The election of Eisenhower in 1952 was a seeming transition in many ways. The Republican party took control after a 40 year period of a Democratic administration. The Korean War finally ended after a two year stalemate. The country certainly saw Eisenhower's administration as an opportunity to shift foreign policy in a new direction.
So what was "new" about the new look? Geographic focus? Military strategy? Focus on just one element that you feel to be new when compared to Truman, and consider whether or not the Cold War dramatically shifted in focus.
Dwight Eisenhower came into office by running on a campaign that would end the Korean War. He was a 5 star general in the army and he knew how to end the war and people trusted him for that.His republican mindset and his military background changed the strategy of the US military. Instead of beating around the bush and playing war games with Russia, we secured an end to the Korean War and proved to Russia and everyone else that we meant business and were willing to stand up for what we believed in.
ReplyDeleteEisenhower’s New Look policy represented a strong change from Truman's containment policy. It seems that Truman's containment policy was too soft to actually control communism. The plan in Eisenhower's New Look was to invest much more into military and atomic weapons, so that the Soviet Union would be too intimidated to put on a fight with the US. I think that this is what people liked about Eisenhower, that he knew how to clearly restrain the communistic opponents.
ReplyDeleteEisenhower's strategy seamed to be simply anti-Truman. This is probably due to the misgivings people had begun to have of his decision to enter into a war, that wasnt really a war, but still pretty war-like, without consulting the American government. so he sort of feed off of that by promising change and in doing so put a pause on many of the new projects Truman had started such as the commodities proposals and the creation of the inter-american Development Bank which sort of exemplify fairly nicely Eisenhower's contrary opinion of of how involved the US ought to be in other countries' affairs which correlates to his role in ending the Korean War.
ReplyDeleteEisenhower was a war hero who had a lot of power and respect in the US. He was Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during WWII, which means that people trusted him as a leader throughout his life and the public would naturally elect a well renowned war hero as president. His no nonsense policies made the Soviet Union feel threatened by the US at the time, and he had no problem in standing strong and making tough decisions that others wouldn't have wanted to make.
ReplyDeleteEisenhower wanted to limit economic assistance to struggling countries, but Truman wanted to help developing countries. Part of the new look was making a smaller navy and army, while focusing on building more nuclear weapons and expanding the air force. New weaponry also expanded the defense industry. One important thing about the new look is the CIA being used for decision making. Containment under Truman was mostly dealing within US borders; the new look focuses on continental defense. This included the US forcing Latin presidents to be overthrown.
ReplyDeleteI think that the new in new look represented the drastic changes that we went through with the transfer of Truman to Eisenhower.he felt that Truman's plans were too weak to control communism and to boost things up he put more of a focus on the military and atomic weapons rather than containment. This I believe is because of his military background. He was a very strong and powerful general in the arm so he knew how to handle things differently than Truman did.
ReplyDeleteThe economy was one area that assumed a "new" look during Eisenhower's election. Between cuts for commodities made during Truman's presidency, the halting of the development of the inter-American development bank, and the advisory given to Latin american states that they should not discourage the private investment in forgein(American) economies/goods
ReplyDeleteEisenhower changed the scope of the American foreign military strategy because of the peace talks staged with Korea. The Cold War was in full effect and Eisenhower began mounting the nuclear weapons stock to prepare for a Soviet attack. A new looks came from the times more than the Eisenhower administration itself. Eisenhower had a lot of war experience to offer and the reputation that came with being a war hero.
ReplyDeleteEisenhower put much more focus into military strategy than Truman did. Much more money went into weaponry, which successfully served as a threat to the Soviets. Truman's policies were looked at as too "soft" by Eisenhower. Therefore, rather than just "containing" communism, Eisenhower took another approach to the same goal: defending democracy through military actions and defending continental boarders. He seemed to understand that if countries want communism, there really is no way to "contain them", but if military strategy is used, it is much more likely.
ReplyDeleteI think some of the new military strategies were particularly interesting. For example in the shift from Truman to Eisenhower, the military saw a greater need for defense under the New Look Policy. According to the article: "defense of the United States was a prime concern and the US military community argued strongly that there needed to be a continental defense policy, not simply a protection of US borders." This can ultimately be considered a shift in focus due to the Cold War because the fear and uncertainty of the time required the US to think more broadly in their military defense because in this time period you never knew what could happen around the world.
ReplyDelete