Chapter 9: From Hungary and Suez to Cuba
The view is that during Eisenhower's end of his first term through to his second term between 1956 and 1961 as President that America foreign policy was failing. This was seen through the lack of aid towards Hungary rebels, the Sputnik in 1957 which was the world's first artificial satellite made by the USSR and the centuries old dream of the Russians established themselves in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. There was problems with trust between the US and the British and French after the Suez crisis and there were Communist guerrillas in South Vietnam and Laos which was pushing the balance towards the Communist favour. One of Eisenhower's biggest problem was that he and Dulles wanted 'rollback' this was to free the Communist slaves. The problem was that was at conflict with him trying to balance the budget and trying to avoid war and was struggling to even contain the Communist much less liberate Eastern Europe.
One of Eisenhower's main achievement during his time being the President was his way to avoid war and the strong economy in the US. He still carried on with nuclear testing with grand speeches and an arm race but he refused to engage in combat which the Democrats complained that the US was not 'going forward' and was 'losing the Cold War'. This made little difference to Eisenhower's success with the economy with the American national product going up without inflation, Western Europe economy was booming ( which created a stronger NATO) and Anglo-American oil interests were secured. Other way he was strong was even through he was only spending about two thirds ( under 40 billion dollars) the amount Democrats wanted on defence America still was militarily superior to the USSR.
One of the problems during this time was the Russians extending their influence in the Middle East. Dulles tried to do the same by breaking Truman's policy of support for Israel but try and improve relations with the Arabs ( as they were getting aid from Communist aid programs) while still trying to keep the support of Israel. He did this when in late 1955 he found out that the Egyptians had negotiated an arms deal with the Czechs. Dulles first offered the Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nassar American aid for the Aswan dam which would harness power from the lower Nile. In Feb 1956 Nassar was ready to conclude the deal. But many Congress men did not see the point of why the US should fund for a dam in Egypt which would unbalance the budget and that in Egypt they didn't have the skills to use it properly. Dulles started to back off the idea when in April 1956 Nassar formed a military alliance with Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen and refused to back down the Czech arms deal. In July 1956 when the Egyptian foreign minister arrived in Washington to discuss the project Dulles announced that the US will withdraw their support for the Aswan dam. This was based on what happened in May when Nassar withdraw seeing from Chiang Kai-shek as the true government of China and recongised Communist China.
Nassar response to this was to seize the Suez Canal which gave him a 25 million dollars annual profit. This made the British and the French angry as they were dependant on the canal for oil and they feared that Nassar will close it to their ships. Dulles main concern was to protect American oil interest in the middle east whereas the British and the French wanted complete control over the canal. Dulles had dealt with the event badly Dulles had damaged relations with the French and the British and NATO lost a chance to tie Nassar with the West and alienated Israel just to top it off. Without telling the US with conjunction with Israel, the British and French started to plan an invasion.
At the twentieth party Congress in February 1956 Krushchev shocked the party by denouncing Stalin for his crimes and that Stalinist restrictions will be loosened. This was seen when two months later Comifrom was dissolved. The CIA got a copy of this speech and made copies for around the world. This lead to people thing they could free themselves from the Soviet Union leading to riots in Poland forced Krushchev to allow Wladyslaw Gomulka who was an independent communist but Poland still remained a member of the Warsaw pact.This created excitement in Hungary as before the war they were the most Fascist of the East European states and \communism was forced on them the most. On October 23rd Hungarian students took to the streets to demand that the Stalinist puppets be replaced with Imre Nagy with workers joining them on the march. Khrushchev agreed to give power to Nagy but the Hungarians also demanded the removal of the Red Army from Hungary and the creation of an anti-Communist party. By October 28th the Russians gave in and began to withdraw there tanks from Budapest. With this Dulles promised economic aid to anyone that broke away from the Kremlin. This meant that on October 31st Nagy announced that Hungary will be withdrawing from the Warsaw Pact. This lead to Soviet tanks crushing the Hungarian rebels with rebels fighting back with ironically (because you know Stalin and Molotov were buddies) Molotov cocktails. The rebels were crushed 7,000 Russians were dead and 30,000 Hungarians were dead. There was a rumour that American troops were being sent in to help the rebels but Eisenhower didn't want to risk WW3.
