After the end of the Second World War the two war time allies THE USA and SU became involved in a war of ideologies the cold war. The US saw communism as a threat to democracy and capitalism. Therefore the US set out a new foreign policy that was of containment of communism in the Truman doctrine. There were however other reasons for the USA’s involvement such as their military confidence, UN agreement, domestic pressure which called for the T admin to be more tough on communism and their economic interest in Japan which led to the US governments decision to use military intervention in the K war. The main reason for the USA’s military intervention in the Korean war was that of containment.
When Reagan became President he had only one well-defined foreign policy goal: containing the Soviet Union or the "evil empire" as he once referred to it (Reagan 1983). He primarily wanted to stop the USSR from growing larger and to keep other non-Communist countries from becoming Communist. He disliked the decade-long Détente begun by President Nixon and continued by President Ford. Détente is defined as a relaxation of strained relations or tensions between nations, in this case the two nations being the United States and the Soviet Union. Reagan firmly believed that the USSR was using Détente and the SALT talks to take advantage of the United States.
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.
At the beginning of World War I America attempted to stay neutral and focus on asserting their dominance throughout the western hemisphere, but as the war progressed it became clearer that America wanted and needed to enter the war. While many things had a profound impact on America’s entrance into WWI, American economic interests, Woodrow Wilson’s idealism, and American claim to world power, weighed heavily on the final decision to declare war on Germany. War provides a great opportunity for economic and industrial growth, a chance to change, and claim world power, as long as the country wins the war. American economic benefits of the war were not as prominent a factor as others, but nevertheless it did affect America’s decision to declare war. The economic side effects of entering a war can be beneficial to a country.
US wanted to focus on itself and the problems they faced within the country, never mind foreign problems. It would be a citizens surprise that the United States became a world superpower at one point and was becoming involved much more in global events and issues. Some believe that the United States shifted from isolationism to being involved in war for self-defense reasons while other say its a combination of economic reasons and self-defense. It began due to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and ever since then the US has not been for isolationism. The country then feared the spread of communism which lead into more global involvement.
One, if not the most prominent way that the nuclear arms race stabilised the cold war was the threat of one being launched, both the USA and the USSR were both already threatened by the ideological capabilities of each other, which is why they feared the nuclear arms race would extend to not just trying to achieve the upper hand over their opponent. The fact that both sides were developing their nuclear weaponry and rapidly gaining a vast amount of nuclear bombs meant that it acted as a defence strategy in warning the up and coming countries who thought they would have an opportunity in joining the world superpowers, such as China. The damage that the weapons could cause were enough to not just warn each superpower of the sheer control that the other had but it warned the world too. An example of how the
The Cold War changed American culture in a number of important ways. Fear of communism greatly increased due to rising tensions with the Soviet Union. Politicians of both parties often tapped into that fear and ran for office based on how strong they would be against communists. And fighting communism always involved the threat of nuclear war since both the U.S. and Soviet Union had nuclear weapons trained on each other. President Dwight Eisenhower's military plan relied on nuclear stockpiles rather than land forces.
How the Cold War Began The Cold War began because the Soviet Union wanted to spread communism, the United States was worried about nuclear warfare, and the space race had put the Soviets and the United States under pressure. First, the United States had to keep the spread of communism to a minimum. The iron curtain was used to divide communist countries from non-communist countries (notes pg 7). This was issued by Prime Minister Winston Churchill who wanted the United States, Britain, and France to form an alliance to stop the Soviet aggression. The Marshall Plan was established to aid European countries after WWII.
‘With reference to 3 flashpoints, discuss the implementation and effectiveness of the US policy of containment’ The Cold War was a period of tension between the world’s two biggest super powers, The Soviet Union and the United States of America as they both competed for supremacy. The Cold War lasted from 1945 until 1991 and during this period they fought for complete dominion over the world. The Cold War was a war fought indirectly through espionage spying, economic aid, proxy wars, propaganda, etc that stopped short of full-scale war. If a war was to break out it would result in a Nuclear War and endanger the existence of the world. The tension between these two countries is because of conflicting ideologies as the Soviet Union were communist
While Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy all had the same same Cold War intention of ending communism, their ways of achieving their goal were different.The Cold War was an angry dispute between the United States and the Soviet Union about whether we should spread or contain communism (Ayres 817). According to Edward Ayres in American Anthem: Reconstruction to the Present all three Presidents used some form of Economic Aid, how we help other countries financially; Military Aid, how we help other countries’ militaries; and finally, Military Use, how we utilise our military (Ayres 817). Their end goal was to completely contain, or confine communism(Truman).