Within this book, Martin McCauley explains how the tensions between the Soviets and Americans arise and how it escalated into the Cold War. It also includes a timeline of historical events that are important to the unfolding of the Cold War, a list of important people involved during the Cold War’s formative years, and a list of important documents from the formulating years of the Cold War, 1941-1949. America and the Soviet Union were inherently at odds with each other due to their different economic systems and ideologies. However, the two states became allies with each other due to the greater threat of Hitler’s Germany. However, problems quickly began to rise as the war came to a conclusion and the common enemy vanished. …show more content…
However, Stalin became determined to hold onto everything that he could and prevent the spread of American influence into Eastern Europe due to his perceiving that the atomic bomb is a security threat to him and his superiority in Europe could become nullified. Thus, he became more difficult to be dealt with and became heavy-handed in eastern Europe which the Americans began to view such behavior as being in bad faith and that the Soviets had the desire to expand elsewhere. The Americans began to view the Soviet behavior very negatively towards the war end. Americans became shocked by Soviet behavior and conduct during the war as being barbaric. As shock of the behavior resonated, anti-Soviet politicians became very influential in Congress and desired for a change from the realist policy FDR pursued. Thus, the policy they began to seek was containment or for the Soviets to concede to American desires as advocated by the new president
In the aftermath of WW II it was decided that the long term American foreign policy of isolationism did not work worth beans. At had not kept us out of either WW I or WW II. We were drawn into fights that were not of our making and which we had not prior input into. The Truman administration decided to launch a more proactive foreign policy aimed at keeping a lid on aggressive nations and regional conflicts that might blow up into WW III. The USSR was the most aggressive nation of that day, so the policy was aimed at containing their attempts to expand their socioeconomic ideology and impose it on other people.
The Cold War, spanning almost half a century, was a conflict that accelerated the production of nuclear weapons and forced the United States and the other belligerent, the Soviet Union, to make scientific advances at a rate unseen in any other time in human history. The Cold War Comes to Main Street: America in 1950, written by Lisle A. Rose, thoroughly examines the year 1950 in the United States and the effect that the Cold War had on the American populous. Rose examines communism and the military threat that it posed on the nation and how this impacted American society and the generation that endured World War II.
The Cold War had a significant impact on American foreign policy, changing it substantially in both attitudes to social and economic factors. The heavy influence of a difference in political standing between the Soviet Union and the United States, in conjunction with the high tensions that followed in the post war period, set the foundations for American foreign policy to adapt and change to better suit the developing political agender of the time. Socially, the two sides were heavily split, with the Soviet Union seeking communist support and allies whilst the US sought to counter their progress in a similar manner. Economically these relations with foreign countries that either joined the eastern or western blocs helped to further the
Despite the U.S’s effort to come to a mutual agreement with the Soviets after the war at the Yalta Conference, tension has gradually progressed throughout the years that led to an even further separation between the two leading powers. In addition to, the Soviets disregarded the compromises made at the Yalta Conference to have free and fair elections in Europe, instead creating a buffer in Eastern Europe, settling Soviet satellites. By committing such actions, the U.S automatically became suspicious and concluded that the Soviets were ultimately compelled to spread communism. The U.S further distrusted the Soviets when they secretly signed the Nonaggression Pact with the Nazis, to acquire half of Poland for security reasons, so Germany doesn’t invade Russia. This pact made it clearly evident for the U.S that the Soviets are not loyal, that their primary goal is to protect their own interests or assets first, and moral or obligatory issues involving other countries second. The Soviet Union had their own reasons for not trusting the U.S too because they claim them to be just as interested in protecting their own interests and had their own motives for
With this book, a major element of American history was analyzed. The Cold War is rampant with American foreign policy and influential in shaping the modern world. Strategies of Containment outlines American policy from the end of World War II until present day. Gaddis outlines the policies of presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, including policies influenced by others such as George Kennan, John Dulles, and Henry Kissinger. The author, John Lewis Gaddis has written many books on the Cold War and is an avid researcher in the field. Some of his other works include: The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1941-1947, The Long Peace: Inquiries into the History of the Cold War, We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War
During World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union fought side by side, although it was a tense alliance. Americans were very concerned over Soviet’s communism and their leader, Joseph Stalin (who was a tyrannical, blood thirsty ruler.) On the Soviet side, most resented America, for their refusal to treat the USSR as a part of the international community. As well as their late entry into World War II, which resulted in the deaths of millions of Russians. After the end of the war, there was an overabundance of mutual distrust and hostility. Americans feared a Russian plan to control the world, do to postwar expansion in Eastern Europe.
