Ike Foreign Policy

Multipple choice last class 15/17 = A 14 = B+ 13 = B 12 = B- 11= C 10 = C- 9 = D

From last class – Democrats showed first sign of later split in 1948. At their convention a young delegate, Minneapolis Mayor Hubert Humphrey's passionate speech in favor of a strong civil rights platform inspired much of the party – but caused a walkout of southern delegates clinging to segregation. They formed the Dixiecrats – led by Strom Thurmond.

Truman's strong anti-Soviet policy also caused more conciliatory elements led by former Vice-President Henry Wallace to form a separate Progressive party. This made Truman's chance to win look almost hopeless. The Chicago Tribune put out an edition with "Dewey Beats Truman" headline. But a feisty whistle stop campaign won for Truman.

These splits foreshadow later much more serious splits. The party went to a less-enthusiastic civil-rights advocate in 1952 – Stevenson. But in the 1960's the Democrats would lose the South to the Republicans over Civil Rights.

The Wallace split foreshadowed events in the 1960's and later when Democrats disillusioned by Vietnam would come to be dominated by less ferociously anti-communist New-Left-ers like George McGovern.

McCarthy

During the election campaign Ike repeats McCarthy's claims

Commies in government are serious problem Democrats refuse to fix (one typesetter in obscure bureau found to be commie)

refuses to defend General Marshall from McCarthy's slimy "communist sympathizer" charges.

Clearly understood how far below his own standards he had fallen.

One of the McCarthyites grabbed Ike's hand after Ike spoke in a show of apparent unity in Wisconsin.

Ike said he felt "dirty from the touch of the man" and that if he "puts his hand on me once again, I'm going to knock him right off the platform".

McCarthy – Ike is disgusted but unwilling to get in gutter to confront

slimy chicken-hawk opportunist liar alcoholic – IKE was a competitive man who wanted to be president but he regretted his lack of honesty and moral character the rest of his life.

Ike blamed the Press for building up and reporting on McCarthy but it would have taken someone like Ike to knock McC down.

Anti-science Anti-intellectual fervor – common in times of paranoia

Oppenheimer and Einstein – do not speak in Good versus Evil terms – NOT PATRIOTS

DO NOT WANT TO BUILD H-BOMB or SUPER prima facea case for traitor

Scientists want to know amusing and different kinds of views –

Oppenheimer knows commies (married one)

PRO-McCARTHY

Especially Catholics – know personally family persecuted by Communists in Eastern Europe

from National Journal (Alito and Federalists intellectual heirs)

Communists, in fact, invented the term "McCarthyism," and devised most of the ideology that went with it.... "[A]nti-McCarthyism" as a movement... broadest and most successful the Communists have ever catalyzed in this country.... the Liberals .. automatically exclude[s] effective anti-Communist action. And they cannot go along when the community sets out to do something about its Communists.

Eisenhower's sending the 82nd Airborne Division to Little Rock to protect civil rights:

By what right, according to what law, do these heavily armed combat teams of the first nuclear age "pentomic" division remain and act in Arkansas? Where is the statute... that entitles these soldiers... to quarter themselves on the municipal property of the Little Rock school system? to obstruct traffic...?... to forbid citizens to assemble together?... to club and stab citizens slow to respond to shouted orders? What law authorized the rude braggadocio of General Walker?... The truth is... [t]here is no law, the bayonets have displaced the law in Little Rock.... General Walker is in Little Rock as the commander of an army of occupation... enforcing unconditional surrender. No sensible person will excluce the possibility of a domestic crisis so extreme.... [W]ould it not be prudent to reflect that when guns are released from control by law, we can never be sure what direction they will point in?

The magazine's doubts about the Fifteenth Amendment:

Although the states qualify voters, Art. I, Sec. 4 of the Constitution grants to Congress the power to make or alter... regulations concerning elections for senators and representatives. The Fifteenth Amendment prohibits the denial or abridgement of the right to vote "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."... [H]onest men may differ as to the wisdom and expediency of these grants [of power to the federal government.]...

