Seeking Order and Stability

This chapter examines how the Eisenhower administration sought to bring stability to a changing world. Global containment remained at the heart of grand strategy, focusing on developments in the Third World. The rise to power of the Shah of Iran and Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam after France’s defeat at Dien Bien Phu in May 1954 bolstered the American Century, yet officials could not ignore the growth of radical nationalism, as represented by Jacobo Árbenz Guzmân in Guatemala, Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt, and nations present at the Bandung Conference in April 1955. Nation-building offered one response through educational programs and religious missions. To guard against revolution, Washington supported counterinsurgency operations in places where radicalism took hold.