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Eisenhower and the Cold War · Saberian History Lectures

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So today we get to talk about all the crazy hot
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spots around the world and how the stuff got
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started. And so, before we get into this, I kind
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of want to break this up into two parts. So I
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have two posing questions for you. First is,
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what is the difference between the doctrine of
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massive retaliation and the doctrine of mutually
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assured destruction? These are two separate policies
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when it comes to nuclear weapons that the United
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States adopts. Really, you have the period of
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massive retaliation, the period of mutually assured
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destruction, then you have the period of détente,
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and then you have the end of the Cold War. Well,
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you have the build -up in the 80s, then you have
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the end of the Cold War, but you get the idea.
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So, let's get to doctrine of massive retaliation
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versus the doctrine of... of mutually assured
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destruction. So, 1948, Truman is re -elected.
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1952, Eisenhower is president by election. Truman
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elects not to run again and probably wouldn't
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have won anyway. The Democratic candidate was
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defeated. So, January 1953, Eisenhower is sworn
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in as president. March 1953, Joseph Stalin dies.
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Yep. So March of 1953, Stalin dies. Stalin dies.
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The next General Secretary of the Soviet Union
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is Nikita Khrushchev. Which again, like anything
2:03
involving either the Russians or the Germans,
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is always a great question to put on a spelling
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bee. How do you spell Khrushchev? With a K and
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with an H. Nikita Khrushchev is the next General
2:17
Secretary of the Soviet Union. Kind of interesting.
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And one of the things that the book doesn't go
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into in a whole lot of detail is what's awkward
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about Stalin dying? There's a power vacuum. Okay,
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so when FDR died, Truman was the obvious next
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in line. The government continued. Soviet Union,
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Stalin dies. Tag, who's it? You had factions
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in the Communist Party about who would lead the
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Soviet Union afterward. Khrushchev emerges victorious.
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Khrushchev will lead the Soviet Union, I want
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to say, until shortly after the death of Kennedy,
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in which case the next premier is going to be
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Brezhnev. And then you have this awkward moment
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after Brezhnev goes, where there are like three
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different general secretaries before Gorbachev
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in the 1980s. But anyway. So... Kind of interesting,
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you have also in 1953, armistice between, armistice
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in Korea. So, you've got, who's fighting in Korea,
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by the way? The Americans and the South Koreans.
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So you have the U .S. You have the South Koreans,
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which is the Republic of Korea. So the easy way
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to remember the pro -American Koreans is they
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are okay. Are okay. Republic of Korea are okay.
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Yes. All right. There we go. Okay. You all got
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the joke better than fifth period. Okay. That's
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pretty good. All right. So China and the People's
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Republic of Korea, the PRK. By the way, are these
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countries still in existence? Yes. Yes. Now,
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what's the difference between an armistice and
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a peace treaty? Peace treaty means we're actually
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at peace, right? Has there been a formal peace
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treaty between the ROK and the PRK? No. Is Kim
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Jong -un going to sign one of those anytime soon?
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It would be a blast if he did. Too soon? Too
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soon? All right. It really is too soon. Look,
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just because... We just had a missile launch
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like last week. Yeah, and just, look, just because
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the president is talking, the secretary of state
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has talked about nuclearizing Japan and the Korean
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peninsula. I can't make a good joke. I see how
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it is. All right. That might not end well. Oh,
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well. Oh, there we go. Alright. So, armistice
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is done. Now, here's the thing that happens.
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Under Eisenhower, you have a change in U .S.
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military doctrine from containment to liberation.
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So, In other words, containment is the idea that
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you stop the spread of Soviet communism, but
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liberation, brought to you mainly by John Foster
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Dulles, is the idea that the United States should
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help free peoples not only stay free, but also
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help... liberation movements in communist countries,
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nationalist movements in communist countries.