And Frank S. Meyer on the virtues of McCarthyism:

The peculiar horror of this presidentiad of Eisenhower... [is that] everything merges into one dull blur.... It cannot grasp as real the looming threat of dehumanization that proceeds from the iron tyranny of Soviet Communism or from the soft blandishments of the Welfare States and World Government.... [T]he Era of Moderation could be fairly launched only after the censure and destruction of McCarthy. So long as there was a voice so powerful... insisting that the contemporary world presented an absolute choice between good and evil... the anesthesia could be only imperfectly administered.... What Joe McCarthy was... can[not]... be judged by weighing in the balance the niceness of his discriminations or that tactical acuity of his actions.... His was not a common role. It comes to few men to play it--sometimes to a poet, sometimes to a politician sometimes to someone of no particular position.... Joe McCarthy, who bore witness against the denial of truth that is called moderation, and died for it: "He was a prophet."...

Posted by Brad DeLong on December 21, 2005 at 05:12 PM in Better Press Corps, History, Moral Resp

IKE ADMINISTRATION When Ike comes in he hires Nitze / Dulles types Anti-Communist Crusaders

US Information Agancy - purged of non-true-believers – no communist authors –

supposed to demostrate our "free speech" values

Intelligence from State Department cowed – Dulles gives McCarthyites free reign

leaders often get only "tough response" info which feeds / matches their cold-war paranoia

CIA UNLEASHEDby Ike – can't use nukes, against large costly "military-industrial-complex"

ran for president worried that Isolationist & small-government Taft would win

covert action cheap option –

Problem: CIA collects intelligence about problems and fixes same "problem"

no oversight, no checks and balances, no transparency lotsa bad intelligence

gung-ho-anti-communist is the coolest and only way to be safe.

Favorable intelligence on anyone resembling possible "communist sympathizer" might end a career

"Moderates" were chastened by the experience of the China Hand's who accurately forecast

Mao would defeat the corrupt and incompetent Chang Kai Chek.

Nitze NSC 68 1950 – any means are justified because we're fighting EVIL

maybe reasonable about Stalin & Mao - but other situations get simplistic analysis

Lippman – to view every challenge to status-quo thru lens of "Soviet challenge" leads to

"heterogeneous array of satellites, cients, dependents and puppets"

intervene continually in the affairs of nations whose politics didn't emanate from Moscow -

not subsumed in dichotomy between "slavery and freedom"

Dulles deeply-religious mystical streak self-righteous "Roll back" Russians – total BS

No support for State Department independence – unleash McCarthy-ites on them

Instead of an open exchange of information with those with local knowledge having voice

top down operation.

Dulles demands "positive loyalty" – absolute support for Dulles position – Fires Kennan

not possible to do independent thinking - scared to say anything but party line – China hands

Anti-communist Crusade

Truman scared the country to get support for containment

McCarthy & others fan into hysteria

Korea & Vietnam reinforce focus on & fear of agression

NUKES AND KOREA Ike rejected the idea of limited nuclear war – although he used the threat of newly invented tactical nukes – could be fired in artillery - to get the Chinese to negotiate seriously on Korean war. Korea was still dragging on after 2 years of negotiations during which we suffered half our casualties.

When planners tried to make plans for limited nuclear war Ike forbid it. Ike "most subtle and brutal strategist of the nuclear age" ..... insisted on planning only for total nuclear war. His purpose was to make sure that no major war at all would take place."

Ike knew that calculations made in peacetime have no relevance to the passions of war

Henry Kissinger will be theorist of "imited nuclear war" – model for Dr Strangelove

YES! We can Nuke!

Since Nuclear weapons were unusable in Cold War confrontation with Russia, and Ike desperately wanted to avoid more ground wars like Korea we needed other options.

Ike decides we needed CIA covert action – radically expanding the scope of CIA action.

In Europe we worked to separate the Stalinist left from the social-democratic left.

Eurocentric view subordinates the rest of the world to European concerns (Vietnam, Iran)

Latin America MUCH less nuance – any hint of "reform" or resistance to our corporations

easily associated with Communism – often by people with vested interest in deception..

Europe US moderate democratic-progressive & Marshall plan

Early hint of Russian problems - East Germany riots in 1953 – massive emigration to West

Stalin dies 3 months after Ike Inaugurated

New leadership Berea - wants to put relations on less confrontational basis

Berea offers unified democratic Germany if not in NATO

Ike and Dulles in cold-war mode – refuse Bereqa's advances – he is ousted

Khruschev takes over

1956 - Secret speech denouncing Stalin and cult of personality

Mao – with his own cult of personality – is offended

1956 Hungary uprising – they have believed Americans do not lie – Dulles "roll back" political lies kill many Hungarians

VIETNAM French are in denial – refuse US urging to give up Vietnam.

