1) After World War II (1939-1945), the United States and the Soviet Union became the strongest superpowers of the world. Although they shared a common enemy of the Nazi’s during the war, they did not share similar beliefs and interests economically and politically. The main difference between these powers was that the Soviets followed Karl Marx’s ideology of communism while the United States had a democracy and followed capitalism. This caused the two powers to become enemies post-war, later dividing up the world into two sides; The U.S. creating an alliance called NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), and the Soviets creating an alliance called the Warsaw Pact. With the fear of starting a nuclear war, the contrasting factions entered …show more content…
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. To conclude, the Red Scare changed the American society abroad and at home by getting involved in the elimination of Soviet communist transmission to the world. I believe that because the Soviets were able to advance and gain the access of nuclear weapons like the atomic bomb, that created a fearful atmosphere in the American society. By association, since the Soviets were communists, I think that it also caused Americans to fear communism and made irrational advances to keep it out of our society. In the end, our involvement with the communists caused us to rise as a global
Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union had started since the early conference in World War Two and increased further at the War’s conclusion. These tensions developed further during the Berlin Blockade and Airlift during 1948 and 1949, China becoming communist in 1949, and the Korean War between 1950 and 1953. The events, have been labelled as the early crisis of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, and greatly increased tensions between the two superpowers and further led the countries into a Cold War.
A war does not necessarily require physical weapons to fight. From 1947 to 1991, military tension and ideological conflicts held place. Cold War is defined as a state of political hostility existing between countries, characterized by threats, violent propaganda, subversive activities, and other measures short of open warfare, in particular. The causes of the Cold War between United States and the Soviet Union were the mutual distrust that had taken place in World War II, intense rivalry between the two super powers, and conflicting ideologies. The two superpowers differed in views of political and economic principles and were eager to spread their ideologies to other countries. The United States were in favor of democracy and capitalism while the Soviet Union sought for the chances of influencing communism. Cold War did not involve the use of physical arms but was intensely fought. Propaganda, economic aids, Arms Race, and the creation of alliances were the main methods to fight the war. The use of propaganda played a crucial role in containment by criticizing the other power and raised the morale and spirit of their nation. The economic support for nations helped them recover from the desperate situation after World War II, which prevented the nations from falling under communism. Also, the Arms Race and forming alliances between the two main powers were important weapons for competition and rivalry in Cold War.
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.
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 Cold War presented the United States with a unique decision. The Soviet Union had created a space program and the United States needed to decide if a space program would be beneficial for them. The Soviets sent probes out to space, and soon American probes followed. There are many reasons that the U.S. could have made this decision, but two reasons are more prominent that the others. Firstly the United States found it necessary to compete with the Soviets, and they could not accept the fact that the U.S.S.R had something that they didn’t. Secondly, JFK and his administration thought that space was the final frontier, and it would provide valuable scientific research. Ultimately, John F Kennedy and the United States decided to create a space
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.
During the "Red Scare" America was totally taken over by a fear of communism, or anything/anyone that had anything to do with communism. Much of this fear was really unnecessary when you put things into prospective. American's were afraid of a communist takeover, which would almost never happen in the US. America was scared of communism it's self, which was a really unjustified fear. These fears of communism ended up taking some rights away from innocent Americans, which was the main thing that the Red Scare was trying not to do, and that is a loss of rights in America. The Red Scare was mostly unjustified, and was not really grounded in reality.
United States involvement during the Cold War began with the Korean War. The War started on June 25, 1950 when troops from North Korea entered the 38th parallel, which was the boundary established after World War II between North Korea and South Korea. The North was supported by the Soviet Union and People’s Republic of China, while the South was later supported by the U.S. and its allies. Their attack was one of the first military measures of the Cold War (“Korean War”). Once North Korea invaded South Korea, U.S. involvement took place to prevent further communist regime and their involvement aided in several military developments and also left lasting political and diplomatic affects during the Cold War.
The cold war era is when America was at its most suspicious and paranoid. The cold war grew out of tensions that were post WWII. Two worldly super powers clashed over rivalry and one wanted to have more influence. This rivalry went for almost half of the 20th century, and led to many international incidents that almost brought both powers to a mutual destruction.
The United States and the Allied Powers faced many challenges at the end of WWII. America's policy was one that contained the spread of communism in Eastern Europe. Russia, under Lenin's rule called for a world revolution and brought the United States into it. It was not until after WWII, that the cold war really began, when the political power of the world shifted from the center of Europe to Moscow and Washington. The Cold War began after the collapse of Germany in May 1945(http://www.coldwar.org/indexrus.html). The creation of the cold war came from the disagreements for postwar Europe and the Far East. Each superpower, the United States, Britain, France and Russia had their own idea of how postwar Europe should look, and many of their ideas clashed. The Cold War arose not from one isolated event, but from the different ideologies and interests between the Soviet Union and the west. Also the Russian government was seeking revenge on the United States because the United States did not enter the war effort soon enough and that caused for more Russian casualties.
The United States entered the cold war with the communist movement in the Soviet Union and China. The United States saw itself as the global watch dog against the rise of communism as a threat to our way of life. Vietnam was
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.
middle of paper ... ... The Red Scare would lead to one of the longest “invisible” wars between America; democracy and Russia; communism. It would create one of the most technology-advanced generations in which both countries competed for stronger weapons and military might. At the same time, it was also a Renaissance in which the greatest minds were sought after by the government.
The alliance that had formed between two super powers, U.S and USSR during World War II was not strong enough to overcome the past decades of suspicion and unease between the two nations. Unwilling to compromise because of paranoia about their postwar national security created high tension atmosphere in U.S- Soviet Union’s relationship. This unstable partnership finally cracked due to the defeat of Nazi German: An unnatural alliance that was bound to fall apart after the defeat of the common enemy can be considered the origin of the Cold War.The Cold War had an enormous impact on the United States politically, socially, and economically including Red hunts, unconditionally fear of Communism and McCarthyism in the period 1940s-1950s, also shaped U.S.’s political agendas. This war ended as the reform programs introduced by Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, which unexpectedly led to the collapse of Soviet Union. The...