Eisenhower left office with a mixed foreign policy record, one that leaves scholars in continued disagreement.
On the one hand, he ended hostilities in Korea and ensured eight years of peace and prosperity in the nation, instituted sharp limitations on defense spending, practiced continued containment of the Soviet Union without the previous costs in blood and money, and showed overall astuteness and restraint in the exercise of American power.
On the other hand, he extended the Cold War into the third world and failed to distinguish between nationalism and Communism, with disastrous future consequences.
He also failed in his effort to halt the militarization of U.S. foreign policy and American life and the rise of what he labeled the “Military-Industrial Complex.”
To his credit, he openly admitted that failure in his farewell speech and warned his fellow citizens of what might follow.
Source credit: Professor Mark Stoler, University of Vermont
On the one hand, he ended hostilities in Korea and ensured eight years of peace and prosperity in the nation, instituted sharp limitations on defense spending, practiced continued containment of the Soviet Union without the previous costs in blood and money, and showed overall astuteness and restraint in the exercise of American power.
On the other hand, he extended the Cold War into the third world and failed to distinguish between nationalism and Communism, with disastrous future consequences.
He also failed in his effort to halt the militarization of U.S. foreign policy and American life and the rise of what he labeled the “Military-Industrial Complex.”
To his credit, he openly admitted that failure in his farewell speech and warned his fellow citizens of what might follow.
Source credit: Professor Mark Stoler, University of Vermont