15-06-2013, 04:02 PM
Cliff Varnell Wrote:Tracy Riddle Wrote:I think Eisenhower was also highly resistant to sending in US troops (except for Lebanon in 1958), but unfortunately he overcompensated in the other direction by building enough nukes to blow up the planet.
Didn't Ike inherit the massive US military build-up from Truman and his Sec of Def Robert Lovett?
A strategic shift was made away from a huge conventional military (which is expensive) towards building thousands of nukes (which are much cheaper). So Ike and John Foster Dulles developed the idea of "massive retaliation" - that the US would respond with nukes instead of troops in the event of a major move by the communist powers.
Kennedy thought this was crazy, which is why he initially favored building up the Special Forces and counterinsurgency tactics instead of going nuclear over every crisis.