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Essay on The Cause of War: Stoessinger’s Misperception Framework

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The Cause of War: Stoessinger’s Misperception Framework By Anthony Marchitto Political Violence has been affiliated with governments and nations since the beginning of political history and plays a huge role in the causes of Wars around the world. What causes leaders to declare war? Many philosophers have based their studies and theories on this question; many have different perspectives. One philosopher, John Stoessinger, has expressed his theories on the causes of war through what he calls his “misperception framework.” Stoessinger shows great interests in the personalities of world leaders; he is less impressed with the roles of abstract forces such as nationalism, militarism, economic factors, or alliance systems as the causes of …show more content…

Furthermore Truman reacts by passing the Griffin Mission in May 1950 giving economic and military aid to the French in order to keep them in Indochina to produce effectiveness and control for Truman during his campaign as President which proves to be disastrous. Truman left an environment of involvement and dependency for Dwight Eisenhower to withstand. Eisenhower took no time to dwell on the passed for that the psychological factors that Eisenhower is forced to deal with call for quick results and immediately began thinking about the future events to occur in Indochina. With China clearly a player in the communist movement Eisenhower knew they would be next to act along with his Secretary of State, John Dulles. With the support of each other they were positive that the Chinese would soon intervene. The misperception of a leaders view towards the action of their adversary increases the chances of a nation to make unreasonable decisions indicating motives for war. Stoessinger went on to state that “the American expectation of a Chinese invasion was so powerful that it defied all evidence to the contrary” (Stoessinger 108). These perceptions were seen on both sides creating a near definite chance for war; by 1954 America was involved in a proxy war in Indochina with the French still fighting under U.S. aid in the Battle for Dien Bien Pu putting America on the brink of becoming a direct

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