President Harry S. Truman had a presidency with many world conflicts and hard decisions. Such as dropping two atomic bombs on the Japanese, the beginning of the Cold War, the Korean War and more. President Truman had a very active role in many of the years following World War Two.
In the months following after Roosevelt's death, as the new President, Truman had to make a difficult decision on whether not to drop the atomic bombs on Japan. Prior to this decision the Japanese had decimated many other asian countries, and bombed Pearl Harbor a US naval base in Hawaii. Japan just wouldn’t give even after Germany and Italy had already surrendered to the Allied Nations. The Japanese just kept fighting and wouldn’t give up, and were still causing
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Between communism and capitalism. This dispute leads to what history calls the Cold War. At the time of the beginning of the Cold War Truman was the President of America and the Soviet Leader was Joseph Stalin. Truman didn’t want communism to spread anymore than other Americans wanted either. In that case Truman started getting other countries to lean toward a capitalist government, especially new countries coming out of the war trying to form governments. Even countries such as Germany, who after the War was split by the Allied forces to help bring the country back to a better state of being. During Germany’s split the American side was a lot more economically better and stable. More and more Germans looked to live on the American side of Germany, which Truman knew about because many tried to leave the Soviet controlled areas of Germany. Also during this time President Truman proposed the Truman Doctrine, which was a foreign policy in which countered Soviet Union political expansion around the world during the Cold War. This is what really started America's involvement in the Cold War. This also set the tied for many wars to come during the Cold War for communism and capitalism, such as the Korean War, and another well known war in America called the Vietnam War, and more. The Truman Doctrine ultimately set the tied for most of the politics during the second half of the 19th
For decades, Harry Truman, the 33rd President of the United States of America, will always be remembered as the man who took the decision to launch the atomic bomb in two cities of Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The president takes measure, which was a very important decision and any President would ever have to make. Harry Truman, the 33rd President of the United States, is known for the decision to drop the bomb in Japan in August 1945.
There were many events that led up to Japan making the decision to bomb Pearl Harbor. It all started with Japan wanting to expand their power. Japan was an island nation, it was isolated from many other nations, and Japan chose to be that way. But by the beginning of the 1900’s Japan was starting to fall apart as it was starting to become short of raw materials. Japan figured if it wanted to survive it would have to expand to get more materials. (O'NEAL 410-413). Japan started trying to take over Asia; they landed in the east coast of China in Manchuria and stationed troops there in order to try to take over northeastern China. ("Japan Launches A Surprise Attack on Pearl Harbor: December 7, 1941"). In reaction to Japan’s landing and hostility towards China the United States, who wanted to keep the open-door policy with China, placed economic sanctions of Japan to slow down Japan’s advances in China. (Higgs). President Roosevelt hoped that these sanctions that the United States put on Japan would lead them to making the mistake of declaring war on the United States (which would also bring Italy and Germany into the attack too since they were all allied) the reason why Rooseve...
The Japanese government believed that the only way to solve its economic and demographic problems was to expand into its neighbor’s territory and take over its import market, mostly pointed at China. To put an end on that the United States put economic sanctions and trade embargoes. We believed that if we cut off their resources and their source of federal income than they would have no choice but to pull back and surrender. But the
...ecessary to end the war, because the Japanese were not going to surrender. In August of 1944 the war in Europe was over and the face off between the United States and Japan had finally arrived. The United States had to choose between sending hundreds of thousands of US soldiers, to invade Japan killing and being killed by the hundreds of thousands, OR dropping a newly developed weapon called the atomic bomb on two cities in Japan which would result in tens of thousands of civilian lives with little cost to US servicemen. The only hope of ending the war quickly and honorably was to drop the bombs. Calls for surrender were ignored and the Japanese hierarchy, Okinawa and Iwo Jima had shown clearly what an invasion of Japan would be like. The decision was made, the bombs were dropped, the war was ended and both military and civilian lives were saved by both countries.
There are many opinions surrounding the question: Was the decision by Truman to drop the atomic bomb ultimately the right or wrong decision? Not only can this question be answered in many different ways, it can be interpreted in many different ways as well. Overall, Truman ultimately made the right decision to drop the atomic bomb. This can be supported by the fact that the atomic bomb helped prevent the deaths of American troops, saved the lives of foreign citizens, and in comparison the atomic bomb was not as destructive as the firebombing in Tokyo.
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, raise the question of whether or not the Cold War can be blamed on Truman. Supporting the view that Truman was responsible for the Cold War, Arnold Offner argues that Truman’s parochialism and nationalism caused him to make contrary foreign policy decisions without regard to other nations, which caused the intense standoff between the Soviet Union and America that became the Cold War (Offner 291)....
The Truman Doctrine and the Development of American Foreign Policy during the Cold War On March 12, 1947, President Harry S. Truman defined United States foreign policy in the context of its new role as a world superpower. Many historians consider his speech to Congress as the words that officially started the Cold War. The Truman Doctrine was a major break from U.S. historical trends of isolationist foreign policy. His speech led to the Cold War policy of containment.
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.
The Cold War was a conflict between the Communist nations led by the Soviet Union
Both Truman’s and Eisenhower’s governments were engaged in the Cold War, and contributed to increased tensions with Russia. Truman was the initiator of the containment policy, which was implemented throughout the duration of the Cold War. This policy was put into effect in order to prevent the spread of communism.
As the Cold War era heated up, Presidents began to become more and more nervous in the hot seat, and this is where we see the trend of seemingly bungling, clandestine presidencies with leaders who didn’t know how to effectively spread themselves across the issues at home and overseas. Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy all had fairly similar policies aimed to promote racial integration, expand Social Security, contain the Soviet threat to the Eastern Bloc, and rebuild postwar Europe under an American democratic influence.1 Truman’s actions are more so admirable than anything when one considers the immense stress and disapproval he was under for the majority of his two terms; none the less, he still proved to be a very adept leader, and did not merely wish to carry out things correctly, but to do what was correct.2 Having to pick up from was immediately faced with the difficult decision of whether to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, and his ultimate, and highly controversial, decision to use the bomb led to the unconditional surrender of the Japanese and the official end of WWII for America.... ... middle of paper ... ...1 (2006): 59–74. Pach, Chester J., and Elmo Richardson.
Truman was justified in dropping the Atomic bombs because of the situation at hand, but it is arguable because he had several alternatives. Right after America declared war on Japan, Germany also declared war on the United States. Thereby, causing a dilemma for the United States nation as a whole. If the US didn't finish the war with Japan quickly, they would have trouble backing up the allied powers. However, Truman could have found another way to defeat Japan with a less violent tactic.
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.
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.
At the same time, the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were involved in the Cold War. They were competing against one another, constantly trying to show that their country (and therefore their form of government and ideals) was the better choice. They were competing for influence over the rest of the world. Eventually the USSR and Communism lost, but far more important results came out of this competition instead.