POLI 1501 Lecture 4: Lecture 4
6 Feb 2019
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Document Summary
Defense treaty with the nationalists on taiwan - 1953. U. s. agrees to defend taiwan against possible invasion by china (only china) Dilemma - he wants to defend the u. s. against the threat of soviet intervention throughout the world, but he wants to do it without spending too much money. Introduces massive retaliation policy - fits with notion of not spending too much money in order to deter the soviets. A policy in which the u. s. declared it would retaliate with nuclear weapons to halt aggression by the soviets. Goal was to deter the soviets from undertaking aggressive action. Nuclear weapons are cheaper than military commitments. Pushed the u. s. to pursue a policy of having survivable nuclear forces. Created an inherent tension in how credible the u. s. policy was - would the. Eisenhower authorized the use of covert force against regimes that came to power that seemed communist or anti-american.
