Cold War Domestic Policies Summary

When the world famous liberal thinker Francis Fukuyama in his masterpiece declared that we were witnessing the end of the history, he was greeting the new political structure and also the new international environment, which is peaceful[1]. However, developments that occurred after the collapse of the Soviet Union showed us that the dissolution of the Soviets was unexpected. The international society was not ready for peace and Fukuyama’s optimistic assumptions were far from becoming real. Moreover, the international society currently started to realise that the tension and the potential of mass destructive war during the Cold War era had provided a

The late 1940′s were a time when much change happened to the American society. As a result to the expanding threat of the Soviet Union, or its Communistic ideals, America took a stand that lead it to the Cold War.  Although the war didn’t involve fighting directly with Russia, it still affected the American society and domestic policy. The war affected America so much that it lead to a fear of livelihood; precisely when Joseph McCarthy began his “witch hunt”. The Cold war lead to an enlarged fear of nuclear war; as well, it affected many of the domestic policies.

“I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.” This declaration, made by former President Harry S. Truman on March 12, 1947, is part of the Truman Doctrine, and was the basis for U.S. involvement in Western Europe throughout the Cold War. Although the North Atlantic Treaty, and the resulting North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), was established during the Cold War “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down,” NATO has persisted since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990. This essay will seek to examine the U.S. decision to create and participate in NATO. It will begin by providing a history of NATO and the U.S. decision to participate in NATO before considering how this decision is both an instance of continuity and change in U.S. foreign policy since former President George Washington’s Farewell Address. The essay will conclude by considering the legacy of this decision and its impact on U.S. foreign policy. While this essay will consider the period of time leading up to the formation of NATO and will briefly touch on the present day, greatest consideration will be paid to the time period immediately preceding and following the formation of NATO in 1949.

Mary Dudziak's Cold War Civil Rights is an impressive take on the American race problem of 1950s and 1960s. Legal segregation is viewed in the context of its impact of the Cold War. This Professor of both Law and History has decided that it is pertinent to look at a string of events that happened solely in the United States, and place them within the histories and actions of the rest of the world. Her hypothesis is that much of the Civil Rights legislation passed in the 20th century was a direct result of America's desire to implement democracy as a way of life worldwide. This text is a sort of tale of modern racism, focusing on America, written as a narrative of the relationship between democracy and communism.

Much of America’s history has been saturated with situations dealing with race and the people associated with them. It is impossible to talk about the founding of America without looking at the invention of race. This is because race was intricately embedded in the foundation of America through the two part process of racialization. Through this a dichotomous race structure was developed and implemented. This was carried out mainly by the U.S. government, which used policies, social arrangements, and institutional patterns (class notes 10-6-10) to further embed race into American society. The government helped to increase white’s superiority. When the government could not do it all publicly they brought in the private sector. The public

The election of Barack Obama as the 56th president of the United States raised many hopes that the “Black struggles” was finally over. For conservatives, Obama victory reassured their beliefs that there was no longer such thing as racism and that every American had equal rights and opportunity to pursue the American dream. While many people have come to believe that all races have equal rights in America, Tim Wise argues in his documentary “White Like Me” that not only does racism and unconscious racial bias still exist, but that also White Americans are unable to simply relate to the variety of forms racism and inequality Blacks experience. This is mainly because of the privileges they get as the “default.” While Wise explores the variety forms of racism and inequality today such as unconscious racism, Black poverty, unemployment, inadequate education system, and prison system, the articles by the New York Times Editorial Board, the Human Rights Watch (HRW), and Adam Liptak further explore some the disparities in the criminal justice system. Ana Swanson points out in her article, “The Stubborn Persistence of Black-White Inequality, 50 Years after Selma” that while the “U.S. has made big strides towards equal rights,” significant gaps still remains between the two races. With the Supreme Court striking down a “portion of the Voting Rights Act that stopped discriminatory voting laws from going into effect in areas of the country with histories of disenfranchisement,” civil

