U.S. Leaders in the Cold War As World War II ended in 1945, the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics began a decades long struggle for global supremacy known as the Cold War, which lasted until 1991. During this 46 year period of time, the United States had the following Presidents: Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush. For the purpose of this essay I’m going to focus on three of the more influential Presidents: Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan. All three of these Presidents played crucial, but very different roles during the Cold War. Truman recognized the threat of Stalin and the expansion of Communism. Nixon realized that the escalation of Mutually Assured Destruction …show more content…
Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945. Truman had only a high school education and had only been Vice President for 82 days before FDR’s sudden death. He was so shocked at becoming President he told reporters, “I don’t know if you fellas ever had a load of hay fall on you, but when they told me what happened yesterday, I felt like the moon, the stars and all the planets had fallen on me.”( http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/harry-truman). Truman was thrown into the end of WWII. Germany surrendered on May 8, and Truman also approved of dropping the atomic bombs on Japan in August. In the book The Cold War, by John Lewis Gaddis on page 26, Lewis discusses that Truman believed it was the only way to end the war. He saw the Soviet Union as a threat because they wanted to expand communism. At first Truman thought he could work with Stalin, he wrote in his diary, “I can deal with Stalin. He is honest, but smart as hell.” (http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/coldwar/). However this trust quickly deteriorated as the two nations realized they had dramatically different views of the world. The Soviet Union suffered many more …show more content…
In a 1981 news conference he said, "So far détente's been a one-way street that the Soviet Union has used to pursue its own aims. Their goal must be the promotion of world revolution and a one world communist or socialist state." (http://reagan.civiced.org/lessons/middle-school/presidential-leadership-cold-war). President Reagan didn’t just want to contain the spread of Soviet communism, he wanted to reverse its gains. His strategy was to use the United States free-market economic superiority to invest heavily in military technology and weapons, and challenge the Soviet Union’s communist command economy to try and keep up. He wanted to economically bankrupt the Soviet Union and show all of those countries that the American free-market system was far superior to the communist system, this became know as the “Reagan Doctrine”. The Soviet Union attempted to keep up with the United States military advances, but their economy kept weakening and weakening. Deleted number 14 As the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and the Center for Civic Education stated, President Reagan provided support to the Solidarity movement in Poland, and helped Afghanistan to force the Soviets to withdraw in 1988. One year later in 1989, the Berlin Wall, a symbol of Soviet tyranny in Germany
Immediately after World War II, the world was thrown into a massive ideological conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, which culminated into the Cold War. The Cold War ignited overwhelming, panic-inducing fears across the United States, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, elected in 1952 and remained president until 1960, was faced with the challenge of quelling the fears of the American people. Americans during the Cold War, particularly during the presidency of Eisenhower, had constant fears of Soviet expansion, the pertinent anticommunist crusade at home, the spread of communism, and the neverending uneasiness of total nuclear annihilation, all fears which the Eisenhower administration would inadequately allay.
Truman and Stalin expanded strains in Europe and East Asia in the years quickly taking after World War II, the Cold War itself was unavoidable. The relationship during the war amongst the United States and the USSR during World War II was still conserve to defeat the previous many years of intuition and unease amongst the two countries. In addition, as both astonishing groups looked to accomplish their after war security targets, They're intentions were to retaliate against Germany in 1945.