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Now one of the things that's kind of interesting
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is as you're trying to fight off the communism,
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you're trying to prevent communist infiltration
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into the third world, and you're trying to allow
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people to take back their homelands from Soviet
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aggression, is that the United States would provide
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material and moral support. Now, if you're providing
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material and moral support to nationalist movements
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fighting against communism, what are you not
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providing? Manpower. So, not troops. Now, this
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fits in with Eisenhower's doctrine of shrinking
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the U .S. military, both to make defense cut
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goals, also, again, and transitioning from a
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conscript army to a more professional army, but
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also, if the United States is relying less on
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ground troops, what are you relying more on to
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achieve the same, if not greater, degree of combat
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destruction? Not just material. What else is
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the U .S. going to do to keep the Russians from
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actually attacking vital U .S. interests? We're
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not going to threaten them with ground troops.
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We're going to threaten them with nuclear weapons.
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And so this leads to the doctrine of massive
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retaliation. In other words, that the United
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States would not involve itself with a ground
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war with the Soviet Union, but rather, if there
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was an interest that the Soviets attacked, that...
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The United States couldn't live with it. The
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United States would rely on its nuclear arsenal.
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Now, there are two things you have to consider
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when you're thinking about nukes. I know most
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of you haven't been thinking about nukes because,
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well, y 'all have lived a very sheltered life.
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Yes. I just realized that one. I'm better at
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this than I thought. Alright. In order to nuke
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someone in the 1950s, You need two things. First,
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you need a nuclear weapon. Then you need a method
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of delivery. In the 1950s, has either the United
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States or the Soviet Union left the atmosphere?
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No. You don't have threshold of going into space
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until 1957. So, nukes are great, but you need
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to deliver them, right? What do you use to deliver
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a nuclear weapon prior to the space race and
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prior to the devising of smaller nuclear weapons,
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which we would call tactical nukes? Well, strategic
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bombers, yes? So, in order to do that, you have
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to use strategic bombers. So, for example, even
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now, does North Korea have a nuclear weapon?
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Yes. Do they have the means of delivering that
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nuclear weapon to the United States? No. No.
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The rocket tests that they've been doing and
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failing at is part of the gig. In a way. Think
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about this for a moment. If I actually look at
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nuclear fission, nuclear fission is a 1940s technology.
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To actually successfully lob something into space
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and have it come down on target. is a 1960s,
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1970s, it's another two decades out in terms
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of technology. You get the idea? So, and what's
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the next frontier after getting weapons into
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orbit and having them come back down is actually
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anti -ballistic missile technology. Being able
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to take down missiles. And I don't want to stray
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too far. In the 1980s, you have the Star Wars
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project where you actually had the idea of having
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America's nuclear defense in space, the weaponization
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of space. In other words, the ICBMs go into space
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and then are shot down in space. But lately,
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you have what is called theater missile defense,
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which is the idea of, okay, you park an Aegis
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cruiser off the coast of the North Korean missile
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site. Missile goes up. you have some projectile
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that takes it out before it enters the orbit.
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Yes? That's still a theory. The kinetic strike
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weapon hasn't been as much science fiction as
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anything else. The concept was developed in the
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50s, but no. That has not been shown or demonstrated
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to be in practice. But, well, right. But anyway.
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But no, theater missile defense is the idea you
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have a projectile that you use to take out a
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rocket in boost phase. But all of this is getting
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ahead of ourselves because theater missile defense,
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I want to say 1990s technology. Okay, so strategic
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bombers. Now, a couple of things and I'm going
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to get to some timeline here. So you have the
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doctrine of massive retaliation. So that's about
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really 1945 to 1953. Two things happened in 1953.
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What happened in 1953? Well, 1953, the United
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States develops a hydrogen bomb. Nine months
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later, Soviet Union develops a hydrogen bomb.
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A couple of things that a hydrogen bomb does
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to change the name of the game. So in the days
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of... So your first two generations of atomic
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weapons, you're measuring blasts in what is called
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kilotons. So basically, the atom bomb at Hiroshima
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and Nagasaki, they were measuring the explosion
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in kilotons. What a kiloton is, is, okay, when
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you're measuring the explosive power, you measure
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it in tons of TNT, because your standard strategic
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munition weighs about 1 ,000 pounds, and it's
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usually charged with TNT. Well, now, kiloton
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is saying that this explosive is the equivalent
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of 1 ,000 conventional explosive one -ton bombs.
