In what ways, and to what extent, did Eisenhower's foreign policy demonstrate the limits of American power in the 1950s?

One area where the USA’s limitation of power was illustrated most strongly was in the ‘space race’ with the USSR.  On 4 October 1957, ‘Sputnik’ was launched by the Soviet Union, this was the world’s first ever manmade satellite.  This was quickly followed by the launch of ‘Sputnik II’, the launch of both shocked the American public.  They responded by increasing spending on science education and by launching their own satellite ‘Explorer I’ in January 1958.  The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was also created later in the year and large amounts of American funding was focussed here.  The USSR also launched their first ICBM in August 1957; not only had the USSR launched the first space satellite but their missiles would soon have the range of the USA’s.  The USA had recognised itself as being a far more advanced nation militarily and technologically, the gap between them was fast closing and Ike refused to become involved in an arms race.  Despite his refusal to actually become involved in an ‘arms race’, a ‘space race’ did begin and vast increases in expenditure illustrated the American fear that the Soviet Union would become more powerful than them.

Eisenhower’s attempts to improve relations with the USA through summits such as the ‘Geneva Summit’ of 1955 seemed to show some success.  The summit actually achieved nothing concrete and was successful only in terms of increasing Eisenhower’s own support within the USA with what the media described as the ‘spirit of Geneva’.  It did lead to the Soviets recognising the Federal Republic of Germany and removed occupying forces in Austria but the most significant proposals such as ‘open skies’ were rejected showing open mistrust still existed between the two countries.  The success of all achieved during Eisenhower’s time in power was undermined at that Paris Summit of 1960, where the USSR announced that it had show down a U-2 spy plane.  This was a great embarrassment for the Americans who claimed at first that it was not theirs and then that it was a research plane.  When the pilot Francis Gary Powers was revealed, live and well, the lies of the USA were exposed publicly and relations between the USA and the Soviet Union declined rapidly.  Eisenhower’s decision to spy on the USSR in this manner had undermined his own policies and showed the world that the USA clearly did fear the USSR and also that she did not trust her; the limitations of her power were exposed again.  Eisenhower’s attempts, with one hand, to improve relations, whilst with the other hand trying to ‘roll back’ communism, showed only the financial limitations of the USA and her economic weaknesses, especially when considered in conjunction with the ‘New Look’ policy.

Eisenhower’s ‘New Look’ policy which involved increasing the nuclear armament of the USA whilst decreasing the conventional military.  This displayed an economic weakness in the USA as it was being forced to ‘cut back’, this was well known to nations outside the USA despite Dulles’ attempts to show that their decision to divert to nuclear weapons was once based on the idea they would get more “bang for the buck”.  This led to the development of the “massive retaliation” policy which stated that if any action was taken against the USA then it would respond with severe force.  This only showed the limitations of the USA’s power more effectively than before, the USA appeared to have developed this threat because she was unable to intervene conventionally due to economical, political and geographical reasons.  Eisenhower had no intention of using such weapons and the threat’s effectiveness decreased as enemy power’s realised this, it was this realisation which would lead Kennedy back into the arms race in the 1960s.

To conclude, Eisenhower’s foreign policy acted to display to foreign powers, and to those within the USA, America’s internal weaknesses and limitations of power.  The ‘New Look’ seemed to be a bid by Eisenhower to make America seem strong whilst cutting down expenditure on the military budget, something which showed America’s economic weakness and which actually caused a recession.  Eisenhower’s decision to become involved in a ‘space race’ showed a real fear in the American public that the Soviet Union would overtake her technologically.  The spy planes showed that the USA felt she had to keep track on the Soviet Union and the resultant shooting down of one such U-2 plane and the events at the Paris Summit exposed to the world the USA’s willingness to lie openly.  It showed a limitation in the USA’s power because it showed not only that she was ‘keeping track’ of the USSR but also that she was afraid to admit she was doing so or to defend her reasons.  The attempts by the USA to improve relations with the USSR did not seem to be motivated by good will but more by internal economic problems within the USA, or at least a wish by the USA to direct its spending away from the military- showing that the USA felt that the USSR was a significant threat; she seemed dependent on a change in the Soviet Union’s spending to be able to change hers.  The ‘roll back’ policy was a failure, showing directly the limitation of the USA’s power.  The policy was widely supported but Hungary and other instances showed that the USA was too economically and militarily weak to be able to ‘roll back’ communism.  The USA’s ‘admission’ that it could not act in the Soviet Unions ‘sphere of influence’ was also a display of her weakness which Eisenhower’s foreign policy only outlined more blatantly by actually supporting attempts to act there.