United States Involvement In The Cold War

“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.

The Cold war began after World War two and ended in the early 1990s. The cold war was a series of events that occurred because the United States and Soviet Union fighting for power. Both superpowers fought for who would have the biggest influence on the nations. The United States was democratic while the Soviet Union was communist thus they tried to contain the spread of each other’s beliefs while dragging other countries into the cold war including Europe, Latin America and Asia. The cold war had a big impact on both Asia and Europe.

The Cold War was an over 40 year war between the former World War II alliances The United States and The Soviet Union. This was a war that begun by political disagreements, harsh anti-communist words from Winston Churchill, and a power imbalance between The Soviet Union and The United States. Though it was a war, a new, lethal weapon was used to emotionally harm the opposing country rather than causing physical damage.

Why did the USA get involved in the cold war and were they prepared for it?

The Cold War took place during 1947-1991 and was a war fought with words. The war was fought mainly between the United States and the Soviet Union, using Cuba as a pawn in their war plans. During the Cold War the alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union was broken. The Cold War was fought from the mainland of the two powers. There were instances where the United States had missiles located in countries around the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union having their missiles in Cuba, but there was no real acts of war. The Cold War began with the break of the alliance between the Soviet Union and the United States and the methods used were new alliances and nuclear powers leading to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The Cold War was a period in history right after WWII ended and it ended in 1991, when the USSR broke apart. The conflict was between two types of governments: the communists and the capitalism (democrats). The USSR represented the communist side, while the U.S. represented the democrats. Both countries had nuclear weapons and did not want to fight each other directly because they didn’t want a Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), so they fought through other countries, by Proxy Wars. The global tensions in Cold War affected a few countries in a couple of regions, for example Central America. The involvement of the United States aided Nicaragua economically, militarily, and politically.

A cold war is defined as "a conflict between nations for national advantage conducted by political, economic, and psychological means instead of direct military action." The Cold War defined by the same source was determined to be "the contest for power between the communist nations headed by the Soviet Union and the nations of the West headed by the United States that began after World War II"(Barnhart & Thorndike, 198).

The Cold War got its name because there was no actual-armed conflict between the Soviets and the Americans. There was no "hot" war. During this period of history, the United States and the Soviet Union's armed forces never met on the battlefield. The two countries were constantly responding to each other's actions though. This included spying, a military arms competition, industrial and technological developments, and even a race to the moon. Both countries spent vast amounts of money on defense, nuclear arms, and support of third-party wars.

The Cold War, which occurred between 1947 and 1989, was a time of tension and competition between communists and democratic countries. The competition began when the previous U.S.S.R leader, Joseph Stalin, took control over Eastern European countries when he was only meant to help them rebuild after World War II. The war started because the United States of America wanted to contain communism. We were afraid that communism would spread worldwide and democracy would end. When communist Russia took control over Eastern countries that threatened democracy. Sadly, communism did spread. Cuba, the largest island in the Caribbean, only ninety miles away from the coast of Florida, became a communist country when Fidel Castro became Prime Minister then President. Additionally, North Korea and China were communist countries. Competition happened all throughout the war whether it was about nuclear

U.S foreign policy is a complex entity, shrouded in a deep need to provide safety for Americans along with a desire to shape the world in a way which is conducive for the American economy to prosper. The Cold War made these goals increasingly difficult due to the fact that the U.S was in unprecedented waters. Never before in U.S history had America been so involved abroad during peace time. Unrestricted warfare for the most part, was out of the question; it was often far too dangerous and the consequences far too grave to consider sending troops into foreign lands to protect American interest. Also coming out the the second Wold War and a bloody conflict in Korea the American public had no appetite for war. Instead the U.S relied increasingly

During the Cold War wasn’t your typical war. There were no fighter planes flying over the country's, no ground troops, no tanks, no deployment of missiles. A lot of money was being wasted like this was an actual war was being fought. The Cold War was a race that was started a little after World War II which was between the United States and the Soviet Union. This was was really complicated because it was more about the Democracy and Communism. The Cold War was caused by the split between two different parts of the world the West and East Coast, and the United States and Russia. At one point the Cold War was about to be a nuclear war in 1962 when the Soviets had begun building missiles in Cuba, which isn’t far from the coast of Florida and that’s

Referring to the time during the Cold War, poet Archibald MacLeish recalled, “American foreign policy was a mirror image of Russian foreign policy: whatever the Russians did, we did in reverse. American domestic policies were conducted under a kind of upside-down Russian veto: no man could be elected to public office unless he was on record as detesting the Russians, and no proposal could be enacted, from a peace plan at one end to a military budget at the other, unless it could be demonstrated that the Russians wouldn't like it” (Fariello). During the 1940s and 1950s, agitation over the perceived threat posed by Communists increased because of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. This fear was known as the Red Scare

George Kennan, compared to other writers which have been discussed in this class takes a different approach to the Cold War through the lens of American foreign policy following World War Two in his article, “After the Cold War: American Foreign Policy in the 1970s.” Kennan, unlike Leffler, Schlesinger, and Brzezinski, believes that the battle between the two nations over hegemony is beyond comparison to the dangers which threaten all of humanity. The threats Kennan provides are environmental, the unstable nature of the United Nations, and nuclear weapons. He provides a critical analysis of American foreign policy following WWII, and where the U.S. should go leading into the future. Kennan writes about the Cold War less as a historical

There were many factors that led to the U.S government deciding to escalate America's involvement in Vietnam however, the most significant factor was their widely-known involvement in the Cold War.

The Cold War was hostile and fall short of armed conflict. The cold emerged after World War II, when the Soviet Union expansion into Eastern Europe. Stalin believed because the Red Army defected the counties he had the right to expand, just like the Americans were doing in Italy and Japan. This feed into the fear of the American people who were afraid that the Soviet Union wanted to control the world. Along with the cold war came the Iron Curtain which was the name giving to the line that divided Western Europe and Eastern Europe by Winston Churchill. He didn’t believe that the Soviet Union wanted war they just wanted to expand their land and their people. The cold war was a war trying to convince other nations and countries which Government tactics were best. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)