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Okay? So, when you're dealing with the first
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generation of atomic weapons, you're measuring
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explosive in kilotons. 1953 to, really, 1972.
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Well, yeah. You have 1953 with the hydrogen bomb.
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You're now measuring explosives in megatons.
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Which is how much? Million. So one bomb is now
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the equivalent of a million conventional explosives.
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Okay? You're now measuring explosives in megatons
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and also the fallout studies are released. In
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other words, so remember when we were... discussing
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World War II, how many people were killed in
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the blast versus how many people were killed
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by radiation. The studies on the effect of nuclear
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fallout was not released to the public and was
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not released to most of the major arms of the
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government until 1953. So from the period of
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1945 to 1953, most of the studies when they were
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talking about combat effectiveness did not include
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fallout deaths. Is that around the time they
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started hypothesizing what would happen if there
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was an all -out nuclear war? Correct. Now think
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about this for a moment. If you don't know about
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fallout, you really just think of an atom bomb
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as a giant incendiary. You're only concerned
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about who's going to be in the incineration zone
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or the blast zone. You're not worried about fallout
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because you don't know about it, right? So think
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about this for a moment. What is so bad about
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radioactive fallout? First of all, it persists.
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Second, what can fallout do in the wind? It can
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spread. I mean, think about this for a moment.
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If you had an atomic bomb being dropped on, or
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if you had a nuclear device being detonated over
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San Antonio, not only would we be dead from being
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in the blast radius, but even the pollen in the
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oak trees would be radioactive. And where does
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that pollen go? Everywhere. That means that has
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to appear with the fallout. It depends, but yeah,
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no. This is where you actually have... hypothesis
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of nuclear winter because not only do you have
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with the hydrogen bomb you have not only an increase
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in the size of the blast you also have an increase
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in the size of the radioactive zone which is
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also then the fallout studies then appreciate
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that this is going to be spread by wind so all
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of a sudden this is when you have the transition
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from massive retaliation to mutually assured
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destruction last question I doubt it but keep
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going radiation When I say spread like butter,
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does it mean like it spreads out thin? It spreads
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wide. It doesn't spread like butter per se. It
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spreads out because, think about this for a moment.
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You have the dust around the radiation zone that
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is now radioactive. And those dust clouds can
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be spread by winds. Can be spread by winds. to
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places near and far, and it's still radioactive.
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You get the idea. Right, so the intensity, like,
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if you were in the center of where the explosion
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happened... Oh, you're dead! No, but, like, the
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intensity of the radiation when it's at the center
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of the explosion can spread all the way, like,
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thousands of miles. Oh, absolutely. And even
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places in the immediate radiation zone, those
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radioactive particles would still be carried
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even further by the wind. Right, so radiation
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can't stretch itself then. It's pretty much an
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infinite range. To a degree. It just is a matter
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of concentration. I mean, then again, there are
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other... There are radio... Yeah, and you have
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the half -life, which is how long things will
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be radioactive. And, I mean, it depends. I mean,
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we have micro -radiation coming out of everything
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from your laptop to your Wi -Fi router. But you
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get the idea. But... So... You have the transition
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from massive retaliation to mutually assured
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destruction. This is largely as a quotient of
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changes in nuclear technology and, more importantly,
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as the Soviet Union begins to have more... places
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that they can launch from. But in the early 1950s,
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the United States has a strategic advantage in
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terms of the ability of American bombers to reach
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targets in the Soviet Union without the ability
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of the Soviets to reciprocate. But that is all
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going to change due to major foreign policy changes
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in the world. So today I get to talk to you about
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the second part, which is how do you have A post
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-colonial republic. How do you go from being
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a post -colonial republic to having puppet states
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all over the world? Well, yes, and then it's
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aftermath. In other words, I mean, if you think
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about it, end of Washington's second term, beware
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foreign entanglements, to now, if you think about
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it, the United States as military bases from
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Rammstein to Okinawa to Bagram to Parts of Germany.
