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The Truman Doctrine and Iron Curtain Speech

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The Truman Doctrine and Iron Curtain Speech

After World War II, the USSR and United States engaged in an unprecedented conflict called the Cold War. Despite the armaments being produced, this war was not directly fought with thousands of soldiers or massive weapons. An enormous rise in tensions created a competition between the two countries for diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military dominance. Of course, nothing was official until President Harry Truman and Winston Churchill worked together to form a partnership of anti Soviet aggression. The Truman Doctrine and Iron Curtain Speech officially started the Cold War, initiated worldwide indirect fighting, and ended the United States’ well-established policy of isolationism. The Cold War can be easily described as a battle of communism versus capitalism. When Britain announced they can no longer support Greece and Turkey, President Truman feared the domino theory would become a reality and immediately began to develop the Truman Doctrine. This policy would replace Britain as the major benefactor against the USSR’s push for world communism, and ignite the rivalry between communism and capitalism in Europe. According to John Mueller, the empty wars that took place were all stemmed out of “the bipolar structure of postwar international politics from a contest of ideas.” These contrasting ideologies made it easy for tensions to escalate and for sides to be chosen. Additionally, Winston Churchill of Great Britain

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