8.7: America as a World Power
8.7: Explain the various military and diplomatic responses to international developments over time.
Now that we’ve talked about the Cold War and American society, let's talk about what was happening in the rest of the world! More specifically, the massive wave of decolonization that occurred.
Guatemala
In Guatemala, the U.S. led a coup to overthrow President Jacobo Arbenz due to fears of him being a socialist. He had nationalized some of the land where the American United Fruit Company grew their bananas on, intending to distribute the land to Guatemalans. As a result, the CIA trained a force of insurgents to overthrow him, replacing him with a military dictatorship.
All throughout the world, after World War II, many colonial empires crumbled because they could no longer afford to keep their colonies and stop rebellions. As a result, a wave of decolonization swept the world, leaving behind many new unstable nations that needed political and economic support. Both the U.S. and the USSR then began providing aid to these countries. They hoped that the aid would make the countries ally with them and convert them to either democratic capitalism (U.S.) or authoritarian communism (USSR).
The Military-Industrial Complex
Eisenhower also warned against the Military-Industrial Complex in the United States. This referred to the relationship between the military and the defense industry. He argued that the defense industry would want the United States military to get into as many wars as possible so the industry could profit off of the fighting by making weapons and arms. He believed that if left unchecked, the defense industry would influence the United States into getting in wars and military interventions around the world, even if they aren’t politically in the nation’s best interest.
Cuba
In Cuba, there was the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis that was talked previously on the topic of the Cold War.
Iran
In Iran, the Iranian Prime Minister was overthrown because he wanted to nationalize Iran’s oil industry. The U.S. was dependent on oil so they didn’t want this to happen. As a result, they replaced him with Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, a leader who was willing to continue giving the U.S. oil in exchange for weapons and money.
Vietnam
In Vietnam, after fighting off the French before World War II, the Japanese during World War II, and then the French again after World War II, the country was divided along the 17th parallel until an election could be held. In the north, Ho Chi Minh became the leader and established a communist government while South Vietnam stayed democratic. Eventually, this would lead to the Vietnam War which will become the topic of the next set of notes. Eisenhower believed that Vietnam needed to be protected at all costs because if Vietnam fell to communism, a domino effect would happen in which Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and then the rest of South Asia would turn communist with it. This was his Domino Theory. Eisenhower argued that to prevent this, the first domino, Vietnam, needed to be kept democratic.