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Well, Rammstein is in parts of Germany. All over
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the world. That's not a post -colonial republic.
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That's an empire. So how do you get from point
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A to point Z? Well, step by step. But part of
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that, part of what happened in the QRS was to
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deal with the threat of communism, the United
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States expanded its sphere of influence. I'm
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going to take you through a whole bunch of American
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foreign interventions, and some of this actually
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explains why some of the parts of the world are
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the way they are. The genesis of the world as
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you know it, the chaos of the world as you know
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it, the genesis of that world is the Cold War.
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So, let's get to some of the hot zones, shall
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we? So... Iran, Guatemala, Iran, Guatemala, Indochina,
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Egypt, Hungary, and Cuba. Let's see here. French
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Indochina. Egypt. Hungary. And Cuba. Okay, let's
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start with Iran. Kind of want to go to the map
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first. What's interesting about Iran? Where is
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it? Directly south of Russia, yes? Also, kind
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of interesting, Iran has a very key geostrategic
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significance to the English and the French. Here's
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why. Let's scroll over. If I look at Western
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Europe, does Western Europe have its own oil
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reserves? No. The United States has domestic
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oil supply and there are oil supplies in South
19:42
America, Mexico, Venezuela, etc. England does
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not have its own petroleum reserves. By the way,
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if England didn't have its own petroleum reserves,
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how did England get started for its second industrial
19:53
revolution? They didn't use oil. What was the
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primary fuel coming out of England and Germany?
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Coal. But now that we make the transition from
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coal to... Oil, because, by the way, can you
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run a car on coal? No, but the Germans tried.
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It really was quite remarkable. What happened
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after that? Well, no, I mean, what they were,
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and actually it's a really interesting concept,
20:13
which I think is kind of cool, but the basic
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idea was, okay, so you basically try and create
20:18
miniature coal dust explosions to actually run
20:20
the auto cycle instead of using gasoline, which
20:23
gasoline, basically your fuel injectors are creating
20:25
miniature explosions anyway. So the pistons come
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up. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I mean. The problem
20:32
is gasoline burns cleaner and it gets clogged
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up. Anyway, it's technically interesting. I don't
20:36
have time to get into it. Yeah. Now, by the way,
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who has oil in Europe? Soviet Union. So, they're
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fine. Western Europe doesn't have oil reserves.
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And where does Western Europe get most of its
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oil? Nope. From the Middle East. Now, major oil
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-producing countries in the Middle East? Egypt,
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Saudi Arabia, Iran. Iran is directly south of
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the Soviet Union. By the way, 1941, Soviet Union,
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with the permission of the British Empire during
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World War I, Soviet Union invades Iran. Invades
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Iran and deposes its king, Reza Khan. Reza Khan
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was the first of the Pahlavi kings. Reza Khan
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is replaced by his son. So they depose the king
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with the king's son who was more pro -US, whereas
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Reza Khan was pro -Germany. And why do you suppose
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Iran and Turkey were pro -Germany? Because the
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enemy of my enemy is my friend. Yes? Okay. So,
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you have the young king ruling Iran. You have
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from 1941 to really 1979, and I'm going to put
22:03
a big gap in the middle, you have Iran as a U
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.S. ally. But in the 1950s, there was a parenthesis
22:13
of Iranian support for the U .S., and what happened
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was, one time when the king was on holiday in
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Rome, There was basically an insurrection. You
22:25
have in, and I need to double check this, I want
22:28
to say it's 1953. You have a parliamentary leader,
22:37
Mossadegh, which again, most of you have problems
22:42
with pronouncing Persian names. Don't worry,
22:44
they're not phonetic and we don't have half of
22:45
these sounds in English. Prime Minister Mossadegh.
22:50
tries to turn Iran from a constitutional monarchy
22:53
into a constitutional republic. Now, what's the
22:55
problem with Mossadegh's constitutional republic?
