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Sputnik And The Space Race: A Case-Study

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Since its establishment, the United States of America’s strategic foreign policies have adapted and expanded with the evolving world. The country’s use of soft and hard power politics from the Cold War to the present, highlight the country’s adapting foreign policies in a diverse world. There are many factors that play a major role in how foreign policy is developed. For example, national security, public opinion, humanitarian issues, and differentiating ideologies, all can provoke global issues. Every situation requires a different reaction. Some instances require military action, others a diplomatic response, and sometimes it is essential to use economic repercussions. The United States of America’s strategic use of diplomacy and military …show more content…

The Eisenhower Administration responded to the USSR’s satellite with educational and technological programs to advance their space program publicly. Sputnik appeared to be a sign that the Soviet Union was “winning” the Cold War; therefore the United States implemented action in order to surpass the Soviet’s accomplishment. The United States and the Soviet Union entered into an extensive space race to fuel propaganda for their countries. The ability to display on television, America as having the first man on the moon was a powerful way to influence social and public opinion without putting any boots on the ground in the sense of …show more content…

The United States used military intervention to support South Vietnam and to keep the region from succumbing to Communism. The war went on for many years, however over time public opinion grew against the war. Many anti-Vietnam war campaigns broke out, and the war grew very unpopular. Over time the United States decreased its war efforts in the area by first reducing the amount of troops on the ground, and then after the fall of Saigon ending American involvement in the area.
The Vietnam War was perhaps the first major lesson to the United States that direct military involvement is not always the most strategic option. The United States military and government failed to eradicate its intentions effectively and therefore they suffered more loss than gain during the Vietnam War. It would have been more prudent to involve themselves through economic aid, diplomatic discussions, or soft power politics. Instead the United States forces’ used tactics of guerrilla warfare and attrition, but the costs out-weighed the

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“Why and in what ways did the United States change its foreign policy from 1918-1953?” Since World War I, the united states had always had a problem with forcing its foreign policy. Throughout the past 100 years, the foreign policy has changed depending on public opinion and what was going on in other parts of the world. One of the largest changes in the foreign policy occurred from the end of World War I (1918) up until the ending of the Korean War (1953). Essentially the U.S foreign policy evolved from isolationist “prevention of war” to interventionism “protective containment of communism”.

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U.S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s, with troop levels tripling in 1961 and again in 1962. U.S. involvement escalated further following the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, in which a U.S. destroyer clashed with North Vietnamese fast attack craft, which was followed by the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave the U.S. president authorization to increase U.S. military presence. Once the reinforcements arrived the Unites States held power of what was South Vietnam, which is was they desired for. Once U.S troops were in South Vietnam the Vietnamese people felt support and comfort. They were being attacked by their own people which was North Vietnam, all because they wanted them to become a communist party.

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1. The first problem that the United States faced during the Vietnam war was that the people of the United States were opposed to the Vietnam war. Another problem was that North Vietnam kept helping the Vietcong get stronger. 2. The options that were available to both presidents were to either fight the Vietcong head on or withdraw the American troops and hold out until the other side got tired of fighting.

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The second document highlights the National Security Council 68, a central document of the Cold War that laid out the strategic foundation for American foreign policy after the devastating decline of western European powers during World War II left the United States and Soviet Union as the dominant nations. The National Security Council argues that the Soviet Union poses a threat due to “being animated by a new fanatic faith” in communism to impose “absolute authority over the world” (Doc 2). This type of behavior is anti-ethical to the American values, so the fight between America and the Soviet Union was inevitable. The document outlined possible responses of isolation, diplomatic efforts to negotiate, or the rapid buildup of strength of

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The period from 1960’s to 1970’s was a hardship time for Americans because of Vietnam invasion. In an attempt to contain and defeat communism, the United States, oblivious of the enemy capability and filled with pride, invaded Vietnam at a cost of large financial expense and human lives. North Vietnamese military supported by forces of China and the Soviet Union fought the American force ferociously and was able to force America to end its invasion in 1975. As with most other third world countries, Vietnam also has a long history of colonization by European powers.

