I believe the Cold War had a greater impact on America internationally. It led to an internationalist approach to its foreign policy. Furthermore, it led to the United States intervening in the Korean War. Additionally, it caused numerous alliances to be formed to curb Russian aggression.
The Cold War led to an internationalist approach in the United States’ foreign policy. It allowed the United States to help other countries while curbing Russian influence in the world. The long telegram inspired the idea of containment and fueled tensions between Russia and the United States. “While Kennan believed that the Russians could not be dislodged from control of eastern Europe, his telegram laid the foundation for what became known as the policy of ‘containment,’ according to which the United States committed itself to preventing any further expansion of Soviet power” (Foner 893). The idea of
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The Truman Doctrine was built on the idea of containment. “The speech set a precedent for American assistance to anticommunist regimes throughout the world, no matter how undemocratic, and for the creation of a set of global military alliances directed against the Soviet Union” (Foner 894). The Truman Doctrine allowed the United States to help countries who weren’t communist; preventing struggling countries from falling into the Russian’s influence. This doctrine would lead the United States to get involved in the Korean War. “These soon evolved into two governments: communist North Korea, and anticommunist South Korea, undemocratic but aligned with the United States” (Foner 897). The Truman Doctrine helped the United States get involved with the Korean War due to the battle between communism and anticommunism. The United States’ involvement in the Korean War led to American lives being lost. The Truman Doctrine and the Korean War led to American lives being at
The Soviets tried to tighten control over eastern European countries in order to increase their sphere of influence. The United States, of course, was viciously opposed to any Soviet and communist expansion. In 1946, Truman was already fed up with the Soviets and his most of his advisors agreed with him. The head of the embassy in Moscow, George Kennan, sent a telegram that stated that Soviets were opposed to the United States, the West, capitalism, and democracy. He argued that it is crucial for the United States to deal with this threat.
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.
During the period of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union entered into a conflicting era of confrontation. It created an environment of hostility, competition and security on both ends. It was a war on propaganda, economic, diplomatic haggling and intermittent military clashes. There was no actual warfare among the nations it was at a competition to see who's government ideology was the "strongest". The United States had many goals but one successful one was to prevent communism from spreading, so they took preventive measures to help prevent communism from spreading a lot more than it had been.
President Truman’s number one goal in the Korean War was to prevent a wide scale war. He did not want to involve other countries into this war and wanted to resolve the communist conflict in Korea. He was afraid that any more involvement of the countries would result in a third world war. It was simply a problem of containment in Korea and the intervention of the Soviet Union or other European countries would be fatal. If America was successful in taken down the power of the communist forces in Korea, the countries would naturally find peace again.
The Soviet Union was aiming to spread communism across Europe, which the United States was against. This led to containment and was laid out in the Truman Doctrine promising US support to countries threatened by the USSR. The Truman Doctrine aimed to stop the spread of communism, which pushed the United States into the Cold War
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.
National interests were at risk if no one was to act as South Korea would fall to the communists and when reminiscing past events, this wasn’t to stop communism from spreading. Previous attacks including Manchuria, Ethiopia, and Austria were all part of failing democracies, but this didn’t prevent communism from moving forward (Document 1). Not only was communism to spread through conquering independent nations but it was going to be used for armed invasion and war. Truman argued that "communism has passed beyond the use of subversion to conquer independent nations and will now use armed invasion and war," (Document 4).
The threat of Greece and Turkey falling to communism was a great fear in the U.S. government because of the Domino Theory. The Domino Theory was the idea that if Greece and Turkey were to fall to communism then the Middle East and perhaps Europe would also fall. The only way to stop the Domino Theory was for active U.S. intervention in the World. During the Truman Doctrine speech, President Truman said in his speech that the United States needs to help the “free peoples of the world” otherwise “we may endanger the peace of the world—and we shall surely endanger the welfare of our own nation”(Edwards, Congress and the Origins of the Cold War). President Truman’s speech had a huge impact on U.S. foreign policy for the next 40 years as the U.S. continued to intervene in other places such as Korea and Vietnam.
In 1917 the Soviet Union was turned into a communist party and the tension began. This is when the United States adopted the “containment policy” which was made to keep communism from spreading. The goal of this policy was to contain the Soviet Union from influencing others through the military, economy, and diplomatic actions. Part of this policy was the United States taking action and helping other countries being
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.
Imagine if you lived in a place where you had no freedom, and you were ruled by a man like Joseph Stalin. That is what it would be like in many countries if it weren’t for the United States’ policy of containment. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union wanted to take over other countries and make them have the government system of Communism. The United States didn’t like that, because they thought their governmental system of Democracy was better. As a result, the U.S. adopted a policy of “Containment”.
The cold war impacted the U.S. Domestic Policy and American society in many ways. The cold war actually wasn’t really even a physical war it was more tension between the Soviet Union and the United States after World War II which added the threat of a potential arms war against the countries. It spread fear among the American people. US citizens feared Russian spies living in the US, nuclear attacks, and potential chemical warfare. Due to these fears and threats policy was changed and society was affected in the daily life of Americans.
The United States stayed in the war the entire time with South Korea. Yet the spread of Communism was slowing down on its own in Korea, so there was no need to be involved in the Korean War. This is evidenced in the book The 2nd Infantry Division Vol. III, which notes that “Chinese Communists that were helping in the North slowed down.” When Truman heard about the Chinese involvement and the slowing of the communist moment through his generals, he was ecstatic.
Laurelle Cornelius Mr. Malinowski Modern American History May 5th, 2023 Cold War DBQ “How did the United States utilize the policy of containment during the Cold War?” When the Cold War began, Harry Truman, the current president, made it his duty to protect and aid the United States and its allies. A prominent proclamation of those duties was found in the Truman Doctrine. The Truman Doctrine was a document that discussed the United States and how we would handle the Cold War. There was a lot of focus on the idea of containment.
The Cold War lasted forty-four years and left a lasting social impact on the United States. The spread of communism and The Soviet Union left many Americans in a constant state of fear and paranoia. The space race between the United States and The Soviet Union significantly impacted the education system in the United States and the curriculum that was taught for years to come. The social emphasis on gender caused a crisis on American masculinity and feminism by influencing many to assume certain gender roles and feel that they were not masculine enough or too feminine because of their view on communism. The Cold War socially impacted the United States through fear, education, and gender.