Why Did Carter Decide To Manage The Cold War

President Harry Truman and President Dwight D. Eisenhower were each president during the Cold War. Harry Truman became president during the end of World War II in 1945. His final term ended in 1953. Dwight Eisenhower became president in the midst of the Cold war in 1953 and his last term ended on 1961. Truman was Democratic and Eisenhower was Republican. They each had many occasions when their policies had similar intentions, but they went about them differently. Each wanted to end the fighting and to limit the spread of communism. They each also wanted to help strengthen other parts of the world. They tried to achieve these issues by enacting foreign policies in military, political and economic situations.

They sent troops to aid North Korea and pushed the troops back to the 38th parallel, where there was a stalemate for two years, as the United States changed presidents and continued to come up short in negotiations (History.com Staff, n.d.). President Eisenhower, stayed true to his campaign promise and ended the Korean War through diplomacy and an armistice. Dwight D. Eisenhower felt this was his greatest accomplishment of his presidency. Although the actual nature of diplomacy between the United States and North Korea came in the form of nuclear threats. Eisenhower wrote in his diaries that: “…atomic threat was the key to achieving an armistice. It forced the Chinese and North Koreans to choose between peace or an expanded, and perhaps atomic, conflict” (Ferrell, 1981). These actions brought an end to the war, that resulted in many lives saved, and he did not have to resort to using the full force of the United States weapon arsenal. Showcasing that a great general, could also achieve victory through political talks and signing of the armistice. Moving on from ending a war, president Eisenhower laid the foundation and executed completion of the vast Interstate System we still use to this day. The end result of being the world’s largest Interstate System.

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

While World War II ended all worries and hardships Americans faced, events gradually initiated signs of the Cold War which created an increased state of tension that swept all of America and Korea. During the 1940s, the potential Communist invasion of nations worldwide began to create a frightening reality to the people of the United States. The Soviet Union’s exportation of Communism greatly worried America as they wanted to contain Communism from all nations, especially nations in Asia. The Korean peninsula divided into two territories: a north, Soviet supported government, and a south, American supported government, a separation as a result of World War II. The Soviet Union invaded Korea, which had been under Japanese control since 1900; fearing the Soviet’s intention to seize the entire peninsula, the United States responded by quickly sending in their troops to South Korea. Truman’s decision to become involved in conflicts in Korea grew out of the Soviet Union’s radical actions, events in Asia, and internal criticism in the Truman Administration in America, providing him with an opportunity to defend a nation from a communist invasion.

President Ronald Reagan, the man who is accredited with ended the forty six year cold war was elected on Nov. 4, 1980. Reagan won his election with fifty percent of the popular vote over former President Jimmy Carter who had forty one percent. While Reagan as a president is praised for such successes as strengthening the national defense, stimulating growth in the U.S. economically, and as mentioned before he is considered the President who ended the Cold War. President Reagan had achieved many things by the end of his administration, but just as he had many successes his presidency was plagued with shortcomings and a handful of what could be considered flat out failures. The purpose of this writing is to establish and identify the ‘cons’ or failures of the Reagan administration, and provide a brief description of each different aspect of the administration.

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.

Eisenhower. One of his greatest strategies when it came to dealing with communism was called “brinkmanship.” According to Ayer’s book, this was when the U.S. would make threats that were dangerous enough to get results without actually having to follow through. In other words, going to the “brink” of war. Eisenhower expressed multiple times in his Eisenhower Doctrine, given on the 5th of January, 1957, that he was ready and willing to give economic aid to any democratic country that needed it. He said that the same went for military aid and military use (Eisenhower). He was possibly the most willing to take immediate action out of the three of these presidents. There were even times when he considered something called “massive retaliation” which, according to American Anthems, was when the U.S. responded to a problem with a force of a much greater magnitude. Eisenhower was also the creator of the Domino Theory, which stated that a political event that happens in one country will affect many other countries (Ayers). Eisenhower demonstrated great power while combating communism, but the U.S.A. would be changing again

The 46 year struggle known as the Cold War all started over a disagreement at Potsdam. Stalin refused to allow what the Allies wanted. They wanted to give free election to countries in easter Europe like Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. All these countries became satellite rates controlled by the Soviet Union. This made Truman believe that Stalin was planning to conquer the world and that the former alliance was falling apart. This turned into a battle between Communism and Democracy. Throughout almost all of the Cold War the United States adopted a foreign policy called “containment”.The United States contained Communism in Berlin, Korea, and Cuba by not allowing the Soviet Union to gain anymore land or power.

I think that the most effective foreign policy in ending the cold war was Ronald Reagan and his policy of “confrontation” because he funded anti-communist rebellions in other countries, funded billions of dollars on military spending, and invaded and counterattacked troops led by the soviet union in other countries and America.

The 1970s wear a dark time for Americans. Jimmy Carter was president. No one took

Comparing and Contrasting the Cold War Presidents Have you ever asked yourself about how Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy dealt with Cold War issues? Well if you have this is how they dealt with them, Truman wanted to “help Greece and Turkey by supplying them with economic and financial aid” so he said in his speech (Truman 1). Eisenhower wanted to secure and protect the territorial integrity, of political independence of nations needing aid (Eisenhower 3). Eisenhower, Truman and kennedy all used containment which is to keep something from spreading, Kennedy just used it in a different way (Eisenhower 1) (Truman 1) (Kennedy 3). “We’re determined to defend frontiers for freedom, by peace, if not by arms if they are used against us” said Kennedy in his speech (Kennedy 3).

Stalin was willing to concede all of Korea to America rather than get involved. Stalin died and then Eisenhower took over.

A change for Korea, after WWII the US and the Soviet were in contact with Korea and trying to divide the country. This was known as the 38th parallel. The plan was to reunify the country, but it proved to be unsuccessful. In the Northern zone, it was communist and the Southern zone wasn’t. On June 25, 1950 North Korea crossed over and invaded South Korea (Chapter 25, 5). Kennedy and the Dilemma, when JFK was in office he tried to contain the spread of communism. He also was placed with a situation in Cuba, when Fidel started to connect with the Soviets. It all started when Kennedy saw all the missiles that were under construction in Cuba. Kennedy addressed the Nation and the people started to worry about what would happen. Becoming a New Nation,

Throughout the Cold War, Korean War, and Vietnam War the main problem was communism. Although the United States and the Soviet Union were allies in World War Two, during the Cold War the United States and the Soviet Union were known as enemies. The Soviet leaders bragged to other nations that communism would “scrape apart” free-enterprise systems around the world. This attitude angered the capitalists which led into the fifty year Cold War. The United States tried creating many tactics and strategies to contain the “bleeding” of communism, but during the cold war, communism spread faster then it could be restrained. The United States used the Marshall Plan , the Trueman Doctrine, and the Berlin Airlift to help lead people to a

According to Robert, without Korean War there would be a huge difference in the world’s history. In addition to that Robert also stated “the Korean war shaped the course of the cold war by both resolving the incoherence which characterized U.S. foreign and defense efforts in the period 1946-1950 and establishing important new lines of policy”(1980). The Korean War led to the changes of policy through three processes in changes on the domestic political situation, defense budget and NATO. The domestic policy changes let the leader of the country to do whatever they wanted to do before (Robert,