Cold War Foreign Policy Analysis

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 view by some historians is that The Dwight Eisenhower foreign policy was popularly known as the “New Look”. This policy aimed to maintain the American financial economy while Eisenhower was planning the Cold war and continue the containment of communism regime. Also, the “New look” policy relied heavily on nuclear weapons to stop communism. Therefore the policy was been assessed as being suppressing, rigid, and too dependent on brinkmanship (trying to achieve an outcome by pushing dangerous events to the brink) and massive retaliation (also known as a massive response, this is a military doctrine and nuclear strategy in which a state commits itself to retaliate in much greater force in the event of an attack). Arguably, his foreign policy stressed peace greatly, but it also threatened war (brinkmanship and massive retaliation).

The Truman Doctrine affected the Cold War by stopping Communists from destroying Europe any further. History.state.gov states, “President Harry S. Truman established that the United States would provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces.” In his speech, he asked Congress to give support to the Greek government and go against the Communists. If the U.S. government failed to help the Greek government, the Communists would continue to damage Europe. The Truman Doctrine affected the Cold War, and another policy that affected the Cold

“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.

Harry S. Truman was President of the United States from 1945-1953. President Truman presidency was marked throughout by important foreign policy initiatives. Central to almost everything Truman undertook in his foreign policy was the desire to prevent the expansion of influence of the Soviet Union. At the end of World War II it was immediately apparent that Russia was trying to draw as many countries as it could into its influence, if not total control. The United States became extremely alarmed as country after country did indeed fall under Russia’s

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)

The Cold War, while not a lethal time, was possibly the most dangerous time in American History. The United States went through three different presidents during the Cold War. Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy all dealt with the containment of communism in different ways, with Truman and Kennedy looking for slower and more methodical approaches, and Eisenhower, being a war hero, aiming to maximize the use of our military. The Cold War could have easily become WWIII, and if it had, we probably would not be a country today. The Cold War also pushed us to further develop our technology, helping us become the highly advanced America we are today. According to Ayers’s book, The Cold War was a time when we were at a point of high

In December of 1952, Eisenhower had come to the conclusion that the United States should not be engaged in a conventional war on the Asian mainland. His cabinet was made up primarily of former businessmen who were staunch fiscal

President Eisenhower’s military background influenced many of his foreign policy decisions, specifically the “Zero tolerance” policy. The idea of the Zero tolerance policy was to not just to contain communism like Truman, but to destroy it. (Doc D). Eisenhower was so set on the idea, that he increased the spending for US defense drastically during his term. (Doc I). Although Eisenhower talked about destroying communism, the nation was shocked when Hungary decided to revolt against Communism for Democracy, and Eisenhower did nothing to help them, leading to Hungry losing the revolt and continuing to be a communist

How did president Kennedy, Eisenhower and Truman deal with the cold war? While all of the Cold War presidents dealt with communism, presidents Truman and Eisenhower favored the Policy of Containment and president Kennedy favored Flexible Response. Containment is the idea to stop the spread of communism, this was George Kennan’s idea (Ayers 819). Flexible Response was other options than nuclear war developed by president Kennedy. All three presidents helped out countries that were under threat of communism. The three of them each had their own ideas of economic aid, military aid, and military use. Economic aid is when you support other countries with money (Ayers 888). Military aid is when you support other

Eisenhower used the power of Massive Retaliation which is where the United States would use every weapon in their power against to Soviet Union if they were to go to war, including nuclear war(Ayers 850). He used many forms of military use here is one. The United States will send troops to the Communist countries if they try to start war(Eisenhower sentence 27). The U.S. will send troops if they try to invade other countries. He also believed in Brinkmanship which is where countries go to the brink of war but they never actually go to war or fight(Ayers 850). Eisenhower also sent troops in the middle east Economic aid so they didn’t end up falling to communism(Eisenhower sentence 18). The United States will also send help to other countries to try to stop the spread of communism(Eisenhower sentence

The role of America at the end of World War II was where the origins of policing the world originate. America had been engaged in a very costly war in terms of dollars as well as lives. But, despite the expense the United States came out of World War II better than any other nation that was involved. The Second World War was a battle between the Allied and Axis Powers. The Allied Powers consisted of the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, China, and France. This war was seen as the fight against Nazi Germany, and therefore resulted in a majority of the battles fought on German and Russian soil. The aftermath left the Soviet Union in bad shape. Close to twenty million Russians

The Truman Doctrine was the impetus for the change in United States foreign policy, from isolationist to internationalists; thus we were drawn into two wars of containment and into world affairs. The Truman Doctrine led to a major change in U.S. foreign policy from its inception - aid to Turkey and Greece - to its indirect influence in Korea and Vietnam. The aftermath of World War II inspired the U.S.

Throughout the Cold War, Korean War, and Vietnam War the main problem was communism. Although the United States and the Soviet Union were allies in World War Two, during the Cold War the United States and the Soviet Union were known as enemies. The Soviet leaders bragged to other nations that communism would “scrape apart” free-enterprise systems around the world. This attitude angered the capitalists which led into the fifty year Cold War. The United States tried creating many tactics and strategies to contain the “bleeding” of communism, but during the cold war, communism spread faster then it could be restrained. The United States used the Marshall Plan , the Trueman Doctrine, and the Berlin Airlift to help lead people to a

An economic aspect of Truman’s policy of Containment was the capitalistic vs communistic governments. The communistic government believed no private person should profit. All money should go to the government and everybody gets the same. This made everybody equal by making everybody poor. The capitalistic government is largely or entirely privately owned (by individuals or companies) and operated for profit. A cultural aspect was that many democratic countries feared the spread and uprising of communism. There was a Bi-Polarization of Europe due to this and it created a bi-polar world.