More Than a Doctrine: The Eisenhower Era in the Middle East

Given on January 5, 1957, the Eisenhower Doctrine Address forever changed America’s relationship with the Middle East. Announcing that a greater responsibility now devolves upon the United States in the aftermath of the Suez Crisis, President Eisenhower boldly declared that the United States would henceforth serve as the region’s protector of freedom against Communist aggression. Eighteen months later the president would invoke the Eisenhower Doctrine, landing troops in Lebanon and setting an enduring precedent for U.S. intervention in the Middle East. How did Eisenhower justify this intervention to an American public wary of foreign entanglements? Why did Eisenhower boldly issue the doctrine that bears his name? And, most importantly, how has Eisenhower’s rhetoric continued to influence American policy and perception of the Middle East? Drawing from newly available archival sources and the latest scholarship in Rhetoric, History, and Middle East Studies, Randall Fowler answers these questions and more in More than a Doctrine: The Eisenhower Era in the Middle East. With the expansion of America’s global influence and the executive branch’s power, presidential rhetoric has become an increasingly important tool in U.S. foreign policy-nowhere more so than in the Middle East. By examining Eisenhower’s rhetoric, this book explores how the argumentative origins of the Eisenhower Doctrine Address continue to impact us today.