Essay After The Cold War Dbq

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.

Prior to World War I, the United States generally chose to follow Washington’s farewell address and stay out of “foreign entanglements”. The United States foreign policy from 1918 to 1953 shifted from isolationism or independent internationalism to a more involved internationalism and containment of communism due to various international events, economic conditions, and US public opinion.

On February 22, 1946, there was a telegram given to the US State Department of officials from an American Foreign Service officer stationed in Moscow, George Kennan, depicting information of the beliefs of the Russians against capitalism. In summary, it stated “Stalin and the Soviets believe that communism is better than capitalism,” and that “ Stalin and the Soviets believe they will win.” The telegram also had stated, “The United States policy toward the Soviet Union must be that of a long-term, patient but vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies.” [Doc A]. This demonstrates that the intentions of the USSR are that of destroying capitalism by the warning given by George Kennan to try to stop the spread of communism from gaining too much power and the belief that they themselves would win. This demonstration was heard and the following year in July, the actions to stop communism began. The Truman Doctrine declared the support for developing countries against the communist threat. And again in the following year, there was another policy against the communist threat; the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan “gave over twelve billion dollars [over 140 billion today] in aid to help rebuild European democracies like France and West Germany.” [Background Essay]. This was an opposition against the persuasion of becoming a communist country in Europe. This all shows the American plan of containment against the USSR by economic and military support for the developing countries, to limit the power of the

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

During the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the American people were frightened of the thought of the Cold War due to the fear of Communism. With the rising threat from the Red Scare many Americans condemned Communist, identifying spies in unjust ways. The government took to finding the spies a step too far, violating civil liberties. The American people, fearing the spread of communism, wished to eliminate the threat by decreasing the establishment of communist uprisings. With the formation of the iron curtain, the Soviet Union created a rift, expanding their communist beliefs.

This, presumably, was what the United Nations had in mind when creating the North Atlantic Treaty. This treaty stated that the Parties collectively decided that “an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America” would not be an isolated battle and would instead “be considered an attack against them all” (Document D). This agreement not only acted as an intimidation factor to ward off any threats of attack, but also provided confidence and security for the Parties involved in the treaty. The United States was a large part of the UN and being a part of the North Atlantic Treaty was a single step in the Allies’ large power move that was brewing to face communism head on. Cooperation also helped to instill peace. Keeping peace intact as much as possible was a necessity in this war because there were so many people and nations involved that one tiff between groups could result in a much larger, much more threatening battle. Moreover, many realized this necessity – a demilitarized zone between forces to avoid “resumption of hostilities” and act as a buffer (Document E). Additionally, the boundaries for this zone were clearly marked and explained as to avoid any unnecessary confusion or confrontation. The United States and the other countries working together to defeat communism used this strategy to ensure their cooperation and better their chances of success in Europe and

Following the events of World War 2, a new conflict arose. Except this one didn’t involve actual fighting. The Cold War began after reciprocated feelings of distrust and conflicting ideas about which government was best between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. While the Cold War affected life in the United States and the Soviet Union, it also influenced life in countries all over the world.

“The Soviet Union must be that of a long-term, patient but vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies.” -X. The Cold War was after World War II. The United States and the Soviet Union were the world's strongest nations. They were called superpowers. They had different ideas about economics and government. The United States was capitalist and the Soviet Union was communist. Joseph Stalin wanted to expand the Soviet empire and spread communism throughout the rest of the world. The United States would not allow the Soviet Union and communism to spread, the American policy was now containment. Three times the United States demonstrated the policy of containment was the airlift in Berlin, the War in Korea, the missile blockade in Cuba.

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.

“There is some risk involved in action, there always is. But there is far more risk in failure to act.” -Harry S. Truman. In this quote by Truman, it is shown that the decision of the Cold War was going to result in risk by trying to turn people away from communism but the effect from people turning communist would be worse. Prior to the Cold War, World War II occurred. The United States was now a world superpower and the Soviet Union aspired to be like them. The Cold war involved communism and the U.S. trying to turn people away from it. The Cold War was a fight between communism and capitalist economic philosophies that impacted the actions of the United State and the Soviet Union.

It is the 20th century, the USA and USSR are at the brink of nuclear war. Nobody knows what happens next…

President Truman said in the essence of that the United States would provide many to countries that claimed they were threatened by communist expansion.” (150) President Truman concern was with the expansion of Soviet to the Eastern Mediterranean, it will cause communist to expand their regime and force the Eastern Mediterranean countries fall into the communist regime. This will cause for the Eastern Mediterranean countries like Greece and Turkey to will change politically, economically, and militarily to Soviet Union communist regime. President Truman wants the U.S. to provide aid and support those who are threatened by communist and those who want to be free from suppressor, dictator, and communist regime. As of many other countries was

The Next President to deal with the spread of Communism was Dwight D. Eisenhower, the thirty-fourth president of the US.  In the Eisenhower Doctrine Eisenhower takes about an action that he proposes.  “It would, first of all, authorize the United States to cooperate with and assist any nation or group of nations in the general area of the Middle East in the development of economic strength dedicated to the maintenance of national independence.” (Eisenhower)  That is reasoning of economic aid to other countries.  In the Eisenhower doctrine he also states that this action would allow the executive to undertake in the same region programs of military aid, and cooperation with any nation which needs the military aid.  After Eisenhower became president in 1953, he began to think of a theory called the domino theory.  This was the idea that if a country fell to

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.

Leffler stated that “they were worried that the Kremlin might exploit these weaknesses to alter the balance of power… so they harnessed the economic principles of the open door to the national security interests of the United States. (Heilbrunn) Leffler describes the Cold War in this way: “…neither the Americans nor the Soviets sought to harm the other in 1945… The protests that each country’s actions evoked from the other fueled the cycle of distrust as neither could comprehend the fears of the other, perceiving its own actions as defensive. Herein rests the classic security dilemma… U.S. officials… chose to contain and deter the Russians rather than to reassure and placate them, thereby accentuating possibilities for a spiraling cycle of mistrust.” (Heilbrunn) In 1947, Ernest Bevin, British foreign secretary, “believed it essential to construct a defensive military alliance in Western Europe; and in December of that year he proposed to George C. Marshall an alliance that would guarantee Western European security and prevent further Soviet aggrandizement.” (Heilbrunn) This proposal was realized in the North Atlantic Treaty and the establishment of NATO in 1949. Only an alliance such as this would halt Soviet infiltration and the gradual collapse of one western wall after another. According to Heilbrunn, the Soviet military buildup started after 1945. By 1950 American intelligence estimates suggested that the Soviets