EISENHOWER, NEW LOOK AND LATIN AMERICA
In terms of foreign policy, Eisenhower's first priority was to end the Korean War, which he did by agreeing to an Armistice in July 1953. His next task was to reduce the size of the US military (and therefore the military budget), without compromising US national security. His solution was the 'New Look' policy, which provided a deterrent to communist aggression by building up the American nuclear stockpile.
In combination with Eisenhower's 'New Look' policy was his policy of 'brinkmanship'. This required the US to adopt an aggressive policy of acting as if they were prepared to use nuclear weapons in order to get their enemies (in this case the USSR) to back down. It was a difficult balancing act (that could also be considered reckless) that would push the Americans to the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
In order to maintain influence abroad and keep foreign regimes friendly to US political and economic interests, Eisenhower built up the CIA and expanded its role of performing covert operations, which could include engineering coup d'etats and rigging elections. He was greatly assisted in this by two brothers, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, a former lawyer and proponent of 'rollback', and Director of CIA Allen Dulles.
In North America, Eisenhower agreed to greater airspace cooperation with Canada by creating NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) in order to defend the continent from potential Soviet missile attacks.
The biggest incident in the Americas as a result of 'New Look' was the 1954 coup d'etat in Guatemala.
In combination with Eisenhower's 'New Look' policy was his policy of 'brinkmanship'. This required the US to adopt an aggressive policy of acting as if they were prepared to use nuclear weapons in order to get their enemies (in this case the USSR) to back down. It was a difficult balancing act (that could also be considered reckless) that would push the Americans to the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
In order to maintain influence abroad and keep foreign regimes friendly to US political and economic interests, Eisenhower built up the CIA and expanded its role of performing covert operations, which could include engineering coup d'etats and rigging elections. He was greatly assisted in this by two brothers, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, a former lawyer and proponent of 'rollback', and Director of CIA Allen Dulles.
In North America, Eisenhower agreed to greater airspace cooperation with Canada by creating NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) in order to defend the continent from potential Soviet missile attacks.
The biggest incident in the Americas as a result of 'New Look' was the 1954 coup d'etat in Guatemala.
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