The origins of the Cold War came about when United States President Harry Truman issued his Truman Doctrine. This doctrine stated that the United States would support “free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.” This would end up being the foundation of the U. S. involvement in the Cold War. The main idea of the doctrine was to support nations in the resistance of communism. Truman felt that if one nation fell to communism then this would lead to a “domino effect” resulting in many other nations in the region falling to communism. The greatest fear was that the Soviet Union would spread communism throughout the world thus the reason for the policy of containment. Truman felt it necessary to also provide economic aid to nations that surrounded the Soviet Union. The idea being that they would create a ring of Allies that would contain the threat of the Soviet influence of communism. Economic support would be given and if necessary military support as well. The basis for this economic aid was presented in the Marshall Plan. This plan called for $16 billion in economic aid to be used in the reconstruction of Europe.
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.
In the United States the main concern of the government was maintain the loyalty of their citizens. This was made even more evident by the second red scare that happened post WWII. The reason behind this scare was that information was leaked that there was espionage going on in the US and this caused Americans to fear that this will eventually lead to the overthrow of the government. Another fear was the rapid spread of communism into countries in Eastern Europe and Asia. As concern of the public grew in regards to the spread of communism the government started to adjoin more foreign policy geared towards solving that predicament. The United States believed that it was there responsibility as superpower to protect democracy, and be leading example to other nations of protecting the rights of individuals. As a result the idea of containment was formed. The word “containment” to describe stopping the spread of communism was coined by George Kennen. The Truman Doctrine incorporated the ideology of containment and put it into offensive mode. The Iron Curtain is term used to describe the separation between sovereign countries and the countries under the Soviet Union. As the American agenda shifted more towards the focus of foreign policy; this changed was inconsistent with America policy in the past which was mostly isolationism. The implementation of the Truman Doctrine caused: increase in defense spending, Marshall Plan, proxy wars both Korean and Vietnam, creation of the CIA, and the United Nations was formed. The Marshall Plan was basically money give...
The Cold War in the United States came from the fear that Communists intended to take over all of Europe. Seeing that Communist governments were established in Poland, Bulgaria, and Hungary by the Soviet army, along with local communists setting up their own governments in Albania, Yugoslavia, and the United States began her policy called the Truman Doctrine. This Doctrine was est...
Following World War II, the United States and the USSR were the only two world super powers left. Because of different economic systems, strategic interests, and atomic weapons the US and USSR entered a Cold War. This war was not a typical war. It was strictly economical and political fighting, there was no physical fighting. The USSR believed that peace would only come from worldwide communism, but the US wanted to stop the spread of communism immediately. President Truman tried to offer financial aid to countries nearing turmoil and facing communism, in order to stop the spread of communism entirely. The United States was successful in that it did not actually fall to communism itself, and that the US was able to partially contain communism
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 capitalist form of government.
In the mid twentieth century, America experienced a vast amount of struggles and obstacles. This included the beginning of the Cold War. The Cold War began in 1945, and was the battle between the Soviet Union and America. From the Soviets perspective, America was to blame for their struggles due to their lack of assistance towards the Soviets railroad and factory repairs and necessities (Ziede Lecture, 11/7/2016). America felt as though the Soviets were pushy and uncooperative and feared that Stalin would become a threat, equivalent to Hitler (Ziede Lecture,11/7/2016). Ultimately, both sides sought to control Europe. By reading “Long Telegram” by George F. Kennan, President Eisenhower’s Address towards the mob at Little Rock, and reading the
Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower shared many similarities yet still many differences when it came to Cold War foreign policies. Truman’s foreign policies revolved around the Truman Doctrine, which stated that the United States would financially support Greece and Turkey . Despite Truman’s and Eisenhower’s differing political parties, the foreign policies of the presidents shared several similarities. The main differences between the two presidents can be attributed to differing circumstances during their years in office. Both Truman and Eisenhower sought to eliminate communism and support civil rights, but Truman emphasized international relations and the American economy while Eisenhower dealt more with domestic issues around civil rights.
Please answer two essays from the selection that follows:
(ii) When did the Cold War begin? Who caused it?
In the aftermath of the Second World War there is no question that the United States was the strongest country on earth. America’s gross national product (GNP) had grown substantially, and by 1945, it had constituted about half the world’s goods and services.
At the conclusion of World War II, the United States of America emerged as the savior of Europe and became one of the leading global political powers of the subsequent age. Behind the “iron curtain” of Easter Europe, however, another superpower, the Soviet Union, which was seemingly the exact opposite of the United States in every way imaginable, exerted its force to instill and defend communism in its surrounding satellite states. The ideologies of these two countries displayed myriad incompatibilities, and over a period spanning the next four decades, the Soviet Union and the United States of America attempted to gain military, political, and social advantages over each other in order to preserve their systems of life. Especially with the advent of nuclear weapons and warfare, both of these nations saw the other as a perilous threat not only to the continuation of the ideals of democracy in America and Communism in The Soviet Union, but also to the lives of their innocent civilians. Countless numbers of historians have argued over the question of which superpower initiated the conflict, which Walter Lippmann coined “The Cold War” in his book of the same title, but a consensus has not yet been reached. In general, however, the events of the Cold War, which thankfully did not result in a military conflict, followed a specific pattern: The United States’ paranoia over the expansion of the Communist bloc encouraged them to develop new weapons and exert their influence in numerous struggles in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. The Soviets, seeing this American initiative as a threat, also escalated their weapons and military programs.