Throughout the 1950’s, pivotal fundamental issues further divided the superpowers conflicting ideologies and therefore these issues remained unchanged. US foreign policy such as Brinkmanship, Roll back and massive retaliation did divide the superpowers. Furthermore, the disputes over Berlin, new alliances forming within NATO and The Warsaw Pact further divided the superpowers. Although we did see some improvement in terms of Geneva and the change in leadership these changes certainly did not resolve the fundamental issues during the 1950s.
On one hand, fundamental issues remained unchanged due to the change in US foreign policy. As the new leader of the US in 1953, Eisenhower and Dulles (Vice president) adopted a new policy known as ‘Brinkmanship’ which was also related the ‘New Look’ and ‘Rollback’. He intended to cut conventional forces and become more dependent on nuclear weapons, which as according to Dulles made the enemy suffer more than they can possible gain. This was known as massive retaliation could be seen as dividing the superpowers further as it meant the Soviet’s needed to compete in order to defend themselves. However, these policies could be seen as helping issues such as the Tawain Straits Crisis in 1954 in which it has been argued that the presence of nuclear weapons stopped the Chinese interfering. Essentially, the introduction of nuclear weapons spurred the arms race and led to further divisions between the superpowers. After the death of Stalin in 1953, new leaders, Khrushchev and Malenkov indicated that he wanted to make changes between the fundamental issues that divided the east and west. Therefore, In 1955 a summit in Geneva was held between Eisenhower Bulganin (Soviet Foreign Minister), in order to discuss peaceful use of aztomic power, disarmament and an open skies policy. Although many spoke of the ‘spirit of Geneva’, highlighting the