Vietnamese and Algerians are not colonies, they are part of the noblest country in the world.

Vietnamese students learn French History ...."our ancestors the Gauls....."

SEATO – South-East Asia Treaty Organization – not much use

Right after WWII Army on the ground and far-east hands of State Department told everyone

Ho would win in the long run.

Ho's repeated entreaties for an alliance with us against China were ignored.

Pro-European State Department officials much more listened to outmaneuvered the Asia specialists.

We needed French help in NATO so we supported French efforts to regain influence in Vietnam.

Army sensible preconditions for aid to French also stupidly ignored

We did urge the French to promise Vietnamese self-determination –

but we sent them $billions in arms and supplies anyway

Almost Everyone at the top of the foreign policy hierarchy believed in simplistic theory

Russians ruled a monlithic Worldwide-Communist-Conspiracy with the

Chinese and Vietnamese following their orders. Tell story often enough ...

1954 - fall at Dien Bien Phu Vietnam – Ike helps but avoids involvement

might have intervened at but Brits wouldn't go along – need multilateral support .

We had agreed with French-fighting-in-Vietnam' and English-fighting-in-Malasia

that we wouldn't accept a separate armistice but .....

Eisenhower listened to the Military less than Truman had – far less tolerance for dissent since he had been a soldier.

State Department (Dulles) ruled on Vietnam - didn't listen to information from low levels of state.

Believed McCarthyite crap

Those who had actually talked to Ho might be aware of his saying "better to eat 20 years of American sh*t than 1000 years of Chinese sh*t". Ho was desperate for ally against the Chinese. Vietnam had been resisting China for thousands of years. War between China & Viets would break out when we left

– many years and a few million deaths later.

Military Industrial (Congressional) complex – First and last speech -

Ike takes "congressional" out at last minute

Congress loves pork – Trent Lott gets boat contracts for district Navy does not want

Committee on Present danger – later – analysis of their numbers imply that people should be

crawling over Berlin wall east to west – Carlyle Group & Saudis now

When Sputnik goes up "experts" in pay of defense industries produce Gaither report

we need to spend huge amounts on defense – deficit spending -Grand expectations 419 –

JFK starts yapping about "missile gap"

Ike had proposed "open Skies" to reduce paranoia with Russians – we could each see each others' weapons and preparations - they refuse

our U2's can see we are way ahead but

Ike doesn't want to reveal our technology or irritate Russians with intrusion

National Defense Education Act – huge scholarships for engineering and science

I float on this tide into expensive university

Berkley 1960's – complicity in "Military Industria Complex" Multiversity

Draft recruiters on campus visceralizes – Kent State – Now – Pacifism vs Kill em all

Helps educate Student protestors of 1960's who attack Cold-War Consensus during Vietnam

undermine the faith in government which is needed for good education system for all

Democratization of higher education – Ike Doubles higher educ $$$

My dad can afford a Suburban home + rise in class = move to Suburbs = more conservative vote

Iran - Churchill before WWI OIL key to war and economics – Iran and Iraq

After WWII most old colonies Brits know they are are too poor to run an empire

and realize people do not appreciate being occupied

BUT in Iran making lots of $$

Mossadegh is TIME Magazine man of the year in 1951

for bringing democracy to the Middle East and representing former colonies asserting rights.

Rabid anti-colonialist / nationalist - wants to take control of Iran's resource- parliament unamimous

Anglo-Iran oil in1948 makes 61 million pounds - Iran gets 9 million – Brit govt 28 million pounds

US had just given Saudi's 50% money & control of their oil – tell Brits to "be reasonable"

Mossadegh educated in West and believes deeply in democracy –

very scrupulous about allowing freedom of expression including demonstrations

one of few non-corrupt third-world leaders – takes no $$

Insists Shah be constitutional monarch like Britain

Shiite – public displays of emotion are cool – self flagellation –

Mossadegh faints, cries – and winks at the doctor – theatrical leader

British oil run by "Whiff of Grapeshot" school – make no compromise with "natives"

"We got a contract at gunpoint – bad luck for you poor guys"

Truman absolutely forbade British plans to invade & overthrow Iranian government – too too stupid

"We don't know the country" – colonialism is dead – our rhetoric is "freedom"

Brits go to Security Council – Mossadegh comes and charms Americans and world-

compares nationalization of oil to American revolution – wins in Security Council

World Court throws out Briitsh case

Churchill back in as PM

Brits plan coup – Mossadegh hears – closes embassy

Truman says we don't overthrow sovreign governments "CIA could become American Gestapo"

