1956: The Year of Crises and the Steady Statesmanship of Eisenhower

As we enter the fall of 2026, it is turning out to be a year of crises. The Russia-Ukraine War is in its fifth year with no end in sight and threatens to escalate to other parts of Europe. The United States and Israel are at war with Iran and Iran’s terrorist proxies in the Middle East, a conflict that has included attacks by Iran and its proxies in other Gulf states, Iraq, and the Red Sea. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has affected oil markets throughout the world. Tensions continue to rise in the western Pacific, including the Taiwan Strait. There is genuine concern that events could spin out of control, leading to a global conflagration involving multiple nuclear-armed powers.

Seventy years ago, the world was facing similar crises. Nationalist political uprisings in Poland and Hungary shook the foundations of the Soviet empire in Eastern and Central Europe. In February 1956, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev delivered a secret speech to the 20^th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in which he denounced Josef Stalin’s excesses, especially against fellow Party members. The text of the speech was leaked, which had repercussions throughout the satellite empire and in China, where it ignited a slow-burning ideological dispute that culminated years later in the Sino-Soviet split. In Hungary that year, a political uprising was crushed by Soviet tanks. In the Middle East, in the wake of Egyptian leader Nasser’s nationalization of the Suez Canal Company and seizure of the Suez Canal, Israel, supported by France and Great Britain, invaded the Sinai Peninsula. France and Britain sent troops and launched air strikes. Meanwhile, tensions remained high in the Taiwan Strait which had been the scene of military conflict between Mao’s Communist forces and Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists the year before.

In the United States, 1956 was a presidential election year—a rematch between Democrat Adlai Stevenson and incumbent President Dwight Eisenhower. Eisenhower’s health was an issue—he had suffered a heart attack in September 1955. But the statesmanlike way that he handled these foreign policy crises and his steady leadership in domestic policy led to a second Electoral College landslide for Ike: 457 to 73, with a nearly 10 million vote margin in the popular vote.