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It might go from being a constitutional republic
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to an ally of whom? The Soviet Union. By the
23:09
way, kind of interesting, and most people don't
23:11
talk about this very much, communists had already
23:14
tried to take a shot at Shah already, but anyway.
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So, you have in the 1950s the CIA precipitating
23:24
Mossadegh's fall from power and the return of
23:26
the Shah. So the Shah is installed by the CIA.
23:34
And again, that grievance of changing the regime
23:38
in the 1950s is going to be one of the driving
23:42
forces behind the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
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1979, Shah of Iran leaves Iran, dies in Egypt
23:51
of cancer. And Iran is an Islamic republic to
23:57
this day. By the way, the Islamic Republic of
24:00
Iran is still an openly stated enemy of the United
24:03
States. But if Iran fell to communism, not only
24:12
do you have a major oil producer no longer...
24:15
aiding and abetting the Western powers, but also,
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who's the other major oil producer? Well, that's
24:20
Saudi Arabia, and most of the oil refineries
24:22
are here. So if you're Iran, what can you now
24:25
screw with? Saudi Arabia, both by virtue of geography
24:29
and cutting the Strait of Hormuz, which is the
24:32
major avenue for oil flowing out. So again, Iran,
24:36
by the way, even the Iranians now have had some
24:38
fun in the Straits of Hormuz. Again, it's a choke
24:41
point. And when you look at the map, For oil
24:47
to go from the Middle East to Western Europe,
24:49
it has to go through the Persian Gulf, past the
24:51
Strait of Hormuz, that's one choke point, has
24:53
to go past the straits here in Yemen, then it
24:58
has to go through the Suez Canal, before getting
25:01
into the Mediterranean, and then after that,
25:04
it has to go through the Straits of Gibraltar.
25:07
So, oil coming out of Saudi Arabia has to go
25:10
through four different choke points just to get
25:12
to refineries. You get the idea. Okay, so, that
25:16
was Iran. More to follow when we get to the 70s,
25:21
but that's the setup. Alright, now, Guatemala.
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Where is Guatemala? South America. There was
25:30
a... The U .S. basically installs a... 1954.
25:42
The U .S., Backs a coup. And installs a pro -U
25:51
.S. dictator. Pro -U .S. leadership in Guatemala.
25:59
Now think about this for a moment. And this is
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the part... This is going to sound like an apology,
26:10
but it's not. And the reason I say this is because
26:15
apology comes to mean I'm sorry, but that's not
26:18
what the word means. Apologos actually means
26:20
defense of an idea. So, a couple of things that
26:24
you have to keep in mind. All of this, and I
26:27
want to get to Guatemala in particular. Okay,
26:36
so you have what's called the domino theory.
26:40
The domino theory is if one country falls to
26:44
communism, the others will follow. And it's specific
26:49
about communism. So how do you keep... First
26:53
of all, how does a country fall to communism?
26:57
Revolution. Communism, as espoused by Marx and
27:00
Lenin, has it as its doctrine revolution. Now,
27:04
revolution is not a polite conversation. It is
27:08
not a debate. It is a bloody business of long
27:10
knives and fire. And so if you think about it,
27:15
the people who are communists, they are people
27:17
who believe that the ends justify the means.
27:19
They are people who have killed for their political
27:21
ideology before, and they'll do it again. And
27:25
so when you're dealing with an enemy like the
27:26
communists, are you going to give money to polite
27:29
people? And so one of the things the US has to
27:32
do is to choose the dastardly people they can
27:36
live with. And so yes, the United States gave
27:40
money and support to some not very nice people.
27:43
Some very authoritarian people. Some of them
27:45
were nationalists. Some of them were fascists.
27:47
Some of them were really quite dastardly people
27:50
who had to do some dastardly things in the name
27:52
of preserving their governments. If for no other
27:54
reason because the alternative to us was far
27:56
more terrifying. And so you have the U .S. giving
28:02
money to nationalists, giving support to nationalists,
28:05
both through our CIA and through just raw material
28:09
to prevent that from happening. Now, why would
28:13
the idea of a communist Guatemala be so terrifying?