With all this success and with countries breaking away from the USSR in Europe a disaster hit for the US when the Israeli Army attacked Egypt. Within hours Nassar's army was almost destroyed and took most of the Sinai Peninsula. Britain and France then arranged to advance with the Israelis warning Nassar to stay away from the Suez Canal, he refused. On October 30th ( day before Hungary uprising) the French and the British started to bomb Egyptian military targets and prepared to move troops into Suez with apparently keeping the Arabs and Israelis apart. This angered the Americans as it was clearly an excuse for the British and French to take back the Suez Canal and was seen as 19th century colonial tactics. The Americans came up with a solution at the UN general Assembly urging a truce and imposed an oil embargo on the British and French. On the 5th November Krushchev warned the British and French that he would destroy them with his rockets. With only a few hours away from the Suez Canal both lot of French and British forces agreed a ceasefire and pulled back. To counter the increase of Russian aid and troops into Egypt and wanting more control and influence in the Middle East Eisenhower on 5th January 1957 asked Congress for permission to use US armed forces in the Middle East. Next year this was granted under the so called Eisenhower Doctrine when on July 15th 1958 US Marines entered Lebanon to support President Camille Chamoun. This showed that Eisenhower was willing to support less than democratic government threatened by pro-Nassar Arabs he compared to the Greek civil war in 1947.
On October 4 1957 the USSR successfully launched the first man made satellite called Sputnik. That with that two months earlier the USSR had fired the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile should that how Walter LaFaber 'gaps' were starting to appear from missile production to teaching maths at preschool level. This lead to Eisenhower to deploy medium-ballistic missiles in Turkey and Italy. There was also news in 1957 from the Gaither report that they found out that the Soviet GDP was increasing much faster rate than the US. Also that the Russians were spending as much on their armed forces and heavy industry as the Americans were. This was close to the NSC 68 report and suggested an increase in spending on defense to 48 billion dollars but Eisenhower said no and kept the budget below 40 billion while cutting down the army he did increase missile development. He ignored the report that said to build more fallout shelters across America because he did not want the US to become a 'Garrison state'. Eisenhower knew that the missile gap was not true due to the U-2 spy planes that were taking photos of the Russian missiles from a high altitude so that Russian planes could not knock them down. Krushchev knew these flights were happening but knew that Eisenhower did not make any public statements about strong Soviet inferiority.
With Germany Eisenhower wanted a detente but Krushchev didn't specially in Berlin.This was because each year 300,00 East Germans defected to the West via Berlin and these were young talented people. With since 1949 3 million people had had gone to the West via the Berlin hatch with West Berlin was the heart of espionage being in the heart of Communist land with propaganda from radio stations being broadcast to East Germany. Also the economic growth of West Berlin with the Americans had poured 600 billion dollars into the city West Berlin was turning out nearly 2 billion dollars of good per year. Compared to in East Berlin which was drab and depressing. By 1958 Krushchev feared the growing rearmament of West Germany. On November 10 1958 Khrushchev declared that the Soviet Union was ready to take control of Berlin to East Germany and the West would have to negotiate rights of access to West Berlin. Krushchev set a 6 month time limit to reach an agreement or they would have to deal with East German. Krushchev wanted Berlin as a free city free from the US, French and British for them to withdraw their troops. Eisenhower refused this and waited until March 1959 for the deadline with the democrats urging him to moblize but Eisenhower said to congress he didn't need additional money for missiles or for the armed forces. during private talks with Krushchev in Maryland in the Autumn of 1959 ( NOT FALL) Eisenhower admitted that what was happening was strange and that modifications were needed. Mao did not think that Krushchev was being strong enough against the West. To get a quick win as such on May 5th at the eve of the summit meeting that was planned for being in Paris Krushchev made a statement saying that a U-2 spy plane had been knocked out of the sky by a SAM. This embarrassed the President and ruined the conference and a agreement being made about Berlin. Eisenhower was a old man with old advisers and he struggled to adapt to new problems.
By the end of WW2 the Americans owned 80 percent of Cuba's utilities, 40 percent of its sugar, 90 percent of its mining wealth and they occupied the small island of Guantanamo Bay meaning Cuban life was controlled by Washington. When Fidel Castro took control over Cuba this caused problems for America as Cuba shift to the left with Communist and extreme radicals in the government they started the nationalisation of American owned property with Cuban liberals began to flee the country Cuban Communist rose in the Government. With the US repeated turning down requested for loans in Feb 1960 Cuba signed a agreement with the USSR to to exchange Cuban sugar for Soviet oil and equipment. This lead to 4 months later the US got rid of Cuban sugar quota and in the first few days of 1961 Eisenhower severed diplomatic relations with Cuba.
When in 1960 Kennedy had taken over the party it confirmed the Democrats view on tackling the Cold War. This was for dynamism in foreign relations and a increase in the armed forces as well as a new relationship with the Third World. In the 1960 election both Nixon and Kennedy promised to be tough on Communist with slight difference with Kennedy stressing the missile gap but Nixon did not and Nixon insisted in defending the islands of Quemoy and Matsu but Kennedy and Nixon were quite close for being tough on Communist and in the end Kennedy won but only by a narrow margin. Eisenhower said in his farewell speech that his ideals was for small town America and didn't want big government controlling people's private life saying 'we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence'. In Kennedy inaugural address he focused that a new generation was coming to power in America who were ready to deal with the new problems as they had been hardened by the Cold War and promised to get the country moving again. BUT HOW? Nobody knew.
