The close of World War II ended in a victory to the Allied Powers as a result of the unconditional surrender of the Axis Powers. It seemed that the six years of war and bloodshed had finally ended and the world would finally be able to recover and flourish once again, but conflict would soon arise between two wartime allies. The end of World War II led to a period of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, severing ties between the two countries that had once been allies. This period of political and military tension between the United States and Soviet Union came to be known as the Cold War. As the two nations focused toward rebuilding postwar Europe, many factors led to the United States and the Soviet Union becoming Cold War adversaries. At the dawn of the Cold War in 1945, a power struggle began between the United States, who supported democratic rule, and the Soviet Union, who opposed democracy and pushed for communism within the Soviet sphere. Both the United States and the Soviet Union pushed to rebuild post-war Europe by their own means. As the two countries strived to be the world’s superpower, they battled through diplomacy and a show of military strength. One individual played an immense role in pulling the strings of the Cold War. As the first U.S. President to face the Cold War, Harry S. Truman’s political views as a Democrat, important military decisions during warfare, and his policy of containing Communism, strongly impacted the Cold War, which led to the United States and the Soviet Union becoming Cold War adversaries.
From July 17¬–August 2, 1945, U.S. President Harry S. Truman, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, all met in Potsdam, Germany to discuss plans ...
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...r adversaries. Truman’s political views as a Democrat opposed the Soviet Union’s Communist views. Truman believed that communism would affect the political stability of other countries. In addition, Truman made one of the most difficult and significant decisions of World War II by announcing that the atomic bombs would be dropped on both Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The atomic bomb symbolized military strength, which posed as a threat to Soviet security. Lastly, the containment policy of the Truman Doctrine prevented the expansion of communism of the Soviet Union, slowing the Communist influence of the Middle East. As the first U.S. President to face the Cold War, Harry S. Truman strongly impacted the Cold War through his political views and contributions, pulling the strings of the relationship of the two Cold War adversaries, the United States and the Soviet Union.
“Was Truman Responsible for the Cold War”, well, according to author Arnold A. Offner, his simplistic answer is an obvious “yes.” “Taking Sides” is a controversial aspect of the author’s interpretation for justifying his position and perception of “Truman’s” actions. This political approach is situated around the “Cold War” era in which the author scrutinizes, delineates, and ridicules his opponents by claiming “I have an ace in the hole and one showing” (SoRelle 313). Both authors provide the readers with intuitive perceptions for their argumentative approaches in justifying whether or not “Truman” contributed to the onset of the “Cold War.” Thus far, it would be hard-pressed to blame one single individual, President or not, for the “Cold War” initiation/s. Information presented show the implications centered on the issues leading up to the Cold War”, presents different ideologies of two Presidents involving policy making, and a national relationship strained by uncooperative governments. However, evidence that is presented may indicate otherwise as Joseph Stalin provides adequate counter claims for discrediting the “simplicity” of “yes”.
In Chapter 25 of the American Yawp, it talks about the Cold War. Relations were soured between the United States and the Soviet Union after World War II. The Truman administration still sought US-Soviet union cooperation. The Cold War was a global political and ideological struggle between capitalist and communist countries, particularly between the two surviving superpowers of the postwar world: the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). “Cold” because it was never a “hot,” direct shooting war between the United States and the Soviet Union, the generations-long, multifaceted rivalry nevertheless bent the world to its whims.
After the end of WW2, two major governmental institutions, the USA and the USSR, with conflicting political ideologies and agendas, set forth to dominate each other in international politics. This period of time, also known as the Cold War, initiated an era of crazed hysteria in the United States as these two governments frequently clashed and bitterly fought. As a result, the frightened public grew delirious as the world grew dangerously close to a calamitous nuclear war, which ultimately prompted the Eisenhower administration to hinder the spread of communism and encourage the U.S. population to rapidly pursue higher education for the future welfare of this nation.
The post-war world left the Soviets and the United States in an ideological power struggle. The origin of the cold war is hard to pinpoint. There were several issues and disagreements that led to it. The political differences between the 2 nations were absolute opposites. America was a democracy, a system that allows its citizens to choose the political party in which runs the government. The Communists were led by one of the most vicious dictators in human history, Joseph Stalin.
The foreign and domestic policies during the Cold War lead to both the separation of world powers and the fear of political and social systems throughout the world. After World War 2 had ended, tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union heighted. The agreements made at the Yalta Conference between Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt , were not being followed by the Soviets. The Soviet Union kept the land they reconquered in Eastern Europe and did not enforce a democratic government in those countries, as they promised. Instead, the Soviet Union decided to continue spreading communism in their reconquered lands. The United States’ feared the spread of communism and attempted to do anything in its power to stop it. Before the United
Discussions of the causes of the Cold War are often divisive, creating disparate ideological camps that focus the blame in different directions depending on the academic’s political disposition. One popular argument places the blame largely on the American people, whose emphasis of “strength over compromise” and their deployment of the atomic bomb in the Second World War’s Pacific theatre apparently functioned as two key catalysts to the conflict between US and Soviet powers. This revisionist approach minimizes Stalin’s forceful approach and history of violent leadership throughout World War 2, and focusing instead on President Harry Truman’s apparent insensitivity to “reasonable Soviet security anxieties” in his quest to impose “American interests on the world.” Revisionist historians depict President Truman as a “Cold War monger,” whose unjustified political use of the atomic bomb and ornery diplomatic style forced Russia into the Cold War to oppose the spread of a looming capitalist democratic monopoly. In reality, Truman’s responsibility for the Cold War and the atomic bomb drop should be minimized. Criticisms of Truman’s actions fail to consider that he entered a leadership position set on an ideological collision course, being forced to further an established plan for an atomic monopoly, and deal with a legacy of US-Russian tensions mobilized by Roosevelt prior to his death, all while being influenced by an alarmist and aggressive cabinet. Upon reviewing criticisms of Truman’s negotiations with Soviet diplomat Vyacheslav Molotov and his involvement in the atomic bomb drop, the influence of Roosevelt’s legacy and Truman’s cabinet will be discussed in order to minimize his blame for starting the Cold War.
