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The effect of the second world war
The effect of the second world war
The truman doctrine was characterized by the concept of
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Although the Unites States and the Soviet Union were allies during World War II, the two countries had a very tense relationship and did not share mutual ideals. Directly after World War II ended, the Cold War began and lasted until the fall of the Berlin Wall. America was already cautious of communism and its impact on Joseph Stalin’s reign over the Soviet Union. These tensions continued to grow stronger and eventually led to the Cold War, which caused many postwar anxieties for America. The fear of communism and nuclear war rapidly swept the United States and affected American life at home. During the Cold War, the United States foreign policy focused on containment. President Harry Truman issued the Truman Doctrine, which made an effort to prevent the Soviet Union’s influence from growing. In his doctrine, the president explained that “One of the primary objectives of the foreign policy of the United States is the creation of conditions in which we and other nations will be able to work out a way of life free from coercion”. His policy held the United States responsible for aiding countries who were more vulnerable to communism, and hoped to create peace within the world.
The United States was a leading superpower in foreign policy after World War II. Before, the United States relied on
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The containment plan encouraged the United States to use the military as a way to prevent the expansion of communism. Due to this, a lethal “arms race” began that authorized the creation of advanced atomic weapons. This fear of nuclear war resided in every American home, causing people to build bomb shelters and practice drills in preparation for possible nuclear annihilation. Rather than seeing an advertisement for your favorite cereal, imagine viewing a commercial explaining what you should do if a bomb were to explode nearby. This is the fear that lived in every person of the midcentury American
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.
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 Truman Doctrine was relatively significant in developing the Cold War, and came about because of the worry about Stalin taking over Eastern Europe. The Truman Doctrine was a rule made in 1947 in response to the recent communist takeover of Eastern Europe, to contain communism. This meant that the USA would support any nation who was in danger of being taken over by communism, with money, equipment and advice. The financial side of the Truman Doctrine was agreed in the Marshall Plan i...
Truman’s foreign policy was what I believe to be the most effective foreign policy during the Cold War. The foreign policy Truman followed was known as confrontation, which was most likely because he confronted many political and economic challenges during his time as president. Truman’s policy included the Truman Doctrine, Containment, and the Marshall Plan all three of these policies of confrontation were ultimately made to protect the United States and help the allied countries.
During the rise of The Cold War President Dwight D. Eisenhower spent the majority of his second term dealing with foreign policy. He partially supported the policy of containment and the need to stop advances of communism. Along with president Eisenhower was Secretary of State John Foster Dulles who significantly influenced U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War. He was an advocate for a “new look” to threaten the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China. Although he was a strong anti-communist Dulles thought Truman’s policy of containment was too passive. His new look policy declared that if the communist powers pushed the United States close to war, the communist powers would have to reconsider due to The United States nuclear superiority (Newman). “Dulles also advocated a policy of brinksmanship in which the U.S. would “undertake certain efforts to prevent further significant expansion of Soviet power, even at the risk of war” (“Did Eisenhower New Look…”).
After the end of World War II, the Soviets and the United States had to work in unison to come up with a plan of the rebuilding of the nation of Germany. However, disagreements and tensions began to rise between the two dominant countries during the war. They continued to dispute between territory and ideologies and ultimately led to a figurative war called the Cold War. This was based on the idea that were would be no actual physical collision however, they would attack each other through propaganda and spread of world dominance. Immediately following the end of the war, the fear of the American public began to rise over communism infiltrating American ideologies. The administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower failed to address and calm these fears such as the fear of communism spreading, the brink of nuclear war, and the arms and space race.
The Cold War was the defining feature of American foreign policy for decades until contemporary time. The Soviet Union was believed to be an imperialist threat to the entire world as was expected to spread the atrocity of communism throughout the world. The US and the Western half of the world needed to prevent the USSR from rolling across countries the same way they trampled across Eastern Europe after World War II. At the beginning the Cold War reinforced a sense of paranoia and the ideal that "if we don't do it first they will". The access of nuclear arms during this period had since exaggerated the notion that America was better than all other countries in the world.
