Essay On The Cold War Consensus

To examine the Cold War consensus, one must discuss the Cold War. The Cold war was the tension between the United States, standing for capitalism, and the USSR, standing for totalitarianism and socialism, following World War II. Although it was not a physical war between the two superpowers, many proxy wars had came out of it as way to spread or combat communism throughout the Free World. The Free World, as the U.S. came to define it, did not necessarily mean free as countries were being ruled by military regimes and dictatorships, but free from communism(70). During the Cold War, the spread of communism frighted the American People. The Cold War consensus viewed communism as bad and capitalism as good(71). Stability was seen as desirable (71). Any

The American people were willing to use arm forces if that meant stopping the spread of communism. Other than arm forces, the American people were willing to give economic and military aid to those countries who faced threats of communism (76). About 80 percent of American people favored the aid to stop communist aggression (76).

The Cold War consensus had influenced foreign policy during that time. Foreign Policy would be focused on the Soviet Union and the containment of communism. The United States during the early years of the consensus mainly responded to the actions of the Soviet Union. During the later part of the consensus the United States was in a better position respond to the Soviets. The United States had enhanced their military capability within long range nuclear bombs and conventional arms build up in Western Europe (79). During the face off over the future of Berlin, the Americans showed it was not backing down from the Soviets. After World War II, Germany was divided along with its capital of Berlin between the United States, Great Britain, France and the Soviet