President Harry Truman came into office right at the end of World War II, after the death of President Franklin Roosevelt. Almost immediately after becoming president, Truman learned of the Manhattan Project, and had to decide whether or not to use the atomic bomb. With the advice of James Byrnes, Secretary of State, Truman decided to drop two atomic bombs on Japan, in part to demonstrate America’s power to the world and gain a political advantage in Europe (Offner 294). After World War II ended, there were negotiations about Germany, and it was decided that Germany would be split into two halves; the western half would be controlled by the United States and its allies, while the eastern half would be controlled by the Soviet Union. This situation led to increased tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union because of the two nations’ different political and economic systems. The Soviet Union began to view the United States as a threat to communism, and the United States began to view the Soviet Union as a threat to democracy. On March 12, 1947, Truman gave a speech in which he argued that the United States should support nations trying to resist Soviet imperialism. Truman and his advisors created a foreign policy that consisted of giving reconstruction aid to Europe, and preventing Russian expansionism. These foreign policy decisions, as well as his involvement in the usage of the atomic bomb, raises the question of whether or not the Cold War can be blamed on Truman.
Other factors that have led the United States to take foreign policy decisions that favor it were the desire for control, power, and capitalist diffusion during the Cold War. In Latin America, as previously explained, the “School of the Americas” and other policies were imposed in order to have access to local power, which would favor the US in the Cold War. According to Terrence Dillon the US couldn’t afford to lose against communism in America. Therefore, the Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine were imposed and this reoriented US foreign policy to possible interventions in far away conflicts. Specific examples lie in in Latino dictators like Pinochet and Batista (Source 5). In this case, Dillon makes the audience realize how The United States, at the expense of “not losing to communism in America” amplified the scope of conflicts in different countries in Latin America.
After the end of World War II, the Soviets and the United States had to work in unison to come up with a plan of the rebuilding of the nation of Germany. However, disagreements and tensions began to rise between the two dominant countries during the war. They continued to dispute between territory and ideologies and ultimately led to a figurative war called the Cold War. This was based on the idea that were would be no actual physical collision however, they would attack each other through propaganda and spread of world dominance. Immediately following the end of the war, the fear of the American public began to rise over communism infiltrating American ideologies. The administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower failed to address and calm these fears such as the fear of communism spreading, the brink of nuclear war, and the arms and space race.
The end of World War II presented an opportunity for Winston Churchill to regain some of the power and influence that the Imperialistic British Empire once possessed. Churchill took advantage of the trust and respect that the American public and President Truman shared about his character. He saw Truman's lack of political experience as an opportunity to restore British imperial authority. Winston Churchill tainted Harry Truman's beliefs and preservations about Russia, because his personal agenda and imperial policy where vital to the supremacy of the British Empire. Churchill manipulated Truman and the American public. He caused them to believe that Russia was a legitimate threat to the free world, thus he created the origins of the Cold War.
Immediately after World War II, Americans were as happy as ever; the unemployment rate was cut, families were expanding, and America became the most powerful country. However, after just a short time period, this all changed. With the outbreak of the Cold War, Americans began to grow paranoid and apprehensive, convinced that Soviets would eventually invade. It redefined what it meant to be an American because people started to worry that Communists lurked behind every corner, waiting to bounce. Even worse, people could no longer trust others, even their neighbors, because “it was not always easy to determine just who is a Communist” (Document 4). It simply became a way of life. However, shortly after, magazines such as LOOK were published, providing descriptive characteristics that Americans can use to identify communists.
In this example, the realism peace theories are applied to the West European cold peace after the Second World War. The transition of cold war in 1950s to cold peace was due to the emergence of realist mechanisms where the United States (US) pacifying role as the hegemon and the common threat produced from the Soviet Union to the US and Western Europe. The combined effects of hegemony and balance of power produced the cold peace between the key rivals France and West Germany after the World War Two in 1950-1954. The initial caused of conflict was due to a series of disagreements about the status of Germany (Steans, .et.al, 2005). During the cold war, France tried to control Germany and made the state powerless by drawing it into alliance. The states accepted each other’s existence through formal agreements and maintained diplomatic relations. The US and Soviet Union came forward to dictate the change in French policy and the involvement of US had influence the French-German relationship. Nevertheless, there were unresolved conflicts and high extent of mutual insecurity between the two states. At the same time, the Soviet Union took a precaution to ensure that Germany did not pose a threat.
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
THE COLD WAR The Cold War was a very complex war. Many ideas, conflicts and emotions were going on. This was a major turning point in the world of war. War is a much more powerful word.
From when World War II ended in 1945, all the way up to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Cold War was the center of attention of international affairs. It was a struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union. From an American view the Cold War was a mostly a war on communism. The US caused and maintained the Cold War, the US is to blame for the Cold War for disparish of the communist Soviet Union in support of the political and economic systems.