HST 337

Fidel Castro

A Cuban communist revolutionary who overthrew U.S. friendly regime led by Batista after returning from exile in Mexico after an original failed coup. He led the coup along with his brother and Che Guevara in 1959. He then pursued friendly relations with Khrushchev and the Soviet Union who in turn sent aid to Cuba and were able to use Cuba as a stepping stone into the western hemisphere. Castro appointed himself President of Cuba and instituted land reform and nationalized American industries. This did not sit well with the Eisenhower administration who then cut off diplomatic ties with Cuba and set up an embargo. The Kennedy administration did not approve of the Castro regime either. Kennedy continued with plans to overthrow Castro that had been started under the Eisenhower administration. Thus, the Bay of Pigs operation was born. The Kennedy administration planned to send Cuban ex-pats to invade the island and fight off Castro's forces until they could foment a popular uprising. This plan relied on Castro being unpopular, but this was not the case. The Bay of Pigs was a huge failure that made the Kennedy administration very embarrassed all while enhancing Castro's position and makes the U.S. look weak to the USSR. Castro also played a significant role in the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 as he let Krushchev install offensive missiles in Cuba that were capable of reaching the U.S. This led to a showdown between Kennedy and Krushchev that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. In the end, Krushchev agreed to withdraw missiles from Cuba which ended up being a huge embarrassment for Castro because he did not know the Soviets removed the missiles until he read it in the news. This proved that Castro was merely a pawn to the Soviet Union.

1968 Tet Offensive

A major turning point in the Vietnam War and the biggest North Vietnamese insurgency to date. Striking at Tet, or the Vietnamese New Year, the insurgents began to target previously secure major urban centers in South Vietnam rather than just the countryside. The North Vietnamese were able to strike at the heart of Saigon and hit the airport and the American embassy. U.S. and South Vietnamese forces were caught off guard. However, they were able to repel the initial attacks, inflict huge casualties on the enemy, and retake lost ground. But the suddenness and the magnitude of the event had a huge impact in the U.S. Once the events of the Offensive were aired on television, the American public began to realize that the war was not going as well as they had been told. This had huge repercussions for the anti-war protestors as well as the White House.

Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi

CIA tried to replace Mohammad Mosaddeq with the Shah - whom the prime minister had just removed from power. The project almost backfired because of the shah's irresolution.

Operation Mongoose

A series of covert operations by the CIA to remove Castro and the communists from power after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. The plan tried everything from distributing propaganda, to disrupting the Cuban economy, to assassinating Castro with sometimes crazy almost desperate ideas such as poisoning his cigars, making his cigars explode, and having people slip him poison pills. It didn't work. The Alliance for Progress: Most important piece of modernization theory in the western hemisphere. Rostow says the time is right for the "economic development decade" based on his book and theory. The U.S. wanted to encourage "peaceful revolutions" in Latin America through economic growth, reform, and industrialization. The purpose of the Alliance was to prevent a second Cuba in the hemisphere because the idea was if the U.S. could step in and provide aid to developing countries in Latin America, then that would pull them squarely into the U.S. sphere of influence and out of reach of the Soviets. The Alliance had two focuses: military aid and counterinsurgency along with foreign aid and development. First part was to prevent communist coups. The plan emphasized short term stability rather than long term fundamental reform. The U.S. pledged billions of dollars in aid and set target GDP growth rates. Ultimately it was a failure because the Latin American countries had to pay back most of the aid money and the rural poor were excluded from reforms. Some called it the Marshall Plan of Latin America, but it was not. Reminiscent of manifest destiny?

The Cuban Missile Crisis

All started in 1962 when Krushchev discovered that the U.S. had Jupiter missiles in Turkey. Even though they weren't for offensive purposes and were obsolete, Krushchev retaliated by putting missiles in Cuba, 90 miles off the coast of Florida. Castro welcomes this move by the Soviets and even encourages them to do it since he is mad that the CIA has made numerous attempts to assassinate him. The Soviets continued to pour aid into Cuba and tensions escalated further when U-2 flights over Cuba began in August of 1962. On Oct. 15, missile silos were detected which caused a lot of panic and concern in the White House. It was determined that the missiles had the capability to reach many major cities and population centers in the U.S. In order to be able to respond to developments in the crisis as quickly as possible, Kennedy formed the EXCOMM committee, which consisted of many of his top advisers including his brother RFK, Bundy, Rusk, and McNamara.The committee can initially not agree whether to carry out airstrikes in Cuba, set up a blockade, or invade. A couple of days after the missiles are first discovered, Kennedy meets with Soviet foreign minister Gromyko, who denies that the Soviets have missiles in Cuba. Kennedy is floored at this outright lie. The EXCOMM committee decides to enact a blockade which causes a whole other issue when Krushchev doesn't want to recall Soviet ships. Krushchev and Kennedy exchange numerous letters. Krushchev "blinked first" in exchange for the removal of the missiles in Cuba for the removal of missiles in Turkey. Castro feels betrayed by this move since he did not know the Soviets had removed the missiles until he read it in the news. Very embarrassing.

Gen. George Marshall

Army Chief of Staff, brought stability to the chaos that was wartime Washington. Appointed Secretary of State by Truman to shield the State Department from partisan attack and could be counted upon to work closely with the president. Under Marshall's firm leadership and orderly administrative style, the State Department enjoyed a rare period of preeminence in the making of U.S. foreign policy. Marshall plan was named after him. Truman dispatched him to China to arrange a compromise between the two warring parties while keeping a presumably reformed Nationalist government in power and checking Soviet and CCP influence - based on the assumption that Chiang would reform his government and the two sides could reach meaningful agreements. Marshall only had limited leverage and ultimately could not bridge the gap.

Project AJAX

CIA operative Kermit Roosevelt, a grandson of Rough Rider Teddy, hired local agitators to destabilize an already fragile Iranian political system and used satchels of cash to purchase the loyalty of key elements in the army. Partyly as a result of the shahs irresolution - the CIA called him a creature of indecision - the scheme nearly backfired. It was salvaged by the persistence of Iranian dissidents, Roosevelt's refusal to obey orders to return home, and Mosaddeq's political miscalculations. In August, the prime minister was overthrown and replaced by the shah. The coup represented a major short-term victory for US policy. The US supplanted Britain as the dominant power in a pivotal Cold War nation and gained a greatful ally in the shah, and US oil companies got a 40% interst in the international cosnrotum tthat replaced AIOC. The coup also marked a major turning point in Iran's modern history, a retreat from the least the semblance of parliamentary government to what became a brutal dictatorship. The United States' hand was carefully concealed, but Iranian nationalist knew what had happened - and remembered. When a revolution toppled the shah twenty-five years later, it quickly turned radical and virulently anit-american.

Hillary Clinton

Challenged the War in Iraq, the way a war should be fought, not the war itself, instating that support must be secured from allies and the UN

Containment

Clifford-Elsey report on 9/1946 produced lengthly assessment of Soviet intentions and capabilities phrased in the most ominous tones along with a clarion call for US rearmament and the containment of Soviet expansionism. Borrowed heavily from Kennan's long telegram. Ignoring cases where soviets had kept agreements and the ways in which US actions might have alarmed Moscow, the authors compiled a legal brief to justify actions most US officials now agreed must be taken. The idea was that the soviets were commited to expansion and sought world domination, they would use any means including political subversion and military force to achive their goals. This posed a great threat to US vital interests across the world. There was no point of negotiation because soviets understood only tough talk and military power - the US must therefore maintain a high state of readiness, acquire overseas military bases, expand its nuclear arsenal, and be prepared to use force if necessary. It must assist democratic countires threatened by Soviet expansion. A failure to act resolutely would encourage further aggression. - first major attempt to analyze soviet behavior and recommend a proper US response - through the policy of containment, the Truman administration undertook a host of international commitments, launched scores of programs and mounted peacetime military buildup that would have been unthinkable just ten years earlier.

Paul Nitze

Cold Warrior, author of NSC-68 became known as the Reagan administration's arms control dove. Was a top arms control negotiator who resigned in protest against SALT- was part of the Wise Men, American Establishment.

