In 1939, the Soviet Union’s Joseph Stalin and Germany’s Adolf Hitler signed the Nonaggression Pact. This pact ensured the welfare of each country from one another. However, Aldo Hitler’s success and power hunger turned him into a tyrant, and he invaded the Soviet Union, with Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, the Soviet Union and the United States created an alliance, turning the two nations into dominant countries, which as World War II evolved quickly turned into a competition. After the descendant of the Axis powers, the political rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States gave a start to the Cold War. The compelling Successive race for military power, the spread of communism, the space race, and the building of nuclear power threaten the …show more content…
President Harry Truman created the Truman Doctrine, which promised the support of the United States from any country threatened by the Soviet Union. The policy continued all through Truemans' time in office. The policy of containment later informed the “domino theory,” which stated that one country falling to Communism meant the surrounding countries were likely to fall as well. This policy pushed the United States to enter into wars in Korea, Vietnam, and other Cold War conflicts. While under Joseph Stalin's rule, the objective of the Soviet Union was to steal information related to the development of nuclear weapons. The United States Trinity test, where they detonated the first nuclear weapon and later dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, made it clear to the rest of the world that the United States had the most powerful bombs on earth. The Soviet Union didn’t like the advantage the United States had over all the other nations, and quickly got to work on developing their nuclear technology. Soviets were initially unsuccessful at developing the technology and sent spies to the United States to steal their military
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.
Around the world, many countries did choose to ally themselves with the United States, but it was soon clear that the USSR would not be among them. The Soviets were developing their own nuclear program at the same time as the Manhattan Project was underway, and Soviet espionage provided them with crucial information from the Manhattan Project that helped their progress (Walker, 67). When the United States used the atomic bombs on Japan, the USSR believed that the United States would seek to threaten Soviet interests. Instead of simplifying the growing conflict between the United States and the USSR, the use of atomic weapons on Japan only made the situation more complex.
Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union began with mutual distrust in World War II, intense rivalry, and conflicting ideologies. Cold War was fought with four major weapons. The weapons were propaganda, economic and military aid to devastated nations after World War II, arms race, and the alliances. Propagandas were used for containment and to raise the people’s morale and patriotism. Economic aid of the devastated nations was also used as a method of containment, as it prevented the desperate nations from falling under communism. Arms race was one way of representing the nation’s military pride and the ability to retaliate when attacked, although the arms were not developed to dominate world power. Finally, alliances were created and its scale was compared to verify the superior side of the Cold War.
Despite strong opposition from a Republican congress, Truman attempted to extend Roosevelt's New Deal policies by strengthening social security, conservation, implementing rent controls, and providing housing to low-income families. At times, however, Truman was inconsistent with his own party's beliefs and the ideal of the New Deal in order to suit the immediate situation and retain public support. Furthermore, Truman supported civil rights actions and for the first time, increased the political status of African American citizens. Truman's various other reforms were much like the proposals of Roosevelt, but the mood of the nation due to its affluence and that of Congress opposed his efforts and the changing times proved that Truman's Fair Deal was not as necessary as FDR's New Deal.
During the 1960s through the 1990s the United States was involved in a diplomatic standoff with the Soviet Union. Both nations were preparing nuclear weapons to immediate the other. Throughout the world communism was being spread by the power Soviet forces and the United States created the Truman Doctrine to stop the spread of communism in Turkey and Greece. They continued to combat the spread through wars and “rebellions”. Through the extent of the Cold War, the United States made it their mission to stop the spread of communism. This plan both worked and failed in diplomacy throughout Europe, Latin America, and Asia.
Truman was born on May 8, 1884 in Lamar, Missouri. Truman was a member of the National Guard. In 1917, his unit was called up into regular service during World War I. He served from August 1917 until May 1919. He was made a commander of a Field Artillery unit in France. In 1944, Truman became nominated for vice president against Henry Wallace, a very unpopular candidate for vice president to Franklin D. Roosevelt. On January 20, 1945, Truman was sworn in as Vice President of the United States. Sadly, his vice presidency only lasted for just 82 days before Roosevelt suffered a massive stroke. On April 12, 1945, Truman was brought up to govern the world, and to somehow end World War II.
