Soviet Union's Foreign Policies During Ww2

“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.

After the defeat of the Axis powers in World War II it was apparent that the victors would come out as the new world powers. With the United States and the Soviet Union being the strongest nations of the victorious Allies they were the two countries who emerged as the new world powers but their views varied drastically. The Democratic United States and the Communist Soviets butted heads about each others views and the U.S. wanted to halt the spread of communism so it couldn’t get to the rest of the world. The U.S. adopted a policy of containment to keep communism in the USSR and the other places it had spread. The U.S.’s main goal was to prevent the spread of communism and they did everything

As World War II came to an end, tensions between the United States and The Soviet union began due to the rise and spread of Communism all around the world. In 1952, A senator by the name of Joseph McCarthy had been gaining power in the realm of politics because he acted as a demagogue using the fears and paranoia that most people in the United States held due to the Red Scare. McCarthy began a ruthless campaign to try and root out any communists that he felt were in the country. Over the years, McCarthy initiated a witch hunt where he accused many people of being communists including prominent political figures and even actors. With the help of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, McCarthy continued his campaign by trying to expose as many people as people as he could even if it meant falsely accusing individuals in order to promote his cause and try to gain power. What McCarthy was able to do was created an environment that of mistrust and fear in order for him to move up in his political career and remove any competition for him.

Following World War II, the United States was intimidated by the Soviet Union due to their lack of trust with the nation and the fear of the spread of communism. The United States feared that there was a potential that the communism could flow into the country and take away their freedoms. Following the war, the Soviet Union captivated Eastern European states as a way to provide a buffer zone if the Western States were to attack them, thus resulting in an additional, increased lack of trust from the West. “Much to the dismay of the Allies, the nations of Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia all had communist governments by 1948 (Linda Delaine).” Due to the countries being under communist control, the West had no access to resources, resulting in the hostility between the two States. The United States decided to combat the communist country with strategical approaches. Several policies were utilized by the United States to battle communism during this time. The first

During World War II women in the Soviet Union played a major role in helping the

“Following World War II (1939-45), the democratic United States and the communist Soviet Union became engaged in a series of largely political and economic clashes known as the Cold War” (“Red Scare”). During this so called Cold War, the correlation between the United States’ global objectives and its foreign policy was very clear. The intentions of the United States during the Cold War were to combat the spread of communism to the best of their ability on all fronts, to be militarily superior to the Soviet Union, and to allow their country to grow without impediment. These ideals were developed both as a result of and in the midst of their political opposition to the Soviet Union. These intentions developed by the United States during the

Once an ally the United States fought together with in World War II from 1941 to 1945, the Soviet Union became an enemy of the U.S. after Stalin broke his promise of free elections in Eastern Europe. With nothing to stop invasions on its west, the USSR installed Communist governments in countries bordering its west to make them buffer states. The U.S. was afraid that the Communist takeover of one country would cause a chain reaction of neighboring countries falling to Communism, so it enacted a policy called ‟containment,” whose objective was to prevent the spread of Communism and encourage the USSR to stop its aggressions. U.S. Cold War policies embodied the ideals of democracy because it gave financial aid to countries that opposed Communism

Shortly after World War II, the world’s two most powerful nations, the United States and the Soviet Union, emerged as arch-adversaries and in doing so, they created a rivalry that casted a shadow over international affairs for decades known as the Cold War. The Soviet Union saw the United States as a ruthless, imperialist power whose goal was to destroy communism and encourage the growth of a capitalist world. In contrast, America saw the Soviets as a ruthless, imperialist, and totalitarian power whose goal was to destroy democracy and encourage a Communist revolution through expansion. Therefore, the United States’ actions toward the Soviet Union was justifiable after World War II. American diplomat George Kennan said how the Soviets were

