838) by financial supporting the governments and economies of these nations. In the end this foreign policy proved to successfully restore a capitalist economy and silence the cries for revolution in Western Europe. Unfortunately, the continued tension and suspicion between the U. S. and U. S. S. R. over shadowed every victory against the "Red Menace". Examples of failures in the diplomatic arena during the Cold War can also be found in the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations. Although President Eisenhower made a critical leap in foreign diplomacy when he met with Soviet leader Nikita Khurshchev to discuss the possibility of a conference that would focus on German reunification and nuclear disarmament, he later irrevocably damaged relations with the U. S. S. R. during the U-2 incident. When the American U-2 spy plane was shot down over Russian air space, Khrushchev's "demands for an apology and an end to the spy flights" (p.884) went unheard by the president. Eisenhower's refusal to give in to Khrushchev's terms subsequently led to the death of any possibility of a summit between the United States and U. S. S. R. for many years to come. President John Kennedy faired no better in his policies with the government of the Soviet Union and communist containment. Kennedy's failure to over throw the communist government of Cuba during the Bay of Pigs and the subsequent Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear devastation. Despite preventing an all out nuclear attack on the United States, Kennedy's actions lead to the Soviet's engaging "in the largest weapons buildup in their history." (p.893) After the crisis, Kennedy realized the future of the world depended upon "a rethinking of cold war diplomacy" (p.893) and set up a hot-line between Washington and Moscow as well as signed the Limited Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty but these actions were in vain. The foreign policy of almost all presidential administrations after Kennedy's would dramatically strain foreign relations and escalate the arms race between the U.