AP® United States History review sheet from Aim for Five (aimforfive.com/us-history/units/8/8-7)
Unit 8 · Topic 8.7
8.7 America as a World Power
The Cold War spread worldwide as new nations in Asia, Africa and the Middle East won independence from European empires, and both superpowers competed for their loyalty. The U.S. backed anti-communist governments, sometimes through secret CIA operations as in Iran (1953) and Guatemala (1954), and Americans debated nuclear weapons and the growing 'military-industrial complex' that Eisenhower warned about.
Key terms
- decolonization
- nonaligned nations
- CIA covert operations
- Bay of Pigs invasion
- military-industrial complex
Decolonization and the Third World
Decolonization is the process by which colonies won independence. After World War II, weakened European empires gave way: India and Pakistan (1947), Indonesia (1949), Ghana (1957), and seventeen African nations in 1960 alone. Many new nations wanted to stay out of the Cold War. At the Bandung Conference (1955) Asian and African leaders met, and in 1961 several formed the Non-Aligned Movement, refusing to join either bloc.
U.S. leaders feared that poor, newly independent countries might turn communist. They faced a dilemma: the U.S. claimed to support self-determination, but its European allies were the colonial powers, and some independence movements were led by leftists.
Covert action and intervention
- Iran (1953): after Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh nationalized the British-owned oil industry, the CIA and British intelligence helped organize a coup that restored the power of the Shah, a U.S. ally. Resentment of this helped fuel the 1979 Iranian Revolution (8.14).
- Guatemala (1954): the CIA backed a coup against elected president Jacobo Árbenz, whose land reform took unused land from the U.S.-owned United Fruit Company.
- Suez (1956): when Britain, France and Israel invaded Egypt after it nationalized the Suez Canal, Eisenhower pressured them to withdraw, not wanting to look like a backer of colonialism.
- Eisenhower Doctrine (1957): promised aid to Middle Eastern nations resisting communism; U.S. Marines landed in Lebanon in 1958.
- Bay of Pigs (April 1961): a CIA-trained force of about 1,400 Cuban exiles landed in Cuba to overthrow Fidel Castro and was quickly defeated, embarrassing President Kennedy and pushing Castro closer to the Soviets.
- Chile: the U.S. worked to undermine socialist president Salvador Allende before a military coup overthrew him in 1973 and brought General Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship.
Winning hearts and minds
The U.S. also competed through aid and culture. Kennedy created the Peace Corps (1961), sending volunteers to work in developing countries, and the Alliance for Progress offered aid to Latin America. The space race and cultural exchanges were part of the competition for prestige. Critics noted that U.S. support for dictators and segregation at home undercut its claims to stand for freedom; the Soviets publicized American racism abroad, which gave U.S. leaders another reason to support civil rights reform.
Nuclear debates and the military-industrial complex
The nuclear arms race created deep anxiety. Schoolchildren practiced 'duck and cover' drills, families built fallout shelters, and groups like SANE (founded 1957) campaigned against nuclear testing. Strategists described mutually assured destruction (MAD): neither side would attack because both would be destroyed. Films like Dr. Strangelove (1964) satirized the logic.
In his farewell address in January 1961, Eisenhower, a retired five-star general, warned against the 'military-industrial complex', the permanent alliance of the armed forces, defense contractors and politicians who all benefited from high military spending. He argued it could gain unwarranted influence over American democracy. His warning is still cited in debates over defense spending.
Worked examples
Try each one yourself first, then open the solution.
- Example 1
Sourcing Eisenhower's farewell address
Short-answer practice: Explain why Eisenhower's background makes his 1961 warning about the military-industrial complex especially significant.
Show the solutionHide the solution
- Step 1: Identify the speaker and his background.
- Step 2: Explain what that background adds to the argument's credibility or meaning.
- Step 3: Connect to the historical situation of the speech.
Answer: Model answer: Eisenhower was a five-star general who had commanded Allied forces on D-Day and served two terms as a Republican president during the Cold War arms race, so no one could easily accuse him of being weak on defense. When such a leader warned that defense contractors and the military could gain unwarranted influence, his warning carried unusual weight, and it reflected his concern that permanent high defense spending after the Korean War and the missile race was changing American democracy.
Common mistakes
- Thinking U.S. Cold War policy was only about open wars. Covert operations in Iran and Guatemala were central tools.
- Assuming the U.S. always sided with European colonial powers. At Suez in 1956 Eisenhower forced Britain and France to back down.
- Mixing up the Bay of Pigs (1961, failed exile invasion) with the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962, Soviet missiles).
On the exam
- Questions may ask how the Cold War shaped U.S. relations with the developing world. Use a specific intervention as evidence.
- The military-industrial complex speech is a common primary source for SAQs about the Cold War's domestic effects.
Connected topics
Videos
Check yourself
4 questions on 8.7 America as a World Power. Pick an answer to see if you got it, and why.
"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence—economic, political, even spiritual—is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. . . . In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex."
Source: President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address to the nation, January 17, 1961.
The development Eisenhower describes was most directly a result of
Eisenhower's warning is notable because he was
"In that city, under the leadership of demagogic extremists, disorderly mobs have deliberately prevented the carrying out of proper orders from a Federal Court. . . . Mob rule cannot be allowed to override the decisions of our courts. . . .
Our enemies are gloating over this incident and using it everywhere to misrepresent our whole nation. We are portrayed as a violator of those standards of conduct which the peoples of the world united to proclaim in the Charter of the United Nations."
Source: President Dwight D. Eisenhower, radio and television address on the situation in Little Rock, Arkansas, September 24, 1957.
The second paragraph shows Eisenhower's concern that
"Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. . . . To halt this offensive buildup, a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment under shipment to Cuba is being initiated. . . .
It shall be the policy of this Nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union."
Source: President John F. Kennedy, radio and television address to the nation on the Soviet arms buildup in Cuba, October 22, 1962.
Cuba's willingness to accept Soviet missiles was influenced in part by
0 of 4 answered