Dulles Despotism

The irony he pointed out, was that American truly can not be as truly virtuous as we claim to be, if we are truly as innocent as we pretend to be (Niebuhr, Pg. 19). After World War II, both the US and the Soviet Union emerged as the world’s two “superpowers” which would lead them into a fierce competition for political control over Europe and their resources. During the Cold War in the 1950s, the United States and the Soviet Union were involved in many covert conflicts that eventually shaped foreign policy during this war. Because decolonization was becoming popular in the 1950’s and 60’s, the US and Soviet Union directly competed for influence in many third world countries, such as in Guatemala, Iran, and Indochina. The US government use of the CIA to disrupt many governments with ties to communists in the 50s was their primary tactic in an aim to support the allied countries. With conflicts going over ideological territories, both countries undermined their own political ideologies in order to undermine their each

In this political study the problem of human rights and the democratic process will be analyzed in the anti-communist contradictions of the covert Canadian operation called PROFUNC (PROminent FUNCtionaries of the communist party. PROFUNC defines a major problem with the democratic process by secretly monitoring and spying on communist party affiliates living in Canada in the aftermath of WWII. This Cold War policy not only sought to monitor communist, but it also sought to intern them in the potential WWWIII scenario with the Soviet Union. This type of policy defines a form of authoritarian type of governance that

One of the Cold War’s most prominent is The Ugly American. Written in 1958, this book was a best seller, filled with different stories about why communism was winning and what must be done about it. The authors of the book The Ugly American used one main argument for its readers: “communism is a monolithic enemy whose fundamental values challenged those of the United States and whose ultimate goal was world domination.” (page 4) There stories were one of main forces driving people like Kennedy and Johnson to go and “save” Vietnam from

Margaret Chase Smith, author and speaker of the “Declaration of Conscience,” given on June 1st, 1950, in the senate, addresses and reprimands the flagrant anti-communism occurring prior to and during the 1950s, as well as the poor handling of the public smearing of citizens by the democratic administration. Smith sought to create awareness of the severity of the fear and panic caused by the “Red Scare” of anti-communism and invasion of privacy in the lives of citizens by the government, as well as blatantly erroneous claims of communism made by high-ranking political figures. Smith succeeds in proposing an incredibly influential speech that includes what she believes to be the “Basic

Eisenhower compares this by saying, “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.” Eisenhower explains that the United States, being a key democratic powerhouse, might eventually fall to communism, because if one country becomes communistic, many others will become communistic as well, and eventually will be so powerful they could take down the United States as well (Source C). Eisenhower’s speech created a precedent of what the role of the US should be in international affairs. The US should intervene like a doctor would give a patient preventative measures against some illness, the US would do the same by aiding others in the fight against communism, giving arms and financial support for any and all who fight communism, in order to defend democracy. This being said, the “defense of democracy” has caused innumerable problems for many countries.

In the time after WWII, propaganda that was used to garner support and encourage patriotism for the war had turned into a tool to perpetuate a state of paranoia. America feared losing its integrity to the conflicts that continuously cropped up on the other side of the world. One of the greatest threats came from communism: an entity that seemed to be intent on the consumption the entire European continent and would quickly reach out towards U.S. shores. In an attempt to combat this perceived threat, the U.S. government produced a new line of propaganda to convince her citizens that the communists were evil. One of the most common, and effective, ways to reach the people was through cinema. In the short film, “Make Mine Freedom”, John Q. Public represents communism as deceitful, corrupt, and non-individualistic in comparison to capitalism’s opposite representation as a prosperous, free, and economically mobile society that can be conflated with freedom in a patriotic light.

As a student, I have always been interested in history and sociology, two fields of study that I think overlaps each other and personally, provides me with invaluable knowledge about human society's actions in past generations and these action's repercussions or ripples of effect these actions have in the future or present day. I am particularly interested in the period in human history wherein modernism was challenged by socialism, manifested in history through the spread of Communism/Socialism in Eastern Europe, Asia, and South America. It was also during this period in the 1960s that the United States became actively engaged in a campaign against Communism. It is in this context that I found great relevance and interest then-President John F Kennedy's speech about the US government's containment policy on Communist countries and its anti-Communism stance in international politics.

