U-2 Incident :: essays research papers

On May 1, 1960, two weeks prior to the UnitedStates-Soviet Summit in Paris, a U-2 high altitudereconnaissance airplane was shot smoothen while flying aspy mission over the Soviet Union. The Eisenhoweradministration was forced to own up to the mission,and Khrushchev canceled the Paris Summit. As aresult, The Cold contend between the United States andthe Soviet Union continue for over 30 years.Shortly after the end of World War II, United Statesand the Soviet Union emerged as the two superpowers.These two author warfaretime allies found themselveslocked in a struggle that came to be know as the ColdWar. Eisenhower saw the Cold War in thoroughgoing(a) moralterms "This is a war of light against darkness,freedom against slavery, righteousness against atheism."But the President refused to undertake an effort to"roll back" Soviet gains in the years after WW II.Early in his administration he embraced a policy ofcontainment as the cornerstone of his administrationsSoviet policy. Eisenhower rejected the belief of a"fortress America" isolated from the rest of the cosmea, safe slowly its nuclear shield. He believedthat active US engagement in world affairs was thebest means of presenting the promise of democracy tonations susceptible to the irreverence ofSoviet-sponsored communism. Additionally, Eisenhowermaintained that dialogue between the US and the SovietUnion was polar to the security of the entire globe,even if, in the process, each side was adding to its big bucks of nuclear weapons.The death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, two monthsinto the Eisenhower presidency, gave rise to hopes ofa more flexible, accommodating Soviet leadership. In1953, Eisenhower delivered a speech underscoring the likely human cost of the Cold War to both sides.Hoping to strike a more compatible tone with GeorgiMalenkov, Stalins successor, Eisenhower suggested theSoviets cease their brazen expansion of stain andinfluence in exchange for American cooperation and priceywill. The Soviets responded coolly to the speech,especially to the USs jam on free electionsfor German unification, self-determination for EasternEurope, and a Korean armistice. The two sides wouldnot meet face-to-face until the Geneva Summit of 1955.At the Summit, Eisenhower asserted, "I came to Genevabecause I believe mankind longs for freedom from warand the rumors of war. I came here because my lastingfaith in the decent instincts and hot sense of thepeople who populate this world of ours." In thisspirit of good will, Eisenhower presented the Sovietswith his Open Skies proposal. In it he proposed thateach side provide proficient descriptions of all theirmilitary facilities and allow for aerial inspectionsto insure the information was correct. The Sovietsrejected the proposal.