The Rise Of Communism By Dwight D. Eisenhower And Harry S. Truman

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.

The first major cause of the Red Scare and the fear of communism was WWII. Communism was not a big problem during the war considering that “During the war the United States sent more than $11 billion in aid to the soviet.”(Fitzgerald 27). After the war Russia wanted to punish the germans for attacking their capital, but the U.S along with all the other allied nations did not agree with the Soviet and tension between the two started. Although “The anti communist hysteria of the early 1950s was actually the second Red Scare of the United States.”(Fitzgerald 16), “the first occurred after a revolution in Russia in October of 1917”(Fitzgerald 16), the country reacted in greater fear than the the first time as proved “In New York City, 11,000 police and detectives were kept on twenty-four-hour duty, guarding all federal, state, city, and county buildings, as well as the Stock Exchange and the homes of prominent men.” (Murray 116) showing how much hysteria had invaded the government and the people. All of these events pushed

Due to fear of being blacklisted, Eisenhower, the proceeding president, was reluctant to confront McCarthy. The Red Scare of the 1950s was thriving and the presidents waged war against foreign Communist powers in order not to be accused of being sympathetic towards the opposition. They conformed to public opinion and shaped politics in America into a Cold War.

The first method of preventing the spread of communism was implementing US policy. This strategy included external resistance to Soviet imperialism and competing in the international arena. As a nation, we did not want the USSR to feel superior in any area. In order to do so, the US needed to modernize its military, conventionally and nuclear, so the USSR would not underestimate our country. This also intimidated

Truman and Eisenhower each wanted to help limit the increasing issue of communism. One approach they did was getting involved physically and militarily in the countries that were in need. The peace conference at Potsdam was a failure, because communist Russia still stood on their own and as their own separate nation. The Soviet Union had already succeeded in conquering Poland, and much of Europe splitting up Germany. After Hitler committed suicide, the main obstacle for the United States and many other countries was to avoid the looming threat of communism. Truman created the Truman Doctrine to possibly stop or postpone this issue. “I believe,” he argued, “that it must be the policy of the United States to support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by

Many of the policies implemented during Truman’s administration were provoking in the minds of the Soviets. And Americans would have probably been less fearful if President Truman hadn’t emphasized Communism as such a big threat. He installed fear in the minds of the citizens and other officials. Maybe not a fear of any tangible threat communism posed but the simple idea of being taken over, from abroad and

During the 1950’s, Communism was a major fear that Democratic nations such as America were afraid of because of its radical ideas. The actions taken due to the Red Scare and the rise of McCarthyism were necessary and completely justified to protect America’s freedom and government from Communist power. With an increase of Communistic nations invading other countries and forcing their ideas upon them there was an uproar of fear in the United States. The Domino Theory was a legitimate fear of if one nation falling to communism, every nation around it would fall as well. Focusing their attention to VIetnam especially, America increased military control in these regions. Multiple Legislative actions taken by the United States such as the creation of the HAUC and the Espionage and Sedition acts were necessary to stop threats to America’s freedom. The heated tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War contributed to the fear of an attack from the East. Senator McCarthy’s convincing accusations lead to many accurate accusations as well as the rise of McCarthyism. Valid points were brought up about president Roosevelt’s New Deal policies of having capitalistic characteristics. While some actions did take away the civil liberties of some Americans, and were not always accurate, they were necessary to protect American Democracy, as well as the safety of the citizens.

Eisenhower’s administration was to a somewhat large extent successful in addressing Cold War fears after World War II through attempts at promoting capitalism and preventing the spread of Communism.

Communism was covering Asia and Europe, striking fear in individuals as country after country fell into communism. As American politicians strengthened the idea of containment, and cabinet members such as John Foster Dulles spread the idea that "if world communism...will increase the danger to the entire free world," Americans were greatly fearing communism. Citizens began believing others when they announced that communism was "endangering the peace of America" (Document B) and when they addressed the problem they had created by making statements such as "we fear the men in the Kremlin." American citizens highly feared this horrific government of communism, and the Eisenhower Administration did nothing to little to prevent these fears. Even though they acknowledged these fears, they used this fear as support for spending on military defense. The Americans fear during this time period was also displayed

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.

Water and machines don't mix. If one touches the other, destruction occurs on both ends. The United States of America was a Capitalistic machine, with eagles blood flowing through its pipes and the star spangled banner blasting through its speakers. But the USSR and its Communism was the water, desperate to destroy the machine that is Capitalism. America, proud and mighty, did its best to protect itself and other machines from the muddled red water with many containment methods; the truman doctrine, the korean war, and the marshall plan. Some say that the policies that were put in place to contain communism were not effective; however, America's powerful diplomatic tactics-with the berlin airlift- and quick productive

Truman and Eisenhower fought this problem with a policy of containment, While Kennedy issued a new policy called flexible response which lets Kennedy react to different situations appropriately. What the Cold War period was, was a time in U.S. history where the United States was in a political war against communism. Their main threat was the Soviet Union (Ayers 814). One of the strategies that the three presidents used was the policy of containment That was when the president had to keep communism contained in an area using small scale battles (Truman). They also went by a theory.

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

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.

During the Cold War from 1946 to 1990 the United States had formed a policy called the containment policy which was adopted by President Harry Truman. The containment policy was a doctrine uniting military, economic, and diplomatic strategies to turn back communism and to insure that America would hold the leading role in world affairs.