2. Dwight D. Eisenhower  President-Republican 1953-1961  Policy of Brinkmanship Would use military force to stop the spread of Communism  Domino theory – theory that if one country fell to Communists, neighboring countries would follow  CIA grew in importance during his administration

3. Nikita Khrushchev  In the power struggle triggered by Stalin's death in 1953, Khrushchev, after several years, emerged as the leader of the Communist Party  On February 25, 1956, he secretly denounced Stalin's purges and ushering in a less repressive era in the Soviet Union (de-Stalinization)  Led the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War, serving as premier from 1958 to 1964.

4. A New Red Scare U.S. citizens in 1950s feared Communists wanted to take over the world. This fear was known as the Red Scare.

5. Communists in Government?  Many Americans worried that Communist sympathizers and spies might be secretly working to overthrow U.S. govt.  Alger Hiss, former State Dept. official Accused of passing govt. secrets to Soviet agents Convicted of perjury and spent several years in prison  Julius & Ethel Rosenberg Accused of passing secrets of atomic bomb to Soviets Found guilty and sentenced to death – executed in 1953

6. McCarthyism In 1952, U.S. Senator Joe McCarthy began holding Senate hearings McCarthy turned the hearings into witch- hunts, destroying numerous people’s reputations on rumor and weak evidence Numerous Americans accused of having ties to the Communist Party

7. McCarthyism  1950 - McCarthy claimed he had a list with the names 205 Communists who worked in the State Dept. Later reduced # to 81, then to 57 Refused to show list to anyone  McCarthy led Senate hearings in which he bullied witnesses and made exaggerated charges  McCarthyism came to mean accusing someone of disloyalty without having any evidence  McCarthy lost his following in 1954 when he made false accusations against the Army on television

8. Red Scare  "Look!" screams the hero, staring directly into the camera, "You fools! You're in danger! Can't you see? They're after you! They're after all of us! Our wives... our children... they're here already! You're next!

9. Red Scare

10. Geneva Summit-July 1955  Meeting in Switzerland with Soviet diplomats  Eisenhower proposed an “open skies” policy; the U.S. and Soviet Union would allow flights over each other’s territory to guard against surprise nuclear attacks  Soviet Union rejected proposal  “Spirit of Geneva”

11. Hungarian Revolution 1956  First major threat to Soviet control since the beginning of the Iron Curtain  Revolt began as a student demonstration on October 23rd  an estimated crowd of 50,000 gathered in central Budapest  A proclamation declaring independence and demanding the withdrawal of Soviet troops was read.  By 8:00 that evening the crowd had grown to over 200,000 and moved to the Parliament Building to express their demands.

12.  Crowd surrounded the headquarters of the state radio station in hopes of broadcasting their demands to the nation.  Fired upon by Hungarian Secret police  The Hungarian Revolution had begun.  Leader of movement- Imre Nagy

13. Hungarian Revolution 1956  The Hungarian Army joined with the citizens. Fighting raged for five days culminating in the expulsion of the Soviet forces from the city.  The revolt spread quickly across Hungary and the government collapsed;  On November 4, a Soviet infantry force accompanied by artillery and 1000 tanks smashed into the city.  By November 7 the uprising had been crushed.  Over 2,500 Hungarians and 700 Soviet troops were killed in the conflict, and 200,000 Hungarians fled as refugees.  Role of the United States?

14. Suez Crisis  1955-Great Britain and the U.S. agreed to help Egypt finance construction of the Aswan High Dam  President of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser, played Soviet Union and the U.S. off of each other  In 1956, Secretary of State John F. Dulles withdrew the offer

15. Suez Crisis  In response to U.S. withdrawal of funds to construct the dam, Nasser announced the nationalization of the Suez Canal Company on July 26, 1956  Canal had been a joint British- French enterprise which had owned and operated the Suez Canal since its construction in 1869.  Eisenhower administration led by U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles tried to reach a diplomatic settlement

16. Suez Crisis  But on September 9 Britain and France secretly backed Israeli forces to attack across Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on October 29, 1956  Came within 10 miles of the canal  The Eisenhower administration concerned about the possibility that the Soviets would intervene to assist Nasser, pressured Britain and France to accept a United Nations ceasefire on November 6.

17. Eisenhower Doctrine  Announced in January 1957 in response to the Suez Crisis of 1956  Aimed at Middle Eastern countries  Under the doctrine, a country could request American economic assistance and/or aid from U.S. military forces if it was being threatened by armed aggression from another state

18. Russians launch Sputnik The Russians have beaten America into space—they have the technological edge!

19. Russians launch Sputnik Impact of Sputnik Congress establishes the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) to conduct research in rocket and space technology Congress also passed the National Defense Education Act, which provided money for education and training in science, math and foreign languages

20. Interstate Highway System  On June 29, 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. The bill created a 41,000-mile “National System of Interstate and Defense Highways”  Purpose: eliminate unsafe roads, inefficient routes, traffic jams in case of atomic attack on our key cities

21. U-2 Incident Col. Francis Gary Powers’ spy plane was shot down over Soviet airspace in 1960

22. U-2 Incident  U.S. spy plane shot down in Soviet Union U.S. denied that it was a spy plane; said it was a weather plane  Soviets captured pilot – Francis Gary Powers admit we were spying  Had to admit we were spying  Incident cools Soviet-U.S. relations

23. “Military Industrial Complex”  Farewell Address, January 17, 1961  Warned that the development of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry was new in the American experience  Eisenhower cautioned that the federal government’s collaboration with an alliance of military and industrial leaders, though necessary, was vulnerable to abuse of power.  Ike advised American citizens to be vigilant in monitoring the “military-industrial complex”