More handpicked essays just for you.
The Role Of The Usa During The Cold War
The U.S. role in the cold war
The Role Of The Usa During The Cold War
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
All of the history of the United States, foreign policy has caused many disputes over the proper role in international affairs. The views, morals and beliefs of democracy in Americans, makes them feel the need to take leadership of the world and help those countries whom are in need. The foreign policies of President Eisenhower will eventually led to the involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War. President Eisenhower’s role with these policies were based on his military type strategies to safeguard a victory in the Global Cold War. President Eisenhower’s foreign policies led to an effective involvement in the Cold War and enviably the Vietnam War from an American perspective. President Eisenhower’s foreign policies when implemented would facilitate the goal of containing communism, and also
I will examine just a few of President Eisenhower’s foreign policies and how they played in to the influencing the United States involvement in the Cold War and how the Cold War made its way to
(Press conference, April 7, 1954) President Eisenhower would start laying out his first major defense of the domino theory. President Eisenhower was referring to the battle between French forces and the Vietminh (the communist led forces of North Vietnam), and which he began explaining how economically and geographically important Vietnam was to the United States and Asia. This first step is the first step towards preventing what he called the “falling domino” principle. President Eisenhower went on to explain that if South Vietnam falls to communism, then Laos would be next; and after Laos then Thailand and straight to Burma and that would lead communists to India, at the time very strong and important ally of the United States. Even Japan, President Eisenhower warned, could be in danger of toppling, another domino in that row of
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.
The leadership styles, experience, personality, and temperament of Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and John Kennedy played a role in deepening the U.S. involvement and commitment to Vietnam. Both presidents vowed to stop the spread of communism, which was viewed as a direct assault to democracy, human rights, and capitalism. (Tucker, 1999) Both presidents also subscribed to the domino theory, or the belief that if one key country should fall to communism, then it would have a cascading effect on other countries turning to communism. (Divine, 1981) This theory was used by many presidents as the reason for ongoing support to the effort in Indochina.
Steven Hook and John Spanier's 2012 book titled “American foreign policy since WWII" serves as one of the most important texts that can be used in understanding the underlying complexities on American foreign policies. Like the first readings that are analyzed in class (American Diplomacy by George Kennan and Surprise, Security, and the American Experience by John Lewis Gaddis), this text also brings history into a more understandable context. Aside from being informative and concise in its historical approach, Hook and Spanier also critiques the several flaws and perspectives that occurred in the American foreign policy history since World War II.
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...
Eisenhower’s foreign policy was about containment and trying to discourage other countries from joining it by giving them financial and military aid. When he realized that containment itself was not enough to stop the Soviet expansion, he adopted a policy which he called massive retaliation whereby the U.S. was prepared to use atomic weapons if they were to be attacked. He tried diplomacy to develop relation with the Soviets even agreeing to join other leaders in Geneva Switzerland with the intention to calm the temperatures between the two nations. When diplomacy didn’t work, he signed a bill that allowed countries to request economic and military help from the U.S. if they are being attacked by a communist nation. Cold War did not end until after Ronald Reagan’s time as president when he challenged the leader of the Soviet to take down the Berlin wall which was the most recognizable symbol of the Cold War. At this time, the Soviet Union was disintegrating and its influence in Eastern Europe was waning fast bringing the war to an
Through the policies of containment, McCarthyism, and brinkmanship the United States was able to successfully remain a democratic nation. Although some of its policies where corrupt, the U.S. perused its goals and eventually stopped the spread of communism.
In Hayslip’s book When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, she talks about her life as a peasant’s daughter and her and her family’s involvement in the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War has not only affected Vietnam itself, but also the United States, where in the beginning they did not want to get involved. However, with the spread of communism, which had already affected China, the president at the time Lyndon Johnson, thought it was time to stop the spread of the Vietnam War. With America’s involvement in the war, it caused great problems for both sides. In Vietnam, it causes the local people from the south and north side to split up and either becomes a supporter of communism or of the US’s capitalist views. In addition, it caused displacement for those local people, thus losing their family. In America, the Vietnam War has brought about PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, and deaths of many soldiers, more than World War II. With the thought of containment for communism, the US had gave back Vietnam their war and “gave up” on the war, leaving Southeast Asia in the sphere of communist views. With the thought of the domino theory that a country will fall in similar events like the neighboring countries, like China as Vietnam’s neighbor the United States tried to remove communism from Vietnam. US’s involvement in the war caused problems for both sides of the war.