The Cold War took a lot of affect on the United States Domestic Policy and American society. Domestic Policies were changed due to the world affairs, and the American society had a dramatic change from the war. The United States Government became extra secure and protected. Many new political cartoons were created from the fear of Communists and other big events and things that were happening during this time period. War was the leading problem in the US during this time period. Many citizens became upset and protested. Also, many American citizens were scared because they heard many people talking about the war,and what was happening and took as many measures on safety as they possibly knew and could. Later, through science, we have learned that many of their tactics when it came to protecting themselves would not even have worked.The United States spend a lot of extra money during this time period to keep up with the war. (DBQ questions)

Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, and the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution were historical milestones in which the ever controversial topic of racial equality was first challenged. In theory, these two movements laid the groundwork for a racially equal United States of America. A country in which every member, regardless of skin color, or race were to be treated equally under the eyes of the law and to one day be treated as equals within all realms of society. As historic and powerful as these movements were, they did

When discussing WWII and The Cold War from an American perspective, the focus is likely to be centered on the wartime efforts of the country while debating strengths and shortcomings within those efforts. However, while the physical and psychological wars waged on, America’s homefront saw a continuation of fighting in the form of social movements aimed at attaining equality for all Americans. Minorities like African Americans and Mexican immigrants continued to face discrimination and racism during WWII but were shaped in different ways by the war. The Cold War era in America is a very complex subject marked by heightened tensions, fear, and paranoia among citizens. Much in the same way that WWII shaped the plight of minorities and immigrants on the homefront, the Cold War era also effected what it meant to be an American by shaping the conformist social class. Reaction to this conformity would also be shaped by the Cold War era, and Americans would eventually become critical to these effects.

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

To say of this noteworthy volume of articles that the total is more prominent than the parts is not to defame the parts. The book reevaluates the foundational strain in American governmental issues between responsibilities to racial pecking order and liberal populism. An attention on how this strain showed in the lives of three presidents noted for their enunciation of racially widespread standards, combined with the near point of view managed by setting these three inside a solitary edge, produces knowledge into the part of race in American political history decisively by building up an all the more fine-grained judgment on its significance for Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Woodrow Wilson themselves. Jefferson rises as the most tormented of the three. As Annette Gordon-Reed

Throughout the history of the country, America has been considered a fairly racist union. From the workplaces to the society, as an Asian, I felt there's a strong barrier between white and black people, although I felt a little bit of racial among us. In this essay, I will talk about the major racial issue of this country through out my experiences.

Gary Gerstle attempts to reinterpret twentieth-century American history in light of the power of race (and to a much lesser extent, or even not at all, class and gender). The American Crucible conceptualizes American liberals as well as whiteness scholars’ synthetic historiographical interpretations on mainstream Americanism like Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt- Theodore Roosevelt especially, due the author’s attention to the meaning of the liberal state and liberalism. However, above all that, Gerstle argues that inherent tensions between two powerful types of nationalism- racial and civic- have decisively shaped American history, policy-making and political debates in the twentieth century (Gerstle 5). Gunnar Myrdal in the 1940’s takes American civil rights, as well as their ideological principles, and conjoins them into a political belief he called the “American Creed”, but Gerstle uses an all-purpose term--“civil nationalism” (Gerstle 4). These same ideas are even engraved on America’s founding documents; some historians argue that this is the reason why American people and their polity are so distinct. Nevertheless, civic nationalism has contradicted or even sometimes reinforced another ideological legacy, “…a racial nationalism that conceives of America in ethno-racial terms, as a people held together by common blood and skin color and by inherited

The election of President Obama marks the most noteworthy political accomplishment for African Americans in the United States during the post-civil rights revolution, thus bringing about a change in the country’s social and political landscape that was steeped in racial discrimination since the founding of this great nation. Because social and political conditions are subject to constant change, President Obama’s

“The Cold War became a dominant influence on many aspects of American society for much of the second half of the twentieth century. It escalated due to antagonist values between the United States, representing capitalism and democracy, and the Soviet Union, representing communism and authoritarianism” (Tradshad, par. 1). This long lasting war had a lot of negative effects on the American people, but also helped many in a positive way of becoming free citizens. Although most people had feelings of hatred toward the Soviet Union, a sense of fear swept over the United States and many actions had to be taken to keep the enemy and their influences out. 4 done.