As Vice President, Harry S. Truman seldom saw President Roosevelt, therefore acquiring no updates on the progress of the atomic bomb or the developing predicament with Communist Russia. After Roosevelt’s unexpected death, these dilemmas as well as an array of wartime problems became Truman’s to resolve as the new president. When he came into office on April 2nd, 1945, World War II was nearing its end, leaving Europe in absolute chaos. Truman had to search for ways to aid the country in picking up the pieces from war. Thus, in a foreign and domestic sense, he inherited a country in total turmoil and disorientation. Americans at home still could not feel the devastation caused by the war, which ultimately contributed to the failure of
On June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan went to the Brandenburg Gate to deliver one of the most influential speeches to the people of West Berlin. The Berlin Wall, was built to separate West Berlin from the communist ruled East Berlin. During the time that this wall was built the U.S. was involved, but were never able to make that big of an impact, until about 24 years later when Reagan was in office. He was able to effectively influence his audience by using ethos with his known credibility as the President of the United States, using strong a strong emotional appeal to influence the audience, touches on counterclaims from leaders
Both President Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon were presidents during the cold war. Their uses of presidential power within foreign policy greatly shaped the United State’s strategies in cold war politics. Comparing their actions as Chief Diplomat, Chief Legislator, Chief Executive and Commander in Chief shows how they have used both their formal and informal powers to lead the nation. President Eisenhower was much more successful in gaining congress approval through working with them yet had much more trouble dealing with peace abroad. Nixon was able to use powers to make successful gains within the cold war abroad, yet had trouble
The worst presidents during the Cold War were Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford based on their work efforts. Ford had done the minimum needed to help the economy in a time of crisis and also done very little to please the American people. Furthermore, during Ford’s term, breakdowns in relations with the Soviet Union had occurred and many of his actions had cost American lives. Nixon had caused the American people to lose faith in the government and he had prolonged the Vietnam
At the time when tensions were high and the once divided people of Berlin were beginning to lose hope, Reagan was able to captivate millions and not only unite the Berliners but also the world.President Reagan was a man with strong beliefs that made his statements believable and logical.Claiming the benefits of living in a free, democratic country, Ronald Reagan uses pathos, logos and ethos to sympathize with the Berlin people.Given the time and place when the speech was given, Ronald Reagan took advantage to address the Berlin people of their misfortune and provided a sense of support and hope making his speech more monumental than what it already was. Ronald Reagan was naturally a good rhetoric; and he used his abilities to persuade the world of the injustice of the Berlin wall and win over the Berlin people. “Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate” by Ronald Reagan was a powerful and compelling speech for its time and helped persuade the people to end communism and reunite the people of Germany.
In the minds of many Americans Ronald Reagan is the president that ended the Cold War, but is this view accurate? They claim Reagan's unprecedented military spending forced the Soviets to crumble. However, many critics of the president's outspending theory claim that the Russian economy would have imploded without such spending, and a military buildup of that kind did nothing but delay peace. Although, Reagan's willingness to negotiate was a clear factor in ending the Cold War, his aggressive arms race may have done more to forestall peace than abet it. The ascendance of Mikhail Gorbachev to power, the stagnating economy of Russia, and the personal friendship forged between Gorbachev and Reagan were the clear factors that contributed to
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.
Reagan became president in 1981, which means that he was president of the U.S. during a time in which the Cold War began to draw to a close. (Fischer, 1997, p.477). Whereas his predecessors used détente, a more relaxed approach in order to reduce tension between the U.S. and USSR, Reagan and his advisers rejected this strategy (Authors, People and a Nation, p.833). This led to a turning point in the Cold War. Even though the Cold War ended in 1991, two years after Reagan’s presidency, Reagan is still known to have made a huge influence on ending the Cold War. This essay will investigate his actions and how they might have influenced the ending of the Cold War, by looking at how Reagan expressed his distrust toward the Soviet Union and communism, the ways in which Reagan expanded the arms race in order to bankrupt the USSR and other ways in which he tried to sabotage the Soviet economy, but also
This investigation examines to what extent did the four summits between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev from 1985-1988 contribute to ending the Cold War? My research assesses whether the summits were the main catalyst for ending the war or whether there were broader political and economic forces from both the USA and USSR that ended it. The years from 1985 to 1993 will be the main focus.
Truman and Eisenhower each wanted to help limit the increasing issue of communism. One approach they did was getting involved physically and militarily in the countries that were in need. The peace conference at Potsdam was a failure, because communist Russia still stood on their own and as their own separate nation. The Soviet Union had already succeeded in conquering Poland, and much of Europe splitting up Germany. After Hitler committed suicide, the main obstacle for the United States and many other countries was to avoid the looming threat of communism. Truman created the Truman Doctrine to possibly stop or postpone this issue. “I believe,” he argued, “that it must be the policy of the United States to support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by
During presidencies, Eisenhower and Truman both struggles on how they would end the cold war around the globe. They had high expectations on how they would prevent the war in crippled Europe using America‘s foreign policy.
The end of the cold war signified a new era of history that has changed the entire world. The face of Europe and Asia has changed dramatically. Vast changes have been felt socially, politically, and especially economically. Also the effect the cold war had on foreign policy was paramount. The effect of these changes is not only felt across the ocean but can be felt here in America. The goal of this paper is to define what the cold war specifically was, and reflect upon the various choices throughout the world as a result of the end of the cold war.
Harry S. Truman became President of The United States on April 12, 1945 after Franklin Delano Roosevelt had passed away from a heart attack. He never knew what he was really getting himself into.