The Cold War: A Face-Off With Democracy

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The Cold War: A Face-off with Democracy By Audrey Zarb En8444 History 1050: American Civilization Since World War II Professor Lynda Litogot Winter 2011 At the war's end we were physically the strongest nation on earth - and at least potentially the most powerful intellectually and morally. Ours could have been the honor of being a beacon in the desert of destruction- shining proof that civilization was not yet ready to destroy itself. Unfortunately, we have failed miserably and tragically to arise to the opportunity. -Senator Joseph McCarthy February, 1950 (Griffith and Baker, 50). The failure Joseph McCarthy referred to in his 1950 "Soft on Communism" speech was the alleged disloyalty and communist leanings of senators…show more content…
While theoretically honorable, the United States was repeatedly overstepping democratic principles in order to secure financial interests and was, in some cases supporting totalitarian regimes as long as those regimes bowed to the the United States' economic interests. Because of this, the United States needed to find a way to continue its quest for profit without looking like the bad guy. To do this, the United States needed to produce an enemy so evil that the United States would appear justified regardless of the methods they used to fight to defeat it. The United States found this enemy in communism and McCarthy's fanatical rants were the perfect way to spread this fear. Despite relentless investigations with almost unchallenged jurisdiction, however, McCarthy did not uncover a communist plot (Halbertstam, 58) yet did manage to assist in convincing the American people that communists were a threat to the American way of life and the government was justified in any means necessary to defeat communism even if it meant sacrificing "some of their nation's freedoms" (Halbertstam,…show more content…
The revolutionary's successor, Jacobo Arbenz dared to expropriate some of the United Fruit Company's land as part of a land reform project to encourage peasant families to start farms (379) and, instead of encouraging the Guatemalan government for defending the rights of their people, the United States repeated the CIA's formula that worked so well in Iran and replaced Arbenz with a puppet dictator who was more "convenient for the requirements of American foreign policy"
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