One of Eisenhower's main achievement during his time being the President was his way to avoid war and the strong economy in the US. He still carried on with nuclear testing with grand speeches and an arm race but he refused to engage in combat which the Democrats complained that the US was not 'going forward' and was 'losing the Cold War'. This made little difference to Eisenhower's success with the economy with the American national product going up without inflation, Western Europe economy was booming ( which created a stronger NATO) and Anglo-American oil interests were secured. Other way he was strong was even through he was only spending about two thirds ( under 40 billion dollars) the amount Democrats wanted on defence America still was militarily superior to the USSR.
One of the problems during this time was the Russians extending their influence in the Middle East. Dulles tried to do the same by breaking Truman's policy of support for Israel but try and improve relations with the Arabs ( as they were getting aid from Communist aid programs) while still trying to keep the support of Israel. He did this when in late 1955 he found out that the Egyptians had negotiated an arms deal with the Czechs. Dulles first offered the Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nassar American aid for the Aswan dam which would harness power from the lower Nile. In Feb 1956 Nassar was ready to conclude the deal. But many Congress men did not see the point of why the US should fund for a dam in Egypt which would unbalance the budget and that in Egypt they didn't have the skills to use it properly. Dulles started to back off the idea when in April 1956 Nassar formed a military alliance with Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen and refused to back down the Czech arms deal. In July 1956 when the Egyptian foreign minister arrived in Washington to discuss the project Dulles announced that the US will withdraw their support for the Aswan dam. This was based on what happened in May when Nassar withdraw seeing from Chiang Kai-shek as the true government of China and recongised Communist China.
Nassar response to this was to seize the Suez Canal which gave him a 25 million dollars annual profit. This made the British and the French angry as they were dependant on the canal for oil and they feared that Nassar will close it to their ships. Dulles main concern was to protect American oil interest in the middle east whereas the British and the French wanted complete control over the canal. Dulles had dealt with the event badly Dulles had damaged relations with the French and the British and NATO lost a chance to tie Nassar with the West and alienated Israel just to top it off. Without telling the US with conjunction with Israel, the British and French started to plan an invasion.
At the twentieth party Congress in February 1956 Krushchev shocked the party by denouncing Stalin for his crimes and that Stalinist restrictions will be loosened. This was seen when two months later Comifrom was dissolved. The CIA got a copy of this speech and made copies for around the world. This lead to people thing they could free themselves from the Soviet Union leading to riots in Poland forced Krushchev to allow Wladyslaw Gomulka who was an independent communist but Poland still remained a member of the Warsaw pact.This created excitement in Hungary as before the war they were the most Fascist of the East European states and \communism was forced on them the most. On October 23rd Hungarian students took to the streets to demand that the Stalinist puppets be replaced with Imre Nagy with workers joining them on the march. Khrushchev agreed to give power to Nagy but the Hungarians also demanded the removal of the Red Army from Hungary and the creation of an anti-Communist party. By October 28th the Russians gave in and began to withdraw there tanks from Budapest. With this Dulles promised economic aid to anyone that broke away from the Kremlin. This meant that on October 31st Nagy announced that Hungary will be withdrawing from the Warsaw Pact. This lead to Soviet tanks crushing the Hungarian rebels with rebels fighting back with ironically (because you know Stalin and Molotov were buddies) Molotov cocktails. The rebels were crushed 7,000 Russians were dead and 30,000 Hungarians were dead. There was a rumour that American troops were being sent in to help the rebels but Eisenhower didn't want to risk WW3.
With all this success and with countries breaking away from the USSR in Europe a disaster hit for the US when the Israeli Army attacked Egypt. Within hours Nassar's army was almost destroyed and took most of the Sinai Peninsula. Britain and France then arranged to advance with the Israelis warning Nassar to stay away from the Suez Canal, he refused. On October 30th ( day before Hungary uprising) the French and the British started to bomb Egyptian military targets and prepared to move troops into Suez with apparently keeping the Arabs and Israelis apart. This angered the Americans as it was clearly an excuse for the British and French to take back the Suez Canal and was seen as 19th century colonial tactics. The Americans came up with a solution at the UN general Assembly urging a truce and imposed an oil embargo on the British and French. On the 5th November Krushchev warned the British and French that he would destroy them with his rockets. With only a few hours away from the Suez Canal both lot of French and British forces agreed a ceasefire and pulled back. To counter the increase of Russian aid and troops into Egypt and wanting more control and influence in the Middle East Eisenhower on 5th January 1957 asked Congress for permission to use US armed forces in the Middle East. Next year this was granted under the so called Eisenhower Doctrine when on July 15th 1958 US Marines entered Lebanon to support President Camille Chamoun. This showed that Eisenhower was willing to support less than democratic government threatened by pro-Nassar Arabs he compared to the Greek civil war in 1947.
