George Kennan introduced America’s Policy of Containment in 1947. This policy had a few good points but many more bad points. Kennan's depiction of communism as a "malignant parasite" that had to be contained by all possible measures became the basis of the Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, and National Security Act in 1947. In his Inaugural Address of January 20, 1949, Truman made four points about his "program for peace and freedom": to support the UN, the European Recovery Program, the collective defense of the North Atlantic, and a “bold new program” for technical aid to poor nations. Because of his programs, "the future of mankind will be assured in a world of justice, harmony and peace." Containment was not just a policy. It was a way …show more content…
But since this would obviously have involved mutual annihilation, the Cold War was established.
According to the conventional Western view, the Cold War was a conflict between two superpowers, caused by Soviet aggression, in which the U.S. tried to contain the Soviet Union and protect the world from it. If this view is a doctrine of theology, there's no need to discuss it. If it is intended to shed some light on history, we can easily put it to the test, bearing in mind a very simple point: if you want to understand the Cold War, you should look at the events. If you do so, a very different picture emerges.
On the Soviet side, the events of the Cold War were repeated interventions in Eastern Europe: tanks in East Berlin and Budapest and Prague. These interventions took place along the route that was used to attack and virtually destroy Russia three times in this century alone. On the US side, intervention was worldwide, reflecting the status attained by the US as the first truly global power in history. On the domestic front, the Cold War helped the Soviet Union entrench its military-bureaucratic ruling class in power, and it gave the US a way to compel its population to subsidize high-tech industry. It isn't easy to sell all that to the domestic populations. The technique used was the old stand-by-fear of a great enemy. The Cold War provided that too. No matter how outlandish the idea that the Soviet Union and its tentacles were
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 Cold War was an intellectual battle between communists and anti communists to have their own dominance over the modern world. The Cold War started as most wars do, two sides disagreeing with each other. In this case one side wanted to stop the spread of communism and the other side wanted them to butt out. What happens when both sides have strong opinions and potentially dangerous ideas? It just adds more fuel to the fire. The two sides specifically were the USA and the USSR. Needless to say the USA was against communism and the USSR wasn’t.
The Cold War was an over 40 year war between the former World War II alliances The United States and The Soviet Union. This was a war that begun by political disagreements, harsh anti-communist words from Winston Churchill, and a power imbalance between The Soviet Union and The United States. Though it was a war, a new, lethal weapon was used to emotionally harm the opposing country rather than causing physical damage.
The Cold War took place after World War II between the years of 1947 and 1991. It was a struggle for supremacy between both the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cold War was to dominate international affairs for decades. Major crises occurred such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, Hungary and the Berlin Wall being just some of the resulting issues. For many, the growth in weapons of mass destruction was the most worrying issue because it is always unknown as to what they could be used for. Neither side ever fought the other because the casualties would be tragic, but they did ‘fight’ for their beliefs using client states who fought for their beliefs on
The Cold War was a conflict for world dominance between the US and USSR which lasted from 1947 to 1991. It was a power struggle after WW2 which both sides tried to dominate their ideology to the world. As a capitalist and democratic and liberal nation, US promoted free elections and the free market. USSR as a communist and totalitarian state promoted to provide security of her borders and political dominance of the socialist party. In the Cold War, there were not military confrontation because there was no fighting took place.
The struggle between two ideologies, communism and capitalism, fought an nonviolent, passive-aggressive war. The war consisted of an arms race, the space race, and ultimately having both ways of life compete to control the world. This conflict mostly involved the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. It is one of the world’s greatest ironies that the communist state of Russia that was so power-thirsty and desired nothing more than to sink its communist roots into the rest of the world, started this Cold War, and ultimately fell because of it. The USSR was the country who ignited the Cold War with their military expansionism, the totalitarian tendencies of communism as an ideology, and the way that they wrought destruction on European countries, such as Greece. The USSR dude you left off right here, you’re welcome...
