Telegram In The Cold War

The relations between the two superpowers continued getting worse and tensions were inevitably rising in 1946. In ‘47, the U.S. took a more proactive stance against the Soviet Union. Truman was concerned that the USSR might set up communist governments in European countries that were still undergoing recovery. The same year, after seeing the Soviet attempts to influence the governments of Turkey and Greece, the Truman Doctrine was made public. The United States pledged to support all recovering nations from outside pressures and would made sure that democracy is in place.

Also, he decided to give Greece and Turkey $400 million in aid. The reason of this decision was that Soviet Union was expanding communist in europe. By helping Greece and Turkey, the US slowed down and retarded the expansion of the Soviet Union. After the World War II, many of the european countries

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.

After saving the nation billions of dollars, reforming social security, and practically eliminating job discrimination, President Truman created a doctrine to conduct the way the United States responded to the advance of negative political influence around the world. In addition to the opposition and dark decisions Truman was faced with in World War Two, President Truman was then forced to face a Congress that was the opposite of his executive administration. Not only did President Truman think of how his actions and decisions would effect the nation during his presidency, but also far into its future, as shown through the Truman Doctrine. Richard Neustadt explains this concept quite

[Document 26.3, pg. 574]. Recognizing this bias tells us that the period in which this Doctrine was created was a time to “ensure the peaceful development of nations” and to, “make possible lasting freedom and independence for all its members” (Document 26.3, pg. 574). Truman was prompted to choose this course of action under threats from other authoritarian forces. It was a way to reestablish U.S. foreign policy and to provide political and economic help from the threats on the Democratic nations. The speech came after WW2 suggesting that many nations in Europe were open to attack, and

Furthermore, by pulling the threat of communism into the speech he finds another way to associate this faraway war with emotions that everyday Americans can relate to because of the mass amount of anti-communist propaganda happening since the end of the first World War. While the war, too many, seems far away, leaving most Americans unaffected, especially compared to WWII, Truman is able to tap into fear by making it seem more eminent a threat and more relatable. This

He says, “We look for some sign from the Soviet Union that they are willing to move forward, that they share our desire and love for peace and that they will give up the ways of conquest.”

By highlighting prominent “sins” earlier in his speech, Reagan subtly transfers the association of these sins to the Soviet Union, thereby further driving his attempt to rally the American people. Having progressed on a communistic base for years, the Soviet Union’s drive is to destroy capitalism and replace it with its own ideology- communism (“Cold War”). The Soviets intend to force these ideals upon democratic nations by the production and possession of nuclear missiles, a terrifying prospect to any country. Ronald Reagan calls the Soviet Union out in this speech; the title alone, “The Evil Empire”, condemns the Soviets as ruthless destroyers of peace and freedom. His words not only influence the American people, but also reach the hearts if the Soviets.

On March 12 1947 President Harry Truman delivered a speech that pivoted America's history and foreign policy. The speech was given during the start of the Cold War and laid out America's response to Soviet expansion in the world. The doctrine showed a change in American foreign policy from self-centered to a more global effort to protect American ideals like democracy and capitalism worldwide. Truman was the Democratic 33rd President of the United States, he was born in Missouri in 1884 and had various jobs before pursuing politics. He took office after President Roosevelt's death in 1945 and stepped up from vice president to president.

President Truman reflected on the importance of the United Nations and military involvement by stating, “… I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures…” (Document B). However, during this particular time period, America remained one of the only nations actively fighting against communism. Most European countries were subjected to financial duress caused by World War II, thus placing the burden squarely on America’s shoulders. This inexplicable lack of support not only made America relatively weaker, but also allowed communism to spread throughout areas in which they people were not even willing to fight for themselves.

If communism took over any American State, it “would constitute a threat to the sovereignty and political independence of the American States, endangering the peace of America” (Source B). If communism reached America, war could ensue and democracy would be greatly threatened. This fear of communism fed into McCarthyism which consisted of false accusations of people as being communist. American society went into mass hysteria out of will to avoid communism. Eisenhower acknowledged this stating, “[communism] makes us act almost hysterically, and you find the hysterical reactions” (Source A).

The 4 ½ decade long clash between the U.S. and Soviet Union was dubbed “The Cold War” by Bernard Baruch because of the cold relations between the two competitive nations. The tension between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. began primarily because of the polar opposite ideologies of each nation, the U.S. being Capitalist and The Soviet Union being Communist, causing a multitude of disagreements between the two. The disputes between the two countries began during WWII when the U.S. left their Soviet allies flapping in the wind, when they refused to open a second front, which resulted in the Soviets taking a beating. The U.S. later excluded The Soviets from the Atomic bomb project, since the U.S refused to work with their scientists. The U.S was also becoming

Truman was the 33rd American President who served his terms in office from April 12, 1945 to January 20, 1953. One of the important accomplishments during his presidency was the Truman Doctrine. At the end of WWII, Russia was coercing European countries to fall under its sphere of influence, communism. Before and during the war, the British had been moderating this force, but after WWII Britain’s strength and affluence significantly declined. As a result of this, President Truman decided the US needed to become involved in this affair.

"But it is hard to imagine how the U.S. government could have prevented a Communist victory short of getting involved in a massive military intervention, which would have been risky, unpopular, and expensive"(Tindall 964). "The discovery of the Soviet bomb in 1949 triggered an intense reappraisal of the strategic balance of power in the world, causing Truman in 1950 to order the construction of a hydrogen bomb, a weapon far more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, lest the Soviets make one first"(Tindall 964). The onset of the cold war the ideology drove more of the Soviet behavior. "American 's traditional commitment to democtatic capitalism, political self determination, and religious freedom conflicted with the Soviet Union 's preference for spheres of influence on its periphery, totalitarianism at home, and state mandated atheism"(Tindall 970). Kennan stressed that U.S. needed to be responses to the Soviet adventurism.

McCauley: Welcome to another exciting episode of WARFARE with your host Martin McCauley where we will dive into the large impact of the Truman Doctrine on the development of the Cold War until 1962. The Truman Doctrine was a game-changer, steering U.S. foreign policy away from isolationism towards an active resistance against the "authoritarian threat" of Soviet expansion. Joining me are two amazing historians: Gaddis, a post-revisionist, and Hobsbawm, a left-wing Marxist. Let's kick things off by discussing the large impact of the Truman Doctrine on policy. Hobsbawm, what's your take on it?