Between the end of the First World War and the start of World War II, American foreign policy gradually changed and evolved in order to fit the beliefs of the country as a whole and adapt to new international situations. World War I had not been particularly well received by the American public, with the vast majority of the people condemning U.S. involvement; they believed that the war had only hurt them and that the glorious country of America should no longer get involved in foreign wars and affairs. In essence, America was disillusioned by the experience of World War I, and such disillusionment would have a tremendous influence on how the U.S dealt with foreign events and incidents for decades to come. It cannot be stressed enough how stubborn the general public was in maintaining isolation after the end of the first World War. The diplomatic failures regarding the League of Nations and recovery had sullied the experience for the American people, and they were content to retreat into their domestic shell, desperately trying to be blissfully unaware of the events going around them all over the world. A speech by Warren G. Harding in October of 1920 reflected the general American attitude at the time; in it, he lambasted the League of Nations and criticized the fact that it was a blow at America’s constitutional integrity (Doc A). Harding, like the rest of the American people, had turned his back on the world. Fortunately, this mentality would not last; as World War II

After a long period of fighting on land, where else can nations fight? The early twentieth century saw many battles, the biggest being the two world wars. As World War II ended in 1945, the two superpowers, the Soviet Union and the United States were locked in a cold war.

The Unites States and Communist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics put aside their immense political differences to become allies during World War II. Previous hostility between the Soviet Union and democratic nations, did not stop the communist world power from forming an alliance with the United States and Great Britain. The United States similar to the Soviet Union saw Nazi Germany as a greater threat to national security and world peace than the other’s political ideologies or philosophies; therefore, the most dangerous enemy. Tensions during the alliance were always near, but a common opponent concealed a restricted amount ideology in common. Even with the political differences, the United States, Britain, Soviet Union and additional nations surfaced from World War II victorious in 1945. The alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union disintegrate quickly after the surrender of Japan. The rapid change from allies to enemies was rooted in the Unites States and Soviet Union’s foreign policies towards each other. The Soviets wanted to spread the political and economic system of communism into Eastern Europe, while the United States wanted to protect all countries from the threat of communism. Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, demanded that Eastern European countries enter the Soviet sphere of influence. The United States was resistant to allow Stalin dictate the shape of the postwar world, which began Unites States’ anti-communist foreign policy.

Myth: America defeated Nazi Germany with help from its plucky British and United States sidekick

After World War II, the world was in a state of heightened suspicion that was lead by ideological differences. There were two main “superpowers” that shaped perceptions of the rest of the world. One was the United States, who had come out of the war fairly unscathed, which was due to little to no conflict directly on its soil, in addition to the possession of atomic weapons and a strong navy and air force. The other major player was the Soviet Union, whose industry was recovered during the first few years of the war in addition to a powerful army. These superpowers had a large impact on other countries due to their ideological differences: the United States favored a capitalistic democracy while the Soviet Union believed in communism. One country that was heavily influenced by both superpowers at the same time was Korea, which was ultimately split into two halves. The United States had a heavy impact on the south while the Soviet Union had an effect on the north. During the Cold War from the late 1940s to the early 1950s, The Soviet Union and the United States wanted to set up spheres of influence in foreign countries so that they could observe what the other was doing, which ultimately lead to the exploitation of North and South Korea.

World War II, also known as: Second World War, a conflict that went on through the years 1935-1945. The Axis powers involved-Germany,Italy,and Japan. And the allies involved-France,Great Britain,United States,the Soviet Union,and China. After an uneasy 20-year hiatus, of the disputes left unsettled by World War I. The 40,000,000–50,000,000 deaths incurred in World War II make it the bloodiest conflict, as well as the largest war, in history.

Foreign policy is defined as a how governments or nations conduct relations with other countries. In dealing with the foreign policy, the United States seeks to assure its security and defense. The United States, emerged as one of the most powerful economic powers from the World War II, the Truman Doctrine began its policy of the Soviet Union and communist containment. American foreign policy has also favored the self-determination of nations for independence. The atomic diplomacy, in conjunction with Truman’s administration attempted to block criticism of the official Hiroshima narrative helped to established Truman’s anti-communist agenda.