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Period: to
Eisenhower administration
toward the end of his first term he began to reassess his larger Cold War strat- egy of using American nuclear superiority to take the offensive against the USSR, as he considered what a major war with the So- viet Union would mean in an age of nuclear missiles. By 1957, avoiding nuclear war had become his main strategic preoccupa- tion; -
The Second Quemoy-Matsu Crisis
a continuation of the Chinese Civil War and First Taiwan Strait Crisis. The Republic of China (ROC) had begun to build military installations on the island of Kinmen (Quemoy) and the Matsu archipelago. President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered the reinforcement of the U.S. Navy Seventh Fleet in the area, and he ordered American naval vessels to help ROC to protect the supply lines to the islands.
“This would be the signal for general nuclear war between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R."-Smith -
Berlin Ultimatum
Khrushchev’s demand for an end
to the occupation of Berlin therefore was not an empty request but an ultimatum: the Western powers had to leave by May 1959, or else.
Einsenhower administration could not get around the commitment to prevent the
loss of West Berlin, and his new military policy implied that his only answer to a Soviet move to seize the city was to commence general nuclear war -
Paris summit and U2
U-2 flight had occurred in the Soviet territory without approval. The Paris summit was an unsuccessful conference between the heads of the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and France. Intended to ease Cold War problems, the summit collapsed acrimoniously before substantive discussions could begin, this summit failed due to the U2 incident -
1960 presidential election
His campaign gained momentum after the first televised presidential debates in American history, and he was elected president, narrowly defeating Republican opponent Richard Nixon. -
Bay of Pigs invasion
The Bay of Pigs invasion was a failed attack launched by the CIA during the Kennedy administration to push Cuban leader Fidel Castro from power. The CIA launched what its leaders believed would be the definitive strike: a full-scale invasion of Cuba by 1,400 American-trained Cubans who had fled their homes when Castro took over. The invaders were badly outnumbered by Castro’s troops, and they surrendered after less than 24 hours of fighting. -
The Vienna summit
was a summit meeting held in Vienna between President John F. Kennedy of the United States and Premier Nikita Khrushchev of the Soviet Union. The reactivation of the Berlin ultimatum. Resulted leader Walter Ulbricht ordered the closing of the border and the construction of a wall around West Berlin. -
Cuban missile crisis
When American deployments of missiles in Italy and Turkey were matched by Soviet deployments of similar ballistic missiles in Cuba. Was the closest point could make the Cold War to become a full scale war, nuclear war. -
New relationship
They installed a coded wire- telegraph Hot Line staffed around the clock by translators and technicians, both sides have the satellites to monitor the nuclear action, there becomes a trend of building mutual trust, they both think carefully about what might drive to a general war.