Eisenhower's Nuclear Calculus in Europe: The Politics of IRBM Deployment in NATO Nations

by Gates Brown

Overview

Through a reliance on nuclear weapons, President Eisenhower hoped to provide a defense strategy that would allow the U.S. to maintain its security requirements without creating an economic burden. This defense strategy, known as the New Look, benefited the U.S. Air Force with its focus on strategic nuclear weapons. The U.S. also required European missile bases to deploy their intermediate range ballistic missiles, while efforts continued to develop U.S.- based intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Deploying such missiles to Europe required balancing regional European concerns with U.S. domestic security priorities. In the wake of the Soviet Sputnik launch in 1957, the U.S. began to fear Soviet missile capabilities. Using European missile bases would mitigate this domestic security issue, but convincing NATO allies to base the missiles in their countries raised issues of sovereignty and weapons control and ran the risk of creating divisions in the NATO alliance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476634746
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Publication date:	11/30/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	205
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Gates Brown is an assistant professor of military history at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Gates Brown is an assistant professor of military history at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Creating the New Look: Project Solarium and the Intellectual Foundation of the New Look Defense Policy
2. Many Strands into One Rope: Creating a Unified Defense Policy
3. Resistance to Massive Retaliation: The Arguments Against Massive Retaliation and the Deficiencies in Eisenhower’s National Security Policies
4. The Development of IRBMs
5. The Suez Crisis and Bermuda Conference Reconciliation
6. A European Solution to an American Problem: Eisenhower’s Initial Reaction to the Soviet Launch of Sputnik
7. U.S-U.K. IRBM Agreement
8. Unintended Consequences
Conclusion
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index