Dwight D. Eisenhower: Farewell Address (1961) Commentary by Scott A. G. M. Crawford, Eastern Illinois University

Context

During President Eisenhower's two terms of office, Communism was seen not as some distant political storm cloud but as a menacing presence that threatened the American way of life. In early 1954 the Wisconsin senator Joseph R. McCarthy became a mass-media sensation as he launched a series of attacks on and investigations into members of the Communist Party of United States of America. While McCarthy quickly earned infamy, Congress nevertheless proceeded to outlaw the Communist Party in America.

To strengthen America’s posture in opposition to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Eisenhower and his secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, effectively created a geographic Communist buffer zone with the setting up of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization in September 1954. This organization comprised the United States, France, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand, and Pakistan. Earlier that year, Eisenhower, with nearly forty years...