Central Intelligence Agency And The Cold War

During the cold war, the United States engaged in many aggressive policies both at home and abroad, in which to fight communism and the spread of communist ideas. Faced with a new challenge and new global responsibilities the U.S. needed to retain what it had fought so strongly for in World War II. It needed to contain the communist ideas pouring from the Soviet Union while preventing communist influence at home, without triggering World War III. With the policies of containment, McCarthyism, and brinkmanship, the United States hoped to effectively stop the spread of communism and their newest threat, the Soviet Union.

The first method of preventing the spread of communism was implementing US policy. This strategy included external resistance to Soviet imperialism and competing in the international arena. As a nation, we did not want the USSR to feel superior in any area. In order to do so, the US needed to modernize its military, conventionally and nuclear, so the USSR would not underestimate our country. This also intimidated

The United States developed into a world super power following World War II. Many of the Allies were deeply affected by the war financially and were struggling, thus leaving a vacuum that needed to be filled. The United States was thrust into the position of “policing” and assisting nations around the world. The Cold War was in many ways a psychological illusion however there were many factors that led to this illusion which were well founded. The Cold War stemmed from a multitude of factors, the difficult war against Nazi’s and Japan, Stalin behaviors were not trustworthy, Berlin blockade, Poland puppet government, the fall of China, the build up of arms and the birth nuclear weapons all fed fear-based anti-communist policies. In

If one was to look at the world post WWII, it would be clear to see that the United States had the upper hand in comparison to the Soviet Union. While the USSR had mass casualties and destruction to deal with, the US only benefited from WWII, with an increased economy, and advantages from being pulled out of the Great Depression. The United States took action during the Cold War to try and restrict the USSR’s power. One of the major steps that the US took was to stop the spread of Communism. To prove this point, President Truman established the Truman Doctrine.

The Cold War is known as being one of the most intense ideological debates in American history. This war consisted of the United States being involved in an ongoing rivalry with the Soviet Union, with Berlin, Korea, and Cuba being involved as well (Background Essay). By the end of 1947 the war was beginning, which was almost immediately after World War II had ended in 1945. The differing beliefs of communism between the U.S. and Soviet Union's leaders, Harry Truman and Joseph Stalin, was what sparked tension between the two, thus, leading them to commence a fervent clash of ideologies (Background Essay). There are three good examples of containment which help explain what it was and how the U.S. contained it. These were the Berlin Airlift,

After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as the two new superpowers and as archrivals. The United States wanted to keep the Soviet Union from spreading communism by force so the United States came up with a plan of containment, which was to block the Soviet Union wherever possible to contain the spread of communism therefore beginning the Cold War. (Davidson et al., 2005)

During the Cold War, America's basic policy was that of "containment" of the Soviet Union. The policy of containment was based upon several principles. First, the Soviet Union wanted to spread socialism to all areas of the world. However, it was felt that the leadership of the Soviet Union felt no particular rush to accomplish their goal. "The Kremlin is under no ideological compulsion to accomplish its purposes in a hurry. Like the Church, it is dealing in ideological concepts which are of a long-term validity, and it can afford to be patient. (Hook and Spanier, 42)." In other words, the Soviet leadership believed that, since their ideas were the correct ones, they would eventually prevail, and thus, no direct confrontation would be

In reference to the foreign policy, in the mid-20th century after World War II, United States was in Cold War with Soviet Union. The United States referred as the Capitalist West and the Soviet referred as the Communist East. The two power nations clashed in many ways. Thus, Soviet accused America’s atomic bomb as leverage to control the Soviet and the world. These differences made each nation distrust each other. President Truman then, feared that the Soviet will continue its expansion, had the Congress passed the National Security Act of 1947. It gave the President increased power, where to conduct foreign policy. The Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency was created, both agencies collaborated on the monitoring

Harry S. Truman was the biggest catalyst for igniting and sustaining the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Truman began his attempts to intimidate Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union as early as the end of World War II, by dropping atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to display his nuclear power. He continued to use nuclear weapons to intimidate his opponent by authorizing the construction of the hydrogen bomb in 1950. During the same year, Truman signed the National Security Council Paper Number 68 into policy which was a report that promoted military expansion, nuclear weapon development, and military aid to U.S. allies. These three actions were fundamental in forcing the Soviet Union to respond with equal distrust and hostility effectively bringing the Cold War into reality.

