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Economics And Foreign Policy During The Cold War

1298 Words6 Pages

Rebecca Rines
History 4438
December 8, 2017

Describe the interaction between economics and foreign policy during the Cold War. This was a topic chosen from three choices given by Dr. Merrriman. The assigned book was America, Russia, and the Cold War, 1945-2006, Tenth Edition by Walter LaFeber.
In 1944, prior to President Harry S. Truman’s administration and during the last years of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration the United States tried to ensure that the postwar marketplace would be friendly. There was an international conference held in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire which would create two agencies. The United States hoped these banking agencies would force the Soviet Union’s dictator, Joseph Stalin, …show more content…

The United States was a democratic form of government and the Soviet Union was a communist, authoritarian form of government. The United States supported Western Europe and the Soviet Union supported Eastern Europe. President Harry S. Truman and his Truman Doctrine used Americans fear of communism both at home and abroad to convince Americans, they must embark on a Cold War foreign policy. During the Truman administration, in 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy in a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia reported that communist were taking over our country and there were even communist employees within our federal government. The Truman Doctrine was a policy of containment which was a theory of George F. Keenan. This policy stated the United States should prevent communism from spreading to any border that would threaten our allies. President Truman used this doctrine to provide money and sometimes military aid to any country needing assistance in preventing the spread of communism. The Marshall Plan was to provide economic and foreign aid if necessary to Western Europe. NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was to safeguard a countries freedom of communism. The National Security Act of 1947 combined the War and Navy Department into the Department of Defense and added the Department of the Air Force. It also formed the CIA, Central Intelligence Committee, which was a civilian intelligence agency used to gather …show more content…

The Eisenhower Doctrine was used to assist King Hussein of Jordan after he requested help to combat international Communism and its followers. The United States provided money to Jordan as well as military assistance to guard the area around Jordan. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) consisted of thirteen nations, including seven Arab countries, Iran, and Venezuela. It was formed in 1960 to protest attempts of major oil companies (mostly owned by Americans, British and Dutch) to reduce oil prices and payments to the producers. Because of this energy crisis the New York Stock Exchange lost $97 billion in value in six weeks. In the 1960’s, President Kennedy and the Soviet Union’s dictator, Nikta Khrushchev were trying to outdo each of their countries over nuclear weapons. After much anticipation by the American public the Cuban Missile Crisis was averted when the Soviet Union retreated.
President George H. W. Bush was interested in helping Mikhail Gorbachev save the Soviet Union, but there was stipulations attached. Gorbachev agreed to most of the stipulations, but the United States because of her economic woes could not provide the monetary assistance that was needed and the Soviet Union collapsed in

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