General Vo Nguyen Giap

Commander of North Vietnamese forces. Very effective military planner as he coordinated insurgencies that basically brought S. Vietnam to its knees and devastated American forces.

The Eisenhower Doctrine

Eisenhower secured from Congress $200 million in aid and blanket authority to intervene military in the Middle East. The so-called Eisenhower Doctrine took a giant step beyond its predecessor. Eisenhower insisted that Soviet domination of the Middle East would gravely endanger the free world. The US sent troops to Lebanon under the Eisenhower doctrine in the summer of 1958. After forcing the pro-western Chamoun to step down, Eisenhower sent fourteen thousand marines to help stabilize Lebanon, the largest amphibious operation since Inchon.

Le Duan

First Secretary of Communist Party in North Vietnam. He famously said "the North will not count the costs" of the war and that they were prepared to continue to fight South Vietnam and the U.S. for as long as possible. He was also smart in that he played off Sino-Soviet split and got both sides to supply North Vietnam with weapons.

Walt Whitman Rostow

Founder of modernization theory and wrote The Stages of Economic Growth: A non-communist manifesto. The goal of the theory was to monitor the progress of the world's developing countries (which there were a lot of after the decolonization movement). Rostow came from MIT. The theory divided the world up into "traditional" vs. "modern" societies. There were five stages of growth that continued on a linear path, with the third stage of economic development being the "take off stage", meaning that the countries in this stage were about to make the transition to allow them to become a formidable player in international economics. Rostow argued that the developed nations such as the U.S. should act as catalysts by providing funds and guidance to the developing countries. Rostow claimed that developing nations were "a blank slate" and "politically inert"; therefore they were susceptible to Marxism. The ultimate goal was to get the developing countries to the fifth and final stage like the U.S., which was the age of high mass consumption.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur

General in Word War II - Led UN command in the Korean War and largely successful in the Korean war until he war removed by Truman. Chief of Staff of the United States army in the 30s

The Long Telegram

George Kennan delivered a lecture on Soviet behavior that decisively influenced the origins and nature of the Cold War. He conceded that Soviet Union was weaker than the United States and acknowledged that it did not want war. But he ignored its legitimate postwar fears, and by showing how Communist ideology reinforced traditional Russian expansionism and portraying Soviet leadership in near pathological terms, he helped destroy what little remained of American eagerness to understand its onetime ally and negotiate differences. By demonizing the Kremlin, he confirmed the futility and even danger of further negotiations and prepared the way for a policy he would label containment.

James Baker

HW Bush's secretary of state - made clear determination to break the long-standing deadlock in Arab-Israeli negotiations. Israel must accept the principle of land for peace as specified in UN Resolution 242. Backer informed an American Israel Public Affairs Committee gathering in may '89. Working with moderate Palestinians in the West Bank rather than Arafat's PLO the administration secured agreement of the major Arab states for a peace conference. Baker jawboned hard-line Israeli premier Ytizhak Shamir into attending. Baker and Bush also blocked Shamir's efforts to solidfy Israel's position in the occupied territories. Bush's stand against Israeli expansionist action to build settlemetns on conquered land he stood up in the Israeli Lobby, heled to drive Shamir from office. To be replaced with Yitzhak Rabin - who agreed to stop building on the West Bank and the Gaza strip.

Henry Kissinger

He was Nixon's NSA in his first term and secretary of state in the second. They worked very closely together even though Herepresented the intellectual elitism that Nixon detested. Previous to his appointment to Sec of State, Hewas a leading foreign policy commentator and analyst. He originally worked in the Kennedy administration, but he did not get along with the others so he left. Nixon and Hegot along better in Nixon's second term when they realized they had a lot in common, such as being overly paranoid and having little patience for people they did not deem intelligent. When Nixon, came into office, he had a "Grand Design", or a master plan, of what he hoped to accomplish with foreign relations while in office. Most of the initiatives undertaken during the Nixon presidency were Nixon's ideas. However, Hehas taken credit (and it's been given to him) for all the positive outcomes of the policies after Nixon's resignation. This left Nixon with a tarnished image since all the failures were attributed to him. Hewas a big proponent on normalizing relations with China and he took a secret trip to Beijing in 1971 where he meets with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai and sets up a future meeting for Nixon. Hewas also in favor of maintaining interventionist policies in South America, particularly with Chile and the Allende regime. He also oversaw meetings with the Soviet Union for détente. He was famous for his back channel diplomacy and secret deals with foreign leaders

Ho Chi Minh

Headed the Vietnamese independence movement since WWI. He first became known at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, where he presented "the big four" with his declaration of Vietnamese independence from the French. He was largely ignored. He then organized forces and led a rebellion against French colonialism that succeeded. The U.S. (specifically Truman administration), not wanting to lose face in the Cold War, did not recognize Ho's government. Ho and his forces continued to gain ground over the years. When the country became divided after the Geneva Accords, Ho's communists wanted to reunite the country under his rule but South Vietnam would not allow it. By the time the Vietnam War started, Ho had largely been installed in a figurehead position rather than an active military or political leader.

Project Success

Implemented by the CIA in the summer of 1954 with a budget of $3 million, Operation PBSucess lived up to its code name. The agency employed mercenaries from various Central American countries and established training camps in Florida, in Honduras, and on Somoza's estate in Nicaragua. Cia-trained teams using psywar tactics showered Guatemala with broadcasts and leaflets fomenting rebellion. They sent "morning cards" to Arbenz and other leaders, hinting at doom for any recipient, and warned Catholics that pictures of Lenin and Stalin would replace statues of the saints in their houses. CIA propagandists exaggerated the strength of the uprising. ON June 18, 1954, U.S.-picked rebel leader Castillo Armas "invaded" Guatamala with an "army" of about 150 men. A small "air force" of Cessnas and antiquated US military aircraft "bombed" ammunition dumps and oil shortage facilities in Guatemala City with such things as Molotov cocktails and blocks of dynamite attached to hand grenades. Wrongly persuaded that the US would do anything to get rid of him, Arbenz cracked under pressure resigning on June 27 and fleeing into exile. The coup had significant consequences for all concerned. As in Iran, it succeeded despite numerous blunders in execution mainly because Arbenz, like Mosaddeq, lost his nerve. Top officials saw it as further confirmation of the ease with which hostile Third World governments could be eliminated. PBSuccess thus indeed a great hubris in the agency and a certain complacency about Latin America and in time led to similar efforts in Cuba, British Guiana, and Chile. The coup produced a stable government friendly to US interests, but for Guatemala it brought disaster. The overthrow of Arbenz shattered the political center and initiated a cycle of violence that would last for more than four decades. The CIA retained influence in Guatemala into the 1990s, assisting with a so-called counterinsurgency program that resulted in torture, political assassination, and the massacre of entire Mayan villages.

National Security Action Memo. (NSAM) 288

Issued on March 16, 1964. President Johnson stresses the importance of Vietnam to the security of the whole of South East Asia (due to Domino Theory). Johnson also adopted all of McNamara's recommendations to improve the situation: basically more escalation with further commitments for more air strikes.

McGeorge Bundy

JFK's National Security Adviser. Part of the "best and the brightest" and was Harvard educated. Stayed on with the Johnson administration after Kennedy's assassination. Played large roles in helping to plan Bay of Pigs invasion, resolve the Cuban missile crisis (he first showed the photographs of Cuban missiles to Kennedy), and he supported the Vietnam War the entire time he was in office from 1961-1963.

