Eisenhower Propaganda, Psychological Warfare and Diplomacy Essay Example

Eisenhower: Propaganda, Psychological Warfare and Diplomacy Essay When President Eisenhower moved into the White House in the winter of 1953, he was still very much the general. Determined to prosecute the Cold War with the same intensity as the world war that brought him fame, Eisenhower reorganized the machinery of the executive branch and conceptualized the U.S. national security policies to wage better a †long-haul† struggle against communism (Gilbert, 115). Despite Eisenhower’s lifetime of military experience, he avoided focusing solely on the military dimensions of the conflict. He believed, as he frequently commented, the Cold War was as much a spiritual and ideological contest as it was a military or economic one. To Eisenhower, the Cold War was first and foremost a political war,a persuasion war, a cultural war, and a propaganda war that would be won or lost on the plane of public opinion, rather than by bloodshed on the battlefield(122). The risk of an, â€Å"out and out shooting war†, he wrote to a friend, â€Å"is far less than the danger we face on the political warfare front† (123). As the focus of the Cold War competition shifted to the third world in the 1950s, so too did the propaganda war. The revolution and anti-imperialist messages of communism, as well as the Soviet industrialization, potentially appealed to the new state emerging from the throws of European imperialism (Leffler, 15). The Eisenhower administration found itself embroiled in an intense political and psychological competition for the loyalties of these new lean emerging states, many of them still fighting for independence and struggling against turbulent political revolutions (16). Yet contrary to what one might expect from an administration that tended to view the world from a myopic anti-Communist lens, psychological warfare experts in Eisenhower’s administration consistently labeled anti-colonialism and nationalism as a greater threat to American influence in the third world and communism–at least as We will write a custom essay sample on Eisenhower: Propaganda, Psychological Warfare and Diplomacy specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Eisenhower: Propaganda, Psychological Warfare and Diplomacy specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Eisenhower: Propaganda, Psychological Warfare and Diplomacy specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer