Unit 8: Topic 7 - America as a World Power Flashcards
To establish a protective containment barrier against communism, President Eisenhower’s Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, established what international organization modeled on NATO?
The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was established in the Philippines in 1954 and was comprised of France, the United States, Pakistan, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand, and Australia.
Explain what happened during the 1954 Iranian Coup.
The Iranian government was overthrown when the CIA helped arrest Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh after he tried to nationalize the oil industry.
By doing this, the U.S. and Britain were securing their oil supply while at the same time politically destabilizing the middle east to serve their economic interests.
After the coup, the United States installed a leader called Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Shah Muhammad operated as a dictator of Iran, ruling for 25 years and acting as a puppet of the US government.
How did the process of decolonization increase tension between the US and the Soviet Union?
In contrast to the industrialized nations of the Western bloc and Communist bloc, newly organized third-world countries often lacked stable political and economic institutions. Their need for foreign aid from either the United States or the Soviet Union often made them pawns of the Cold War.
How did President Eisenhower justify the $1 billion in economic and military aid to South Vietnam?
In justifying this aid, President Eisenhower made an analogy to a row of dominoes. According to this domino theory, if South Vietnam fell under Communist control, one nation after another in Southeast Asia would also fall until Australia and New Zealand were in dire danger.
Explain the Suez Canal Crisis.
Arab nationalist General Gamal Nasser precipitated an international crisis in July 1956 by seizing and nationalizing the British- and French-owned Suez Canal that passed through Egyptian territory.
The loss of the canal threatened Western Europe’s supply line to Middle Eastern oil.
In response, Britain, France, and Israel carried out a surprise attack against Egypt and retook the canal. Eisenhower, furious that he had been kept in the dark about the attack by his old allies, sponsored a U.N. resolution condemning the invasion of Egypt. Under pressure from the U.S. and world public opinion, the invading forces withdrew.
Explain what the Cuban Revolution is.
Led by Fidel Castro, the Communists deposed Fulgencio Batista, the U.S.-backed Dictator of Cuba. Eisenhower immediately gave the Central Intelligence Agency permission to begin training Cuban dissidents who would participate in the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.
What was the Bay of Pigs Invasion?
President Kennedy approved a CIA scheme planned under the Eisenhower administration to use Cuban exiles to overthrow Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba.
In April 1961, the CIA-trained force of Cubans landed at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba but failed to set off a general uprising as planned. Trapped on the beach, the anti-Castro Cubans had little choice but to surrender after Kennedy rejected the idea of using U.S. forces to save them.
Castro used the failed invasion to get even more aid from the Soviet Union and to strengthen his grip on power.
Explain the significance of the Geneva Conference (1954).
At the Geneva Conference of 1954, France agreed to give up Indochina, which was divided into the independent nations of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.
By the terms of the Geneva Conference, Vietnam was to be temporarily divided at the 17th parallel until a general election could be held. However, the new nation remained divided as two hostile governments took power on either side of the line.
Eisenhower provided the South Vietnamese government with $1 billion in aid. People in North Vietnam were unhappy with this since they believed in a unified Vietnam. The leader installed in South Vietnam was greatly unpopular and would be viewed as a puppet of the U.S. Government.
What was the Cuban Missile Crisis?
In 1962, an Air Force U-2 discovered the Soviets preparing to place nuclear weapons in Cuba, 90 miles from the United States. Kennedy responded by placing a blockade around Cuba and threatening war if any Soviet ship crossed the blockade line.
It was the closest the two superpowers came to nuclear war; Khrushchev backed down when Kennedy vowed not to invade Cuba.
What was the Eisenhower Doctrine (1957)?
Under the Eisenhower Doctrine, the United States vowed to aid any Middle East nation resisting communist forces with material and financial aid.
As an example, in 1954, Eisenhower dispatched 14,000 Marines to Lebanon to prevent a civil war from breaking out between communists and Western allied forces.
In 1954, the United Fruit Company asked President Eisenhower for assistance in protecting their assets in Guatemala. How did the United States respond?
Eisenhower and the CIA were concerned that Guatemala’s government was under the control of the USSR. Hence, a CIA-sponsored coup went and forced the socialist leader, Jacobo Arbenz, to leave the country.
After the American government forced Arbenz out of office, they installed Carlos Castillos Armas, who created a military dictatorship. His dictatorship, which lacked popular support, began to kidnap anyone who spoke out against the dictatorship and kill them. After the dictator was assassinated, Guatemala had a Civil War that lasted for 36 years.
Explain the division between North and South Vietnam. How is this division similar to the Korean Conflict?
North Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh established a Communist dictatorship.
South Vietnam: A government emerged under Ngo Dinh Diem, whose support came largely from anti-communist, Catholic, and urban Vietnamese, many of whom had fled from Communist rule in the North.
Similarity with Korean Conflict: Similar to the division in Vietnam, North Korea was a communist state backed by the Soviet Union while South Korea upheld American values of capitalism and democracy. Furthermore, the Korean and Vietnam Wars were both proxy wars fought by the United States and the Soviet Union. The superpowers funded opposing sides or fought directly against communist or capitalist militias in their pursuit of world dominance.
Describe the Military-Industrial Complex President Eisenhower warned against in his farewell address.
The military-Industrial complex is a network of individuals and institutions involved in the production of weapons and military technologies; These institutions typically attempt to marshal political support for continued or increased military spending by the national government.
In his farewell address as president, Eisenhower spoke out against the negative impact of the Cold War. Eisenhower believed that the military-industrial complex tended to promote policies that might not be in the country’s best interest (such as participation in the nuclear arms race). He feared its growing influence if left unchecked, could undermine American democracy.
Explain the process of Decolonization after WWII.
During a process known as Decolonization, European nations provided independence to former colonies throughout the globe.
Between 1947 and 1962, dozens of colonies in Asia and Africa gained their independence from former colonial powers such as Britain, France, and the Netherlands.
EX: Asia, India, and Pakistan became new nations in 1947, and the Dutch East Indies became the independent country of Indonesia in 1949. In Africa, Ghana threw off British colonial rule in 1957, and a host of other nations followed.
Many countries remained non aligned during the Cold War, meaning they did not side with either the Eastern Bloc or Western Bloc (EX: India, Indonesia, Egypt, Ghana, and Yugoslavia).