Mikhail Gorbachev

Last soviet leader, the eastern European upheaval had little precedent in world history. Brezhnev died in 1982 and was succeeded by former KGB head Yuri Andropov, who lasted but two years. His successor Chernenko died little more than a year later. Gorbachev brought stability and a new spirit to the Soviet government. Part of a generation of reform-minded officials, this onetime farm worker and aspiring actor broke sharply with the sclerotic patterns of his immediate predecessors. Less ideological and open minded, he saw the need for major changes in foreign policy to make possible urgent domestic reforms. Set out to reform the Soviet system without destroying it, what he called perestroika and to permit more openness, glasnost, without going all the way to democracy. In foreign policy, he determined to close what he called the "bleeding wound" in Afghanistan, shift to Eastern European Communist leaders responsibility for their own survival, and ease Cold War tensions in order to divert precious resources to domestic needs, secure desperately needed credits and technology from the West, and reduce the risk of nuclear war. Gorbachev faced stern opposition from his military advisers and hard-line civilians who attacked his "capitalist line" toward the west. He was never able to built a consensus around his "new thinking" and repeatedly had to outmaneuver his foes. Differences between the US and the USSR remained sharp: Afghanistan, agreed in principle SDI, Gorbachev was determined to eliminate and Reagan to implement, differences were insurmountable. Since 1948 the governments of that region had been controlled by local communists beholden to the soviet union and tightly tied to Moscow through the Warsaw Pact and bilateral economic agreements. When they deviated, as with Hungary in 1956 or Czechoslovakia in 1968, the Kremlin swiftly and forcefully brought them into line. Gorbachev's grand design envisioned reform-mind Eastern European Communists instituting perestroika-like changes on their own, retaining voluntary ties with Soviet Union, and leading all of Europe into a new era of interdependence and cooperation. 12/88 at UN called it a fulton in reverse, referring to Churchill's 46 Missouri speech - sent clear signals that conservative leaders could not count on Soviet protection and must adapt to survive. By the end of 89 most of the leaders had been replaced by non-Communists operating in democratic governments and looking west rather than east. The Eastern Europeans themselves were mainly responsible for this remarkable transformation. Gorbachev played a crucial role in this by doing nothing.

Dr. Salvatore Allende

Left wing radical who won the Presidential election in Chile in 1970. Before Allende was elected, the Nixon administration did not see Chile as a problem "dagger pointed at the heart of Antarctica". After the election of a likely communist -"Chile could be our Cuba". Nixon wanted to "prevent the Allende regime from coming to power or unseat him." Between 1970 and 1973, the U.S. applied economic pressure to Chile and funneled money to its military in hopes to encourage a coup. Allende's nationalization policies further anger Nixon, especially the nationalization of the Anaconda Company. The CIA then developed a plan to overthrow Allende. The Soviets would not support the Allende regime out of fear of ruining improving relations with the U.S., but Castro visited Allende to show his support. On September 11, 1973, Allende is overthrown by Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Despite his horrendous human rights record, Pinochet remained a staunch U.S. ally.

Condoleezza Rice

NCS staffer and Soviet Specialist became national security adviser - first African American woman to hold that most - wrote Bush's new doctrine using 9/11 and the war on terrorism to elevate to doctrine ideas conservative and neoconservative republicas had been discussing for years. Drew heavily on the 1992 defense planning guidance document repudiated by the first Bush administration. It manifested the influence of Wolfowitz and those neoconservatives who viewed 9/11 as "transformative" movement that put events into much sharper relief.

Mohammad Mosaddeq

Nationalist leader of Iran, elected prime minister was enigmatic, eccentric and immensely confortable. Seventy years old, tall and balding was a European educated prime minister with a flair for the dramatic. He often received visitors in his bedroom dressed in pajamans and burst into tears in the midst of conversation or speeches. He also had a xenophobic streak and a tendency toward political self-destruction. Traditional liberal, was willing to cooperate with Communist when it suited his needs. His government broke relations with Brtian in 1952. Eisenhower administration suspected Mosaddeq of being a Communist or a tool of Communists. Tried to exploit the Cold War by warning of a Communist takeover and even flirting with Iran's leftist Tudeh Party - confirmed their suspcions. Viewed as unreliable, unpredictable, and weak, even effeminate. CIA director Dulles affirmed that when a country was vulnerable to a Communist takeover, we can't wait for an engraved invitiation to come and give aid. Joined with Birtain in the spring of 1953 to replace Mosaddeq with the youthful and more pliable Shah Reza Pahlavi whom the prime minister had just removed from power.

"The Pentagon Papers"

Originally a study that was conducted by the Rand Corporation for the Defense Department under orders from Robert McNamara. It detailed the history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam from the Truman-Johnson administrations. While working at Rand, a policy analyst named Daniel Ellsberg became disenchanted with the war after visiting the frontlines for himself and after seeing the lying and cover-ups that went on within the administration firsthand. Ellsberg knew that the war was a lost cause, and he decided to do something to try and stop it. He slowly began removing the "Pentagon Papers" from the Rand office and photocopying them in his home. This was an extremely long process. Once Ellsberg had copied the study basically in its entirety, he brought it to the New York Times to publish. While the Times was hesitant about it at first as they feared lawsuits, they ultimately ended up publishing the Pentagon Papers. Went they were slapped with an order to cease printing the Papers, Ellsberg and others helped to disseminate the Papers to other major news outlets across the country, which was impossible to stop from Washington. The Nixon administration sued Ellsberg and the case made it to the Supreme Court, where they ruled that Ellsberg was within his first amendment rights to publish the papers and was able to avoid doing any time in prison. The Pentagon Papers led to a landmark Supreme Court decision about the First Amendment.

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

Originally started as a big critic of the Iranian Shah. He was able to rise to power through his religious teachings in Iran, one of the only sectors not to be affected by the Shah's oppressive policies. Khomeini is able to exploit the Shah's unpopularity and the rebellions occurring and turn it into an all out revolution to overthrow the Shah in Jan. 1979. Originally, the Iranian Revolution did not start out as an Islamic revolution. However, Khomeini's rise to power allowed it to transition to one. Relations with the U.S. were ruined after the Hostage Crisis. The Iran-Iraq War helped Khomeini to consolidate power.

David Ben Gurion

Palestinian Jewish leader - inspired a gathering of Jewish-Americans to support unlimited immigration into Palestine and the create of a "Jewish Commonwealth integrated into the structure of the new democratic world." The Biltmore group (named for those who gathered at the Biltmore hotel) mounted a massive and effective campaign to sway Congress and American public. Roosevelt made Jewish-Americans and integral part of his New Deal coalition and relied on their electoral support. In the State Department and other federal agencies, on the other hand, there was virulent anti-Semitism. The question of a Jewish homeland and threatened to upset the delicate political balance in a critical region. GIs had already come under fire in Palestine and military leaders feared that Jewish agitation could spark further conflict in an important rear area. Palestine issue threatened to upset the Arabs who controlled it. Helped Israel to gain its independence and lead Israel during the 1948 during the Arab-Israeli war. Known as Israel's founding father.

Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.

Played an important role in encouraging the Senate to really activate the ideas of the Truman Doctrine and intervene in Greece after WWII. He was also a soldier during WWII. He was appointed ambassador to South Vietnam in 1963 where he realized the Diem was regime was corrupt, cruel, and doomed. After Diem's government fell, Lodge saw that there was no successor that was able to be an effective military commander and rally the South Vietnamese. Lodge then advocated for South Vietnam to become a protectorate of the U.S. so as to ensure governmental stability. It was either that, have a bigger military commitment in S. Vietnam, or give up S. Vietnam entirely.

Zhou Enlai

Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1949-1976. He was involved in normalizing U.S.-China relations. After the failure of the Chinese cultural revolution, the U.S. thought that China would be open to talks. Over the course of two years from 1968-1970, Beijing and Washington are sending signals back and forth that the two countries want to have a more direct relationship. In April of 1971, after an international ping pong tournament, Enlai invites the U.S. team to China. July of 1971, Kissinger makes a secret trip to meet with Enlai and Mao Zedong. Nixon shocks the world when he announces he will visit China in February of 1972 to meet with Enlai. During Nixon's visit, he and Enlai have a series of talks in which, much like the talks with the Soviet Union, China gets the better end of the deal. Nixon agreed with Enlai that Soviets cannot be allowed to gain ground in China, to normalize diplomatic relations, scrap a trade embargo, and give the UNSC seat to People's Republic of China and expel Taiwan. Enlai hosted numerous banquets to welcome Nixon to China.

The Nixon Doctrine

Recognizes that is beyond the capacity of the U.S. to be directly responsible for the whole world. It was a combination of the U.S. position having been diminished in the world due to the Vietnam War as well as the increasing number of developing countries and rising powers. The Doctrine states that there should be a shift of responsibilities to local allies to enforce U.S. interests in particular regions. This was crucially important in the Middle East due to the wealth of the oil states as well as to fend off Soviet influence in the ME. Thus, the Twin Pillars strategy was born, which included Iran and Saudi Arabia in conjunction with Israel. The goal was for Saudi Arabia to use their oil wealth to influence ME policy. The U.S. gave the Shah of Iran billions of dollars for defense spending, which he then started spending like a madman. This was the beginning of the end of Iran acting as a pillar on which the U.S. could lean.

