Eisenhower & The Cold War

How did the United States react to the following 7 events, and why?

1. The Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb in 1949.

The United States had to decide whether to develope a more destructive weapon so that they could stay on top of the Soviet Union.

2. In 1951, the Iranian prime minister placed the oil industry in Iran under the Iranian government’s control.

The US was worried that Iran would turn to the Soviets after Great Britian stopped buying oil from them so instead the CIA could give several million dollars to anti-Mossadegh supporters. This was to get the pro-American Shan of Iran back into power so that they could give the oil fields to the Western companies.

3. The Guatemalan head of government gave American-owned land in Guatemala to peasants.

The US said that this was an act that shows that the Guatemalan government had Communist sympathies and so the CIA trained an army and marched them into Guatemala and whnen the Guatemalan army did nothing to defend the ruler he resigned.

4. In 1956, Britain, France, and Israel invaded Egypt and occupied the Suez Canal.

The UN stepped in to stop the fighting and talked Great Britian, France and Isreal to stop fighting and then Egypt still had control of the Suez Canal.

5. Soviet tanks invaded Hungary and fired on protesters in 1956.

They did not help the Hungarians because they were part of the Soviet satellites and the Truman Doctrine did not cover them and then in the UN the resolutions that were passed were vetoed by the Soviet Union.

6. In 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik.

They began pouring money into their space program after being surprised that the Soviet Union had beat them into space and were able to launch their own satelite in just about 5 months later.

7. In 1960, the Soviet Union brought down an American U-2 piloted by Francis Gary Powers.

The US was caught spying and Khrushchev was angered and demanded that Eisenhower apologize and no longer launch U-2 flights which Eisenhower agreed to however would not apologize.