28:16
It's pretty close to home. And if Guatemala fell
28:20
to communism, who might be next? Mexico. And
28:23
has the U .S. fought a war with Mexico before?
28:26
One and a half. Mexican Revolution and the punitive
28:31
expedition when Pershing marches into Mexico
28:35
to go get Jorge Pancho Villa. After the destruction
28:38
of Columbus, New Mexico, not Ohio. If you get
28:43
that one wrong on the final, you fail the course,
28:44
yes? And was the idea of an anti -American...
28:54
Pro -Russia Mexico, that unthinkable. If you
28:57
actually look at some of the government policies
28:59
of the Revolutionary Party in Mexico, some of
29:02
them were quasi -socialist, and again, Mexico
29:05
was neutral during World War II, and, you know,
29:08
the Zimmerman Telegram, nope, get the U .S. into
29:10
World War I. So there you go. Alright, so, you've
29:13
got Guatemala. Up next, Indochina. Kind of an
29:16
interesting thing. I've got time for this general
29:20
idea, and then... we'll get to the actual particulars
29:23
of the French -Indo -China War. Okay. In Asia,
29:27
you have European colonies, specifically colonies
29:39
of England and France. Those colonies... saw
29:51
the weakness of the imperial governments of England
29:55
and France because how long did it take the Germans
29:57
to run over France? About a month. And England
30:01
as an island was in many ways isolated from its
30:05
colonies by the German U -boat fleet. And so
30:07
after World War II, you have revolutionary movements
30:12
in the former colonies of England and France.
30:15
In England, the English colonies, you saw it
30:18
with India. and Pakistan, and I want to say,
30:23
used to call it Burma and Siam. In France, you
30:30
had it in French Indochina, which will become
30:33
the country of Vietnam. You also see it in Laos
30:35
and Cambodia. So you have Indochina. Indochina
30:41
was a French colony from the 1880s to 1941. Who
30:47
shows up in 1941? I'm going to go to a different
30:51
map now. Who shows up in 1941? Japan. Japan invaded
31:10
mainland China in the 1930s into the 1940s. had
31:14
invaded South Vietnam, they were pushing towards
31:17
Thailand, they had invaded the Philippines, they
31:19
had invaded Indonesia, they were up against Australia,
31:22
remember? So, you have a Japanese occupation.
31:30
In that time, you had a resistance movement,
31:35
you had a series of resistance movements against
31:38
Japanese occupation. Some of these were led by
31:41
what are called Catholic Nationalists. Buddhist
31:49
Communists. Forget if it's two D's or one. We'll
31:52
just say it's one. It's two D's. Alright. Buddhist
31:54
Communists. So, they're resisting with arms provided
32:02
by the United States funneled through China until
32:05
what happens in 1945? The war ends. The Japanese
32:11
surrender and the Japanese troops leave Indochina
32:14
and return to Japan. Now, here's the awkwardness.
32:20
You are a Vietnamese freedom fighter, either
32:23
a nationalist or a communist. You have fought
32:27
the Japanese for almost, actually it's really
32:29
probably closer to the 1930s, but anyway, you
32:31
fought the Japanese for nearly a decade in your
32:34
own homeland. What do you think should happen
32:38
now that the Japanese have left? But who gets
32:43
it back? Who originally owned it on paper? Not
32:46
the Vietnamese. But it becomes returned to the
32:50
French. It's returned to French control. So,
32:55
the resistance movement that started by fighting
33:00
the Japanese now begins fighting the French government.
33:07
Now, kind of interesting, some of the French
33:10
colonial administrators were actually Vichy fascists.
33:14
And so you had French people running Vietnam
33:16
for the Japanese, fighting the insurgents. Then
33:19
you've got the colony has returned to French
33:22
control, but now you have an uprising, but now
33:25
with China becoming a communist state, what is
33:29
the fear of the United States? If China is now
33:34
communist, they're worried that Indochina is
33:38
next. And so you actually have this... French
33:42
-Indo -China war where the United States is providing
33:48
money and materiel to the French to resist communist
33:54
domination of Vietnam. But that communist domination
33:57
of Vietnam is coming from its indigenous population.