The Reagan Doctrine

Said that U.S. foreign policy goal should be to provide both overt and covert aid to anti-communist movements in an effort to "roll back" Soviet-backed communist governments. It branded the guerilla revolutionaries as "freedom fighters". The Reagan Doctrine was put into practice in countries such as Afghanistan, Nicaragua, and Angola. The Reagan Doctrine provided an excuse for the U.S. to increase its military spending and get involved in areas where it was deemed that anti-communist revolutions could erupt. More and more countries were dubbed as crucial to U.S. security interests. The doctrine was adhered to until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Richard Cheney

Secretary of Defense HW Bush deeply conservative and almost pathologically secretive, had been Gerald Ford's chief of staff and served in Congress. Doubted that sanctions would work on Iraq and threatened that absorption of Kuwait would give Iraq a stronghold over Middle Eastern Oil. President rejected Cheney's argument that congressional approval for war was unnecessary and might not be won. Vice President for W Bush, sought to restore the presidency the power he believed had been lost through Watergate - became the most powerful vice president ever. Intent on invading Iraq as soon as possible, along with neoconservatives refused to subject their assumptions to close scrutiny. Bush and Cheney strong armed republicans and democrats in congress. Insisted on weapons of mass destruction objected that the president should secure UN support- wanted to go it alone.

The Bay of Pigs

See Fidel Castro; Castro's post-revolution policies are nationalizing American industries and instituting land reform angered Washington. The plans to overthrow Castro had begun under Eisenhower and Kennedy continued with them without really questioning it. The plan was to send a group of Cuban ex-pats called "La Brigada" in to the Bay of Pigs on the southern shore of the island, have them push back Castro's forces, and foment a popular rebellion by playing up Castro's unpopularity (he wasn't really unpopular). However, Kennedy wouldn't authorize full on air attacks to help the Cuban invaders, so they were at a huge disadvantage from the beginning. The small amount of plans that did accompany La Brigada blew their cover and gave away that it was an American operation. The invasion took place from April 15-20, 1961. There were huge amounts of casualties in La Brigada and the mission was a failure and a complete embarrassment for the Kennedy administration. However, Kennedy admitted publicly that he was responsible for its failure which made him even more popular in the U.S. The failed invasion weakens U.S. position vis a vis the Soviets because it makes Kennedy seem like a weak leader.

Modernization Theory

See Rostow; Alliance for Progress and Strategic Hamlet Plan as examples

Robert McNamara

Served as Secretary of Defense under Kennedy and Johnson. Was part of "the best and the brightest" - went to Harvard Business School and was President of Ford Motor Company. Was an advocate for building up the nuclear arms reserves in order to deter America's enemies, not prepare for first strikes. He also championed the idea of a "flexible response" along with Kennedy, which called for a massive buildup of nuclear and conventional forces alike. McNamara made it the goal of the Defense Department to fight the Cold War through a series of limited wars abroad in order to prevent the collapse of the free world. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, McNamara served as a member of the EXCOMM committee and played a large role in implementing a blockade. Was committed to the Vietnam War and used the Gulf of Tonkin incident of 1964 as a pretext to escalate the war and send more troops. Continued to deploy large military forces to combat the Vietcong which resulted in massive casualties. As the war wore on, he became more skeptical about whether the U.S. could win the war using the methods they were. He commissioned a comprehensive history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam that Daniel Ellsberg eventually stole and gave to the press as the "Pentagon Papers".

Dean Rusk

Served as Secretary of State under Kennedy and Johnson. He believed in the use of military action to combat communism, however he always put diplomatic solutions first; he did not support nor condemn the Bay of Pigs and advocated for a diplomatic response to the Cuban Missile Crisis instead of a blockade. Although he had doubts about Vietnam in the beginning, he came to be a big public supporter of it which earned him a lot of backlash.

The Carter Doctrine

Stated that any attempt by an "outside force" to gain control of the Persian Gulf region (not so veiled reference to Soviet Union) would be regarded as a vital attack on U.S. interests and would be repelled by force. To back this up, Carter initiated registration for the draft, requested a 5 percent increase in military spending, more aid for Pakistan, and beefed up U.S. military presence in the Persian Gulf. He also set out to shore up the support of U.S. regional allies.

Ngo Dinh Diem

The President of South Vietnam who fended off attempted communist takeovers since civil war broke out. He refused to allow unification of Vietnam under communist rule. His regime was unpopular and corrupt among the South Vietnamese, yet the Americans (Kennedy administration) continued to back the Diem regime so as not to lose face in the Cold War, as the USSR and China were backing the North. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. sent hundreds of thousands of troops and billions of dollars of aid to prop up the Diem regime. Although the Kennedy administration knew Diem wasn't ideal, "Diem is Diem and the best we've got." Diem's popularity continued to plummet once he began persecution of Vietnamese Buddhists and basically everyone who wasn't Catholic. Buddhist monks immolated themselves in the streets in protest of Diem's practices. This provoked open rebellion in the cities. Ultimately, the U.S. had no choice but to give Diem's overthrow the green light. In November of 1963, Diem's generals seized power and Diem and his brother Nhu fled to a Church where they were captured and were told that they would be exiled. They were actually brutally murdered in the bag of armored car.

Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT)

The SALT treaty (5 year agreement) that Nixon signed with the Soviet Union was the foundation stone of détente. The terms of the treaty had previously been negotiated in summits in Helsinki and it was ready to be signed in 1972. While the treaty set to limit the number of defense and launching systems, it did not place a limit on the number of warheads that each country could have. That was a major shortcoming. It did place limits on the number of offensive missiles at 1,600 for the USSR and 1,054 for the U.S. It also placed a limit on the number of submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBM). The limit for Soviet missiles was higher than the U.S.'s limit, which caused many domestic critics to attack the treaty and say that it put the U.S. at a huge disadvantage. The negotiations for the SALT treaty were rather secretive, in typical Nixon and Kissinger style. Because the two of them were basically desperate to secure and agreement at any cost during an election year, the U.S. did not get the better end of the deal in the negotiations. In the long term, the impact of the SALT I treaty was oversold. SALT II was a controversial experiment of negotiations between Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev from 1972 to 1979 between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, which sought to curtail the manufacture of strategic nuclear weapons. It was a continuation of the progress made during the SALT I talks, led by representatives from both countries. SALT II was the first nuclear arms treaty which assumed real reductions in strategic forces to 2,250 of all categories of delivery vehicles on both sides. The SALT II Treaty banned new missile programs. The U.S. withdrew from SALT II in 1986 during the Reagan administration.