When discussing the Cold War, there are two questions that never fail to come up: When did it start? And, when did it end? While the latter is more difficult to pinpoint, there is a clear starting point for the Cold War. Most arguments for the beginning are in fact post WWII events and nothing more. As the Cold War progressed there is much blame to go around, but it started with President Truman. With fear of the United States falling back into the Depression, President Truman used post WWII fallout to justify the Soviets as and enemy and in turn start the Cold War. By looking at the progression of events, and Truman’s actions, it cannot be clearer that he manipulated his citizens to march forward into a war that would last for many years

1. Truman’s Policy of Containment was that the U.S. would work to stop the spread of communism by providing political, economic, and military assistance to all democratic nations under the threat of communism or any external authoritarian forces. The political aspect of this policy was the alliances made during the Cold War. NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was a defensive alliance among the U.S. and other European countries against the Soviet Union. This alliance still exists today. The Warsaw Pact was a defensive alliance that included the Soviet Union and its satellite governments in Eastern Europe. These alliances assured that if one country was attacked, then the others must react by coming to the defense.

This is evident in another CIA Operation taken place in Chile during 1973. President Salvador Allende of Chile,who was democratically elected in 1970, insisted to advocate for socialist reforms. The CIA saw this as a threat to American business in Chile, decided to support a coup to overthrow Allende, then assigned General Augusto Pinochet to run his military dictatorship in Chile from 1973 to 1990. This contradicted the American value because Salvador Allende was democratically elected as a president, yet the U.S still decided to plan a coup on

During the Cold War from 1946 to 1990 the United States had formed a policy called the containment policy which was adopted by President Harry Truman. The containment policy was a doctrine uniting military, economic, and diplomatic strategies to turn back communism and to insure that America would hold the leading role in world affairs.

The intelligence community of the United States have seen their processes, tactics, capabilities, and technology transform over the decades since the Cold War. The Cold War was a trying time of capabilities and the development of them. One intelligence discipline in particular saw large development was that of geospatial intelligence (GEOINT). Geospatial intelligence is defined by the Title 10 U.S. Code §467 the “intelligence about the human activity on earth derived from the exploitation and analysis of imagery and geospatial information that describes, assesses, and visually depicts physical features and geographically referenced activities on the Earth.” (National Research Council 2006).

Eisenhower assumed the presidency. Possessing years of military experience, Eisenhower entered the office with more experience in foreign affairs and diplomacy than his predecessor. Eisenhower believed the Cold War had grown dangerously out of control, especially in terms of its economic costs. Nevertheless, the Cold War escalated during his presidency. When the Soviet Union successfully tested a hydrogen bomb in late November 1955, Eisenhower, against the advice of Dulles, decided to initiate a disarmament proposal to the Soviets. In an attempt to make their refusal more difficult, he proposed that both sides agree to dedicate fissionable material away from weapons toward peaceful uses, such as power generation. This approach was labeled “Atoms For Peace” (Ambrose pg 147).Dwight D. Eisenhower brought a "New Look"(MillCenter) to U.S. national security policy in 1953. The main parts of the new look were to maintain the power and strength of the U.S. economy while still producing a large enough strength to maintain the lead in the Cold War. Mainly having the nuclear power backing the U.S. to deter Communist aggression or, if necessary, to fight a war. Using the Central Intelligence Agency to carry out secret or covert actions against the governments or leaders "directly or indirectly responsive to Soviet control"(MillCenter). Making our allies stronger and gaining more victories in the gaining the friendship of neutral governments. Eisenhower's defense policies, which aimed at providing "more bang for the buck,"(Eisenhower MillCenter) cut spending on conventional forces while increasing the budget for the Air Force and for nuclear weapons. Even though national security spending remained high, it never fell below 50 percent of the budget during Eisenhower's presidency, Eisenhower did balance three of the eight federal budgets while he was in the White House. Just weeks after Eisenhower became president, Joseph stalin died which brought