United States Foreign Policy During The Cold War

“The Soviet Union must be that of a long-term, patient but vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies.” -X. The Cold War was after World War II. The United States and the Soviet Union were the world's strongest nations. They were called superpowers. They had different ideas about economics and government. The United States was capitalist and the Soviet Union was communist. Joseph Stalin wanted to expand the Soviet empire and spread communism throughout the rest of the world. The United States would not allow the Soviet Union and communism to spread, the American policy was now containment. Three times the United States demonstrated the policy of containment was the airlift in Berlin, the War in Korea, the missile blockade in Cuba.

Joseph Stalin was determined to build a world power using his other allied communist countries like North Korea and China. Knowing this, the United States developed the containment policy. The US contained communism using three things: economic support, military forces, and isolationism. Economics after war in every country was in disarray. The Soviet Union tried to use this as an advantage to spread communism.

“I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.” This declaration, made by former President Harry S. Truman on March 12, 1947, is part of the Truman Doctrine, and was the basis for U.S. involvement in Western Europe throughout the Cold War. Although the North Atlantic Treaty, and the resulting North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), was established during the Cold War “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down,” NATO has persisted since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990. This essay will seek to examine the U.S. decision to create and participate in NATO. It will begin by providing a history of NATO and the U.S. decision to participate in NATO before considering how this decision is both an instance of continuity and change in U.S. foreign policy since former President George Washington’s Farewell Address. The essay will conclude by considering the legacy of this decision and its impact on U.S. foreign policy. While this essay will consider the period of time leading up to the formation of NATO and will briefly touch on the present day, greatest consideration will be paid to the time period immediately preceding and following the formation of NATO in 1949.

The role of America at the end of World War II was where the origins of policing the world originate. America had been engaged in a very costly war in terms of dollars as well as lives. But, despite the expense the United States came out of World War II better than any other nation that was involved. The Second World War was a battle between the Allied and Axis Powers. The Allied Powers consisted of the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, China, and France. This war was seen as the fight against Nazi Germany, and therefore resulted in a majority of the battles fought on German and Russian soil. The aftermath left the Soviet Union in bad shape. Close to twenty million Russians

Tensions during the Cold War sparked many changes in American legislation, altering the way many lived their lives. One of the most obvious areas of change is in education, with the fear of Soviet dominance causing transformations across the nation. The severe adjustment of government education changed the way students learned, the information taught in the classroom, and the overall view of education in the eyes of the public in a positive way.

I believe that the United States’ involvement in the Cold War had a significant influence on the debate as well as the Supreme Court decision of the Brown v. Board of Education case.

When the world famous liberal thinker Francis Fukuyama in his masterpiece declared that we were witnessing the end of the history, he was greeting the new political structure and also the new international environment, which is peaceful[1]. However, developments that occurred after the collapse of the Soviet Union showed us that the dissolution of the Soviets was unexpected. The international society was not ready for peace and Fukuyama’s optimistic assumptions were far from becoming real. Moreover, the international society currently started to realise that the tension and the potential of mass destructive war during the Cold War era had provided a

Foreign policy main goal is building relations with other countries such as economic and security relations to serve the interests of the state. Also make alliances with other countries in order to have more influence in the world and that will also ease the burdens of wars. As the book mentioned foreign policy consist of many strategies, such as diplomacy, economic aid, technical assistance, and military intervention. It called foreign policy because it deals with foreign affairs; however, it may occur a change in the local scene and perhaps the country’s stability based on element, which includes the economy and security.

Throughout the course of history, the United States has remained consistent with its national interest by taking many different actions in foreign policy. There have been both immediate and long term results of these actions. Foreign policy is the United States policy that defines how we deal with other countries economically and politically. It is made by congress, the president, and the people. Some of the motivations for United States foreign policy are national security, economics, and idealism. The United States entry into World War I in 1917 and the escalation of the Vietnam War in 1964 and the both had great impact on the United States.

The Cold War took a lot of affect on the United States Domestic Policy and American society. Domestic Policies were changed due to the world affairs, and the American society had a dramatic change from the war. The United States Government became extra secure and protected. Many new political cartoons were created from the fear of Communists and other big events and things that were happening during this time period. War was the leading problem in the US during this time period. Many citizens became upset and protested. Also, many American citizens were scared because they heard many people talking about the war,and what was happening and took as many measures on safety as they possibly knew and could. Later, through science, we have learned that many of their tactics when it came to protecting themselves would not even have worked.The United States spend a lot of extra money during this time period to keep up with the war. (DBQ questions)

This essay will be seeking to prove that the United States was responsible for starting the Cold War. Through consulting with 6 secondary literature sources, ample evidence will be drawn to effectively support the contention regarding the United States’ involvement.

Henry Graham Greene was born October 2, 1904, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England. Greene an English novelist, short-story writer, playwright, and journalist whose novels treat life’s moral ambiguities in the context of contemporary political settings (Phillips 2002). Greene was the author of The Quiet American, which was highly criticized by the New York Times due to the criticism for portraying Americans as murderers, largely based on one scene in which a bomb explodes in a crowd of people. Greene the author of multiple novels, became a major author due to the Stamboul Train. Greene’s father was the headmaster of Berkhamsted School, which Greene attended for some years. After running away from school, he was sent to London to a psychoanalyst

George Kennan, compared to other writers which have been discussed in this class takes a different approach to the Cold War through the lens of American foreign policy following World War Two in his article, “After the Cold War: American Foreign Policy in the 1970s.” Kennan, unlike Leffler, Schlesinger, and Brzezinski, believes that the battle between the two nations over hegemony is beyond comparison to the dangers which threaten all of humanity. The threats Kennan provides are environmental, the unstable nature of the United Nations, and nuclear weapons. He provides a critical analysis of American foreign policy following WWII, and where the U.S. should go leading into the future. Kennan writes about the Cold War less as a historical

While President John F. Kennedy was only the commander and chief for a brief period of years, not even fulfilling a full term, he was extremely beloved. Not just for the work that he completed in the United States, such as founding the Peace Corps, but for his strategic and diplomatic relations with what were often extremely tense diplomatic relations. One of the most famous incidents of precarious international relations was the Cuban Missile Crisis; it was during this occasion that Kennedy had to use strategic and rock solid diplomatic techniques.

According to BussinessDictionary.com, foreign policy is a type of strategy implemented by a country which relates to their diplomatic issues and decisions with other countries. Foreign policy is not merely invented in the United States, if there was only one country that has this policy then how would a country has an affair or a relation to one another? Thus, foreign policy is supposed to be useful for one country and the others. Furthermore, the United States values foreign policy because this policy helps the country to protect itself, its citizens, enhance its economic, human rights and to obtain recognition from other countries about what the United States truly values and to assist the country’s representations such as diplomats (U.S Department of State).