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Example research essay topic: Secretary Of State Eisenhower Administration - 1,029 words

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... persuasion - say, convincing Germany solely with rhetoric that America would support a united Germany (which, indeed, they did try to do) - it is arguable whether that would have worked in deterring the popular Soviet-influenced communist parties. Clearly, the Truman administration had to pursue a strategy of military containment. However, internal politics dictated quite the opposite strategy. The republican leadership in both the Senate and the House was committed to fulfill their campaign promises of a 20 % reduction of income taxes.

At this point, Truman had to convince both the Senate and the American people how pressing the international situation was, and how important it was to pursue these expensive policies of containment. This led to the Truman Doctrine, in March 1947. Eventually, Truman was able to pursue a perimeter defense containment strategy -- a more singular, coherent, easy-to-swallow policy -- to persuade Congress and the populous of the pressing threat of the Soviets. Kennan had warned against framing a rigid policy towards the USSR because he believed that transforming expertise into policy guidelines distorted the expertise: "It was misleading to assume it possible to describe in a few pages a program designed to achieve US objectives with respect to the USSR. " (pg 52, Geddes) But Truman had to.

He needed to appeal to the masses, and like all leaders of democracies, he was shackled to public opinion. However, Truman (and his eloquent Secretary of State) ultimately led Congress and the populous to adapt his point of view and, unlike the Eisenhower administration, was not led by them. It must be said, though, that Truman was not totally unmoved by domestic politics, especially the need to cap spending. Regardless, under NSC- 68 he increased military spending to $ 45 - 50 bill. a year. The perceived threat by the Soviets led Truman to pursue this strategy which he rightly considered essential.

Clearly, any president in Truman's situation would have pursued the same policies of military containment because it was the only option made available to him. The Eisenhower administration, though, had a more subjective influence on their containment strategy. First of all, two months into the Eisenhower administration, Stalin died and with him the threat of a Stalinization of Eastern Europe. It would be 2 more years until Kruschev came to power, and until that time, the Soviet Union had no leader and coherent international expansionist strategy. It is difficult to determine how much of the perceived Soviet threat was indeed accurate, considering the shaky domestic politics of the USSR, and how much of the threat was illusionary. But even before his election, Eisenhower himself was committed to containing Soviet expansion.

Eisenhower even ran for president to take the bid from Taft whom he believed would revert the United States back into unilateralism and isolationism. To Eisenhower, this was detrimental, as he believed personally in containment strategies. Dulles, Eisenhower's Secretary of State, was also a committed anti-Soviet. The Eisenhower administration sought to portray the USSR as strictly an aggressor state (even so it is arguable that it really was) because this is a more simplistic foreign policy line to sell to Congress and the American people.

The Eisenhower administration, though, was much more inclined to favor public opinion and domestic politics in shaping their containment policies. Eisenhower's primary goal was to cut government spending and taxes. His cabinet consisted solely of conservative fiscal policy makers, who were determined to reduce all but the most essential expenditures. This led the administration to cut out economic assistance plans altogether, and to focus militarily on nuclear arms as a tactical and strategic deterrent. This was cost-effective. Granted, Eisenhower's reasons for his conservative fiscal policies could also be attributed to balance of power concerns.

Eisenhower was worried that the effects of an over-inflated and over-heated US economy could be detrimental to Americas abilities in the global arena. Indeed, Eisenhower warned, It has been coldly calculated by the Soviet leaders... by their military threat to force upon America and the free world an unbearable security burden leading to economic disaster. Eisenhower argued that a strong American economy might well be the most valuable asset it possessed. Nevertheless, as a politician, he knew how important it is to cut taxes to retain popularity; it cannot be disputed that Ike was a popular president who knew how to maintain his popularity. Because Eisenhower pursued a strategy of nuclear deterrence, it was important that he subsequently blur the line between nuclear warfare and conventional warfare.

He had to give the Soviets the impression that he was ready to use nuclear arms at any point when he felt that American security interests were at stake. In various crisis, namely the Suez Canal crisis, Eisenhower and Dulles were overly confident in their strategic nuclear strike capabilities. As Brown argues, the administration was confident that they could deter Soviet military moves as long as they held the threat of nuclear attack over their heads. Thus, Eisenhower was able to deter possible Soviet expansion without raising taxes and upsetting the domestic program. In conclusion, although both the Truman and Eisenhower administrations sought to contain the Soviet Unions expansionist tendencies, they took their influence for policy from different sources. Thus, their foreign policy had a different approach.

The Truman administration was more concerned with Stalin's expansionist tendencies, and sought to contain him by the best means possible, which he considered to be conventional warfare. Truman used rhetoric and threat to sell his policy to Congress and the American people, because his policy was expensive. Eisenhower, on the other hand, was more concerned with his popularity and cutting taxes than pursuing expensive overseas militaries. He was able to cut costs by using nuclear capabilities as a deterrent against the Soviets. Thus, he used a more capital-intensive, and less labor-intensive means to detract Soviet expansion. Because he was able to cut costs so effectively, it was not as important for him to sell him policy to the public.

That is namely why Eisenhower was such a popular president. web library / report / 1992 /MJA. htm web web regents prep. org/Regents / ushisgov /themes/ presidential actions / commander . cfm


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Research essay sample on Secretary Of State Eisenhower Administration

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