Cold War Dbq

As the Great Depression came to an end, the United States started to recover with the help from President Roosevelt. However, during this recovery, the U.S. witnessed many hardships and conflicts both at home and overseas. Overseas, events like World War II, the Cold War, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War were happening. At home problems began, such as, whether or not the U.S. should get involved in abroad issues, and the civil rights movement. Whether it was overseas, or at home, these issues affected the United States in many ways.
As Franklin Roosevelt took the office, the U.S. was deepening into the depression. In the document, The First Inaugural Address, Roosevelt says, “Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are

stricken by no plague of locusts (The First Inaugural Address, Page 207).” He believed that there were many opportunities in the U.S., but people were being greedy with their money, and failed to take them. He also said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself (The First Inaugural Address, Page 207).” He wanted to show the U.S. that they should still have hope, and if we go at tasks with fear, we will not get anywhere. Roosevelt prevented this fear by proposing the New Deal, which implemented many ways to help the U.S. get out of the depression. He said it can be accomplished by, “Treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war (The First Inaugural Address, Page 207).” Some main things of focus were diminishing unemployment, supervision of banking and credit investments, and implementing better working conditions (Roosevelt's Second New Deal, Page 3). However, not everyone agreed with Roosevelt, such as Huey Long, who believed that the U.S. should be a nation that is equal, and all wealth should be redistributed (Share Our Wealth, Page 212).
While Roosevelt was executing the New Deal, foreign crises began, causing focus on problems overseas. One major crises that the U.S. experienced during this time was World War II. The U.S. did not have the best relationships with other countries such as Germany, Japan, and Italy to begin with, and things got worse when Japan surprisingly bombed of Pearl Harbor (The Second World War, Page 216). This led the U.S. to declare war against Japan. Many Americans believed that we should have stayed away from the war, like Charles Lindbergh. He said, “I say we should not enter a war unless we have a reasonable chance of winning… the Unites States is not prepared to wage war in Europe successfully at this time (Address to America First Rally, Page 222).” Despite what people said and how much we tried to stay out of war, World War II broke out when Germany declared war on us.
An important player during WWII was Adolf Hitler; leader of Germany. Roosevelt claimed that he had one of Hitler’s maps that showed, "South America, and a part of Central America, as Hitler proposed to reorganize it… forming 5 vassal state (President Roosevelt's Navy Day Address on World Affairs, Page 4)." Besides reorganizing these countries, Hitler also planned, "to abolish all existing religions (President Roosevelt's Navy Day Address on World Affairs, Page 4)." However, Hitler was defeated, and his plans were not carried out.
As the war went on, Harry Truman became president after the death of Roosevelt.

His plan was to end WWII by giving Japan “prompt and utter destruction” (The Second World War, Page 218). This tactic was put into action, and the U.S. bombed Hiroshima, forcing Japan to surrender. After this, the U.S. faced issues with the Soviet Union because we believed that the Soviet Union’s polices were not perusing real problems anymore. This led to the Cold War. George Kennan proclaimed we should, “Continue to regard the Soviet Union as a rival, not a partner, in the terms of political arena (The Sources of Soviet Conduct, Page 246).” Truman wanted to go at the Soviet Union with a new tactic of “outward toughness,” and send aid to Greece and Turkey (The Sources of Soviet Conduct, Page 245). Truman outlined what is called the Truman Doctrine, which stated that, “We are the only country able to provide that help (Truman Doctrine, Page 248).” He also said we needed to help because if we did not, “We may endanger the peace of the world—and we shall surely endanger the welfare of this nation (Truman Doctrine, Page 250).” Truman ordered $400 million dollars and military assistance to these countries to help, “Assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own ways (Truman Doctrine, Page

249-250).”
George Marshall knew that if the U.S. provided this help to these countries, we would need to better our nation’s strength at home as well. He proposed the Marshal Plan, which stated that what we are offering to other countries is, “So much greater than her [America’s] present ability to pay that she must have substantial additional help (The Marshal Plan, Page 251).” He wanted the nations to come together and help each other out; you help me, I help you.
Another major dispute the U.S. was involved in was the Korean War. This war began because of the invasion of South Korea by North Korea, with help of the Soviet Union. After the invasion happened, Truman declared war and sent military equipment and help to South Korea. Truman said he was trying to, “Prevent a third world war (Statement on the Korean War, Page 252-253).” Even though a third world war did not happen, the Korean War went on for three years, causing many casualties and loss of millions of dollars.
Two years after the Korean War had ended, the U.S. got involved in the Vietnam War, which started because The North Vietnamese government and the Viet Cong were fighting to rejoin Vietnam. The U.S. got involved because we wanted to prevent a communist overthrow of South Vietnam. This war was a new kind of war, and is was not considered "a spontaneous and local rebellion against the established government (State Department White Paper on Vietnam 1965, Page 256).” President Lyndon Johnson, order the U.S. to bomb North Vietnam. Many people were upset that the U.S. decided to get involved in this war. For example, George Ball said we would not, “Achieve our political objectives by expanding the bombing of North Vietnam (Cutting Our Losses in South Viet­nam, Page 1).” He thought this would affect relationships with our allies, which would risk endangerment of troops, and could escalate the war (Cutting Our Losses in South Viet­nam). A few years later, President Richard Nixon exclaimed he was also upset with Johnson, mainly his way of entering the war. He said, “The American people cannot and should not be asked to support a policy which involves overriding issues of war and peace unless they know the truth (Vietnamization, Page 138).” Nixon implemented Vietnamization, which helped end the war in 1975 after twenty years.
At home, these events weren’t the only thing hurting the U.S.

The Civil Rights Movement was also affecting us. Even after blacks were granted the same rights as whites, they were still mistreated, and started to fight back. One major event was the situation at Little Rock in 1957 which took place at Central High School. Whites were preventing black students to enter the school. President Dwight D. Eisenhower stated, “The mob again gathered… obviously for the purpose of again preventing the carrying out of the court’s order relating to the admission of Negro children to that school (The Situation at Little Rock, Page 287).” In response to the mobs, Eisenhower sent troops to avoid them from intervening in the black’s educational rights. Many protests and boycotts were led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; a black minister who believed in non-violence. During one rally, police showed up and arrested MLK. In jail MLK wrote a letter saying how things needed to change. He stated, “Its unjust treatment of Negroes in the courts is a notorious reality (Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Page 299).” MLK believed that the U.S. needed to start treating blacks fairly, and give them the respect they deserve. Another important player was Stokely Carmichael, who said, “For racism to die, a totally different America must be born (Black Power, Page 313).” He believed that whites and blacks needed to work together in order for this to happen. However, he also said, “The responsibility of rebuilding

this society, if at all possible, is basically the responsibility of whites (Black Power, Page 314)." Carmichael was almost blaming the whites for everything that had happened in America, and it was their job to fix what they have done.
In conclusion, during the periods of World War II to the Vietnam War, the United States faced many hardships abroad and at home. Whether it was from helping other countries, to facing racism at home in the U.S., these events affected us in many ways. Throughout this time period, the U.S. took many chances. However, not everyone agreed with these chances we took, such as, Huey Long, Charles Lindberg, George Kennan, and George Marshall. Despite all this, we managed to stay strong as a country, and with great leadership we continued to succeed into the country we are today.