34:01
So let me go to the key battle for the French
34:06
was the Battle of Dien Bien Pho. It was a siege.
34:08
And so Dien Bien Phu was the last major French
34:12
stronghold, and it was captured by the Viet Minh,
34:15
and this forces the French capitulation in Indochina.
34:19
Kind of the ironies of military history, the
34:22
principal unit controlling Dien Bien Phu was
34:27
actually a unit of the French Foreign Legion.
34:31
Here's the even funnier part. Many of them were
34:37
former SS paratroops from World War II. How do
34:42
you go from being an SS paratrooper in World
34:44
War II to fighting for the French in the French
34:46
-Indo -China War? Think about that for a moment.
34:54
You've got two choices. The war's over and you're
34:56
an SS paratrooper. You either stay in country
34:58
to be hanged as a war criminal, or you join with
35:01
the French Foreign Legion. One of the funny things
35:03
that most of you don't know about the French
35:05
Foreign Legion is if you join the French Foreign
35:07
Legion, you can join the French Foreign Legion
35:09
anonym. Where are my French -speaking peoples?
35:15
Anonymously. Anonym means you actually, you know,
35:18
you walk in, they don't want any paperwork. You
35:21
do not exist anymore. You take on a new name
35:24
and a new identity, and after your five -year
35:26
stint, you're issued a French passport and French
35:28
citizenship. That's kind of cool. Yeah, no, I
35:33
mean, now, if you're kind of running from the
35:36
law, okay, some people I know, it used to be
35:41
sort of a thing, we'll just run off to the French
35:43
embassy and join the Foreign Legion, yes. Why
35:45
did they do it that way? Here's the great thing,
35:49
and we as a schema, we don't have this. If you're
35:53
in the Foreign Legion, you're fighting for French
35:56
citizenship, yes? Why do you have a large legion
36:00
of foreigners fighting in your army if you're
36:03
a great power? And why do you send them in first?
36:07
Because they're not your citizen. They're not
36:09
your citizen. Their mothers won't be crying for
36:13
them. They won't have widows to weep. Now think
36:17
about it. We don't often talk about this, although
36:20
I did see a piece in the Wall Street Journal.
36:22
There are people who get into combat and they
36:25
never leave. They can't come home again. They
36:30
can't live a life of peace. And so right now
36:33
in Afghanistan and Iraq, there are contractors
36:36
who are working the jobs because they can't go
36:40
home. Because they can't settle for civilized
36:43
life. That their joie de vivre is the life of
36:50
war. And we don't really have that many schemas
36:53
for it. And it's because we have lived in a land
36:56
of peace. Okay, so, yeah. Dien Bien Phu leads
37:01
to the French exit. Now, here's the problem.
37:04
If the French just up and leave, who actually
37:06
would up and take over? If you think about it,
37:08
what's the big fear? Communists. So what you
37:11
have is you have a partition of Vietnam into
37:14
the North and the South, with North Vietnamese
37:18
being communist and South Vietnamese being pro
37:22
-US. Now, In the fullness of time, the North
37:30
Vietnamese will send insurgents to try and overthrow
37:33
the South Vietnamese government. The U .S. will
37:35
commit ground troops, but that's into the 1960s
37:38
and the 1970s. Vietnam will be reunited by force
37:41
of arms with the fall of Saigon in the 1970s.
37:45
So far, so good. I kind of skipped Guatemala.
37:52
I'm going to get to Guatemala real quick. Basically,
37:54
the U .S. install, you have a U .S. CIA uprising.
38:02
Again, why would you want to make sure that there
38:05
isn't a communist government in Guatemala? Where
38:08
is Guatemala? Latin America. Is it actually south
38:14
of the Panama Canal? Yes. Okay. What's the big
38:17
fear of a... Communist government in Guatemala.