Although the Soviet Union and the United States fought together during World War II against the Axis Powers, the relationship between the two grew bitter going into the 1950’s Cold War. The Cold War left a dominant impact on the U.S. and American living throughout the 20th century. The fall out between the U.S. and the Soviet Union created various issues that United States dealt with (Suddath). The United States was a capitalistic country, while the Soviet Union, also known as the USSR, was lead by a strong communist influence. The expansion of Soviets into Eastern Europe fueled most of the fear the U.S. had of Russia, that they would attempt to influence many more countries.
Throughout the Cold War, America grew into a state of frenzy, the US was in fear of communism taking hold across Europe and the USSR wanted to create a line of allies between themselves and Germany, Russia had just been attacked twice by m by Germany in 50 years and did not want it to happen again. With Russia trying to create more communist allies for protection and America's fear of the spread of communism adding in miscommunication and mistrust the two countries clash and a metaphorical iron curtain fell down between the democratic West and communist east. This affected US domestic policy and society in many ways including fear of the spread of communism, preparing for war activities, and competition with the Soviets. A great way to show how fear of the spread of communism or the red scare affected
The Cold War was a period of espionage and international rivalry between the U.S. and the USSR. It involved no armed conflicts between the two nations but was just as expensive. The Cold War was caused by tension during WWII and political ideologies which created distrust and pushed the U.S. and the USSR to the edge of conflict. The Cold War affected the legacies of both the U.S. and the USSR.
Right after the end of World War II with the Allied forces rejoicing over a marginal victory over Germany, a new and different kind of war was brewing over the tensions of the Western and Eastern blocs, a kind that wouldn’t be fought on the battlefield. The Cold War began in the year of 1945 and lasted all the way until 1991. A cause of the Cold War was the tension between two former allies of World War II, the United States of America and the Soviet Union (also known as the USSR, which stood for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). The United States had a democratic government and a capitalist economy, while the Soviet Union had a communist government, each trying to spread their political views and gain world power. Neither of the two
All of the cold war presidents have different but similar policies and deal with the aid of many less fortunate countries. Truman and Eisenhower focused on the policy of containment, which is the strategy to prevent the spread of communism(Ayers 818). Kennedy focused on flexible response, which is strengthening the U.S. forces so the U.S. would have other options for weapons(Ayers 886). All the presidents were worried about the idea of domino theory. Domino theory is theory that if one country would fall to communism the others around it would too (Ayers 950). Harry S. Truman was the first cold war president.
The Cold War was all about capitalism vs. communism, where the soviets were communist and the west was capitalist. From The Geography of the Cold War: What was Containment, “communism is a belief that private property should be replaced by community ownership.” Also from The Geography of the Cold War: What was Containment, “…private ownership economies of the United States and its allies.” One thing that started the Cold War was Winston Churchill’s speech, “Iron curtain.”
The foreign policy of the United States during the Cold War fully supported the growth of democratic nations. The USSR, however, wanted countries to become communist like them. These opposing views led to tension between the two nations. As a result, in 1947, President Truman issued the Truman Doctrine which stated that the United States would supply aid to any country as long as they pledged to be democratic. The Marshall plan was enacted in 1948 and it was similar to the Truman Doctrine except it provided financial aid to these countries. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the United States used its foreign policy to help countries resist communist influence.
During the Cold War, America's basic policy was that of "containment" of the Soviet Union. The policy of containment was based upon several principles. First, the Soviet Union wanted to spread socialism to all areas of the world. However, it was felt that the leadership of the Soviet Union felt no particular rush to accomplish their goal. "The Kremlin is under no ideological compulsion to accomplish its purposes in a hurry. Like the Church, it is dealing in ideological concepts which are of a long-term validity, and it can afford to be patient. (Hook and Spanier, 42)." In other words, the Soviet leadership believed that, since their ideas were the correct ones, they would eventually prevail, and thus, no direct confrontation would be
The Cold War was a diplomatic war between the two superpowers, USSR and USA. Despite being the two most powerful countries in the world, no actual fighting took place. Instead, the war was fought through various methods of propaganda and threats.