Kennedy Doctrine

The Kennedy administration foreign policies were less rigid and had an ideological approach. His policies displayed and promoted ‘Liberalism, Diplomacy and Military action’. His Foreign policies were popularly

Kennedy’s structure of foreign policy was much different from Eisenhower’s foreign policy. During the Eisenhower years, America had a detailed national security structure, with a “massive retaliation” idea, while Kennedy was more informal, with his “flexible answer”, which I think fit his New Frontier model. After the rigid structure of Eisenhower, Kennedy and his advisors wanted a new, less formal way of dealing with international affairs. He was an activist, who was very popular with generations both young and old, and I think that he brought a new idea of informality to the way the White House worked. For example, he preferred to work directly with the officers in the Department of State, and he relied on his assistant for national security affairs, McGeorge Bundy, instead of the usual Operations Coordinating Board. In dealing with crises, and seeking advice, Kennedy had a small number of close advisors that were also his friends, one of which was his brother Robert Kennedy, the attorney general (Miller Center).

1947: Truman Doctrine: The Truman Doctrine was one of the policies under President Truman’s “Containment Policy.” In the Doctrine, he requested $400 million to bolster forces in eastern Europe to defend against Communism. Congress agrees and passes the doctrine. Dean Acheson, who was the Secretary of State at the time, argued that the fall of a Communist country will have a “domino” effect on the neighboring countries, and they need to be properly prepared for such a situation. As result of this policy, the US became the “global

The U.S. Cold War began shortly after WW II. The two world superpowers, the Soviet Union and the U.S., wanted to spread their own form of government. The Soviet Union wanted to spread communism to the “satellite nations” under its control, while the U.S. wanted to spread democracy to the newly created zones in Europe. NATO was created by North American countries to deter the Soviet Union from attempting to invade Western Europe. In retaliation to the creation of NATO, the Soviet Union created the Warsaw Pact with its Eastern satellite nations. Both alliances were created to deter the other from trying to influence nations under their spheres of influences, and during the Cuban Missile

In 1949 the US formed a mutual defense alliance with Western Europe called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Truman had a hard time convincing Congress that this organization was necessary on account of American sentiment previously being avoidant of entangling alliances. The NATO charter pledged that an attack on one of the member nations constituted an attack on all of the members. Stalin’s aggressive actions at Berlin accelerated the American effort to use military means to contain communism. So the implementation of this alliance represented Truman’s willingness to disregard the tradition of neutrality. The Soviets also create an alliance called the Warsaw Pact countries that had the equivalent ambitions as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Capitalist versus communist countries, i.e. the Western Bloc versus the Eastern Bloc were linking to the events dominating the politics of the world the Cold War. In the aftermath of World War II, the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union governed the tension surrounding communist growth and fears. These two nations had become the new superpowers, with the communist Soviet Union heading an ‘Eastern Bloc’ of countries and the capitalist United States heading a ‘Western Bloc’. In 1947, the United States declared a new policy to check the growing power of communism; ‘to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation [complete control] by armed minorities or by outside pressure’. The conflict between the Eastern and Western blocs became known as the Cold War. It centred

The U.S and the Soviet Union had mistrusted each other from the beginning, which started the Cold War. when the U.S was attacked on December 1941, The Soviet Union had made an alliance with them along with Britain, which soon followed with the U.S supplying their allies with military supplies. During their alliance against the fascist powers, Stalin was suspicious which made “The Soviets believed that the Western Allies had

The US advocated for capitalism and democracy, as they helped other smaller countries, such as Japan and Puerto Rico, emplaced these policies into their government systems. The Soviet Union enforced their ideals of communism and totalitarianism onto the other countries of their control, such as eastern Germany, Hungary, and Austria. Nikita Khrushchev stated, “[allies] desire to force their will on other countries by economic and political pressure, [by] threats and military provocation prevailed” (Doc 5). He stated that the US, Britain, and France were forcing capitalism onto the smaller countries of western Europe. Additionally, the USSR viewed that these countries were encircling them with capitalism, as perceived in the map in Document 6. This influence that both the United States and the Soviet Union wanted to establish within weaker European countries caused further tensions in the Cold

Despite efforts to contrary by the United States, some developing nations did adopt communism, most notably North Vietnam and Cuba. In Cuba, America attempted to overthrow the communist government via a covert invasion, and when this failed, the USSR, sensing weakness and indecisiveness in the American leadership, attempted to place nuclear warheads on Cuba. The United States responded by blockading Cuba, and the USSR relented. Both the covert invasion and the later blockade were major diversions from the initial policy of non-military containment of the expansion of socialism. The creation of a communist state so physically close to the United States was of major concern

The Kennedy Doctrine, which was to “Respond flexibly to communist expansion, especially guerrilla warfare” (Roskin & Berry, 2010, p. 58), was executed in this history-making event to the letter. Kennedy could have, and had the power to cease the unfolding events with an all out air strike on the Soviet Union. Some say it is due to bureaucratic politics and the accessibility of information that was provided to the National Security Council by the CIA and air force that this did not occur. In responding flexibly to what The Soviet Union and Cuba were planning, America assessed the volatile situation, forethought possible outcomes and negated all their options albeit under a tight time constraint. America’s forces were mobilized and ready to strike, had word been given nuclear war was on the cards. Kennedy wanted to give The Soviet Union an out and put a halt to a possible war, rethink the situation and allow an alternative to occur. Due to this diplomacy, The Soviet Union entered into negotiations “the Kremlin offered a deal: no Soviet missiles in Cuba if Washington promised not to invade” (Roskin & Berry, 2010, p. 87). By using the flexible response tactic, Kennedy was

John F. Kennedy made many important decisions during the Cold War. One of his big decisions was to start the American space program. With the birth of NASA, America could begin its journey to space and eventually the moon. The Cold War was one of the government 's biggest defence priorities, this led Kennedy to think of all his actions for better or for worse, and explore all possibilities of all his options. The Soviets during this time were just as scared of America as we were of them, even more so in the case because we had a much stronger government during this time. Kennedys presidency was affected in many ways because of all these factors.

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.

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.

The foreign policy of the United States during the Cold War fully supported the growth of democratic nations. The USSR, however, wanted countries to become communist like them. These opposing views led to tension between the two nations. As a result, in 1947, President Truman issued the Truman Doctrine which stated that the United States would supply aid to any country as long as they pledged to be democratic. The Marshall plan was enacted in 1948 and it was similar to the Truman Doctrine except it provided financial aid to these countries. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the United States used its foreign policy to help countries resist communist influence.

     The Soviet Union and the west also formed political alliances to combat the other side. Western Europe and the United States formed NATO,a military pact. The Soviet Union created a similar pact,the Warsaw Pact, between the states within the Soviet Union. These military coalitions put a greater threat behind the growing conficts by involving more countries. These military alliances were supplemented by two edicts set by the Soviet Union and the United States. The United States issued the Truman Doctrine, which stated that they would support those countries resisting communism. Likewise, the Soviet Union later issued the Brezhnev Doctrine which decreed that the Soviet Union would intervene with force in order to protect communism in its satellites.