet aggression -> mutually beneficial
When did Stalin die?
March 1953
Which individuals came to rise to the top after Stalin’s death?
- Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the CPSU
- Georgy Malenkov, Soviet Premier 1953-55
What were both their aims?
- Khrushchev: ‘peaceful coexistence’
- Malenkov: ‘A new course’
What view did they share following Stalin’s death?
A break from Stalinism was needed
Why was destalinisation never carried out?
- anti-Stalinism communists were dead
- destalinisation was left to Stalinists to do
- could never be done with wholehearted sincerity
What had happened in the Soviet Union within weeks to reverse Stalinism?
A million prisoners were released frmom the Gulag under an amnesty, the powers of the security police were curtailed, more consumer goods and public housing were promised and overtures were made to the West about improving relations
What were Khrushchev and Malenkov introducing?
“Controlled liberalisation”
When did Khrushchev become leader?
1955
What were Khrushchev’s aims as leader?
He wanted to achieve long-term political stability, economic growth and improved living conditions through destalinisation
What did Khrushchev sign in 1955 and why?
In May 1955, he signed the Austrian-French treaty, collectively agreeing to having good relations with the West
Who became President in 1953?
The Republican candidate, Eisenhower
What was Eisenhower’s campaign strategy?
Dubbed “K1C2” was to focus on attacking the Truman and Roosevelt administrations on three issues: Korea, communism and corruption
What did Eisenhower stress for foreign policy?
In an effort to accommodate the right, he stressed that the liberation of Eastern Europe should be by peaceful means only; he also distanced himself from his former boss, Truman
What were Eisenhower’s strengths?
- Logistics: getting equipped with supplies
- Diplomacy: led British and French armies
Did Eisenhower continue the strategy of containment?
he had gone off the strategy of containment, condemning and attacking it in the 1952 election
Why did Eisenhower condemn containment?
It was expensive to taxpayers and didn’t deliver much
- e.g. £18 billion on K-War, £13.5 billion om Marshall Plan
- announces to help EE liberate themselves
Who were on Eisenhower’s team?
- Allen Dulles, Director of the CIA (Vice President)
- John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State 1953-59
What were the Dulles?
Caricatures of American foreign policy and spy agencies, managing to get governments overthrown e.g. the Guatemalan gov in 1954 as they tried to introduce land reform
What were the Dulles uninterested in?
New talks of peaceful coexistence and favoured Rollback instead
What signified that there was continuity from Truman’s national security policy?
- The USA must retain sufficient influence in Western Europe and a collective Western defence strategy
- The USA must retain its influence in Asia
- the Soviet threat was significant and real and the containment of Soviet territorial expansion was fundamental
- The USA must retain a strong nuclear arsenal and conventional forces to deter and counter Soviet opportunism
What policy did John Foster Dulles?
Brinkmanship
What was Brinkmanship?
A form of nuclear diplomacy that would make Soviets/Chinese behave by threatening nuclear war
- 7:1 advantage of nuclear weapons over Soviets
How did the US respond to Soviets signalling their interest in easing cold war tensions?
- Not a message people wanted to hear
- Eisenhower and John Foster Dulles had taken office in January 1953 on a programme of getting tough with Soviets and ‘rolling back communism’
What did John Foster Dulles say in the Time Magazine?
He was adamant that regardless of conciliatory Soviet overtures, the US must ‘keep our pressures on, psychological and otherwise’
What made Eisenhower’s foreign policy different from Truman’s?
The New Look policy
What did the New Look policy end?
The static imposition imposed by Truman’s restrictive model of containment
What factors led to the New Look policy?
- The Red Scare
- The need to get tough
- The need to get VFM
- the need to build alliances with Cold War partners
What was the Red Scare?
- McCarthy alleged that the US was riddled with spies and Soviet sympathisers
- Republicans didn’t like McCarthy and used his as their attack dog
How did Eisenhower and the Republicans take advantage of McCarthyism?
The anti-communist climate created by McCarthyism allowed Eisenhower to attack Truman and the Democrats for being ‘soft’ on communism
- Believed Truman’s containment policy had produced a stalemate with the USSR and to break this, rollback was needed
What was the need to get tough?
- To get “more bang for the buck”- hoped that an increased reliance upon nuclear weapons would significantly reduce costs
- thought that the prospect of ‘massive retaliation’ would deter the Soviets from expansionist activities
- hoped that the possession of a massive nuclear arsenal would encourage the Soviets to back down
How did John Foster Dulles describe getting tough as?