What are the main points of this reading (focus on concepts, ideas, and theme, not on individual facts)? Chapter 26 is about the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. The war started because there were many different ideas of how the postwar should be and the different ways to achieve these new goals. The Cold War was a fight that was also about Communism and preventing the Soviet Union from spreading their empire East. The Soviet Union was communist and under the lead of Joseph Stalin they took over the West side of Europe while the capitalist United States Controlled the East side of Europe. The west allies created NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization which included the United States, Canada, and 10 West European countries. The creation of NATO prevented the Cold War from becoming a nuclear hot war and instead an economic and military battle. The Soviet Union and the United States both fought over Belgium and Korea. Korea was a battle that showed just how powerful
Limiting the threat of a government that would control the flow of a free flow market and risk their security and investments. Truman said, “The American system can survive in America only if it became a world system”, by preserving national security and bringing “freedom, democracy, and capitalism to the rest of the world” (chapter. 10) would help ensure order to secure Americas peace in the future. Knowing America had a monopoly on atomic weapons, Truman was firm but willing to work with the Soviets as long as they conformed to the U.S. plans for the post war world as well as refrain from expanding. Stalin’s point of view was that he had power within those countries defeated in the war and those that the Red Army had liberated. The U.S. was rebuilding governments in Italy and Japan while Stalin had installed Communist governments in Poland and Bulgaria. Initially the Soviets were tolerate of non-communist countries, but would eventually remove their troops from Iran in the spring of 1946 when the Unites States applied pressure on them. As the book says, this allowed for the United States to gain access to the rich oil fields of Iran. Referring to the notes, the Cold War had become a race to expand spheres of influence, with the United States looked stuck with their allies as they resisted the efforts of the Soviets efforts to
What was really driving the U.S. policy is containment( A foreign policy developed by diplomat George Kennan that claimed that the only way to stop Russia's expansionist ways was to contain it. It was the basis of US foreign policy after WWII designed to stop the spread of communism.) The U.S. was against communism because the government control the life and everything about the citizen in the country.
Immediately after World War II, the United States and Soviet Union became two powerful nations. Both countries wanted to have control and authority in politics and military. They both had a different global influence and different governmental drives (868). The Soviet Union did not want to give up the power it obtained in Eastern Europe after overpowering Germany. The United States also was not willing to relinquish its control and its respect it had gained. There were many incidents that happen between 1945 and 1949 amid these two countries (868).
United States and Soviet Union were difference in ideological and strategic goal. In order to defeat dangerous forces in the world, two different nation work together. United States worry about soviet’s international behavior in late 1930s. When Nazi-soviet pact in 1939 which allow Germans to invade Poland and followed by soviet’s invasion of Poland. In order to reshape postwar world, united state need to limit soviet’s expansion. United States used atom bomb before and after soviet declare war on japan which can be read as strong message for soviet to act
The United States had developed the world’s deadliest super-weapon, the atom bomb, while the Soviets possessed the largest military, the Red Army. When Joseph Stalin, premier of the USSR, was informed of the bombing on Hiroshima, he was aghast. “This was a New Fact in the world's power politics, that the bomb constituted a threat to Russia," wrote one British reporter. The Soviets had no knowledge regarding the quantity of this “new weapon of unusual destructive force,” as President Harry S. Truman described it. In response to this dismay, the Soviet Union sought to diffuse their ideologies and place top priority on their own bomb
The Cold War: A New History written by John Lewis Gaddis (a professor at Yale University who wrote other books such as The United States and the Origins of the Cold War and Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of Postwar American National Security) delivers a summarized, yet skewed interpretation of what had happened during the era known as the Cold War. Throughout the book, the author attempts to provide history of the Cold War, while adding in generalizations, incomplete facts, as well as flat out bias.
Originally, Americans wanted to remain isolated from the rest of the world so they could be safe from the dangers of war and European conflicts (I can see why). At the same time, America wanted to be the role model for countries around the world, but World War II made them realize that because they are isolated by the oceans surrounding them, they can no longer serve as a model for the rest of the world. As a result, America 's postwar goal was to involve themselves in world politics to keep peace and make sure that authoritarian governments (such as the Soviet Union) would not overtake Europe (seems like they promoted war than prevented it because they provided so many weapons for other countries). However, the Soviet Union leader, Joseph Stalin, wanted to control all of Europe (just as Hitler had), with a plan to step in and take it over during a war that will occur in the future between rival capitalists, Britain and America, probably since history repeats itself (WW1 was a war between capitalists- true story). After the war ended and the restoration of Europe was in process, Stalin began to overstep his boundaries by sending troops to occupy areas that he was not permitted to (not a very smart decision from Stalin 's side), which angered America and Britain, especially since they were agreeing to his demands that were originally settled between the him and Hitler. Adding the newly-created communist
As you can imagine the Americans and the Soviets were bound to be against one another, their core beliefs and political systems were predicated on the failure of the latter. The first of these American policies was established soon after Pearl Harbor, when Roosevelt agreed with General Marshall that “international political considerations should defer to military requirements as long as the war lasted” . The second policy, emerging in 1943, was that everything possible must be done to win the confidence of Stalin and his associates . The latter part of the foreign policy was soon dropped because of the growing suspicion of the Soviets at the aforementioned Yalta conference .