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A Nation’s foreign policy is shaped by the

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It is no doubt that the Monroe Doctrine has become a staple in the study of American foreign policy. Since the establishment of the nation, America’s role in foreign policy has been questioned and under constant scrutiny. In his Farewell Address, George Washington warned of foreign entanglement. Stemming from Washington’s warning to Monroe’s doctrine – a disagreement has grown, what is the American role in the World. It was President James Monroe’s doctrine that ushered in a new belief for America’s role.

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1. What problems did the United States face in the Vietnam War? As the United States struggled against communism in Vietnam, it would face many problems. In the late 1950’s President Eisenhower and later President Kennedy sent military supplies and advisers to South Vietnam. Despite the American aid the Vietcong grew stronger with support from North Vietnam.

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Ever since then, the US has established its identity of being over-involved internationally. Although Quincy Adams warned the US about the dangers of being over-involved in foreign affairs, America has neglected his advice and become the world’s police. In John Quincy Adams’

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The Vietnam War affected American foreign policy significantly, both during the conflict and in the years that followed. Many Americans lost faith in their government and its foreign policies as a result of the war's protracted, expensive, and ultimately disastrous military involvement. The conflict also caused a change in American foreign policy, emphasizing diplomacy and using a more cautious and practical approach. Additionally, as decision-makers strove to learn from the mistakes of Vietnam and advance peace and security globally, the war brought a fresh emphasis on human rights and democracy promotion in American foreign policy. American politics, society, and culture were all profoundly affected by the Vietnam War, which also led to a

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It is quite difficult to compare two wars that happened 180 years apart from each other, the Vietnam war 1955 to 1975, and the American Revolutionary war 1775 to 1783. Yes, both wars are all that different from each other, in fact I would say that they were the two least similar wars in American history. These wars are very similar because they both used guerilla warfare, a form of irregular warfare that uses tactics such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, and mobility to fight a larger less mobile military force. However a major difference in the wars was that the Revolutionary war was fought to gain independence, while the Vietnam war was fought to maintain independence. Another difference is that the U.S. were ‘Victors’ in the Revolutionary war, and were not so in the Vietnam war.

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The Vietnam war was the longest, considered one of the most important, and expensive war in our history. The United States became involved in Vietnam since we promised that we would fight against anyone who supports communism. American government thought this would be a short, uncomplicated war to win seeing that Vietnam is a third world country. As the war went on American citizens thought twice regarding our involvement in the war because of; billions of dollars were lost, our government was lying to us, and thousands of American lives were lost. America had robust intentions to try to stop communism from spreading to South Vietnam, however the outcomes of this war were too overpowering to call this war a success.

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The Vietnam War was a war the United States should have never been involved in. The “Domino Theory” was a direct cause of the war. The war resulted in much death; innocent civilians and young Americans were killed. The Vietnam war also resulted in rioting, distrust for the United States government, and the loss of many lives. 58,000 Americans were killed and 300,000 were wounded.

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Vietnam saw the war as a fight for independence while the U.S. saw the war as a fight against the communist regime, aiming to instil its capitalist approach in order to alienate the Soviets from the rest of society. This is a perfect example of numerous things in the theory of Realism, namely: the balance of power, the idea that peace and stability are most likely to be maintained when military power is distributed to prevent a single superpower from controlling the world; the security dilemma, the tendency of states to view the defensive arming of adversaries as threatening, causing them to arm in response so that all states’ security declines; and national interest, the goals that states pursue to maximize what they perceive to be selfishly best for their country (WPTT, 2011, pp.32-33). The U.S. saw the Vietnamese becoming allies with the Soviets as a security dilemma, so in order to somewhat restore the balance of power, a war was declared on the Vietnamese, all to preserve its national interest. The U.S. declared war on Vietnam even though there was no real need for one, as the Vietnamese were much too busy fighting for their independence from the Chinese in an attempt to differentiate

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The first great-war shattered the human mind so profound that out of its aftermaths’ emerged a fresh discipline (in 1919 at the University of Whales known to us as International Relations) proposed to prevent war. “It was deemed by the scholars that the study of International Politics shall find the root cause of the worlds political problems and put forward solutions to help politicians solve them” (Baylis 2014:03). International Relations happened to play the role of a ‘correcting-mechanism’ restoring the world order of peace and amity by efforting at its best to maintain the worlds’ status quo. However with the emergence of a second world war much more massive that the first put at stake all the values of that young discipline of IR. The

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