Coupled with the tactic of brinkmanship - defined by John Foster Dulles as “ going to the brink of war without being scared
Why did Eisenhower want to increase the US’ reliance on nuclear weapons?
As he was aware of the large cost of supporting conventional military forces in the Korean War (£18 billion) so thought it was the most cost-effective way of fighting communism
What did the NSC 162/2 report claim?
The USA could deter aggression by displaying its willingness to use nuclear weapons against aggressive Communist states
- this was the essence of the new look policy
When was NSC 162/2 adopted?
October 1953
What did Dulles think about brinkmanship?
He thought the ability to reach the verge of war without actually engaging in war, was an essential tool in clamping down on communism
When was brinkmanship threatened?
Nuclear strikes ewere threatened against the People’s Republic of China twice:
- The First Taiwan Straits Crisis (September 1945 - May 1955)
- The Second Taiwan Straits Crisis (August - September 1958)
How did Mao respond in both instances?
Mao backed down, principally because the Soviet leader Khrushchev refused to back him
What was the need to get VFM (value for money)?
Eisenhower was convinced of the need to make US attempts to battle communism not just more effective, but more affordable
How did spending more on nuclear weapons allowed Eisenhower to reduce expenditure between 1954-58?
- the number of US army personnel dropped from 1,404,598 to 898,925
- the Navy, USAF and Marines shrank by 10%
- Spending on defence fell from 2/3 to 1/2 of government expenditure, and from 13.8 to 9.1% of GNP
What were the results of getting VFM?
- By 1960, the US armed services both possessed the capacity to devastate the USSR and PRC with nuclear weapons and were more capable of limited war than any previous peacetime force
- This was backed up by the CIA’s massively enhanced capacity for intelligence gathering and intervening in Third World countries
- also augmented by extensive aid given to allies and client states
What was SEATO
a collective defence strategy with the purpose to protect SE Asia, working on domino theory
When was SEATO founded?
September 1954 in the wake of the Vietnamese communist leader Ho Chi Minh’s victory over France
Who were the members of SEATO?
Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, France, UK, US
Who did SEATO intend to protect?
Two former French territories, Laos and South Vietnam
What was CENTO?
The Central treaty organisation founded by the Baghdad Pact of February 1955 with US support
Who were the members of CENTO?
Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and the UK
- the US joined the alliance’s military committee in 1958
What was CENTO committed to?
Committed the nations to mutual cooperation and protection, as well as non-intervention in each other’s affairs
What was CENTO’s goal?
To contain the USSR by having a line of strong states along the USSR’s south-western frontier
Who was Patrice Lumumba?
The democratically elected leader of CONGO
Who ruled Congo up until 1960?
Belgium but Congo was about to leave it rule
Who was opposed to Congo’s independence?
French and Belgium companies that profited from Congo was against this
Who did Congo ask for help?
- Asked the UN for help but refused so turned to the Soviet Union to buy weapons, logistical and material support: around 1000 Soviet military advisers soon landed in the Congo
What did the US do in response?
The moment Lumumba took Soviet weaponry, he was marked by the CIA
How much had the US spent to overthrow Lumumba>
- Eisenhower spent an estimated $100,000 to pay for his overthrow and execution
- The CIA was in touch with the coup plotters and assassins on the day he was killed
How did Khrushchev think the Soviets could win the Cold War?
By avoiding war, thinking they could outproduce the West in a plan called “communism by 1980”
- ultimately win by demonstrating superiority e.g. the space race that began with Sputnik
How did Mao believe victory for communism would come?
From war and confrontation as his aim for China was to replace the Soviets as the leading force to world communism
What did Togliatti (Italian communist leader) ask Mao?
to reach a peaceful coexistence, thinking a nuclear war would result in a war dominated by Chinese communism
What did Khrushchev refuse to give Mao?
Nuclear weapons in 1959
Who was the communist leader of Cuba?
Fidel Castro
When did Castro come into power?
January 1949
What did Eisenhower decide for Cuba and when?
In 1959, Eisenhower decided that Cuban revolution needed to be strangled
What did Castro do in response to Eisenhower’s decision?
He ran to the Soviets who offered him $100m in trade deals to annoy the US
When was the Cuban Missile Crisis?
1962
What had the US believed since 1823?
The entirety of the Americas was their responsibility outlined in the Monroe Doctrine -> Castro breaks this