The Cold War was a time of fear for the American people in the aftermath of the second World War, but also was a key period in which different presidents began and led various programs to fight Communism, both at home and abroad. President Eisenhower was elected in 1952, and various actions he took throughout his two term administration both assuaged and increased American fears related to Cold War problems. Eisenhower’s policies and programs of the Cold War included MAD and McCarthyism, which caused domestic fears, Brinksmanship and the creation of highways to carry military equipment through the Federal Highway of 1956 in case of foreign war, and his creation of NASA and the National Defense Education Act of 1958 for a technology race with the Soviet Union.
When John F. Kennedy became president, he began a personal policy initiative to bring together African nationalist leaders. The policy was constructed to better the connection between the U.S. and Africa, and make an effective change in the direction of U.S. foreign relations. The Kennedy administration thought that the Cold War could be won or lost depending on whether Washington or Moscow won the hearts and minds of the Third World. During 1960-61 Africa was especially important because a wave of independence saw nineteen newly independent African states admitted into the United Nations. By 1962 both Washington and Moscow sought to add 31 of the UN's 110 member states that were from the African continent. the Cold War only deepened the need
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)....
With this book, a major element of American history was analyzed. The Cold War is rampant with American foreign policy and influential in shaping the modern world. Strategies of Containment outlines American policy from the end of World War II until present day. Gaddis outlines the policies of presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, including policies influenced by others such as George Kennan, John Dulles, and Henry Kissinger. The author, John Lewis Gaddis has written many books on the Cold War and is an avid researcher in the field.
The United States thought of the countries in Southeast Asia as Dominos. They thought that if Vietnam became a Communist country all countries in the region would soon also become Communist’s.
They gain speed and power as the process is carried out. This analogy can be used to show what could happen to the political make-up of a specific geographical area in the world. The analogy, though, uses domino?s instead of countries. That is to say that if one country in a region practiced one particular type of government this might influence neighboring or bordering to adopt this type of government, for example the underlying principle behind the domino theory. Although the domino theory has physically been occurring since the beginning of time, it was only given a specific name and meaning 44 years ago by president Dwight D. Eisenhower. He used this theory to refer to the potential spread of communism in Southeast-Asia. He specifically said that,?You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences.?2 The influences that he was talking about were the influences of communism. He believed as many others did that if one country in Southeast-Asia fell to communism then all of the surrounding countries would also. President Eisenhower had led the allied coalition against Hitler in Europe during WWII. He was deeply disturbed by the way that Communism had taken hold of Eastern Europe after the war. He was also concerned by the way that Asia had been taken over by Japan so easily in WWII. This build-up can be shown in the maps below. As you can see the size of Japan?s power at the end of its rule is about twice as large as its power at the beginning. The countries which bordered Japan fell over to Japan very quickly as the war went on and giving Japan more power while doing so.
The revolutionary worldwide spread of communism has always been a great fear to the USA. In the past, America has gone to many wars to psychologically protect its ideology against powerful nations. That the ‘domino theory’ and the cold war mentality held by the USA, primarily justified their involvement in Vietnam. It was after World War Two that the USA’s interest in Vietnam came about. Eisenhower and Dulles contrevsial ‘ domino theory’ with the fear of a communist-dominated government in Vietnam and surrounding countries sparked an increase in America’s involvement. There were also secondary factors that influence the Americans such as, political and economic interests over raw materials, etc. The USA and France had separate and completely different aims, ideas and interests regarding Vietnam and Indo-china. The US’s involvement began with supplying the French with military aid to a full-scale conscript defense force, fighting battles on the ground. At a time, when the cold war was at a peak between the US and the USSR, and after the victory of stopping South Korea becoming a communist state. The USA out of all the allies in the Vietnam War was the only country involved primarily because of the ‘domino theory’. The history of the domino theory played a significant role throughout the cold war and was America’s greatest fear and motivation.
The Vietnam War began in 1954 after North Vietnam’s victory over the French colonial administration of Vietnam. North Vietnam’s goal was to unify the entire country by establishing a central Communist administration with support from the Soviet Union, China, and other Communist allies. By 1957, the Communist Vietnamese, known as the Viet Cong, utilized guerrilla war tactics against all those who were opposed them in the region. The United States government sought to guard against a Communist bloc in SE Asia and seized the opportunity to prevent the unification of the inevitable Communist rule of Vietnam by conducting strategic bombing methods in North Vietnam and surrounding areas suspected of housing the Viet Cong. President John F. Kennedy was a supporter of Dwight Eisenhower’s Domino Theory, which states that a communist victory in one country would cause a chain reaction of Communist rule in neighboring states.