Eisenhower and the Cold War Arms Race: Open Skies and the Military-Industrial Complex

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Under the growing shadow of the Cold War, President Eisenhower announced his 'Open Skies' initiative to Soviet, British and French delegations at the Geneva Summit in 1955. In a climate of intense fear and suspicion, this proposed system of mutual aerial inspection was dismissed by Khrushchev and the Soviet Union as nothing more than an 'espionage plot'. Nevertheless, Eisenhower campaigned for its implementation until the end of his presidency. Here, Helen Bury provides a new interpretation of Eisenhower's 'Open Skies' programme, arguing that it functioned as a corrective to John Foster Dulles' 'New Look' defence strategy - which relied on the threat of massive nuclear retaliation. A critic of the 'military-industrial' complex which was gaining power in American statecraft and which sought to expand military spending, Eisenhower aimed instead to safeguard the economic strength of America. Eisenhower and the Military-Industrial Complex is the first in-depth study of the Open Skies policy and essential reading for historians of the Cold War and the International Relations of the United States.

Reviews

President Eisenhower's various nuclear initiatives, including Atoms for Peace and Open Skies, have usually been judged by historians as hopelessly naive or cynically manipulative. Dr Helen Bury, with a fresh look at evidence from a wide variety of sources, takes an entirely new approach in her analysis of Open Skies, which begins with a very simple proposition: 'what if Eisenhower was sincere' What emerges is a fresh perspective on the Cold War of the 1950s and inevitable speculation about what might have been. This is an intelligent and engaging book about a period which deserves a new look. Gerard DeGroot, Professor of History at the University of St. Andrews and the author of The Bomb: A Life

Author Bio

Helen Bury has just completed her PhD in Modern History under Gerard De Groot at the University of St. Andrews. She also has a Masters in International Relations from the University of Lancaster.