The United States developed into a world super power following World War II. Many of the Allies were deeply affected by the war financially and were struggling, thus leaving a vacuum that needed to be filled. The United States was thrust into the position of “policing” and assisting nations around the world. The Cold War was in many ways a psychological illusion however there were many factors that led to this illusion which were well founded. The Cold War stemmed from a multitude of factors, the difficult war against Nazi’s and Japan, Stalin behaviors were not trustworthy, Berlin blockade, Poland puppet government, the fall of China, the build up of arms and the birth nuclear weapons all fed fear-based anti-communist policies.
differences began to show up due to their political and economic systems, communism and capitalism, they both went their separate ways. The Soviets turned to communism and the U.S turned to capitalism. Communist Russians wanted to end capitalism around the world and spread communism. Soon they began to clash on which was the most powerful political system. The Soviets wanted to expand and spread communism so that their ideas will spread to other countries. On the other hand, the United States didn’t like the ideas of communism being spread or Soviet borders to expand and gain power. To stop Russia from expanding their borders and spreading communism, the United States came up with “Containment”. Containment was the plan of the U.S. to make sure the Soviet Union and communism did not spread and expand. The Cold War lessons in containment have been demonstrated by the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, and the 8,000 word telegram written by George Kennan; when evaluating these lessons, it is clear that the American policy of containment was the best solution to stop the expansion of
The Soviet Union and the United States repeatedly annoyed each other through political scheming, military alliances, spying, publicity, arms accumulation, financial aid, and proxy wars between other nations, but did not fight directly during the Cold War (John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, n.d.). The Cold War is a title that was given to the communication that established for the most part between the United States and the Soviet Union after World War II (Trueman, 2013). The Cold War began in 1945 and ended in 1991 (History Rocket, 2012). The Cold War began because the communist nations did not permit fundamental human freedom, so the United States had hostility against the communists (History Rocket, 2012). The increase in weapons of mass destruction had many worried. The Cold War defined American political view and molded foreign policy (Naranjo, 2014).
The close of World War II ended in a victory to the Allied Powers as a result of the unconditional surrender of the Axis Powers. It seemed that the six years of war and bloodshed had finally ended and the world would finally be able to recover and flourish once again, but conflict would soon arise between two wartime allies. The end of World War II led to a period of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, severing ties between the two countries that had once been allies. This period of political and military tension between the United States and Soviet Union came to be known as the Cold War. As the two nations focused toward rebuilding postwar Europe, many factors led to the United States and the Soviet Union becoming Cold War adversaries. At the dawn of the Cold War in 1945, a power struggle began between the United States, who supported democratic rule, and the Soviet Union, who opposed democracy and pushed for communism within the Soviet sphere. Both the United States and the Soviet Union pushed to rebuild post-war Europe by their own means. As the two countries strived to be the world’s superpower, they battled through diplomacy and a show of military strength. One individual played an immense role in pulling the strings of the Cold War. As the first U.S. President to face the Cold War, Harry S. Truman’s political views as a Democrat, important military decisions during warfare, and his policy of containing Communism, strongly impacted the Cold War, which led to the United States and the Soviet Union becoming Cold War adversaries.
America became the sole superpower of the world. Communism is no more. Communism collapsed worldwide. The Cold War sketched the foreign policies for both the countries through the second half of the twentieth century as both countries fought for accomplices to uphold and widen their own realms of power around the world, but it did not escalate to an apocalyptic World War II. The decade- long standoff between American capitalists and Soviet communists ceased without causing any violence.
The Truman Doctrine was an American Foreign Policy intended to help stop Soviet geopolitical advancements during the Cold War. President Harry S. Truman reestablished United States foreign policy by attempting to provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic countries that were being threatened. In Congress on March 12, 1947, Truman addressed the issue of the British government
The Cold War and its policies had detrimental fallout effects on the American people. From the 1950s-1970s, people could see the shifting of cultures resulting from government policies and necessary adjustments to American life resulting from the Cold War. The Cold War would transform the future for America in many ways, including the religious boom, the staggering increase in defense spending, and the pushing of government control and propaganda due to ignorance and discrimination. The Cold war distorted America forever, instilling a fear of communism that would last to this day, making Americans want to try and rid the world of this evil. America, especially from the 1950s to the 1970s, main goal was to rid the world of communist control.
“The seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want” (Truman Doctrine). In general, the Cold War was a conflict between communists and anticommunists in a battle for the “hearts and minds of people throughout the world” (Foner 720). In 1947, President Harry Truman changed the ideology surrounding American foreign policy with a speech known as the Truman Doctrine. During a period in which the threat of communism was tremendous, the policy of containment ensured that the United States would execute all necessary actions in order to prevent the spread of Soviet influence (Foner 710).