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America, the world, and Cold War conflicts
On October 4, 1957, in the midst of the Cold War, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, the first artificial Earth satellite. For the West, and especially the United States, it was a shattering blow to national morale and pride. It led to a deep-seated fear that the Soviet Union would surpass the United States in both technology and power and that even nuclear war might be near. After Sputnik shows that the late 1950s were not an era of complacency and smugness, but were some of the most anxious years in American history. The Cold War was by no means a time of peace. It was an era of a different kind of battle, one that took place in negotiations and in the internal affairs of many countries, but not always on the battlefield. While many choose to remember President Eisenhower as a near-pacifist, his actions in Lebanon, the Taiwan Straits Crisis, Berlin and elsewhere proved otherwise. Seconded by his able Secretary of State, he steered America though some of the most difficult parts of the Cold War, not always succeeding, but preventing disaster. The Middle East and Berlin crises, the Indonesian Civil War, Fidel Castro's rise to power and other events are all bluntly discussed in the light of Western, and other, illusions and delusions. In this engaging history, Levine delves deeply into this often misrepresented period of history, and provides new insight into one of the most formative decades in American history.
Eisenhower's paradise? : America in the late 1950s -- Cold War policy and military strategy to 1958 -- The enemy : Khrushchev's USSR -- The Sputnik shock -- "Missile gap" and space race -- The Muddled East : the Middle East crisis and the Lebanon landing -- Battle in the Taiwan Strait : the second "Quemoy-Matsu Crisis" -- Berlin Crisis -- The last domino : American intervention in the Indonesian Civil War -- The rise of the maximum leader : the Cuban Revolution, Castro and Latin America.
Includes bibliographical references and index.