Dwight D Eisenhower

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While Eisenhower claimed that he had opposed dropping the atomic bomb during World War Two, he and his Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, continued the military buildup that had begun under President Truman and devised "the New Look,” a policy which envisioned the use of nuclear weapons on Soviet cities should the Soviet Union confirm U.S. fears by invading Western Europe.

The death of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin on March 5, 1953, permitted a reassessment, and a few weeks later Eisenhower delivered the famous "Cross of Iron" speech in which he hinted at a new approach toward Soviet Russia. At a 1955 conference of US, British, French and Soviet leaders in Geneva, Switzerland, he made his "open skies" proposal, whereby each country would be permitted to take aerial photographs over territory of the others (the proposal went nowhere). In September, 1959, at Eisenhower’s invitation, Soviet Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev travelled to the U.S., a goodwill visit culminating in what was called the “Spirit of Camp David.” That spirit evaporated in May, 1960, when an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over Sverdlovsk and the pilot, Francis Gary Powers, placed on trial in Moscow. This led to cancellation of a planned visit by Eisenhower to the USSR and the emotional breakup of a four-power summit in Paris in June.

The U-2 affair led to worldwide demonstrations against the U.S. and cancellation of a presidential visit to Japan. In his farewell speech Eisenhower, who had fashioned much of his foreign policy around a builldup of conventional and nuclear weapons, warned the country against what he now called the "military industrial complex."

― Priscilla McMillan