Domestic Politics and Foreign Affairs

But trouble was on the horizon for the United States as the decade near an end. The Eisenhower administration had supported the new government in Saigon following the Geneva Convention in1954 and had embarked on a campaign to protect American interests in Iran and Guatemala. Then, in 1959, a popular figure emerged from his mountain sanctuary to lead the Cuban people against the American-back government of Fulgencio Batista. That leader was Fidel Castro, and after Castro nationalized American properties in Cuba, President Eisenhower authorized the CIA to plan for an invasion of Cuba.

President Eisenhower based his decision on the earlier successful efforts to topple the governments of Iran and Guatemala. Those efforts in different parts of the world led to the debacle of the Bay of Pigs in 1961.

links to document on Eisenhower and Cuba, link to
bibliography on Cuba and Fidel Castro and special operations in the
Third World

Ike's America: The Fabulous Fifties Prelude to the 1950s Ike The Korean War The 1952 Election Domestic Politics and Foreign Affairs The Second Red Scare Civil Rights Popular Culture Legacy of the 1950s