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The Cold War
Meeting 15. (5 May)
USA in the Cold War after McCarthy
1952
Dwight Eisenhower is elected president of USA
1953
January
30 October
1954
1 January
14 January
1 July
December
Eisenhower is sworn into office; a challenge to reduce military budget, without
reducing American effective military performance
Eisenhower approves NSC 162/2 (National Security Council)
legacy of $42 billion for military spending left by Truman
Dulles presents the new doctrine of massive retaliation before Council on
Foreign Affairs
restructured budget of $36 billion
Joseph McCarthy is condemned by the Senate by 67 to 22 for “conduct
unbecoming a senator”
John Foster Dulles – Eisenhower’s secretary of state (aristocratic corporate lawyer); begins
by denouncing ‘containment’ policy as passive and pursuing active foreign policy not only to
contain communism, but also to push it back and liberate various parts of the world
Dulles’ doctrines:
policy of “massive retaliation”
intensified unification through mutual defense pacts (about a dozen
pacts by the end of 1950s
brinksmanship - January 16, 1956; an attempt of pushing the Soviet
Union to the brink of war in order to exact concessions.
Massive Retaliation Doctrine
The United States should be prepared to respond to a Soviet-backed conventional threat
anywhere in the world with a nuclear strike against the territory of the Soviet Union itself.
New Look Policy Doctrine
A shift from nuclear superiority, towards nuclear sufficiency.Flexibility, tactical attack,
“limited war”.
Savings Policy options
Three policy options for reduced military budget were considered:
 the Truman-Acheson approach of containment and reliance on conventional forces;
 response to limited Soviet "aggression" in one location with nuclear weapons;
 serious "liberation" based on an economic response to the Soviet political-militaryideological challenge to Western hegemony: propaganda campaigns and psychological
warfare.
The third option was strongly crticised and eventually rejected. Eisenhower opted instead for
a combination of the first two, one that confirmed the validity of containment, but with
reliance on the American air-nuclear deterrent. This was geared toward avoiding costly and
unpopular ground wars, such as Korea.
Since nuclear weapons are an integral part of defense, they should be developed:
 1,000 in 1953 to 18,000 by early 1961
 1955 – eight long range B-52 are debveloped
 1962: US to USSR nuclear warheads - 27,297 to 3,332
During the Cuban Missile Crisis the U.S. had 142 Atlas and 62 Titan I ICBMs, mostly in
hardened underground silos. In 1961, the U.S. deployed 15 Jupiter IRBMs (intermediaterange ballistic missiles) Turkey, aimed at the western USSR's cities, including Moscow.
Given its 1,500-mile (2,410 km) range, Moscow was only 16 minutes away. The U.S. could
also launch 1,000-mile (1,600 km)-range Polaris SLBMs from submerged submarines.
The Organization of American States (OAS, or, as it is known in the three other official
languages, OEA) is an international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United
States. Its members are the thirty-five independent states of the Americas, although Honduras
was suspended as a result of the June 28, 2009 coup d’état that expelled President Manuel
Zelaya from office. The organization grew out of earlier cooperative initiatives and was first
signed on 30 April 1948, becoming effective on 1 December 1951.
The Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty (ANZUS or ANZUS Treaty)
is the military alliance which binds Australia and New Zealand and, separately, Australia and
the United States to cooperate on defense matters in the Pacific Ocean area, though today the
treaty is understood to relate to attacks in any area. ANZUS was concluded at San Francisco
on September 1, 1951, and entered into force on April 29, 1952.
The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was an international organization for
collective defense which was signed on September 8, 1954. The formal institution of SEATO
was established at a meeting of treaty partners in Bangkok in February 1955. It was primarily
created to block further communist gains in Southeast Asia. The organization's headquarters
were located in Bangkok, Thailand. SEATO was dissolved on June 30, 1977.
The Central Treaty Organization (also referred to as CENTO, original name was Middle
East Treaty Organization or METO, also known as the Baghdad Pact) was adopted in
1955 by Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. It was dissolved in 1979. The
United States could not initially participate "for purely technical reasons of budgeting
procedures." In 1958, the United States joined the military committee of the alliance. It is
generally viewed as one of the least successful of the Cold War alliances.
USA, CIA and Latin America (Yankee Imperialism)
1954 stopping of the new, ‘leftist’ government of Jacobo Arbenz Guzman in Guatemala.
Financial military support to 1976 and after 1981
1958-59 Cuban failure
1965-66 occupation of Dominican Republic by US forces after overthrow of Trujillo
1970-73 intervention in Chile
1978 control of Panama Canal ends with US withdrawal
1979 overthrow of Samoza, followed US aid in Nicaragua
1980 military and economic support to El Salvador government during civil war
1981 military and economic support to Honduras
1981-90 military and economic support to Nicaragua
1983 intervention in Grenada
1986 intervention in Haiti drives Jean-Claude Duvalier into exile