Eisenhower & The Cold War

How did the United States react to the following 7 events, and why?

1. The Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb in 1949.
The United States had to make a very hard decision when the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb in 1949. The United States made the decision that they needed to create a even more destructive thermonclear weapon- they hydrogen bomb. They made the bomb and they did win the deadly race against the soviets. The american advantage lasted less than a year.

2. In 1951, the Iranian prime minister placed the oil industry in Iran under the Iranian government’s control.
The British first stopped buying Iranian oil and the Iranian economy faltered. the united states feared that the Mossadegh might turn to the soviets for help so the CIA gave money to anti-Mossadgh supporters. The US wanted the pro american shah or iran to come back to power and he did. So the Iranian oil fields reurned to western companies.

3. The Guatemalan head of government gave American-owned land in Guatemala to peasants.
When the US heard that the head of Guatemalan gave american owned land in guatemala to peasants the US in responce had its CIA train and arm, and it would invade Guatemala.

4. In 1956, Britain, France, and Israel invaded Egypt and occupied the Suez Canal.
The United states quickly stepped in after seeing fighting growing in egypt and it persuaded gb, france and israel.


5. Soviet tanks invaded Hungary and fired on protesters in 1956.
Imre Nagy was a new communist leader in hungary and he demanded that all soviet troops leave hungary. the soviets responded and killed approximately 30 000 Hungarians. The Soviets over threw the Nagy government and replaced it with pro soviet leaders. Although the truman doctrine had promised to support free people who resisted communism, the US did nothing to help Hungary break free of Soviet control. The american policy of containment did not extend to driving the soviet union out of its satellites.

6. In 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik.
The united states was shocked to hear that the soviets had beat them and promptly poured money into their own space program so the US scientists worked to catch up to the soviets by successfully creating a satellite. their first try was a failure but their second try was successful,


7. In 1960, the Soviet Union brought down an American U-2 piloted by Francis Gary Powers.
The Unites States at first did not know what to do so they denied that the U2 had been spying. The societs had ecidence so Eisenhower admitted to the spying so in respoinde Eisenhower agreed to stop the U2 flights. The U2 caused more tension between the societs and america.