"I Like Ike"

Ike golfing, from Life 1956/02/27

1st TV Cabinet Oct. 1954 from Life

ocean-going ship near Kahnawake from St. Lawrence Seaway

------

Oak Ridge National Laboratory workers checking for radioactive contaminants (circa 1950), from DOE Historical Photos

------

Watchman's Rounds 1954 from Time 1955/1/1

------

Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles (from left) greet South Vietnam's President Ngo Dinh Diem at Washington National Airport, May 8, 1957, from NA

------

Quemoy Matsu Formosa from US News 1955/4/15

• Ike defeated "dinosaur" Taft for Republican nomination in 1952
  
• Ike and Nixon defeat Adlai Stevenson and liberal John Sparkman 55%-44%, 442-89
  
• Stevenson warned "no easy decisions" and a "long, costly, patient struggle over war, poverty, tyranny."
  
• Ike promised no more "creeping socialism" or "20 years of treason"
  
• 3 foreign Cs = "Corea, China, Communist coddling"
  
  • Nixon called Stevenson "Adlai the appeaser... who got a Phd from Dean Acheson's College of Cowardly Communist Containment."
• 3 domestic Cs = Corruption, Cost of living, Change
  
• but not Christine
• election was a personal triumph for Ike and an expression of frustration over the Korean War and of Cold War paranoia.

"Modern Republicanism"

• bipartisan foreign policy, cooperation with Congress
  
• NSC-68 but lower defense budget
  
• "vital center" without losing left or right
  
• Bricker amendment to require Congressional approval of executive agreements defeated Feb. 26, 1954
  
• St. Lawrence Seaway had been blocked as the "socialistic ditch" but Seaway Bill passed May 13, 1954

"Captive Nations"

• Dulles on TV 1/27/53 - "You can count on us"
• resolution introduced Feb. 20, and Ike urged Apr. 16 "full independence" for eastern Europe
  
• East Berlin uprising June 17 vs. Walter Ulbricht
• Crusade for Freedom

"Massive Retaliation"

• NSC 162/2 "New Look" - deterrence or superiority?
• "Waging Peace" (Bowie 1998) not coercion of NSC 68
• reduce Army by 500,000, Navy by 100,000, add to AF for jets
  
• New weapons B-47 and Nautilus and Nike
  
• "Big Mike" 11/1/52 - 1st thermonuclear test of 10 megaton hydrogen bomb
  • completely obliterated Elugelab in the Marshalls
• Castle-Bravo test 3/1/54 of 15 megaton bomb caused fallout on "Lucky Dragon"
  
• Nevada Test Site 11/1/50 for 100 above-ground tests until 1963
  
• Uranium boom 1953
• Human Radiation tests
  
  • DOE's Office of Human Radiation Experiments
• Civil Defense programs against atomic attack
• Warning against atomic attack, DEW, NSA

"Agonizing Reappraisal"

• France rejected integrated European army of 1952 European Defence Community (EDC); instead, U.S. invited Germany and Italy into 1954 Western European Union (WEU) within NATO
• NATO meeting Dec. 1953
• Konrad Adenauer, German chancellor 1949-63, supported by U.S.
• Anthony Eden, conservative British PM 1955-57, supported by U.S. until 1956
• Charles de Gaulle, founder of the 4th Republic 1945 and the Rally of the French People (RFP) 1946, retired 1953 but returned 1958 to found the 5th Republic, end Algerian war, develop own a-bomb, keep Britain out of Common Market
• 43 unilateral treaties signed 1949-59
• regional defense pacts of NATO, SEATO, CENTO

"Disengagement"

• Indochina War 1953 and 1954
• by 1954, U.S. supporting 78% of Indochina cost
  
• Mar. 20 - French Navarre Plan proposed by Gen. Ely
  
• Radford, Twining proposed Op. Vulture (1-2-3 abombs)
  
• Apr. 3 - Ike did not get 8 congressmen, British
  
• May 7 - fall of Dienbienphu caused French pull-out
  
• June 16 - Ngo Dinh Diem replaced Buu Loc
  
• July 20 - Geneva Accords without U.S.
  
• Edward Lansdale and Op. Exodus cost $93m.
  
• Sep. 8 - SEATO signed by U.S. + 7 others
  
• Oct. 9 - Ike's letter to Diem promised aid
  
• Vietnam policy only advisory until 1961
• Mideast policy pro-Iran, anti-Nasser
• CIA in Iran and Guatemala
• 1956 Year of Crisis

"Brinksmanship"

• China shelled Quemoy 9/3/54 - 2 U.S. soldiers killed
  
• NSC Denver meeting Sep. 12 - Ike said no bombing
  
• Taiwan Treaty 12/2/54 - Sen. William Knowland
  
• China shelled Tachens Jan. 1955 - pullback to Matsus
  
• Formosa Resolution 1/28/55 - force authorized
  
• Dulles speech Mar. 12 about "clean" nuclear strike
  
• Ike pc Mar. 16 - bomb to "be used as you would use a bullet"
  
• Ike pc Mar. 23 - "Don't worry, I'll just confuse them."
  
