"Preserving Law and Order: Britain, the United States, and the East German Uprising of 1953," (Twentieth Century British History, 1994) (original) (raw)
Twentieth Century British History
With hindsight from a post-198 9/90 perspective the Cold War years may appear to have been a period of long peace and relative stability.However, at the time Dwight D. Eisenhower became the 34th President of the United States in January 1953 the world was neither a very stable nor a safe place. Stalin's sudden death in early March 1953 did not change this. The world continued to be divided into two implacably opposed camps, characterized by an unrelenting ideological and power-political battle between the two superpowers.After the dictator's death the State Department, Eisenhower and the White House staff as well as the British Foreign Office (FO) agreed that Stalin's successors would hardly be interested in instigating a new policy course and disturbing the status quo. It was assumed that the new men in the Kremlin would be glad if the capitalist world would leave them alone for a while. They would then be able to pursue their foreign policy along safe, traditional, Cold War lines, while settling in internally, and resolving any struggles for power which might surface. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill did not agree with this view, however. In the following months and years an epic power battle between Churchill and U.S. President Eisenhower unfolded regarding the meaning of Stalin's Death. War there an opportunity to de-escalate the Cold War? Eisenhower did not think so and in the end managed to undermine Churchill's attempt to embark on negotiations and a fresh approach to the East-West conflict.
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