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c haPter 7

Conformity and Challenges

in the Eisenhower and

Kennedy Years

E

isenhower’s stirring words about the costs of militarism did not immedi-
ately change the views of the new Soviet leadership, and perhaps they
were not intended to forge a new relationship between the two powers any-
way, for 2 days later Secretary of State John Foster Dulles gave a speech of
his own, quite different than the president’s “Cross of Iron” oration. The sec-
retary of state was abrasive, beginning with the declaration that “we are not
dancing to any Russian tune.” Even though Stalin was gone, he charged, it was
still true in Russia that “vast power is possessed by men who accept no guid-
ance from the moral law.” Eisenhower and Dulles thus continued to say that
the Soviet Union was aiming for world hegemony and it had to fundamen-
tally change if cooperation were to be possible; essentially it had to become
something other than itself since the U.S. would only cooperate with non-
Communist, private enterprise societies. Even with Stalin dead and the
American president speaking with great emotion and force about the hazards
of militarization, the Cold War continued to hold the world captive. Inside
Russia, communist leaders regarded the two speeches as “propaganda and
provocation” and they remained alarmed by the talk of the “liberation”–the
overthrow of Communist governments– of Eastern Europe coming from