American Foreign Policy at Mid-Twentieth Century

By Steve Reilly

  • Ivy Mike, first hydrogen bomb exploded.

    Ivy Mike, first hydrogen bomb exploded.
    In November 1952 American scientists exploded the first hydrogen bomb. It was detonated on Elugelab Island yielding 10.4 megatons, almost 500 times the bomb dropped on Nagasaki. The detonation left an underwater crater 6,240 ft (1.9 km) wide and 164 ft (50 m) deep where Elugelab Island had been.

  • Eisenhower elected President

    Eisenhower elected President

  • CIA installs Riza Shah Pahlavi as leader of Iran.

    CIA installs Riza Shah Pahlavi as leader of Iran.
    Iranian soldiers surround the Parliament building in Tehran during the coup against the democratically elected government of Mohammed Mossadegh.

  • Vietminh force French surrenders at Dien Bien Phu.

    Vietminh force French surrenders at Dien Bien Phu.
    French Union paratroopers dropping from a "Flying Boxcar".

  • CIA overthows government of Guatemala.

    CIA overthows government of Guatemala.
    The 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état was a covert operation organized by the United States Central Intelligence Agency to overthrow Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán, the democratically-elected President of Guatemala.

  • Eisenhower reelected, 6 Nov. 1956.

  • USSR launches Sputnik.

    USSR launches Sputnik.

  • Khrushchev visits the U.S.

    Khrushchev visits the U.S.
    After debating with Vice President Richard Nixon when he visited Moscow, General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev visited the U.S. for three days beginning on Sept. 15, 1959.

  • Presidents JFK and Eisenhower meet, 1961.

    Presidents JFK and Eisenhower meet, 1961.
    John Kennedy was elcted president on Noveber