Very true of both early CIA & KGB – war-ish-frame-of-mind much dumber Soviet foreign ministry

KGB works with head-cases – Castro & Idi Amin & Angola & Etheopia

Iran and Mossadegh love US – young US missionary martyr in democratic revolution 1919

"Iran's Lafayette" Like Tolstoi and Lincoln – we stand for self determination and democracy

Ike's intelligence – often planted by Dulles Brothers (Alan at CIA, John Foster at State dept)

US Embassy filled with gung-ho covert-operatives instead of Iran experts from State Dept

describes mob rule with thuggish commie Mosadeq supporters (Paid by Kermit) running rampant &

pro-Shah mobs angry at Mossagegh (paid by Kermit)

Reality - Kermit Roosevelt is paying mobs, bribes editors, reporters, army factions

these reports mold Eisenhower's view like Cheney's alum tubes and uranium reports & Bolton's thuggism

Dulles – Communists ready to take over through Mossadegh

ignores reality from agents on ground

General Schwarzkopf Senior establishes first constabulary unit to get rid of Shah's enemies

talks young wimp-Shah into signing illegal order to remove Mossadegh

Dulles claims Mossadegh wants a dictatorship when in reality he is scrupulously respectful of freedom

demonstrations and free speech and other democratic niceties

British & Dulles tell Ike they have offered Iranians control of oil industry - not what agreement says

Ike approves but does not investigate in detail - so he will have deniability

always afraid he will leak secrets in press conferences

We send Shah to airport – he flies to safety after first coup attempt fails

American Ambassador fake complaint to Mossadegh – Pro Mossadegh mobs bother Americans

Mossadegh tells his supporters to be quiet – not go to street

tells police to keep his people quiet – unilaateral disarmament

Second attempt succeeds - Insert Shah – who rules with quite a bit of torture.

Suppresses all political opposition –

religious fundamentalism only outlet for dissent & source of social services

For some reason many Iranians are still paranois and pissed at years of torture, oppression and theft. Who can understand these crazy Muslims?

Ike says coup "seemed like a dime novel" – COWBOY STORIES of Ike's youth - On to Guatemala

Looks like a success for 25 years – most Americans no idea what happened

We help Shah get nuclear power – buy $$$billions weapons – surrogate in Gulf

threaten Iraq - we don't like Sadaam – support Kurdish rebels Iraq

border agreement advantage to Iran – grievance for 1980 war

America takes Israel's side starting 1967 – even more in 1972 Yom Kippur war – first oil boycott

aggravation rises in Arab World

1979 – Shah flees, as he had during US coup in 1953 –

Iranian students remember history - grab embassy & take hostages after US lets in Shah

Election outcome changes – Reagan – super-Cold-Warrior wins ....

Guatemala – revolution in 1944 overthrows General-brutal-dictator

Democracy takes root Arbenz amazingly un-corrupt

starts paying United Fruit Company (UFCO) for fallow land at the value they declared on their taxes

this is much more conservative than US land-reform policy in Japan

Ike believes in orderly process for decisions but

Dulles does not listen to State Dept experts – pushed aside by CIA activists

embassies full of cowboys

UFCO – Dulles was their lawyer – hire PR firm –

pay $25,000 for Guatemala-is-Commie horror story (like MLK etc)

bound to look like official government document

finds way into official government documents - State Department White Paper – UN speeches

(function of analysts in CIA develops later)

"Guatemala ruled by Communists determined to sieze the Panama Canal"

Distributed to Hearst International News Service & 1000 "opinion leaders" & Time Magazine

Henry Luce – first says "American Century" in 1940

child of Chinese Missionaries

Fires correspondent in China for truth – "Making of the President 1960"

CIA buys weapons and plants them so they can be found & reported

Coup is mostly planted stories in Newspapers to create a state of Terror in the country

Planes with leaflets – just throw out hand grenades - but big publicity

Bloodless coup – Arbenz flees

but 200,000 deaths over next decades

Che Guevara – in Guatemala during coup – outraged that moderate democrats have been deposed

meets Castro in Mexico City – goes to Cuba as committed revolutionary

unusually bloodthirsty executing anyone connected to previous government

as simple-minded as the anti-commies - - BOTH SIDES GET SUPER STUPID

COMMON SYMPTOM – HATE SCIENCE – OPEN DEBATE - transparency