They say that the pen is mightier than the sword, and in the case of the Truman Doctrine and NSC-68, this rings true. The world was seeing so many vast changes in power, so many revolutions, and so much blood shed due to war; it was hard to find a solid standing ground for the United States when it came to their stance on foreign policy. America has been a proud nation, and one that stood firm in its believes, but in the late 1940s and early 1950s, many people in government disagreed on just what to do when it came to the issue of Soviet Union, the rise and fall of communism, and countries such as Greece and Turkey, failing due to the revolutions they were facing because of soviet uprising. President Truman, writer of the Truman Doctrine, would
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.
Before the war, “America had depicted the Soviet Union as almost the devil-incarnate. The Soviet Union had depicted America likewise so their 'friendship' during the war was simply the result of having a mutual enemy (Trueman, Chris).” In other words, these two super powers hated each other. The United States saw the Soviets equal to the devil and the Soviets made sure that everyone knew that the only reason they were fighting side by side in World War II was because they both were enemies with Nazi Germany at the time. Both were very powerful powers that would be able to fight side by side but still be enemies. This what made these two powers so unique. The steps leading up to the cold was a lot different then how other wars started in the past. It all started in the production of the atomic bomb from the Americans. Joseph ...
In addition to the prevention of communism, President Truman’s decision was also influenced by the apprehensive environment during the Cold War. The Soviet Union was able to ruin the United States as the monopoly of nuclear bombs in 1949 when they successfully detonated their first atomic bomb (“The Cold War Museum”).... ... middle of paper ... ...
When President Truman authorized the use of two nuclear weapons in 1945 against the Japanese in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II, the nature of international security was changed irreversibly. At that time, the United States had what was said to have a monopoly of atomic bombs. Soon thereafter, the Soviet Union began working on atomic weaponry. In 1949, it had already detonated it first atomic bomb and tensions began to heat up between the two countries. With the information that the Soviets had tested their first bomb, the United States began work on more powerful weapons1, and a fight for nuclear superiority had begun.
In his book Cold War: The American Crusade against World Communism, James Warren discusses the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, its causes, its consequences, and its future. Warren also analyzes why the United States was so afraid of communism and how this fear controlled both U.S. domestic and foreign policy. In George Washington’s Farewell Address, he warned future leaders to avoid foreign entanglements. However, the United States strayed away from this policy in 1941 after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. From then on, the United States realized that with its great power came great responsibility. The U.S. felt the responsibility to develop a strategy to combat the spread of world communism, which was viewed as the “Red menace.” The U.S. believed that communism would spread from the Soviet Union, across all of Europe; the U.S. understood that the spread of communism would not be very difficult because the destruction caused by World War II left many nations vulnerable to communism. Also, the Soviet Union had a highly-trained army, a ruthless leader, and a nation committed to Marxist-Leninism, which was a belief that human progress is the destruction of Western democracy and capitalism. The Cold War was a military, diplomatic, economic, and scientific struggle between the Soviet Union and the United States. The rivalry between these two nations also affected places such as Korea, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Malaya, and Vietnam. The Cold War controlled many of the crises that occurred the last half of the 20th century. The major conflict of course was the threat of nuclear weapons. Thomas Larson wrote that “the vulnerability to weapons that could destroy entire countries...heightened fears and antagonisms and made th...
After the end of World War II, the United States and Soviet Union came out with a lot of power and influence over Europe. Since they had very conflicting beliefs, tensions between the two countries kept building. Both Truman and Stalin were hiding nuclear weapons from each other. The important events and decisions that contributed the most to the establishment of a Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union were Truman’s Doctrine, the controversial Marshall Plan, and the attempt to contain communism and make sure it does not spread outside of the Soviet Union. The first event that led to the establishment of a Cold War was the Truman Doctrine.
The thirty-third president of the United States initiated great change within our country. Harry S. Truman, the creator of the Truman Doctrine created an era of change in United States foreign policy. Truman was the first to create a foreign policy in order to contain Communism, a policy that has been called, 'the hallmark of the Cold War.'1 The Truman Doctrine led to major changes in the U.S., from its inception, to its influence in the Vietnam War.
Containment became the official U.S. policy towards the USSR. Meanwhile, the Russians obtained top secret blueprints of the original Trinity design ( a code name given to the first nuclear weapon detonated by the United States as a part of the Manhattan project.)