Gamal Abdel Nasser

The Suez Crisis originated in the broader struggle between Arab nationalism and European colonialism that heated up after Nasser's 1952 overthrow of the British puppet King Farouk. Was going to receive funding from the US to assist with the Aswan Dam on the Nile River to produce hyroelectic power, control flooding and promote Egyptian agriculture through irrigation. Nassar tried to blackmail the US by recognizing the People's Republic of China and threatening to seek aid from Moscow. Nasser used US action as an excuse to nationalize the British-run corporation that managed the Suez Canal, rationalzing that he needed the tolls to pay for his Aswan project and thus setting off a dangerous four month crisis. His moves threatened Britain's oil supplies, jeopardized a vital lifeline to its interests in the South and Southeast Asia, and struck directly at one of the proudest symbols of a once glorious empire. Israel attacked seizing the Sinai and Gaza without significant opposition. Nassar rebuffed European demands for withdrawl, Britain and France launched air and naval attacks against Egypt. Nassar blocked the canal by sinking more than fifty ships loaded with concrete, ricks and even beer bottles. US formed alliance with Saudi Arabia and King Saud, song of Obn Saud, in attempt tod effuse Arab radicalism and isolate Nasser by becoming a sort of Islamic pope. The US had helped him become the champion of Arab nationalism by permitting itself to be cast as Nassar's opponent. Intervention had cost the US Arab goodwill, further destabilized the region and played into the hands of the Soviets. Nassar sent tanks, planes and seventy thousand troops to support leftist rebels who had overthrown the Yemen monarchy. Saudi Arabia and Jordan backed conservative Rab counterrevolutionaries in what became a scaleddown, Middle East verision of the Spanish Civil war. The US initially recognized the Nassar-backed governemtn, but the British expressed concern about their interests in nearby Aden. When Egypt threatened Saudi Arabia, US oilmen dispatched dire warnings to Washington Israel protested these new signs of Nasser's aggressiveness. Nasser's intervention in Yemen undermined Kennedy's approach to Egypt strengthend the US ties with the conservative Arab states, and opened the way for closer American-Israeli relations. 1967 Middle East Crisis, originated from the rekindling of ever explosive Arab-Israeli dispute. Certain that Israel would soon acquire nuclear weapons, the radical Arabs stepped up their pressure. Baathis regime seized power in Syria with soviet backing and set out to out Nasser - suppured Egyptian leader backinto action lest he lose his position among the more militant Arabs. Nassar demanded removal of a UN peacekeeping force stationed in the Sinai as a buffer between Egypt and Israel. UN complied he massed troops among the Israeli border and threanted to close the Gulf of Sidra, Israel's lifeline to the outside world. In the meantime, the newly formed Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) mounted deadly terrorist attacks against Israel from bases in the West Bank and the Golan Heights. Encircled and increasingly embattled, unsure of outside support, nervous Israelis feared for the existence of the state. Sensing that the best way to maximize its security was to strike first, Israel on June 5, 1967, launched a short and entirely one-sided conflict with enormous implications for the future of the Middle East.

Madeline Albright

UN ambassador and first female secretary of state daughter of a Czech diplomat who escaped both the Nazi invasion and the Communist takeover. In her view, the United Staes must take responsibility for upholding world order. She was consistently the most hawkish of Clinton's advisers. Key player, especially with regards to the Balkans. the war in the Balkans became known as "Madeleine's War" advocated for women's' rights internationally.

Dean Acheson

Undersecretary of State, drafted the Acheson-Lilienthal Plan: would have established an international authority to control the extraction, refinement and use of atomic materials. Plants would be made difficult to covert to military use and would be scattered so that no single nation could gain a dominant position. The plan was to be implemented in stages so that the US could maintain its monopoly - sought security through international cooperation. Appointed secretary of state in 1949 released the "China White Paper" absolving the United States of blame for the Communist triumph. Became a joint chief - pressed for air strikes against missile sites in Cuba followed by an invasion to make certain that the Soviet weapons and Castro was removed. NSC-69, a sweeping restatement of US national security policy and one of the most significant Cold War documents. Acheson used the study to make the top minds of the government spend the money necessary for adequate defense. Designed the Marshall plan, built a working framework for containment, main designer of NATO

The Grand Design

Unlike other Presidents, Nixon had a concrete plan of what he wanted to accomplish in terms of foreign affairs when he came to office. The Design started with the acknowledgment of the weakened international position of the U.S. due to Vietnam and economic challenges at home. This outlook led to the Nixon Doctrine, which stated that the U.S.'s regional allies should act as the eyes of the U.S. and take the responsibility of promoting U.S. interests and stability in the region, especially the ME. The Design also included playing off Sino-Soviet tensions, which were extremely strained at the time. Russia even approached the U.S. and floated the possibility of dropping a nuke on China. At the same time where the U.S. was improving relations with the Soviet Union, it was also working toward normalizing relations with China, which but the U.S. in a good position to exploit the Sino-Soviet tensions. Another aspect of the Grand Design was the idea of an "honorable end to the war" in Vietnam. This included speeding up the process of Vietnamization. Henry Kissinger is also an integral part of the design as he is entrusted with a lot of responsibilities and has a close and unique relationship with Nixon. Détente was also part of the Design. Ultimately, Nixon does not get much credit for the Grand Design as Kissinger claimed that the successes of the plan were his and the failures were Nixon's after Nixon's resignation.

William Casey

Was a campaign manager for Reagan and head of the CIA under Reagan. During his tenure at the CIA, Casey played a large part in the shaping of Reagan's foreign policy, particularly Reagan's approach to Soviet international activity. He lifted restrictions on the use of the CIA to directly and covertly influence the internal and foreign affairs of countries relevant to American policy, particularly in Afghanistan where he oversaw covert operations to undermine Soviet activity. Along with Reagan, he too felt that the Soviet Union was "the Evil Empire". Casey was a big part of the U.S. alliance with the Vatican during the Cold War. He would often fly there in complete secrecy to brief the Pope.

Strategic Hamlets

Was a program instituted in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War that hoped that serve dual purposes. 1) Supposed to be an aspect of military strategy. The idea was to consolidate rural villages in the South Vietnamese countryside so that they would be easier to defend against communist guerilla attacks. The military thought that if the villages were more spread out then there would be more civilian causalities and that territories would be harder to control. The execution of the plan turned out to be flawed because the strategic hamlets were not impenetrable; the communist forces actually broke through the defenses pretty frequently. The plan also backfired on the U.S. because the Vietnamese resented the forced relocation from their ancestral homelands. This led to increased resentment of the U.S. and allowed communist forces to gain sympathy from the South Vietnamese peasants. The second part of the plan was supposed to act as a piece of modernization theory in action. The U.S. thought that if the Vietnamese rural peoples lived in closer quarters, then that would allow them to become exposed to more "modern" ways of life as well as more exposed to each other. That part of the plan didn't work out either as the South Vietnamese rural poor were content with their previous lives and wanted to live as they had lived for generations before American involvement.

1978 Camp David Accords

Was a treaty between Egypt (Sadat) and Israel (Begin) that was negotiated under Carter's direction that came after another series of Arab-Israeli wars. It was more remarkable that the agreement took place at all as opposed to the contents of the treaty. It took a great deal of diplomatic skill to get Sadat and Begin to agree to terms, but eventually it was agreed upon that Israel would pull out of Sinai in return for a peace treaty with Egypt. The Israelis and Egyptians agreed to work toward solving the problems of the Palestinians, which included holding free and fair elections for the Palestinian people. That part never happened. The Camp David Accords were significant because Egypt was the first Arab nation to recognize Israel's right to exist. It also put Egypt squarely in the camp of the U.S. and pulled it away from Soviet influence.

Daniel Ellsberg (taken from review sheet)

Was an analyst for the Pentagon and Rand Corporation during the Vietnam War. He assisted with the planning for the bombing of North Vietnam by the Johnson administration and eventually grew disillusioned with the war. Ellsberg leaked a historical study conducted by the Rand Corporation for the Pentagon, which later became known as the "Pentagon Papers", to the New York Times and other major news outlets. The study revealed that the American public had been misled about Vietnam as far back as the Truman administration. Nixon became furious when he learned that Ellsberg had released the classified study and vowed to take him down. Ellsberg was profiled in the film The Most Dangerous Man in America, and is significant because the Pentagon Papers case became a landmark Supreme Court decision protecting First Amendment rights. In addition, the attempts by the Nixon administration to discredit him eventually led to the Watergate scandal and the resignation of President Nixon.

Ron Kovic

Was an anti-war activist and protestor of the Vietnam who detailed in his experiences in his memoir called "Born on the Fourth of July". He voluntarily enlisted in Vietnam before the draft was instituted and served multiple tours of duty before he got injured and became paralyzed as a result. He detailed the horrific conditions of the hospitals in which the Vietnam vets stayed and the overall huge levels of disrespect that Vietnam vets had to face upon their return to the states. Even after his injury, He remained a staunch supporter of the war until he began to realize what kind of toll it was having on society and how many men were dying for a cause that not improving, regardless of what the White House was saying about the war. He then became an anti-war activist, attended many rallies, and even got arrested. He helped to bring national attention to the reality of the war when he spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 1976..

Gen. William Westmoreland

Was commander of U.S. troops in Vietnam at the war's height from 1964-1968. He requested large numbers of conventional forces to fight the Vietcong and North Vietnamese. He launched aggressive "search and destroy" campaigns against the North Vietnamese. Despite Westmoreland's commands, the U.S. could gain no more than a stalemate. Although, Westmoreland continued to remain publicly optimistic about the war and claimed that the U.S. "won every battle."

