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By Root 1589 0

collective security and a march toward the eradication of ignorance, discrimination, disease, and hunger. The UN was much like the post WWI League of Nations, but its charter gave it a bit more clout. Still, the Security Council was required to approve any action using force and one no vote could kill taking action. During the Truman and Eisenhower years the world acted as if it was on the side of the West, when in fact this was only a tactic to keep the might of the Western Democracies off the backs of the petty dictators and warlords who wanted the world to go on as it always had, leaving them with absolute power over their populations. As time moved forward, the petty nations of the world began to vote in favor of the communist super states turning the idea of an international organization for peace and progress on its head. The dream of world cooperation actually died with the League, but somehow its demanding corpse staggers on. Originally an American idea, it was an idealistic concept by President Wilson who failed in selling it to his own countrymen. Reviving it after WW II was probably a quixotic error, pushed by an optimistic concept that the world was becoming a new place. It did not become a new place after WWII, just a different place with the same problems of greed and desperation. Human nature remains forever the same.

Eisenhower: Careful Cold Warrior

1952 to 1960

Truman left office with the Cold War, the arms race, and the Korean War boiling on. Eisenhower, the general leading the Allied forces in Europe during WWII, became president of the United States in 1952. He inherited a nearly worthless, out-of-control intelligence community. Eisenhower thought his failure to reign in the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) was one of his most significant defeats while in office. Under Eisenhower, the United States assured the world it would use the atomic bomb to deter aggression; however, this was a false promise and the communist world knew it. In many areas of the world the United States, through the CIA, supported petty murdering dictators for whom honest elections were an anathema. The CIA was afraid the communist, or at least left-wing radicals, would win an election and anything was better than an anti-USA communist government. During the Cold War, the United States sent millions of dollars to support oppressive right-wing military dictatorships solely because they opposed communism.

The US commitment to Europe by Truman under the Marshall Plan prevented a potential communist takeover. Eisenhower continued all these policies and encouraged NATO to remain strong in its opposition to communism. The growth of European economies helped the US economy stay strong through the Eisenhower years. Eisenhower tried to reduce government spending, and he tried to reduce government’s size. In this he was somewhat successful.

Nonetheless, the communists were very good at starting guerrilla wars and overthrowing governments, especially in nations made up of peasants. The communist promise of free land and a non-corrupt government struck a chord with many peasants throughout the world. Communist revolutionaries are generally fanatics, but have good rapport with villagers and rural groups supporting a revolutionary movement. As long as the population supported the communists no total victory was likely by the national government, and defeat was always a possibility as the insurgents gained backing and power. Where villages refused to support the revolution the village elders were murdered and replaced by communist revolutionaries. It was a simple equation to the communist fanatics, join the revolution or die. Most governments in rural farming nations had problems controlling outlying areas in the best of circumstances, and, as the villagers turned communist, control became impossible. The fact that America’s CIA, usually without the knowledge of the State Department, paid off right-wing thugs to stave off communists was an evil necessity to the intelligence community trying to thwart world communism. Besides, the communists