American foreign policies in Third World countries were determined by Cold War doctrine. Explain American foreign policy in the Third World during the Eisenhower administration. Be sure to discuss Iran, Guatemala, and Vietnam.

 

The American attitude was that countries were either for the US or for the Soviet Union during the cold war. They made every effort to control, contain and stamp out communism throughout the globe. Third world countries were especially vulnerable to American interference. Eisenhower sent troops, weapons and money and also used the CIA as a tool to deal with any problems or threats.

In Iran, Eisenhower feared the government's, and most particularly, the Prime Minister's association with Iranian communists, and that it might undermine the US relationship with the Shah. The CIA intervened, reestablishing the power of the Shah and cementing American ties in both government and business.

Again, worried that the government in Guatemala had a strong relationship with communist, the US decided to step in. The US cut off weapons supplies to Guatemala, at which point the President sought another source. That source was Czechoslovakia, which was a communist country. Eisenhower then utilized the CIA to overthrow the elected government.

The US wasn't the only country fighting communism of course, and the US aided other countries where they could. They sent arms and money to the French as they struggled to take back Indochina --including Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, from communist influence. When that failed, the US helped establish South Vietnam as non-communist stronghold.

Step-by-step explanation

The CIA orchestrated a coup, overthrowing Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh, whom the US found a threat and strengthening the Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi s power. They also gained an interest in the Iranian oil industry this way.

The CIA helped overthrow the Guatemalan president,  Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, using counterrevolutionaries, and had planned to train anti Castro fighters in Guatemala in a plot to get rid of Castro before Eisenhower left office.

The US at one point was paying nearly 75% of the costs in France's fight, but couldn't get any other countries to participate and couldn't get Congress to agree to the US providing troops or engaging in any military action alone,