The US foreign policy was drastically changed due to the Cold War and Communist controlled countries. The Communist controlled Soviet Union wanted nothing more than to take over and convert neighboring countries and states into likeminded socialists governments. Through the events of the Truman Doctrine, NSC 68, and other anti-communist forces and ideals, the US constructed a completely different approach to how they dealt with world issues. It all started March 1947 when President Harry S. Truman announced his famous plan for a new US foreign policy. This speech has since then been called the “Truman Doctrine.” In this speech, “Truman officially embraced the containment of Soviet communism as the foundation of the American foreign policy.” …show more content…
(“Voices of Freedom” p.216) This manifesto named NSC 68, explained what a “free society” should look like and claimed that the Soviet Union was compelled to dominate the world and suck the freedom right out of it. NSC 68 believed that individual freedoms should not be interrupted or bothered by the freedoms of other people. We experience freedom in society when we accept diversity and we give others the chance to experience their own importance and meaning in life. NSC 68 believed their idea of freedom was being constantly challenged by the Soviet Union and quickly decided to increase military spending to protect free men from the “idea of slavery under the grim oligarchy of the Kremlin.” (“Give Me Liberty!” p.715) I personally believe that President Truman was just in preparing America for future communist issues at home and abroad. The Truman Doctrine set a solid foundation and game plan for how America’s policy with foreign nations will combat egregious evils. The years following Truman’s famous speech set the course and prepared NSC 68 to take a stand against the rapid growth of communist nations. The Truman Doctrine and NSC 68 had one important similar vision, protecting the humanitarian freedoms of all anti-communists nations and their
The alliance formed between the US and USSR during the second world war was not strong enough to overcome the decades of uneasiness which existed between the two ideologically polar opposite countries. With their German enemy defeated, the two emerging nuclear superpowers no longer had any common ground on which to base a political, economical, or any other type of relationship. Tensions ran high as the USSR sought to expand Soviet influence throughout Europe while the US and other Western European nations made their opposition to such actions well known. The Eastern countries already under Soviet rule yearned for their independence, while the Western countries were willing to go to great lengths to limit Soviet expansion. "Containment of 'world revolution' became the watchword of American foreign policy throughout the 1950s a...
To start off the Cold war, Russia had lost twenty-seven million soldiers in World War II. Stalin was not going to allow the Germany to attack Russia again . To make sure of this , Stalin made East Europe his buffer zone.The United states could not allow the this to contunie to happen. The first example was the Truman Doctrine, that declared the the Untited States would support “free people”. The Doctrine was followed by the Marshall Plan which gave 12 billion dollars in aid European democracies so that communist ideas would not be so attractive. These were some of the long term , patient policies the United States did to
In its efforts to defend democracy, the U.S. created the policy of containment. In this new policy, the United States would try to block Soviet influence by making alliances and supporting weaker nations. Winston Churchill described this strategy as an?iron curtain?, which became an invisible line separating the communist from the capitalist countries in Europe.... ... middle of paper ...
Russia, as a communist state, wanted to spread communism. This is seen through Document 6, where Stalin is portrayed asking the question- who should be freed from freedom next? In other words, who should the Russians free from democracy, or spread communism to? America felt a communist world is dangerous, and thus stood obstacle in the Soviet Union’s path to spread communism. Just as the Soviets wanted to spread communism, the United States wanted to contain communism. Document 4 effectively portrays this policy. The Document is the speech where President Truman is explaining the Truman Doctrine in which the US is to protect any nation battling communist pressures. The speech splits the world into communist and democratic camps, intensifying the nations’ thirsts for more power and stifling the other’s power. Within Document 3, Kennan states that the only way to influence the Soviet Union is through force. One way this force took form was through international organizations. The democracies of the world, fearful of communism’s spread, created the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Those who made up the organization were to aid each other if attacked. In this way, they could fight the spread of communism through force, in turn, influence the Soviets. The US, as a part of NATO, was now taking direct steps against the Soviet Union, and thus steps toward the Cold War. To counter NATO, the communists formed the Warsaw Pact. This had same purpose as NATO, and hence was also a step toward the Cold War. The different beliefs of the Soviet Union and the United States incited the Cold
The Truman Doctrine was a policy under the United States of America. It was established in 1947 by President Harry Truman which is how it got the name The “Truman” Doctrine. This policy more or less meant that the United States would follow an interventialist foreign method to manage and end communism. This doctrine was a straight-forward warning made to the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics that the United States would move in to protect any nation that was being threatened or endangered by a minority with weapons. The doctrine pretty much called out and warned the USSR, however the USSR was never actually stated by name in the doctrine.
foreign policy. A year after the Truman Doctrine started the Cold War, in 1948 the Soviets blockaded Berlin forcing the U.S. to airlift supplies to the distressed country. This effort conducted by America was a way for them to establish their dominance over the Soviets and proving that they cannot be stopped. In 1949, the communists took over China and was able to detonate their first atomic bomb. This created a setback for America as they were no longer the sole owner of a functioning nuclear weapon. This began the war against the communists and the capitalists, as demonstrated by the Korean War in 1950 and the Vietnam War in 1954. During these wars, communism was battled by fighting with efforts to contain the advancement of the Soviet’s efforts. The wars shaped U.S. foreign policy because they were able to determine which alliances could benefit America and help them to remain the strongest superpower in the world.