These topics presented strategies with considerable obstacles to their attempts to develop a coherent, attractive conception of democracy and capitalism. Bringing together the issue of importance to historians of politics, idea, gender, culture, the book examines areas that American propagandists found particularly challenging when it came to trumpeting American superiority. Chapter three, “Defining Democracy,” analyzes the creation of a basic definitions of democracy. U.S operatives defined democracy in a broad, ideological terms that cast clear distinctions between democracy and communism. Pluralism, patriotism, individualism, and the value of the individual citizens were all hallmarks of this definition. Nevertheless, unable to reach a consensus on what principles defined America, U.S. operatives focused extra on depicting the Soviet Union as an opponent of fundamental American principles such as freedom, peace, culture, and family. “Social Change and Democracy” illustrated this concept well. The film contrasted oppression by communist regimes with efforts made by a group of American fisherman to convince their local city council to protect local water from pollution. Another common expression of this approach was to contrast religious Americans with atheist Soviets. As one USIA director noted, "no exhibition about the United

“Our system, on the other hand, has been developing in the Soviet Union for over sixty years, and for approximately thirty years in Eastern Europe… In terms of the physical aspects of power, this has led to the creation of such intricate and well-developed mechanism for the direct and indirect manipulation of the entire population that, as a physical power base, it represents something radically new.” That something new was what Havel would call the “post-totalitarian” system.

policy in Latin America after the year 1959 can be written down to three potent words: "no more Cuba’s." However, in order to achieve this goal, Washington pursued a two-track approach which was: foreign assistance to encourage modernization and economic development, and the training and arming of Latin American militaries supportive of U.S. objectives. After a decade of minimal economic aid to Latin America, the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, in collaboration with U.S. multinational companies, pumped in twenty billion dollars of economic assistance. Moreover, the Alliance for Progress did contribute to per capita economic growth for most nations during the 1960s, but meaningful social and agricultural reforms proved

The second reason the force of Communism had become manipulative throughout the world, is it caused a rise to political and economical disasters. Chambers referred to World War II when he compared the power of the Communist sector of mankind and its equivalency to the power of the free sector of mankind. This comparison is very important, because it distinguishes the fact that a manipulative, ruthless ideology is being compared to a free type of government. It also shows that the “collision of these powers are all but inevitable” and that the politics of war was also the politics of this crisis. This statement alone showed how the force of Communism had started to take over political

However, some level of caution by the American people was justifiable. The history of American Communism is not back and white, not from the view point of the communist sympathizers or anticommunists: numbers are exaggerated, motivations are altered, and stories will differ

One fear that has plagued our world since 1848 is the political ideology of communism. Ever since the publication of the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx, communism has been the fear of many world leaders as they have watched great countries fall into the hands of revolutionist. Yet, some fail to realize is how easily some revolutions compare to others and how some do not. Although the revolutions discussed in the lecture did not seem to relate to each other, the similarities and differences are striking.

“THIS WAS THE WAY the war was suppose to end: with cheers, handshakes, dancing, drinking, and hope” (Gaddis, 5). “The tragedy was this: that victory would require the victors either to cease to be who they were, or to give up much of what they had hoped, by fighting the war, to attain” (Gaddis, 6). As a curious reporter for the State Department, I began to see the destruction that the war caused not only within the aspects of American society, but also within the world as a whole. At the end of WWII, the allies had initially won the war and therefore believed that terms of a world based around “normality” would once again prevail. However, “As a consequence, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was, at the end of World War II, the most authoritarian society anywhere on the face of the earth” (Gaddis, 8). It was during this time that Stalin had begun to make it clear that the days of victory would not endure within his country or any country if all of the power was granted to him. As a reporter, not only did I see the ending of one era of war, but also the beginning of another. The only difference in this war was that it relied upon other countries’ willingness to ultimately give up their power in order for the nations to once again become ruled by a powerful leader. In this case, the ultimate leader was Stalin and through his powerful tactics, he would proclaim his victory by the spreading of communism, in an effort to gain ultimate control not only of the countries

Nothing has contributed so much to the corruption of the original idea of Socialism as the belief that Russia is a Socialist country and that every act of its rulers must be excused, if not imitated. And so for the past ten years I have been convinced that the destruction of the Soviet myth was essential if we wanted a revival of the Socialist movement (Orwell, Preface 339).