Vietnamization

Was part of Nixon's plan to achieve "peace with honor" in Vietnam. It had multiple tenets such as the gradual withdrawal of U.S. ground forces, increased training and financial support of the ARVN forces, and decreasing American causalities by placing a heavier focus on bombing campaigns. While the process of turning the war into a Vietnamese war instead of an American one was successful while U.S. troops were still in Vietnam, upon their withdrawal, the training did not hold up as well as expected. The North Vietnamese continued to carry out massive insurgencies into South Vietnam. Thieu's government in S. Vietnam was not popular as it was beginning to lose control over the situation. The U.S. continued to pump money into S. Vietnam to sustain the ARVN, but once Congress voted to cut off funding in mid 1974, things really went downhill from there. The S. Vietnamese lost ground every day, suffered many casualities, and Saigon officially fell in April of 1975.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

Was passed by Congress in response to the Maddox incident, when an American ship claimed to have been fired upon by the North Vietnamese at night the Gulf of Tonkin. It was never proven that this incident actually happened and it wasn't revealed that it had never occurred until years later. Nonetheless, it gave Johnson a premise to escalate the war by increasing bombing to response to the "unprovoked attack on the Maddox." The House unanimously approved the GoTR, which was basically a blank check for doing whatever was necessary in Vietnam. It allowed Johnson to prove during an election year that he would stand tough against communism and take action. The nature of the Resolution is significant because it allowed Johnson to go to war in Vietnam without getting a formal declaration of war. This would later come back to haunt him.

Leonid Brezhnev

Was the Premier of the Soviet Union after Krushchev. Meet with Nixon and traveled to the U.S. in an attempt to normalize relations. He signed treaties and negotiations such as the SALT treaty to try and limit arms production. He also signed a "Basic Principles" agreement with Nixon, which stated that relations would be conducted with the ultimate goal of "peaceful coexistence". The Leonid and Nixon agreed not to exploit regional tensions, set up spheres of influence, or do anything to obtain a unilateral advantage over the other. Neither Brezhnev nor Nixon made an effort to stick to the agreement. The Brezhnev Doctrine stated that when external forces threatened to turn a socialist country into a capitalist country, then it became the problem of all socialist countries.

Détente

Was the easing of tensions with the Soviet Union and efforts were spearheaded by the Nixon administration. It focused on cooperation, healthy competition, and linkage. On the Soviet side, détente was led by Premier Leonid Brezhnev, who succeeded Krushchev. He and Nixon understood each other and got along pretty well, so that was helpful in meetings. Détente was also marked by treaties such as SALT (strategic arms limitation treaty), which aimed to limit the arms buildup, specifically the building of missile launchers. In May of 1972, Nixon visited Moscow and Brezhnev visited Washington in 1973. Not only did these meetings have political implications, but it had public implications as well. The American public was able to see the two leaders visiting and being cordial. Détente softened the "hard edges" of the Cold War. While relations with the USSR improved throughout the Nixon, Ford, and Carter presidencies, it basically ended with the Reagan administration and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

NSC-68

Written by Nitze of the Poliy Planning Staff, It proclaimed the necessity of defending freedom across the world to save it as home. It took a worst case view of Soviet capabilities and intentions. "Animated by new fanatical faith," it warned, the USSR was seeking to "impose its absolute authority on the rest of the world." Soviet expansion had reached a point beyond which it must not be permitted to go. "any substantial further extension of the area under the control of the Kremlin would raise the possibility that no coalition adequate to confront the Kremlin with great strength could be assembled. Framed the world as a zeo sum game in which any gain for Communism was automatically a loss for the free world, outlined a dazzling array of measures that Acheson labeled "total diplomacy" to combat soviet threat. It proposed shoring up Western Europe's defenses, filling the dollar gap, and extending containment to East Asia. It urged expanded military and economic assistance programs, covert operations, and psychological warfare. Above all, it pressed for a huge boost in defense spending to support a massive buildup of nuclear and convetional arms The aim was to achieve military superiority and create what Acheson called "situations of strength." The ultimate goal was to win the Cold War by detaching Eastern Europe from the Soviet bloc and forcing a change in the Soviet government itself. To rally a sometimes apathetic public to make the necessary sacrifices, NSC-68 proposed a public education program using plain, hard-hitting language to make the threat, in Acheson's words "clearer than the truth"

The New Look

a grand strategy formulated by the Eisenhower and his advisers, Dulles presided over a purge of suspected leftists from the state department, in the process ruining the lives of numerous dedicated public servants and elimating much of its expertise on East asia. The New Look upheld the Democrat's commitment to collective security. It sustained the principles of commitment while altering the methods used. Superior military forces would be maintained to deter aggression. To permit substantial budget cuts withtout weakening the ntion's defense posture, the New Look relied on nuclear weapons - Dulles publically outlined a concept of massive retaliation by which the US would respond to aggression at times an places with weapons of its own choosing, leaving open the use of nuclear weapons against the Soviet Union itself. Conventional forces would be cut dramatically. New alliances would be formed to deter and contain communist expansion and provide manpower for regional or global conflicts.

Truman Doctrine

a policy of containment: economic and military aid for Greece and Turkey under what came to be called the Truman Doctrine. $400 million in aid for Greece and Turkey. To justify the massive expenditure to congress, Truman called upon the US to support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressures. Failure to act could threaten the Middle East and Western Europe. If we falter in our leadership we may endanger the peace of the world and we shall surely endanger the welfare of the nation. An indiscriminate commitment to global interventionism, rejection of diplomacy - caused the US to get involved in the Greek Civil War where the US aid played an important role in the government's survival and may have deterred greater Soviet involvement. Stalin responded to the Truman Doctrine by briefly aiding the rebels, but he hedged his bets by refusing to recognize them and within six months have cut off assistance. Included the Marshall Plan for European Economic Recovery - with a goal to spark economic recovery and relieve the vast human suffering. Sought to use US aid to check a leftward drift in European politics. Communists were to be excluded from recipient governments and socialist tendencies in domestic planning curbed. Americans pushed for balanced budgets, convertible currencies and guarantees for US trade where dollars were used for purchases. Required Britain and France to accept a reindustrialized Germany and France to abandon plans to detach the Ruhr, in effect substituting for a unified Germany a combined Western zone integrated into the rest of Europe. Designed a creative peace that would integrate the western European economies and Britain and promote multilateral trade.

European Recovery Program

a policy of the Truman Doctrine. The Marshall Plan for European Economic Recovery. It was disturbingly clear by the spring of 1947 that the crisis in the eastern Mediterranean was but the top of the iceberg. The united states responded generously to postwar Europe's needs, but $9 billion in aid brought little progress toward recovery. Production had stalled, trade languished, and Europeans lacked the dollars to purchase urgently needed American goods. Acute shortages of food and fuel were exacerbated by a crippling summer 1946 drought and a bitterly cold winter. Hunger and malnutrition were rampant. The United States officials viewed Germany as the key to European recovery and concluded that it was essential to stop reparations and take the limits off German industrialization. US officials insisted that the Europeans take the initiative in planning but set firm guidelines for them to follow. The essential goal was to spark economic recovery and relieve the vast summan suffering. But the administration sought to use US aid to check an alarming leftward drift in European politics. Communists were to be excluded from recipient governments and socialist tendencies in domestic planning curbed. Americans pushed balanced budgets, convertible currencies, and guarantees for US trade where dollars were used for purchases. They required Britain and France to accept a reindustrialized Germany and France to abandon plans to detach the Ruhr, in effect, susbstituting for a unified Germany a combined Western zone integrated into the rest of Europe To promote greater efficiency and check ancient and destructive tendencies toward narrow nationalism, they designed a "creative peace that would integrate the Western European economies and Britain and promote multilateral trade. They pushed the Europeans to institute mixed, collaborative systems such as the United States had created through the New Deal.

