Communism in the Cold War "The seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want, they spread and grow in the evil soil of the poverty and strife. They reach their full growth when the hope of a people for a better life has died. We must keep that hope alive." as said by Harry S. Truman on march 12, 1947 in The Truman Doctrine. 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).
As the first presidents to combat communism, Harry S. 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
Soviet Union and United States wanted to put the halves back together, but had different ideas of how the government should be run, which caused tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States to escalate. The United States thought that the Soviet Union wanted to spread communism to surrounding nations. The United States focused on communism, to start, President Harry S Truman created a foreign policy called the Truman Doctrine to defend the Soviet's political pushes. With the policy established, the United States would contribute any forces or supplies needed to those nations under fire from outside and in-house forces. The plan was set to defend areas anywhere from Asia to Europe.
The United States took proper and a wise political response to perceive aggression from the Soviet Union both in Europe and Middle East. The United States came up with one of the most successful foreign policy, the "Truman doctrine". Communism started spreading around a good number of countries around Europe in countries like Hungary, Poland and Romania right after the World War II. This had gave the western world a big panic and there was one person who people always turned to, Truman was involved in this Europe affair he was the main “player” of the scene. The Truman Doctrine was announced by President Truman and was addressed to congress on March 12, 1947.
President Truman saw the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War. The Cold War brought a new world foe: communism. When President Eisenhower came to office, he inherited the containment policy because communism was still a threat. President Truman dealt with communism through his endeavors to revitalize Europe but was invoked into war on the Asian front. President Eisenhower was the one to push for a conclusion to that war causing their policies to differ while seeking and obtaining the same goal of limiting communism throughout the world.
After the Yalta Conference, Winston Churchill stated that, “this is certainly not the liberated Europe we fought to build up. Nor is it one which contains the essentials of permanent peace” (Document A). The US knew that the, “Soviet policy... [would] be directed toward weakening of power and influence and contacts of advanced Western nations” (Document B) and that something had to be done to stop the spread of communism. The US felt that communism could be a threat to the peace of the world and capitalism so they needed to show that they would take any measure to stop the spread of communism. This led to efforts such as the Berlin Airlfit where the US sent supplies to thousands of East Berliners who were suffering to drum up support for the US in a communist state.
Communism began to spread during World War II due the success of the Soviet Union Army and the defeat of the Nazi Party. After the war, the Soviet Union wanted to convert more countries to Communism in order to protect themselves from potential attacks of common neighboring Fascist or Democratic nations. The United States and their Western allies worried that the Soviet Union, along with its satellite states, were attempting to over-expand their territory and force Communism on to the world. The political and military tension that resulted between these powers is commonly known as “The Cold War”, which lasted from 1947 until 1991 (“Cold War
President Truman’s main goal was to prevent a wide scale war. Although other countries had contributed to the war by providing weapons and troops, Truman feared that the direct intervention of the Soviet Union and other European nations would result in a third world war, which the world was not prepared for (Wainstock). Truman viewed the conflict as a simple problem of containment of communism in Korea. Overall, Truman wanted to fight a limited war, with the sole purpose to protect Korea from the influx of communism. On the other hand, General MacArthur believed that the Korean War was a chance to eradicate all communist roots and prevent it from spreading to other Asian countries.
Communism has since been neutralized as a major threat to national security, but the idea that stronger democratic nations should aid in the fight against dominating regimes, attempting to overtake weaker countries remains a priority for the U.S. proved by the modern employment of The Truman Doctrine. This order more specifically details spending and strategy, whereas the Policy of Containment mainly outlines the ideology and principles that can motivate action against opposing governments stepping over their geological and political
America and the Soviet Union were allies during WWII, but it was a “tense ally” (Cold War History). “They now see each other as archenemies” (Out of Many, p. 581) now that the war is over. America was in fear of communism from the Soviet Union and was doing everything in their power to defeat the Soviet Union. In 1947 President Truman made a speech and stated: “ the preservation and freedom of all Americans depended on containing communism” (Out of Many, p. 584) and Truman helped to generate popular support for an anti-communist
The Truman Doctrine was a policy implemented to slow the Soviet Union's spread of Communism, which Truman believed put the United States and other democracies in danger. This obviously upset the Soviet Union because their goal was a socialistic-communistic system for the post-war world. The second new policy was the Marshall Plan, which was put into place with the purpose of sending large amounts of economic aid to rebuild Europe from the devastating effects of World War II. The Soviet Union disliked the Marshall Plan because they believed that by allowing the European nations to take American money, the nations would be closer to the United States and the Soviet Union wanted to control Eastern
“Mankind must put an end to world war or war will put an end to mankind.” (John F. Kennedy). Before the Cold War, the world was in the second world war of the century, soldiers not only killing soldiers, but also civilians. After World War II countries tried to get freedom from the countries that colonized them. Before the Cold War only one country had and dropped a nuclear bomb, but that would not be the case during the Cold War.
Truman was placed as the new Vice President during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fourth term, but quickly inherited the presidency after Roosevelt’s death. Roosevelt was an extremely successful president who pushed for relief, reform, and recovery. Following such a productive presidency would be tough to do, yet Truman was eager to continue Roosevelt’s legacy. He believed that a free society at home cannot exist without a free society abroad. Truman responded to the spread of Communism to Greece and Turkey by declaring in the Truman Doctrine that “the United States would aid the democratic struggle against totalitarianism by supporting ‘free peoples who are resisting the subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.’”
He wanted to secure and protect territorial areas that are threatened by communist territories. Most of the time, that included massive retaliation or brinkmanship. Brinkmanship is when they would scare people into doing what we want, and massive retaliation is if someone does something to us, we do something back to them, but bigger than what they did. After Eisenhower, came
The Soviet Union began demanding adjustments to its relations and control over Turkey, as well as Iran. Though Stalin backed down at the threat of U.S. Naval forces, his actions led to the containment policy. This policy is used to prevent the spread of communism. Later, in 1947, the United States took over the responsibility of providing economic aid to Turkey and Greece and announced that they would be helping the nations affected by Communism. The Marshall Plan was put into effect later that year and it offered reconstruction aid to much of Europe.
President Truman was the first president to deal with the Cold War.
The Cold War lasted forty-four years and left a lasting social impact on the United States. The spread of communism and The Soviet Union left many Americans in a constant state of fear and paranoia. The space race between the United States and The Soviet Union significantly impacted the education system in the United States and the curriculum that was taught for years to come. The social emphasis on gender caused a crisis on American masculinity and feminism by influencing many to assume certain gender roles and feel that they were not masculine enough or too feminine because of their view on communism. The Cold War socially impacted the United States through fear, education, and gender.