38:21
Where could communism go after Guatemala? Especially
38:25
into Mexico. Okay, so it works its way up from
38:30
Guatemala to Honduras to Mexico. By the way,
38:32
has Mexico acquitted itself to be an ally of
38:36
the United States? You're talking only, I mean,
38:41
1917, the U .S. invades Mexico as part of the
38:44
Punitive Expedition. The United States and Mexico
38:46
have fought one and a half wars against each
38:48
other and have fought no wars as allies. Also,
38:54
some of the policies of the pre -Revolutionary
38:58
Party in Mexico were somewhere between fascist
39:00
and communist, and so they already had some socialist
39:02
tendencies anyway. But anyway, so you've got
39:06
that. We talked about the Suez Crisis. I'm going
39:08
to get to Sputnik in a bit. I want to get to
39:10
the crisis in Berlin. Okay, we'll go Berlin,
39:15
Cuba, and then Sputnik. Okay, so... You have
39:19
a crisis in Berlin where the Soviet Union is
39:22
trying to clamp down and re -exert its control.
39:25
Again, given that both countries are now nuclear
39:28
capable, with the Russians developing their own
39:30
hydrogen bomb, they do, Eisenhower and Khrushchev
39:33
meet for a summit. 1958, Congress approves the
39:39
Eisenhower Doctrine, which promised economic
39:41
and military assistance to the Middle East, and
39:44
it helped create the United Arab Republic, overthrow
39:47
the pro - So, you have a summit between Eisenhower
39:56
and Khrushchev. That summit was overshadowed
40:00
by the revelation that the... Soviets had captured
40:06
Francis Gary Powers, who was a U -2 spy pilot.
40:09
Now, remember, before the dawn of satellites,
40:12
the way the United States spied on other countries
40:15
is you have a very high and very fast -flying
40:17
aircraft that is taking literally pictures on
40:21
this giant freaking film roll. I mean, it's not
40:24
like Fox photos where you just drop it off and
40:26
it's ready in an hour. You'd have the plane overflying
40:29
the enemy territory, taking these massive pictures,
40:31
then they'd send them off, and then you got people
40:33
looking at the photos and really bad case of
40:35
Where's Waldo? And there it is. And this is all
40:39
analog photography. The U .S. acknowledged the
40:42
drone, or acknowledged Francis Gary Power and
40:47
it ended the summit. 1959. Let's get to that
40:53
and then we'll get to Sputnik. 1959. 1959, Fidel
41:04
Castro overthrows the government of Fulgencio
41:08
Batista, establishing a pro -Russian communist
41:19
state in Cuba. How far is it from the U .S. to
41:22
Cuba? What can you launch from 90 miles? Not
41:26
yet. Well, aircraft. Okay? Overthrows Batista.
41:31
Now, right now, again, you're not talking rockets.
41:38
But, 1957, Soviet Union launches first man -made
41:48
satellite into orbit. Sputnik. This scares the
41:53
United States nationally. Now, in response, now
42:02
this is kind of the interesting thing. So the
42:04
Russians have a satellite in space. They must
42:07
have thought, oh my God, the Russians are ahead
42:08
of us in space. Exploration, it's because America,
42:12
and the conventional wisdom is that they are
42:15
better at math and science than we are. Oh my
42:17
God, Americans being down on their own math and
42:19
science skills. I wouldn't imagine. Actually,
42:21
I'll get to more of that bad joke in a moment.
42:23
So you have Congress passing a national, Defense
42:31
Education Act. All of a sudden, the inculcation
42:38
of the youth becomes a matter of national security.
42:44
Why? Because the youth are supposed to develop
42:49
the next generation of rockets because now all
42:51
of a sudden, if the Soviet Union can launch a
42:54
satellite into space that can transmit a radio
42:56
signal, next they can lob a missile into space
42:59
that can transmit an atomic weapon, yes? That
43:05
was the fear. And so by the end of the Eisenhower
43:10
regime, you have... well, that slide doesn't
43:15
match for anyone. You have a much more chaotic
43:19
world as the U .S. is trying to fend off communist
43:23
aggression in multiple frontiers. And now, in
43:27
the last dimension, the next frontier is now
43:31
the final frontier. Questions, problems, concerns?