Osama bin Laden

al Qaeda terrorist leader orchestrated the 9/11 attacks aimed to restore traditional Islam to its rightful place in the universe. The immediate goal was to eliminate the "near enemy "apostate states" like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, and Jordan. Because the United States backed the rulers of these nations - indeed ensured their survival - it became the "far enemy." America's long standing support for Israel and its "occupation" after 9/11 of Saudi Arabia, site of Islam's most holy places, further branded it as the font of evil. Bin Laden and his follwers hoped by striking the United States in a spectacular manner to rally jihadists across the world. By exposing US vulnerability, they sought to destroy the aura of its power. They also hoped to goad it to invade a Muslim country where its killing of the faithful would provoke rage and rally more adherents. America might also bog down as the USSR had and be forced to abandon the "apostate states." The administration mobilized military forces to strike bin Laden and the fundamentalist Taliban regime that sheltered him in Afghanistan.

Colin Powell

army col, top adviser to Weinberger crafted conditions under which US forces should be deployed, to be called the Weinberger or Powell Doctrine - was an immediate response to the debacle in Lebanon and also to the secretary of defense's nasy ongoing fued with Shultz over the commitment of military forces abroad. Reflected the mistake of sending forces to Vietnam without ensuring popular support and providing themt he means to win. The doctrine provided that US troops must be commited only as a last resort and if it was in the national interest. Objectives must be clearly defined and attainable. Public support must be assured, and the means provided to ensure victory. The doctrine proved a bloody fight with the Reagan administration, and it was never given official sanction. Opposed use of force in the first gulf war, advocated for the powell doctrine insiting that the nation should go to war only to defend its most vital interests and then only as a last resort. He downplayed the importance of Kuwait. He insisted that US objectives in the region could be achieved by containment and economic sanctions. Became chairman of the JCS under Clinton, Balakan conflict exaggerated the number of troops that would be need. Became secretary of state under W. Bush the first African American to hold the position, wanted to get rid of Saddam but only accepted war as a last resort and isnted on international backing. Later concluded that war was inevitable and insisted on international backing and went along.

Containment 2

articulated first by George Kennan in the Long Telegram as he expressed the danger of negotiating with the USSR. The New Frontiersmen (JFK's administration) accepted without question the basic assumptions of the containment policy. They perceived the tensions between Moscow and Beijing, but they still viewed Communism as monolithic and a mortal threat to the US. They also believed, as Kennedy put it, that they must "move forward to meet Communism, rather than waiting for it to come to us and the reacting to it. They feared global conflagration and were exhilarated by the prospect of leading the nation through perilous times to the ultimate victory. They shared a Wilsonian view that destiny had singled out their nation and themselves to defined the democratic ideal. They believed they could do anything - hence the expansive rhetoric of Kennedy's inaugural address and his firm commitment to land an American on the moon. They also recognized the domestic political importance of foreign policy success. They also recognized the domestic importance of foreign policy successes as JFK repeatedly charged the Republicans with indecisiveness and promised to regain the upper hand in the Cold War. - prompted Vietnam

John Foster Dulles

became the nation's chief diplomat as a matter of inheritance. The grandson and namesake of late nineteenth century secretary of state John W. Foster and nephew of Wilson's chief diplomat Robert Lansing, he carried out his first diplomatic assignment at the age of thirty when he drafted the notorious reparations settlement at the Paris Peace Conference. Partner in the powerful New York law firm of Sullivan and Cromwell. As secretary of state he set a record by traveling more than a half million miles. Once viewed as the dominant force in policymaking in the Eisenhower years, he and the president in fact formed an extraordinarily close partnership based on mutual respect in which the latter was plainly reeminent. Dulles's strident anti-Communist rhetoric and penchant for "brinkmanship" stamped him as an ideologue and crusader. Negotiated peace treaty with Japan.

Kim Il Sung

communist zealot, Soviets supported his leftist regime

Allen Dulles

diplomat, lawyer and banker became the first civilian and longest-serving Director of the CIA and member of the Warren Commission.

Kermit (Kim) Roosevelt

grandson of Rough Rider Teddy, hired local agitators to destabilize an already fragile Iranian political system and used satchels of cash to purchase the loyalty of key elements in the army.

Syngman Rhee

head of the conservative southern government in Korea was a protégé of Wilson - seventy years old in '45 his government was composed of wealthy landholders who had collaborated with the Japanese. Released prisoners of war and imperiled the peace agreement in eastern europe

Saddam Hussein

lead a Baathist coup in Iraq in 1968 became Iraqi dictator and was once a Soviet ally - caught the world off guard by sending three divisions in a lighting strike into neighboring Kuwait, which had been part of Iraq until 1961. Saddam coveted Kuwait's long coastline and access to the sea. Short of money because of his 8 year war with Iraw, he accused the Kuwaities of exceeding production quotas and driving down the price of oil The bush administration reckoned that despite his bluster the war weary Saddam would refrain from rash actions and pushed him away from that direction. Iraqi forces seized the capital of Kuwait City, giving Saddam control of 20 percent of the world oil supply. The US responded quickly, forcibly and after remarkably little internal debate. Prepared to drive him out of Kuwait ith force imposed economic sanctions and applied diplomatic pressure but in full recognition that war might be necessary. US never considered pushing on to Baghdad to topple Saddams government because it might have cost the support of Arab states, crucial to the coalition and iraq's total defeat would leave a huge power vaccum in a volatile part of the world's most explosive region, enhancing the position of Iran. Officials thought that desctruction of a large part of Saddam's army would limit his capacity to make mischief and perhaps weaken his hold on power, but they did not even pursue this goal aggressively. Bush administration hoped that Saddam's defeat would provoke a military coup and they encouraged the Iraqis to rebel but Saddam was able to suppress them during the cease-fire with mass murder using helicopter gunships and posion gas and the US did nothing. Powell wanted to get rid of him - saw his biological weapons as a threat that the US was unprepared for. Bush wanted to topple Hussein to allow him to succeed where his father had failed and avenge the Iraqi dictator's 93 attempt on his father's life. Was captured in 2003 tried by an Iraqi court and later executed. His removal brought more misery to the Iraqi people, destabilized a critical region and created a new training ground for terrorists.

Mao Zedong

leader of the communists in China. The US provided military and economic assistance to assist Chiang Kai-Shek to solidfy Nationalist control over a free China. With US belligerency, Chiang's operatives sought to make China a full partner in the war. US looked to China as an important ally. Roosevelt spoke of China as a fourth great power, a bastion of regional stability in East Asia after Japan's defeat, and a buffer against possible Soviet expansion. After pearl harbor, the administration moved to cement its ties to China by extending a loan of 500 million and dispatching Gen Josephy Stilwell to Chunking as a military adviser. Chiang's Nationalist government was weak, divided internationally, riddled with corruption, and lacking in popular support. The heroic leader depicted by Luce, a veritable Asian George Washington, sought mainly to preserve his own power. The larger conscript army was a slightly organized rabble, by no means ready to undertake operations against the Japanese. Chiang refused to risk it in combat, counting on the Americans to liberate China while he subdued his internal risks. China remained a second class ally, whose role was to keep the Japanese troops busy until the European war was won. The communists based in Yenan province projected an image of efficiency and order. The communists staged a huge July 4 celebration in Yenan, and Mao assured US visitors that the most conservative American. China won major victories in 1964 when France extended diplomatic recognition and the annual controversial vote on its admission to the UN ended in a tie. Beijing also joined the nuclear club with a successful test in 10/64. Mao launched the Great Cultural Revolution to reaffirm his control of the party and secure his historical legacy. Using the threat of superpower encirclement, he set of a veritable revolution at home, purging the bureaucracy of 'revisionists' fomenting his Read Guard followers' revolutionary zeal, and using brute force to impose ideological purity. As many as half a million people died in the carnage that followed. The Great Cultural Revolution pushed China to the brink of civil war and its relations with the USSR to the edge of military conflict.

Containment response to Afghanistan

major turning point in cold war. Carter's early initiatives constituted a clean break with policies pursued since the mid-1960s. The United States relegated détente to the scrap heap, sharply reescalated its Cold War rhetoric and reinstituted policies of global containment reminiscent of the early days of the Soviet-American struggle. The sanctions initiated in haste took on a life of their own flare-up of the 1979-1980 stemmed from misperception and miscalculation on both sides - The soviets saw themselves acting defensively in Afghanistan. The last thing they wanted was to spur a major US rearmament program and drive Washington further into the arms of Beijing. Their move into Afghanistan thus took the form of a self-fulfilling prophecy, making a reality of the Sino-American collaboration that in their imagination had aroused grave concern about Afghanistan.

