History 4698

The New Look and Covert Operations

March 12, 2002

I. The Eisenhower Presidency

1. The New Look (postwar Republicans and foreign policy matters; basic principles—budgetary constraints, rollback promises, executive authority; NSC 162/2—differences from NSC 68?; international environment—Sino-Soviet split, rise of DeGaulle, decline of Britain)

2. Reallocation of resources (nuclear weapons, importance of SAC and LeMay; covert operations—Iran, Guatemala; expansion of economic campaigns—foreign aid; propaganda—USIA; diplomacy—Open Skies, nuclear issues)

3. Accomplishments and Failures (limitation DOD budget; avoidance war or full-fledged commitments; short-term difficulties—Hungary, Caracas; long-term difficulties—covert operations, blanket pledges)

II. The Hidden-Hand Presidency

1. The 1952 Campaign (split nature Republican party; Taft and legislative power; Dewey, Lodge, and Eisenhower effort; nomination of Nixon and appeasing GOP right; Checkers speech; McCarthy issue; Korea promise)

2. McCarthyism (DDE and Congress—split Republican leadership; moderate Southerners, emergence of LBJ; dangers of confrontation; use of Nixon and undermining McCarthy congressional base—Taft, Mundt; executive privilege and national security issue; Allen Dulles and CIA; censure motion)

3. Vietnam (background: French colonialism, Japanese expansionism, and WWII; postwar response—FDR and trusteeship, France and grandeur of empire; communism, nationalism, and postwar Southeast Asia—Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam; Truman administration, NSC 68, and commitment to Vietnam; French war strategy and Dienbienphu; internal divisions—Dulles, Radford and atomic bombs?; DDE conditions—Allied support, congressional backing; commitment with conditions)

4. The Limits of Hidden Hand Leadership (political: DDE and "modern Republicanism"—failure to imprint ideological mold on party, setup for 1964 and beyond?; policy: McCarthy—principle of delegation, OK with Allen Dulles, not so with John Foster, creation of McCarthyite myth among politicians; international—commitment to Vietnam without clear-cut policy; Lansdale, Diem, and 1956 elections)

Office Hours this week: today and Thursday, 11.00-12.00, Fayerweather 612

Robert Anderson, Trapped by Success

John Lewis Gaddis, Strategies of Containment

Piero Gleijeses, Shattered Hope

Fred Greenstein, The Hidden Hand Presidency

Richard Immermann, The CIA in Guatemala

George Kahin, Subversion as Foreign Policy

Diane Kunz, The Diplomacy of the Suez Crisis

Stephen Rabe, Eisenhower and Latin America