Aside from the general aspects of the doctrine, Truman used it as a platform to validate a large economic aid program. This is the primary example of Truman using economic tactics to bring the Western World together; this plan eventually failed and grew into a military approach. Through a classified document written during the Cold War (which became declassified in 1975) it became clear that the United States was scheming to create a war all along. They believed the best course of action to take is a response of an incredible buildup of the military. This NSC-68 document made it clear that “it was us against
The iron curtain was a dividing line between Eastern Europe and Western Europe. Eastern Europe fell under control of the Soviet Union and took on a communist system. Document 2 states, “I believe it must be the policy of the United States to support free people who are resisting subjugation [domination] by armed minorities or by outside pressure. Should we fail..the effect will be far reaching to the West.” President Truman delivered a speech to Congress proposing $400 million to
However, most scholars believe that internal issues of the Soviet Union lead to its downfall, with some nudging from the U.S (Roskin & Berry, 2010, p. 93-94). The United States continued to support the Mujahedin as they continued fighting the Afghani Communist government and was able to oust them in 1992. From then on, U.S. policy shifted, and funding to the Afghanis were cut. The U.S also tried to by back their Stinger missiles, to prevent them from getting into terrorist hands (Synovitz, 2005, para. 5).
NSC-68 largely shaped U.S. foreign policy in the Cold War and involved a decision to make containment against Communist expansion the highest priority. It pledged the US not only to contain communism, but to take a further step to drive back Communist influence wherever it appeared. The Cold War dated from 1947 to 1991 and it was a struggle of tension between the Western Bloc and Eastern Bloc which Soviet Union was trying to control. The Cold War was an idealistic struggle for control. We have conflicting values protecting our country and the rise of communism.
During the 1950’s and 1960’s the Soviet Unions satellite states established the Brezhnev doctrine. The Brezhnev Doctrine was established because of the Soviet Union’s ability to maintain such governmental control over Eastern Europe. An intervention of such domestic affairs with military power provided the Soviet Union a unique Political power. Surprisingly by the 1970’s the Soviet Union and the United States of Americas formed a treaty agreement to reduce the nuclear missiles both possessed. Nuclear missiles were the reasons such turmoil was established between the Soviet Union and other nations.
Ronald Reagan Foreign Policy When Reagan became president he began with only one well-defined foreign policy; he wanted to contain the Soviet Union. He wanted to stop them from growing any bigger and wanted to make sure that other countries did not become Communist. He didn’t like how relaxed President Nixon and President Ford had been to try to ease the relationship with the Soviets. He thoroughly believed that the Soviets were taking advantage of how relaxed the United States of America had been. Reagan thought that the United States needed to prepare its military defense systems just in case the Soviets decided to nuke the Americans.
Firstly, Hobsbawn immediately dismisses the fact that ideology played a role in the development of the Cold War, he says ‘Confrontation would probably have developed even without ideology.’ Hobsbawn then goes onto say that after Kennan came up with his policy of Containment, the USA saw themselves as the only ‘rival power to Russia’ and that they would have to ‘contain its pressure by uncompromising resistance, even If Russia had not been communist’. Hobsbawn has the clear idea that power rivalry played a key role and
In order to fight the Cold War, President Harry S Truman oversaw a revolution in American foreign policy. Characterized by policies and institutions such as the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, NATO, and the Berlin airlift, the strategy of containment redefined liberal internationalism and involved the United States in the world as never before. Despite such programs, however, the Communists made gains in atomic weapons, propaganda, Europe, and China in the late 1940s. In 1950, NSC 68 — primarily and theoretically — and Korea secondarily and practically — confirmed for Truman what he already believed: In the end, the Cold War would be won or lost on moral grounds. But he could not turn to the United Nations for moral authority, since
Korean War After World War II, the United States reached an agreement with the Soviet Union to have a divided Korea, with the United States also agreeing to stay south of the 38th Parallel. In June of 1950, North Korea breached the 38th Parallel, prompting the United States to retaliate with support of South Korea, using sea and air units to help defend the country against the communistic government of North Korea. Communism was feared by both the South Koreans and the United States as it looked to oppress the freedoms of its peoples ("Cold War", 2011). Due to the rising fear of communism, President Truman enacted the Truman Doctrine. This eventually led to the Containment Policies via the newly established North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
To what extent was the US policy of containment successful in Asia ? Containment became the cornerstone of US policy in 1947 when President Truman issued the Truman doctrine. This set down the belief that the USA should help any government that was trying to resist Communism, and it lied to economic aid in Europe with the Marshall plan and also a direct confrontation with the Soviets over Berlin in 1948; With China turning into Communism in 1949, the US saw all Communism as monolithic threat which had to be dealt with any part of the world. The new ideas for defence were set out in the National Council Report 68 (NSC-68). It was a 58-page top secret policy paper issued by the United States National Security Council on April 14, 1950.