Nikita Khrushchev

shrewd Soviet reformist took control of the Soviet government. Accepted Polish Gomulka's pledges to retain close ties with Moscow and remain in the Warsaw Pact, the military alliance of seen Eastern European countires and the Soviet Union created in May 1955. Hungary wanted to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact, Khrushchev saw his credibility at stake. He used an estimated two hundred thousand troops and more than one thousand tanks to suppress the rebellion.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

the 1947 Rio Pact was the first of the postwar regional military alliances authorized under Article 51 of the UN Charter and provided a model for NATO. The Berlin Blockade helped bring about the most radical US step of early postwar era, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Drawing upon their own historical experience in the Articles of Confederation, Americans in promoting the Marshall Plan urged the Western Europeans to find security through unification. The Czech coup underscored their importuning, and in April 1948 Britain joined for European nations in forming the Brussels Pact, a mutual defense treaty. For their part, the Europeans insisted that a US defense commitment was the key to their political security and economic recovery. The most difficult issues were those of membership and the nature of the US commitment. Western Europeans objected to Bevin's Atlantic focus, but they bent to US pressure: Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Canada, along with Italy and Portugal became charter members. The Europeans sought from the United States a binding pledge as in the Brussels Treaty requiring the signatories to give member nations under attack "all military and other aid and assistance in their power" The participants eventually agreed that in response to an attack on a signatory, each member individualy and acting with others should take "such actions as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force." The Treaty of Washington was signed in April 1949 with appropriate pomp and ceremony. The Korean war prompted NATO to expand to include Greece and Turkey. A NATO command structure and headquarters had been created, and the US commitment was strengthened by the enormously symbolic appointment of WWII hero Gen Dwight Eisenhower as its first supreme commader. Even as Soviet-American tensions eased, Johnson's advisers contined to view NATO as necessary to guarantee US influence in Western Europe, especially with a recalcitrant France, and to keep West German on a leash. As west Germany grew stronger it pressed harder on reunification and acquiring nuclear weaspons, setting off anxiety on the continent. France's de Gaulle withdrew from NATO in 1966 and asked that its troops and headquarter be moved from France.

Sputnik

the Sputnik "Crisis" shaped the American mood of the late 1950s. On October 4, 1957, with maximum fanfare and propaganda, the USSR put into orbit with a huge R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile the world's first artificial satellite, a monumental scientific accomplishment. A month later it orbited a much larger instrument carrying a life dog The launch of the Sputnik and the Sputnik II shook the United States to its core. The superiority of US science was assumed to be the bedrock of the nation's security. Khruschev's commet, appeared to undermine the basic principels of massive retaliation and the New Look- and add substance to soviet rocket rattleing. It created a profound vulnerability raising fears that turned to near panic. SPtunik even provoked questions among Americans and across the world whether the Soviet system might be superior to that of the US, a huge problem in the ongoing global competition for hearts and minds. The explosion of the American rocket on its launch pad just weeks later added humiliation - and fear. The report of a blue-ribbon panel headed by H Rowland Gaither Jr. presented to Eisenhower in November and leaked in part to the public, reinforced popular anxiety by painting a frightening picture of the inadequacy of the nation's defenses and calling for a Manhattan Project- like program for missile development and even the construction of fallout shelters. A call to arms much like NSC-68 the Gaither Rerpot portrayed the US in the gravest danger in its history. It evoked calls from intellectuals for a refocus from the self absorption in the era's consumer culture to a higher national purpose

Policy Planning Staff (PPS)

the chief strategic arm of the State Department. It was created in 1947 by Foreign Service Office George F. Kennan at the request of secretary of state Goreoge Marshall to serve as a "source of independent policy analysis and advice for the Sereatry of State" Its first assignment was to design the Marshall Plan. It came to be headed by Paul Nitze, and Richard Haass.

The Superbomb

the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 remains among the most controversial actions in US history. Truman and his advisers justified their decision in simple and clear-cut terms: The boms were used to end the war quickly and spare the estimated half million to a million US casualites that would be incurred in invading the Japanese hold islands. Dropping the bomb was thus an obvious choice for Truman, not even a decision in the usual sense of the word. He had inherited from FDR a weapon built to be used and a military strategy that emphasized winning a war at the lowest cost in American lives. The bomb had been built at a great cost to be used. Failure to employ it might have provoked popular outrage, even calls for impeachment.

George Kennan

top aid to ambassador to Moscow W. Averell Harriman - began to view the Soviet Union as the major threat to the peace and urged the president to stand up to Stalin, even threaten to cut off military aid unless he conformed to US wishes. Later became U.S. charge d'affaires in Moscow, wrote the "Long Telegram" to the State Department, eight-thousand-word missive that assessed Soviet policies in the most gloomy and ominous fashion. One of a handful of men trained after World War I as experts on Bolshevik Russia. Frustrated during the war when the Roosevelt administration ignored his cautionary recommendations, he eagerly responded when Truman's State Department requested his views. He delivered a lecture on Soviet behavior that decisively influenced the origins and nature of the Cold War. He conceded that Soviet union was weaker than the United States and acknowledged that it did not want war. But he ignored its legitimate postwar fears, and by showing how Communist ideology reinforced traditional Russian expansionism and portraying Soviet leadership in near pathological terms, he helped destroy what little remained of American eagerness to understand its onetime ally and negotiate differences. By demonizing the Kremlin, he confirmed the futility and even danger of further negotiations and prepared the way for a policy he would label containment.

Paul Wolfowitz

undersecretary of defense - A defense Planning Guidance document drafted in his office under the secretary of state Lewis Scooter Libby set forth a new vision for the United States as the world's lone superpower. The nation must maintain absolute military supremacy, the draft firmly asserted. It must prevent any power or combination of powers from challenging its position. The document was decided unilateralist, minimizing the significance of the UN and alliances. It pinpointed the spread of nuclear weapons as a major concern and suggested that the United States might have to act preemptively to head off that danger. Leaked to the press in March 1992 it provoked brief furor. Input into the Bush Doctrine. Pressed for war with Iraq immediately after 9/11, one of the neo-cons (war satisfied deep philosophical convictions as well as immediate practical concerns)

1955 Bandung Conference

was a meeting of Asian and African states, most of which were independent. It was organized by countries such as India, Pakistan, and Indonesia. The conference's aims were to promote their economic and cultural independence and to oppose the colonial and neocolonial practices of both the US and Soviet Union. The meeting was an important step to a better defined "Non-Alignment movement". The countries at the conference also adopted a ten point declaration that aimed to promote world peace and cooperation as respect for human rights First "international conference of colored peoples in the history of mankind. The Eisenhower administration worried that this was a good place for the Soviets to disseminate propaganda.

The Bush Doctrine

written by Condoleezza Rice using 9/11 and the war on terrorism to elevate to doctrine ideas conservative and neoconservative republicans had been discussing for years. Drew heavily on the 1992 defense planning guidance document repudiated by the first Bush administration. It manifested the influence of Wolfowitz and those neoconservatives who viewed 9/11 as "transformative" movement that put events into much sharper relief. Combined ringing reaffirmations about spreading democracy with tough minded statements about the use of US power. It admitted to only one "sustainable model for national successes: freedom, democracy, and free enterprise," vowed to "use this moment of opportunity to extend the benefits of freedom across the globe" and pledged to "defend liberty and justice because these principles are right and true for all peoples, everywhere." The United States would do what was needed to prevent any single nation or combination of nations from challenging its military preeminence. Paid lip service to cooperation with allies but also affirmed that the nation would "act apart when our interests and unique responsibility require." Threats must be met before they reached US shores. The United States would not wait until it had "absolute proof" of danger from weapons of mass destruction. It would not "hesitate to act alone, if necessary, to exercise our right of self-defense by acting preemptively." The principles of military preeminence, unilateralism, and preemptive war departed sharply from the realism of the first Bush administration and the basic principles that had guided Cold War strategies.