The report drafted alongside recommendations for the military strategy was to be issued to President Truman following the socialists (communists) over the nationalists' movement triumph in China and the Soviet atomic bomb detonation. The U.S did not want communism to be spread into the western region since the USSR was there enemy and people could be turned against themselves if they took over. The NSC-68 as it is commonly known, after it being disseminated all over the U.S, it became a foreign policy and all the country’s economic and diplomatic containment strategies were all converted to one involving the military. With the growth of the Soviet Union at the time, Cold War had made the Americans believe that the USSR had outsmarted the U.S. And with the tension growing and the communists infiltrating the U.S government slowly, if the USSR had attacked the U.S, they would have won and Communism will have ruled the U.S. The diplomatic and economic strategies that the U.S was using in order to make peace with the Soviet Union could not have borne any fruits. This is the reason why the National Security Council (NSC) Report 68 helped in turning all these strategies into military involvement and making the report a blueprint for the U.S's foreign policy. The NSC-68 proved to be of great importance and after militarizing all the strategies, the Cold War eased and ended by 1950’s when the USSR and U.S joined forces. It was also the NSC-68 Report the ended McCarthyism in the U.S brought along with the Cold
In April of 1950, an announcement to the President of the United States was made, expressing the unavoidable plan of the Soviet Union to assume control over the world by its aspiration to wind up the single overwhelming politically influential nation by growing communism and Soviet expert to non-Soviet zone's of the world, popularly known as NSC 68. Furthermore, NSC 68 was a document handed to the president for the betterment of the United States’ Military when Soviet Union was highly influential. The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was as its exponential peak after the world war II. Numerous nations in the Europe endured tremendous misfortunes and the conditions at that point, saw the two
The clash of ideologies between the Soviet Union and the United States left the Cold War inevitable. Tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States created opposing views for political and economic order. “Tensions between the Unites States and the Soviet Union dated back to the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, which created a communist state (Rosenberg and Rosenberg, pgs.5-6). Prior to the Cold War and WWII the United States wasn’t overly concerned with exporting democracy, part of that was a byproduct and caused by the Cold War. A sense of democracy was the best form of governance in America’s eyes and the best way to reduce conflict between nations. The Soviet Union, within the tenants of Marxism felt that the belief that all nations would become Communist societies after a certain point. Mounting distrust continued when tensions between the Soviets and the Germans
President Truman distinguished his policy of dismantling communism, not through military means, but through the form of economic aid to countries under communist threat (Document B). However, while Truman may have preached universal funding for nations in need, American financial commitments exemplify otherwise. Between 1948- 1952, American provided billions in assistance to traditional allies, including the United Kingdom and France; conversely, many weaker nations received a fraction of the funding allocated to America’s closest allies (Document C). The hypocrisy of the United States, coupled with underfunding, were indicative of a failed strategy to contain the future spread of communism. First, the basic issue here is the lack of funding provided to countries who desperately needed U.S. aid. By providing minuscule amounts of funding, democratic countries were destined for failure. Without the economic aid of the United States, countries would continue to fall to the sheer enormity of the communist movement. Therefore, the misallocation of funds was a fundamental misstep of the government in their efforts to combat communism. Secondly, the United States was portrayed as a betrayer across the globe. Publically, the leader of the United States promised money to countries combatting communist insurgencies; however,
The Truman Doctrine became the basis of American foreign policy aimed at stopping the spread of communism. The USA was prepared to send economic and financial aid to Greece and Turkey. Soon after the Truman Doctrine, President Truman sent General George Marshall to Europe.
Since the Russian Revolution in 1905, the world housed suspicions regarding communism. These suspicions grew through both World War I, blossoming into a direct confrontation between Communist Russia and Capitalist America. Following the acts of World War II, the Cold War erupted. During the Cold War, United States foreign policy grew gradually aggressive, reflecting the public sentiment.
Influenced by the fear of communism by American society and containment beliefs of people like George Kennan, who advocated that the US should use diplomatic, economic, and military action to contain communism, Truman established the Truman Doctrine, which stated that the US would protect democracies throughout the world, pledging the US would fight it around the world. This doctrine was an extension to both the Monroe Doctrine and the Roosevelt Corollary. In dealing with foreign policy, Truman did everything to protect nations of being consumed by communism, such as the Berlin Airlift, in which Truman decided to avoid the Soviet blockade of West Berlin and flew supplies directly over to the people in need. In Asia, Truman decided to use limited warfare, meaning the lack of atomic weapons, and was highly criticized by Douglas MacArthur, commander of the army, who he later dismissed for not following US policy.
America’s Policy of Containment was introduced by George Kennan in 1947. This policy had a few good points but many more bad points.Kennan's depiction of communism as a "malignant parasite" that had to be contained by all possible measures became the basis of the Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, and National Security Act in 1947. In his Inaugural Address of January 20, 1949, Truman made four points about his "program for peace and freedom": to support the UN, the European Recovery Program, the collective defence of the North Atlantic, and a “bold new program” for technical aid to poor nations. Because of his programs, "the future of mankind will be assured in a world of justice, harmony and peace." Containment was not just a policy. It was a way of life.
Although the United States and Soviet Union were allies during World War Two they were soon faced with many opposing views soon after the war ended. Joseph Stalin the leader of the Soviet Union had wanted to gain complete control of Eastern Europe most importantly Germany and make it a communist society. Here in the US Truman started to worry about the spread of communism in Eastern Europe. The anticipation of the spread of communism was concerning Truman as if it did proceed to happen it would be greatly affecting the United States economy. It would limit trade with other countries and it opposed everything the United States system of laissez-faire economics believed in. In the meantime the people in the Soviet Union were barely surviving, and it did not seem that it was Stalin’s major concern at the time; he was more interested in taking over Eastern Europe then taking care of the people in his own country. This continued fight over who was to control what parts of Eastern Europe put an even farther wedge between the Unites States and the Soviets.