• shelling and blockade 8/22/58 - Ike sent 7th fleet
  

"Peaceful Coexistence"

• Khrushchev rose to power 1953-56

---

• Sources:
  • Bowie, Robert R.and Richard H. Immerman. Waging Peace: How Eisenhower Shaped an Enduring Cold War Strategy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. 317 p.
  • Cogan, Charles. Oldest Allies, Guarded Friends: the United States and France since 1940. 1994. 234 p.
  • Costigliola, Frank. France and the United States: the Cold Alliance since World War II. 1992. 316 p.
  • Goode, James F. The United States and Iran: In the Shadow of Musaddiq. New York : St. Martin's Press, 1997. 235 p.
  • Marks, Frederick W. Power and Peace: the Diplomacy of John Foster Dulles. 1993. 266 p.
  • Ostermann, Christian F., ed. Uprising in East Germany 1953: the Cold War, the German Question, and the First Major Upheaval behind the Iron Curtain. New York: Central European University Press, 2001. 451 p.
  • Powaski, Ronald E. The Entangling Alliance: the United States and European Security, 1950-1993. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994. 261 p.
  • Smyser, W. R. From Yalta to Berlin: the Cold War struggle over Germany. New York : St. Martin's Press, 1999. 465 p.
  • Streeter, Stephen M. Managing the Counterrevolution: the United States and Guatemala, 1954-1961. Athens: Ohio University Center for International Studies, 2000. 384 p.
  • Trachtenberg, Marc. A Constructed Peace: the Making of the European Settlement, 1945-1963. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1999. 424 p.
• Maps:
  • 1952 election from US News 1952/11/14
  • United Fruit Co. in Central America from Life 1951/2/19
  • "Asia from Moscow" and "Europe from Moscow" from Time 1952/03/10
  • Iran "Land of Turmoil" from Time 1952/03/24
  • French Morocco bases from Time 1952/03/31
  • Vietnam1954
  • Quemoy Matsu Formosa from US News 1955/4/15
  • Far East postwar alliances 1955
  • Europe postwar alliances 1956
  • Russian strategy from Life 1956/2/13
  • Suez crisis from Life 1956/11/12
  • "1958: The Big Reach" from Time 1959/1/1
  • India Tibet "McMahon Line" from Time 1959/9
  • SE Asia and cu from Life 1949
  • Korea 1987 and cu
  • Asia 1997 and east and southeast and south from CIA
• Charts:
  • Budget deficits 1946-80 from US News 1980
  • Stock market 1949-83 from Time 1983
  • U.S. economic growth 1876-1953 from Life 1954/1/4
  • Results of Soviet talks from US News 1955/05/20
  • Cold war box score from US News 1955/05/27
• Documents:
  • First Inaugural Address Jan. 20, 1953 from Columbia U./Bartleby Library
  • Chance for Peace April 16, 1953 from Texas A&M
  • Atoms for Peace address Dec. 8, 1953 from Texas A&M
  • Second Inaugural Address Jan. 21, 1957 from Columbia U./Bartleby Library
  • Farewell Address Jan. 17, 1961 from PBS
• Video:
  • Living Room Candidate from American Museum of the Moving Image (AMMI)
  • Adlai Stevenson: Music Man (1.5 MB) from CNN/Time AllPolitics Video Vault Historical Ad Archives
  • Dwight Eisenhower: The Man From Abilene (2 MB) from CNN/Time AllPolitics Video Vault Historical Ad Archives
  • clips from Nixon's 1952 Checkers speech from webcorp
  • The Cold War from CNN
  • Vietnam: The 10,000 Day War, by Michael Maclear 1980, narrated by Richard Basehart
  • Atomic Cafe, by Jayne Loader and Kevin Rafferty 1982, a documentary compilation of government films from the 1950s.
• Sound:
  • first address to Congress (0:52 min., au or mpeg2) from MSU/Vincent Voice Library
  • campaign speech 1952 (2:48 min., au or wav) from Grolier
  • clips from American Presidents: Life Portraits by C-SPAN
• Links:
  • 1953 Inauguration newspaper story "Ike Takes Helm in a 'Time of Tempest'; Says 'We Are Linked to All Free Peoples'" by Edward T. Folliard, Washington Post, January 21, 1953
  • Air Force Academy history
  • Castro-Year One from Florida International University
  • European Security timeline
  • Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956: Creating the Interstate System by Richard F. Weingroff from the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center
  • National Security Archive including declassified document from the National Security Archive, written by Gerard Smith Aug. 13, 1958, commenting on the JCS plan to use nuclear weapons against China to defend Quemoy and Matsu, and description of the books Inside the Kremlin's Cold War by Zubok and Pleshakov, A Century of Spies, Intelligence in the Twentieth Century by Jeffrey T. Richelson
  • St. Lawrence Seaway History, from the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System
  • St. Lawrence Seaway pictures
  • The Cold War from CNN, episode 18 "Backyard: 1954-1990"
  • WEU history
  • The Yankee Years from PBS Frontline 1985, part 2 on Guatemala in 1954
  • Yahoo index for Presidents

---