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How Wars Changed American Society Essay

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The United States fought many wars between the Civil War and the present as a way of maintaining their image as a global power and avoid being seen as weak or incapable as well as feeling a sense of duty to intervene in order to not only ‘help’ countries in need but also remain influencing post-war agendas. Wars changed American society and politics by implementing new programs, providing an opportunity to express our constitutional freedoms of speech and protest, by changing the way Americans thought and felt about race, and by increasing nationalism. WWI is an example of how the United States fought a war in order to maintain its image as a global power and also making an effort to “save the world”. Initially, the government and the American people were not interested in joining the war and they even set a neutrality policy. However, after providing the British with weapons, the U.S. failed to remain neutral. Furthermore, Germany’s actions led the U.S. to join the war by damaging U.S. trade and hurting American civilians. Ultimately, the decision to join WWI can be seen as an attempt to strengthen the U.S.’s …show more content…

Involvement in the Korean war sparked affect not only American politics, but it also drastically changed the lives of several Americans back at home. Foreign policy such as the Truman doctrine, which was a program designed to contain communism was created during this time. As well as, a fear of communism was instilled in American society. McCarthy claimed that among society there were communists waiting to take control. This resulted in thousands of Americans losing everything they owned after being accused of being communist. This fear further helped the U.S. involvement in the Korean war as soldiers believed that they were fighting to stop the spread of

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This unknown fact of American being neutral or not, ultimately lead to the United States needing to enter World War I. Although the United States President at the time, Woodrow Wilson, explained the reasoning for the U.S. entering WWI was because of Germany’s submarine warfare, the violence toll that Germany took on America relates back to the concealed matter of the nation of the United States actually being neutral throughout the time before war

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The attack comes without warning and President Harry Truman, with the help of the United Nations, vows to defend democratic South Korea. The Containment Policy stated that the US would support any nation that are being oppressed by communism and cannot protect themselves from it. This became America’s major reason to intervene in the Korean War. However, the policy of containment came under attack due casualties and economic issues that the policy created. One of the major effects that over extended the powers of American foreign policy is that it gave the US a reason to interfere with any war they wanted as long as it involved communism.

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President Truman’s main goal was to prevent a wide scale war. Although other countries had contributed to the war by providing weapons and troops, Truman feared that the direct intervention of the Soviet Union and other European nations would result in a third world war, which the world was not prepared for (Wainstock). Truman viewed the conflict as a simple problem of containment of communism in Korea. Overall, Truman wanted to fight a limited war, with the sole purpose to protect Korea from the influx of communism. On the other hand, General MacArthur believed that the Korean War was a chance to eradicate all communist roots and prevent it from spreading to other Asian countries.

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Germany provoked the United States, which eventually made U.S enter World War I, also known as the Great War. After World War ended in 1918, Wilson proposed (which was eventually passed internationally) the Treaty of Versailles, mainly punishing Germany and preventing it from causing future wars. The United States entered war, which made it official that they were, once again, involved with foreign affairs, disregarding Washington’s advice to not be involved with other countries. “The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible” (Washington). However, once Word War I was over, the “public opinion favored a return to

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The biggest challenges faced by America in the Korean War were, Korea not being able to defend itself, tactics Korean communist troops used against America and soldiers thinking the war as useless while questioning “What are we fighting for?” The Korean War lasted from 1950 to 1953, beginning when the North Korean communist army crossed the 38th parallel and invaded non-communist South Korea. As Kim II-sung's North Korean troops armed with soviet tanks, quickly overran South Korea and the United States came to South Korea's aid. If South Korea was not able to carry itself without the Unite States and the Soviet Union getting involved then that would cause another world war, because all of Korea would become communist because of North Korea

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Altogether, the US needed to secure its nation due to many threats across the world. During war, many things occurred and happened. Germany created some strategy against the United States, which was revealed in the

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My grandfather was actually drafted into the Korean War so it was extremely interesting to read this chapter and learn about an event that shaped his live forever. The Korean War’s roots lie within the Chinese civil war which ended with the victory of Mao Zedong and his Communist followers. This monumental victory angered many Americans who thought the United States government did little to help Jiang Jieshi’s Nationalist regime because our foreign policy was based around Europe not Asia but the damage was already done. The next year the State Department released NSC-68 which was a “Policy statement that committed the United States to a military approach to the Cold War,” ( The American Journey Ch.27 Pg. 800).

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The United States began its history with the Revolutionary War. A war that was necessary but unwanted. The desire to avoid war continued. Although the country started with isolationist ideals, the Spanish American War proved that the United States would be forced to fight battles outside of its own borders. Never one to pick a fight, the United States would be called many times to step into a battle to take the defense of an ally or defend the ideals of freedom that are so much a part of Democracy.

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This helped influence the growing tensions between the U.S. and the Viet Cong. Second, was the idea that if communism was in one country it would spread to others. Third, was the requests of aid in the war by the South Vietnamese. Now to the leaders and tyrants who had very different reputations according to their countries. When the U.S. joined the war, the British were pulling out.

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The Korean war was a horrible event that ended the lives of around 5 million people. In this war the communist North Korea invaded democratic and capitalist South Korea. However, the war was truly between the political beliefs of Communism and Capitalism. The South was fueled by the US, while the North was fueled by Soviet Union. This war was part of the Cold war where the US saw the growth of Communism and wanted to end it.

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Grace Fullenkamp Ms. Yane AP Lang March 14, 2018 The Korean War The Korean War was not a conflict in which the United States needed to be involved as to its horrific outcome is testament. Yet, in the 1950s, the U.S. thought it was believed that the only way to stop the spread of communism was to fight back against the potential formation of communist governments. When war broke out in Korea, it became a place for the United States to make a statement against communism on a global front joining with South Korea to combat the communist North.

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With both sides fighting for their respective government systems, Korea became a pawn in a war bigger than itself (Nishi 13). This was not just a local issue but a global issue (MacArthur 84) and not just Korea's battle but the free world's battle (Pyun 73-74). The United States needed to put an end to the Communist Global Conquest for freedom's sake. Communism was not just a threat to Korea but to the whole world. According to Y.T Pyun, the war would have sprung up somewhere else if it did not start in Korea (73); therefore, the free world needed to work together in order to keep Communism from spreading to their part of the world.

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and the U.S. The 1950 Korean War was arguably just as much a civil war as it was the first proxy war fought in the Cold War era, as Kim Chull Baum and James I. Matray have suggested. (Matray 2011) Nevertheless, writing about the Korean War would be an exercise in futility for the purposes of this essay. Instead, discussing the consequences of this war would be more appropriate.

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The “loss of China” to communism led the American leaders to perceive the cold war as even more threatening and demanding an American response. To prevent further communist expansion elsewhere in Asia, the Truman administration Truman sent troops to North Korea in 1950 when communist forces crossed the thirty-eighth parallel. All of these events in Asia, along with the Soviet expansion in eastern Europe after world war II, fueled the American belief that the Soviet Union was trying to expand communism on a global

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This omission of South Korea by Truman lead Stalin to attack. Stalin was all about spreading communism while Truman was all about containment. By leaving South Korea out of the defense perimeter, Stalin was given the opportunity to freely attack South Korea in the hopes that if he gained control, he could spread communism. This objective of spreading communism by Stalin provides a probable reason as to why the Korean War was caused by the Cold

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