President Eisenhower's Role In The Cold War

When World War 2 ended a new war surfaced: it was the Cold War. It began in the summer of 1945 at the Potsdam Conference in occupied Germany. The conference was attended by the Soviet leaders, the British leaders and American leaders. President Truman was also there but left the conference feeling that Soviet leader, John Stalin, was planning to have world domination. This was the beginning of worldwide rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States. Throughout this 46 year struggle of the Cold War many American Presidents were involved. Presidents Harry Truman, Dwight D.Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B.Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr. each had their strong role in the Cold
War and did many good things. I think the most influential president during the Cold War was President Dwight D. Eisenhower. His accomplishments were born from his military background, his soldier-statesman leadership and his passion for peace.

Bringing to his presidency the prestige of being the supreme military commander of the allied forces in Europe during World War 2, President Dwight D. Eisenhower worked incessantly throughout his two terms as President to ease the tensions in the Cold War. President Eisenhower was confronted with a major Cold War crisis every year he was in office. His major accomplishment was that he kept America at peace. More than once America was on the brink of war and advisors surrounding this president were encouraging him to drop the bomb. He dealt calmly and rationally with each situation. Eisenhower concentrated on maintaining world peace. On December 8, 1953 he delivered his “Atoms for Peace” speech at the United Nations. He was determined to solve the fearful atomic dilemma. He sought to solve the terrible problem by suggesting to transform the atomic bomb fear into a benefit for mankind. The development of the Atoms for Peace program supplied equipment and pamphlets of information to schools,hospitals and research institutions within the U.S. and throughout the world, to enlighten the public on the risks and the hopes of a nuclear future. A second accomplishment that President Eisenhower’s administration was credited with was the “Massive Retaliation” speech coined by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles.
During this speech at the United Nations, the U.S. insisted that they will protect its allies by responding to military provocation “at places and with means of our own choosing” (Dulles, 1954). This was a military doctrine and a nuclear strategy in which a state commits itself to retaliate in much greater force in the event of an attack. The policy announcement was further evidence of Eisenhower’s decision to rely heavily on the nation’s nuclear arsenal as the primary means of defense against communist aggression. Even though Eisenhower didn’t personally give the speech, he agreed 100%. This was another proof that Eisenhower’s all-or-nothing strategy threatened to turn the Soviet Union into a smoking, radiating ruin within 2 hours. It meant an all out attack and adding the fear of making a nuclear war too destructive to fight - that it would be meaningless. It was also Eisenhower’s belief that a stronger reliance on nuclear weapons as the backbone of America’s defense was two-fold. Atomic weapons were far more effective with threatening potential adversaries, as in the Massive Retaliation speech, and they were much less expensive than the costs associated with a long standing
army.

Another major creation by President Eisenhower was that he was the first American President to establish a space program for military and for peaceful purposes. Americans were astonished when the first space satellite - the Sputnik -gave the Soviets the lead in space. Eisenhower spoke on TV on November 7, 1957 as the Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2 orbited the earth. He vowed to focus on improving science and technology education. Eisenhower sped up the space program and made the space race against Russia a high priority. He oversaw the creation of NASA ( National Aeronautics and Space Administration) in 1958 and the creation of the human spaceflight program which paved the way for the use of space for national security. The idea of putting a man on the moon was totally an extension of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s space program vision.

Though each of the 9 American presidents played a significant role during the Cold War, President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s rank as supreme military commander during World War 2 makes him so much more influential than the other presidents. He was in charge of planning and carrying out the Allied Landings in Normandy, France and the invasion of Germany. Under his plan, Operation Overlord, the largest seaborne operation in history, 2.8 million allied troops from 12 nations crossed the English Channel. This operation started on June 6, 1944 and will forever be known as D-Day. It was his skilled political leadership and military strategy that helped him to win the 1952 presidential election and becoming an extremely influential president. He was in the white house from 1953 to 1960, becoming the first and only army general to serve as president in the 20th century. He was the last U.S. president to be born in the 19th century and the last to have served in both World War 1 and World War 2. Once he was elected as president, it was his organizational and administrative strengths that persevered.