This was called the domino theory. As a result of the policy of containment, in 1950 Truman needed a crisis to sell the NSC 68 program which said the US needed to increase its conventional armed forces significantly to put them in par with those of the SU. In addition one of the assumptions in the USA of the early Cold War was that the SU controlled all communist movements and parties throughout the world and that any manifestation of communist aggression must have been inspired and assisted by Moscow. So strong was the American belief in the existence of a monolithic communist block, that the NKs were assumed to have been acting on orders from Stalin. In consequence, the USA intervened in the Korean war, not only to defend the independence of SK but also to deny the SU a victory in the Cold War.
This shows how the West we willing to let the soviets do something that was clearly wrong. The reason why they allowed them to do this was because they knew if they had intervened it would have escalated the tension between the two countries and would have possibly started war with the soviets. This is the idea of appeasement and some people said that it was showing a ‘soft’ approach to facing communism. The US didn’t want the soviets to think that they had the advantage over America so they made sure they kept a strong grip on the West of Berlin. Despite their willingness to coexist they were not willing to look weak or give in easily.
Author PJ Larkin can be quoted saying that this war "was a mixture of religious crusade in favour of one idealogy or the other... striking out for advantage or expansion not only in Europe but all over the world." As tensions in the war became more and more tense, President Dwight D. Eisenhower had appointed John Foster Dulles as secretary of the state, whom created new foreign policies in which fought Communism aggressively and effectively. The United States and the Soviet Union's relations helped create tensions between the two largest superpowers in the world, and the race for dominance had soon
Such as in source 8 which claims the USA wanted a war with the USSR to help its economy, emphasising the impact of the Military Industrial Complex on aggressive foreign policy which played a huge role in the development of the Cold War. Furthermore it can be argued that it was the misunderstanding and confusion between the two nations which owed more to the development of the Cold War in the years 1945-8.
Jorge Luna February 23, 2013 Period: 1 U.S Foreign Policy Change between 1920-1941 From 1920-1941 the United States foreign policy changed from being a strict isolation and neutrality policy to a more liberal policy because of the circumstances and tensions of the future world war two. This new change in the policy allowed America to help its allies and keep America safe from the totalitarian dictators of its time. In 1918 after the First World War ended, the United States created a foreign policy in which they stated that they weren’t going to help in any way any nation at war. Many of the reasons were because of the economic depression that was going on also, because the people of America didn’t want to go to war again. For a few years America tried to isolate itself from the rest of the world trying to ignore the fight leading up to World War Two.
As a description of United States foreign policy, the word originated in a report Kennan submitted to the U.S. defense secretary in 1947 This report was later used in a magazine article. As the perceived threat from the Soviet Union continued to grow, the West became desperate to stop the spread of communism. After WWII, the communist community grew quickly in many parts of Europe. England was desperately trying to stop the spread of European communism in key countries, one of which was Greece. A fear shared by the U.S. and Britain was that if Greece became communist, so would Turkey, and the Soviets would control the eastern Mediterranean.
The focus after the Korean war was the nuclear arms race and to stop the spread of communism mainly. But they also wanted to avoid a nuclear war. The US and NATO forces were placed in countries near Eastern Europe to protect the spread of communism. Each power wanted more nuclear bombs than the other but as long as they were equal no nuclear war would break out. This was the balance of terror.
They both reinforced their beliefs in the Paris Peace Accords time and time again. While this is the image that they portrayed to the American people, who wanted no part in Vietnam to begin with, Nixon and Kissinger could be seen as men who only wanted to satisfy Americans but not intend to keep their promises of peace. Behind the scenes, it is ultimately realized that Nixon and Kissinger knew full well that the Paris Peace Accords were destined for failure and its sole purpose was to appease Americans domestically and remove POW’s from behind enemy lines (Madaras Pg. 378). As soon as North Vietnam violated the agreements of the Accords, which was all but a guarantee, Nixon would fulfill his promise to South Vietnamese President
Truman started at the bottom in terms of what strategy to take in this war. As mentioned in his speech, The Truman Doctrine, his plan of economic aid was to financially support Greece and Turkey to help them stop communism from expanding to other areas (Truman). Through his efforts in military aid, we became allies with Greece by helping them with their military (Truman). Truman created the United Nations to protect us from communism so communists had a bigger force to get through and keep communism out of the US as part of his military use.(Truman). These ideas are just the start of how the United States would deal with the Soviet Union and
This gave Hitler confidence that Britain and France would not stop him when he invaded other countries. Chamberlain trusted Hitler up until 1939, when Germany invaded Poland . Britain declared war on Germany. However, increased militarism was also one of the reasons why the second world war started. When Hitler became the chancellor of Germany, he issued conscription and also began to rearm his army and build up his army capacity in order to invade both countries such as Czechoslovakia and Poland.