President Harry Truman was a successful president by definition. He was thrust into power as the thirty-third president of the United States after the rapid decline of President Theodore Roosevelt's health. This paper is organized around several major successes of President Truman, but mainly focusing on his twenty-one point plan of reform, also known as The Fair Deal, and the Manhattan Project. In regard to Richard Neustadt’s terms, a president should be evaluated on his or her ability to persuade. Put simply, it does not matter if any adversaries disagree if you are able to persuade them otherwise.
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.
Harry S. Truman was in office when containment was created. He helped other countries by sending supplies and money to help their army and economy (Truman 13). Eisenhower used the U.S.’s military to help defend other countries from communism (Ayers 820). Kennedy sent the U.S.’s weapons to other countries to help them defend themselves from communism (Kennedy 9). Truman likes the idea of helping, but not directly, so he sent them supplies, so they could defend their countries themselves, just with our help (Truman 13).
Document 26.3 titled, "The Truman Doctrine" was published in Washington D.C. by the Government Printing Office in 1963 (Document 26.3, pg. 574). In this document, President Truman appeals to congress (the audience) for Greece and Turkey to prevent the spread of communism in the two nations. The post World War II doctrine, announced on March 12th, 1947 was an American foreign policy used to prevent the spread of Soviet Imperialism that would soon become one of the foundations of the U.S containment policies (Twentieth Century World, pg. 242). This action can be viewed as a possible declaration of the Cold War and can be seen in the sentence, ”The controversial Truman Doctrine, as it came to be called, committed the United States to an active
Truman’s Policy of “Containment” was made in March 1947.Truman’s Policy had economic, cultural, and political aspects. The Political aspect of his policy was the Truman Doctrine which said that the United States of America would support free peoples who are resisting subjugation by armed minorities or by outside forces or pressures. The cultural aspect of this doctrine was the freedom and choice government versus totalitarian and no choice government, so pretty much, you never got to choose anything and you were forced to do the things that the Soviet Union wanted you to do. Then lastly the economic aspect of this doctrine was the Marshall Plan which said that it would prevent countries from falling to communists and it would aid the Americans. The Marshall Plan also gave $17 billion to 16 countries(not the soviet union).
The aftermath of World War II marked the beginning of a new era in global politics - the Cold War. Following USSR expansion, tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union had risen, with both sides seeking to expand their spheres of influence and prestige. The Cold War was fought primarily through proxy wars, and the rivalry between the two superpowers was characterized by an intense nuclear arms race, a space race, and a struggle over political ideology. In the United States, fears about the spread of communism triggered a policy of diplomatic containment. However, as China fell to communism and the Korean War broke out, diplomatic strategies shifted to military strategies.
After the sudden death of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman was elected as president which happened to be during the time of widespread chaos. The initial plan as he took office was to prevent and contain the geographical expansion of the Soviet Union. The Truman Doctrine came into effect as a foreign policy that enabled the United States to fully advocate anti-communism forces from further developing. Joseph McCarthy's actions on communism were indeed extreme. However, they were similar to measures taken by state and municipal governments out of fear of a communist uproar.
After War World II, many countries need help with reconstruction, this was a chance for both the US and Soviet to make “friends” with these countries. President Truman announced a policy that was called later on the Truman Doctrine, the policy states that the US should help any country that will help any country that does not become communists which basically means become alliances of the Soviet (Doc 2), the goal of policy like this is to form alliances and prevent the other side from gaining alliances. If a side gain a powerful ally nation, it definitely makes that side stronger and that is the power of politics. As China turning into a powerful nation, US made a political decision that it would recognize the Government of the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal Government of China (Doc 11). The essence of alliance was showed that whether US wanted or not, to prevent China from getting even closer with the Soviet, US will have to “befriend” with China in order to earn this powerful
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.
Funny how history works, FDR and Truman were the right Presidents at the right time. FDR introduced the greatest amount of domestic liberal economic legislation as part of his New Deal domestic program. Measures like the Conservation Corps (CCC), Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Tennessee Valley Authority employing over 8.5 million people and the cost of $10 Billion (Burran 2008). Although Hamby’s Liberalism and Its Challengers clarifies that new Deal failed to establish a variety of socialistic ideas and resolve all the problems, the credit is given for at least smoothing out some difficult times (Hamby 1992, 50). This tame depiction of becoming the model of modern economic liberalization that remains today then is followed by President
The Cold War had a huge impact on America’s foreign policy, this in turn changed how America was able to shape their relationship with other nations, as well as influencing military and economic strategies. The effects that The Cold War had on American foreign policy can be seen in The Truman Doctrine. In The Truman Doctrine, President Truman states, "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”. Truman is expressing his belief that it is the responsibility of the United States to provide assistance and support to any country or group that is facing threats to its freedom and independence, whether from internal or external forces. The Cold War also had an effect on domestic politics in American society.
This policy helped establish a good relationship between the democratic countries. I believe it did help in limiting the Soviet Union from expanding its ideology. Truman expanded the Monroe Doctrine in hopes of providing economic, political, and military support. The United States kept communism from spreading with the Marshall Plan. This was an effort to aid Western Europe after World War II and it was a massive economic aid.
Despite the slogan proclaimed in Truman's speech about "the US support of free people in their struggle against armed minorities or external pressure,"(Containment and the Cold War: American foreign policy since 1945, the US support was, depending on the region, more or less. In addition, it should be noted that the permission of these free peoples to use military force to protect their freedom was not always asked. In general, it should be noted that Europe was the priority region for deterrence policy. From the point of view of strategic and economic importance, Europe stood in the first place.
As World War II came to a close, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union became tense. George Frost Kennan, a historian and diplomat in Soviet Russia after war, was an advocate for using a policy of containment for communism (Shi and Tindall 1066). It appeared that the Soviets were confident that capitalism and communism could not coexist peacefully and so the American response was to limit its parameters in the world. President Truman himself coined the domino theory, which maintained that if one country fell to communism, others would follow (Shi and Tindall 1006). This theory is what the Truman Doctrine encompassed and also continued to be the opinion on communism for the duration of the Cold War.