On October 4 1957 the USSR successfully launched the first man made satellite called Sputnik. That with that two months earlier the USSR had fired the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile should that how Walter LaFaber 'gaps' were starting to appear from missile production to teaching maths at preschool level. This lead to Eisenhower to deploy medium-ballistic missiles in Turkey and Italy. There was also news in 1957 from the Gaither report that they found out that the Soviet GDP was increasing much faster rate than the US. Also that the Russians were spending as much on their armed forces and heavy industry as the Americans were. This was close to the NSC 68 report and suggested an increase in spending on defense to 48 billion dollars but Eisenhower said no and kept the budget below 40 billion while cutting down the army he did increase missile development. He ignored the report that said to build more fallout shelters across America because he did not want the US to become a 'Garrison state'. Eisenhower knew that the missile gap was not true due to the U-2 spy planes that were taking photos of the Russian missiles from a high altitude so that Russian planes could not knock them down. Krushchev knew these flights were happening but knew that Eisenhower did not make any public statements about strong Soviet inferiority.
With Germany Eisenhower wanted a detente but Krushchev didn't specially in Berlin.This was because each year 300,00 East Germans defected to the West via Berlin and these were young talented people. With since 1949 3 million people had had gone to the West via the Berlin hatch with West Berlin was the heart of espionage being in the heart of Communist land with propaganda from radio stations being broadcast to East Germany. Also the economic growth of West Berlin with the Americans had poured 600 billion dollars into the city West Berlin was turning out nearly 2 billion dollars of good per year. Compared to in East Berlin which was drab and depressing. By 1958 Krushchev feared the growing rearmament of West Germany. On November 10 1958 Khrushchev declared that the Soviet Union was ready to take control of Berlin to East Germany and the West would have to negotiate rights of access to West Berlin. Krushchev set a 6 month time limit to reach an agreement or they would have to deal with East German. Krushchev wanted Berlin as a free city free from the US, French and British for them to withdraw their troops. Eisenhower refused this and waited until March 1959 for the deadline with the democrats urging him to moblize but Eisenhower said to congress he didn't need additional money for missiles or for the armed forces. during private talks with Krushchev in Maryland in the Autumn of 1959 ( NOT FALL) Eisenhower admitted that what was happening was strange and that modifications were needed. Mao did not think that Krushchev was being strong enough against the West. To get a quick win as such on May 5th at the eve of the summit meeting that was planned for being in Paris Krushchev made a statement saying that a U-2 spy plane had been knocked out of the sky by a SAM. This embarrassed the President and ruined the conference and a agreement being made about Berlin. Eisenhower was a old man with old advisers and he struggled to adapt to new problems.
By the end of WW2 the Americans owned 80 percent of Cuba's utilities, 40 percent of its sugar, 90 percent of its mining wealth and they occupied the small island of Guantanamo Bay meaning Cuban life was controlled by Washington. When Fidel Castro took control over Cuba this caused problems for America as Cuba shift to the left with Communist and extreme radicals in the government they started the nationalisation of American owned property with Cuban liberals began to flee the country Cuban Communist rose in the Government. With the US repeated turning down requested for loans in Feb 1960 Cuba signed a agreement with the USSR to to exchange Cuban sugar for Soviet oil and equipment. This lead to 4 months later the US got rid of Cuban sugar quota and in the first few days of 1961 Eisenhower severed diplomatic relations with Cuba.
When in 1960 Kennedy had taken over the party it confirmed the Democrats view on tackling the Cold War. This was for dynamism in foreign relations and a increase in the armed forces as well as a new relationship with the Third World. In the 1960 election both Nixon and Kennedy promised to be tough on Communist with slight difference with Kennedy stressing the missile gap but Nixon did not and Nixon insisted in defending the islands of Quemoy and Matsu but Kennedy and Nixon were quite close for being tough on Communist and in the end Kennedy won but only by a narrow margin. Eisenhower said in his farewell speech that his ideals was for small town America and didn't want big government controlling people's private life saying 'we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence'. In Kennedy inaugural address he focused that a new generation was coming to power in America who were ready to deal with the new problems as they had been hardened by the Cold War and promised to get the country moving again. BUT HOW? Nobody knew.
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