Cold War Policy

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.

“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.

During the Cold War, America as a whole was terrified of the idea of communists. Everybody had a perception of a communist, and knew that they did not like them. The American Government took many measures to protect the United States from Communism. In 1947, President Harry Truman made an Executive Order 9835 with the purpose of making the United States Government more secure. To summarize the order, it was to have all people holding or applying for Government positions to be checked or inspected a great deal for being or

The Cold War was a significant time for the United States and the Soviet Union, while the rest of the world watched intently. Although no actual war took place, both of these powerful countries did their best to promote their political and ideological ideas while trying to gain some ground in the seemingly never ending arms race. This war was driven by both fear and the strive to become the strongest and most powerful country. During the time of the Cold War, the United States proved to be a strong influence over Canada. Given its location, it was obvious as to which side Canada was on. While Canada believed in the same ideologies as the US, this nation was still reluctant to fully emerge themselves into the hysteria that had been emerging in the US. However, even though Canada had just received world recognition for its contribution during the Second World War, this large yet acutely populated country had much still to prove. During this time, Canada just recently became a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). But while Canada was making huge steps in their peacekeeping and military growth, there were still rumours of espionage circling the country.

According to an article written by Clif Staten he asserts that John Lewis Gaddis has argued that the history of our containment policy toward the Soviet Union reflected the swing of a pendulum between periods when our resources did not match our ever-expanding goals and periods that required us to react to this deficit by either reducing, redefining or reprioritizing our goals to bring them in line with our limited resources. He continues to argue that the pendulum swing is illustrative of the shift between our idealist and realist sides. In the early years of the Cold War, our foreign policy goals focused on containing communism in Europe. We recognized that our resources were limited. We had been demobilizing since the end of World War II and the American public had reverted to its traditional isolationist character. Containment was limited only to Western Europe where our military strength was greatest.

All through the Cold War the United States attempted to contain or squash developments that it saw as dangers to American financial or security objectives, in Europe, in Asia, in different parts of the alleged Third World, and at home. Communists, patriots, individual voyagers, neutralists, and activists for popular government and human rights, at different times, felt American rage in the half-century after 1945. In no spot, be that as it may, did American exertions to attest its hobbies and impede the will of the local populace happen as seriously or shockingly as in Vietnam. Despite the fact that a little, immature nation which has been subjected to violence and resistance through the years, not to

Throughout the book the author demonstrates the relationship between the cold war domestic policies and cold war foreign policies. Thomas Borstelmann shows how the United States faced challenges with their foreign policy and with their domestic policies on race relations, segregation, and desegregation. Borstelmann sees civil rights more as a moral issue than a political one but still shows how government officials saw it as political.

After World War II, the United Nation was established; however, there were many different perspectives among its permanent members: China, Russian, US, Britain, and France. Each country had different ways to maintain their influences over the world. During the cold war, many countries were established by using the violence to gain the power. During the Vietnam War, the Vietcong organization under support of Soviets Union and North Vietnam continued use terror as the tool to attack South Vietnam government and fear the people lived within. To gain more power and more influences to other half of the world, Soviet Union and its allies such as Syria, Libya secretly supported the terror group and used them as a political tool to break down the Western countries. The terror groups such as PFLP and the PLO usually targeted to citizen of Israel, and US allies. The attack during the Olympic 1972 became most effective for terrorists when Israel had to free fifty prisoners to exchange hostages. Although the ending of tension and completion between the Soviet Union and the United States led to the termination of the Soviet Union, and many of the terrorist of groups based in the United States and Western Europe began wither after Communism fell, terrorism did still survive. In order to maintain and stay alive, terrorism needs to have a sponsor. The state sponsors of terrorism are between Iran, Syria, and their sponsorship group Hezbollah. The states and organizations of the United

The U.S. needed Soviet information so they decided that the best way on gaining information was using a Utility Plane from great heights. On May 1, 1960 Soviets shot down an American U-2 spy plane that ended the rumors of the U.S. and Soviet Union allying to conquer the space race. This attack caused many disagreements and fights which led up to the Cold War. The U-2 spy plane incident which sparked great anger was the climax of the Cold War.

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

There has never been a direct war between the United States and the Soviet Union. That’s how the Cold War got its name. On June 25, 1950 the first military action of the Cold War started. It was the between two states in Korea, the North and South, this war is also known as the Korean War. Although the war was called the Korean War, it was actually between the United States’ and the Soviet Union’s controversies in their way of govern. The United States supported South Korea because they were Nationalist and the Soviet supported North Korea, who were Communist. Earlier in China, there was an identical disagreement about the governmental system between the United States and the Soviet Union. Harry S. Truman, the 33rd President of the United States,

The objective of ‘the U.S. foreign policy’ course is to develop personal ability for applying IR theories to the U.S. foreign policy. Then, students will be able to understand the direction as well as the grounds of the U.S. foreign policy. To achieve this objective, I will discuss major the theoretical issues through the brief history of the U.S. foreign policy until the Cold War. After that, I will examine the challenges which the U.S. confronts.

Civil liberties were largely influenced by the Cold War in the United States. President Truman had a large focus on civil rights. However, after World War II there was a fear that began to progress in America do to the war with the Soviet Union and against Communism,“Those who could be linked to communism enemies of freedom.”(Foner.Pg.928) People who were thought to belong to the Communist Party were being oppressed by domestic measures; the government added policies to minimize the Communist population in the United States.The Smith Act, passed in 1940;The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, was aimed at preventing Communist supporters in overthrowing the government; The Internal Security Act 1950, all members of the Communist Party was to register

Conflicts between the Soviet Union and the United States sparked as capitalist and Communist ideals clashed. (pg. 1004) American and Soviet views on individual liberties, religious freedom, human rights, and democratic elections clashed. (pg. 1022) The tension between the two economic systems escalated into the Cold War, the defining feature of the second half of the 20th century.

The Cold War started before the end of World War II. It was a conflict between two great powers, the Unites States (and their allies), and the Soviet Union (and their allies). It was a race for control over the post war world. Both countries tried to spread their ideology across the world. This rivalry lasted for about 45 years. However, it was not like every other war. Fighter planes did not fly over countries to drop bombs, there were no deployment of troops, and no ground troops. The two sides never directly engaged in a battle. It was fought at different levels and in multiple different places. Although it was not a battle like other typical war, tons of money were spent on this war, especially on nuclear weapons. Europe was split into east and west, and the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union was ridiculous which included every aspect of life. Many decisions made by Presidents, namely Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy caused an impact on United State politically, economically, and socially.