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The New Look and the New Frontier - lecture notes (Foreign Policy under…
The New Look and the New Frontier - lecture notes (Foreign Policy under Eisenhower and Kennedy)
Eisenhower and Kennedy's Foreign Policy
Korea
Armistice
Used threat of any weapons necessary - implying nuclear weapons
Eisenhower promised to end war in Korea.
More of a priority for Ike than domestic affiars
Rhetorical 'Roll Back' and 'More bang for the buck'
$10bn proposed reduction in spending
New Look - NSC 126/2
Proposed a series of cuts in the army and navy, and a limit on naval ships to a total of a thousand.
Eisenhower was prepared to increase spending in the Airforce and nuclear.
Wants military spending to be more effective.
Threat of nuclear retaliation does not work in all situations.
For Kennedy
Similar aims, different style.
Not a fan of appeasement.
Extremely conscious as a Democratic president he cannot be seen to be soft on Communism in any way.
'Time when the tide ran out on the United States' - from 1960 first tv debate between Kennedy and Nixon
Belief that it could be the time the United States could lose the Cold War.
Did cause some alarm in Moscow to Kennedy's more assertive tone in Foreign Policy.
Foreign Policy Lessons = Munich, spirit of NSC-68, fall of China
Flexible containment
Arms Race
'Atoms for Peace' - 1953
Quite early in the presidency.
Put to the UN when the UN still had some respect in being involved in these proposals.
How serious is Eisenhower about reducing nuclear proliferation?
'Massive retaliation'
ICBMs - nuclear moratorium
U2 incident
'Open Skies' - July 1955
Suggests that to avoid accidental nuclear confrontation each power should be able to see if there is a build-up in others territories.
Sputnik - October 1957
First satellite in space from the Soviet Union.
The US believes itself to be the biggest and best power in the world. but the Soviets beating them to space gives them a dent in their credibility.
Used by Democrats to batter the Republicans.
Test of American credibility
Vanguard missile - blows up on the launch pad
Kaputnik in the press
Kennedy increases defence budget by 15%.
Increases use of nuclear weapons in places where they hadn't previously been used.
271 military bases in 31 countries.
Orders the increasing of air groups by 30%.
August 1963 Test Ban Treaty
Only for overground tests, does not ban underground tests.
America and USSR conducted over 11,000 underground tests.
Europe
October 1956 - Hungarian Revolution
American radio had made Hungarians believe that they were supported.
Instead the revolution was crushed by Khrushchev sending in tanks, and no support from the West aside from a few protests.
The US is not going to intervene in Hungary.
Ongoing tension with Khrushchev over Berlin
Berlin remains a test case for both Presidents.
Symbol of their commitment to the defence of the free world.
Khrushchev believes he has the upper hand in Europe, and so continually tests the Americans in Berlin. 'Testicles of the West'
Khrushchev visits the US.
Berlin Wall - August 1961
Resumption of nuclear testing by both powers.
26 June 1963 - Kennedy makes iconic 'Ich bin ein Berliner' speech
Amazing groundswell of approval.
Importance is symbolic.
Rhetorical slip aside, it is an important moment.
Asia
Quemoy and Matsu - 1954-1955
Two islands in the Taiwanese group of islands which China bombs to test what the American reaction will be.
Eisenhower publicly threatens the use of nuclear weapons - whether he would have done so is up to debate.
At this stage China is not a nuclear power.
Generally good relations with Japan.
Security Treaty etc.
Lucky Dragon incident (1954)
Japanese fishing boat caught in H-bomb testing
Girard crisis (1957)
Killing of Japanese civilian by US army soldier
By and large, Japan is safe for the US.
Presence of American troops is a blow to Japanese prestige and a source of irritation for the Japanese people.
Sources of tension
Presence of nuclear weapons near Japan.
Lucky Dragon incident
Girard killed a Japanese woman by shooting her in the back. Japan wanted to test him themselves, but Americans wanted him to be tried by American courts.
Leads to a questioning of the American commitment in Japan.
Girard was tried by the Japanese court on the condition he was given a light sentence and sent home.
Eisenhower's visit to Japan had to be called off because on ongoing tension.
Indo-China
Aid to France
Resistance to unification under Vietminh
Crisis builds 1961-1963
Eisenhower doesn't intervene directly, but he does intervene to prevent the unification of Vietnam under the Communist government of the North.
Kennedy increased military advisors in Vietnam.
Improbable that Kennedy would have withdrawn from Vietnam.
Significance is what is the US doing in Vietnam at all?!
Latin America
27 June 1954 - CIA coup overthrows Arbenz regime in Guatemala.
Moderate socialist government talk about centralising agricultural land - including holdings of US companies - including a US fruit company so it is essentially bananas.
13 March 1961 - Alliance for Progress
Proposed up to $20bn of aid for Latin America, although very little of that materialised.
17-20 April 1961 - Bay of Pigs.
Repressed easily by Castro.
Americans can't own it but they can't deny it either.
Assassination attempts on Castro.
Continuation of Eisenhower.
Eisenhower refuses to meet with Castro when he turns up in Washington.
Castro becomes the Communist Bogey-Man.
Castro loved dairy - tried to poison his milkshake
Exploding cigar
Proposed an exploding sea-shell - because Castro liked to listen to sea-shells it could look like an accident.
Aerosol attack with LSD to make him sound crazy on the radio
Thalium salts in his shoes to make his beard fall out.
October 1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis
Consequence and a culmination.
'Kennedy's finest hour' - saving the world through his brave actions.
Why did Khrushchev want to put nuclear weapons in Cuba?
What was in it for Castro?
America had tried to take over Cuba, had a program of destabilisation of the Cuban regime, was setting fire to Cuban ships in port, interrupting trade with Latin America.....
Comes from systematic attempts to undermine the Cuban regime.
Middle East
19-20 August 1953 - Cia coup overthrows Mossadegh regime in Iran for oil, in conjunction with the British.
October 1956 - Suez Crisis
Extension of containment to Middle East becomes known as the Eisenhower Doctrine
5 January 1957 - Eisenhower sends US Marines to Lebanon
Not as explosive in this era as it would become, however it sows the seeds.
Constrasting Styles
'The United States never lose a soldier or a food of ground in my administration. We kept the peace. People ask how it happened - by God, it didn't just happen, I'll tell you that' - Eisenhower at the end of his presidency.
Not Ike's warning in Farewell address about the perils of the military-industrial complex
Stephen Rabe in Debating the Kennedy Presidency says Kennedy managed the Cuban Missile Crisis well but 'heedless, often reckless acts' helped to precipitate the showdown.
Greenstein: 'President Kennedy had not made the world a safer place during his brief time in office. He had waged war.'