Compare And Contrast Kennedy's Ways Of Dealing With The Cold War

he first chapter of The Cold War: A New History begins by comparing the United States to the U.S.S.R. and talking about the similarities between the two. It also talks about Communism and how Marx deemed it necessary in order to build up the economy. Lenin tried to implement Communism in Russia. They were not quite ready for that kind of system, so Stalin tried to modernize the economy. The U.S.S.R. had more casualties in World War II, but things were not necessarily looking great in America either.

“One of the lessons learned during the Vietnam War was that the depiction of wounded soldiers, of coffins stacked higher than their living guards, had a negative effect on the viewing public. The military in Iraq specifically banned the photographing of wounded soldiers and coffins, thus sanitizing this terrible and bloody conflict.” Walter Dean Meyers vividly expresses the horror that the twenty yearlong Vietnam War had brought upon American soldiers and service people in Vietnam from 1955 to 1975. Through the Truman Doctrine, the Diem Regime, and the Domino Theory, the involvement of the United States in the War in Vietnam War was justifiable. What happened after the United States traveled to Asia, was not.

Truman, Eisenhower, and the American Citizen The purpose of this essay is to highlight the similarities and differences of the decisive actions taken by President Harry Truman (1945 to 1953) and President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953 to 1961) when confronted with two pivotal issues of their administration. Those issues were civil rights for African Americans and the cold war. This essay will also highlight how American citizens responded to the issues during the period from 1945 to 1961.

By the end of World War II, many nations were devastated by the aftermath of the war, left vulnerable for the Soviet Union to conquer their lands. Truman recognized the potential threat these countries may face, and decided to create the Truman Doctrine. Former President Harry S. Truman developed the Truman Doctrine, that states the U.S. will provide economic and military assistance to any country threatened by an authoritarian force. This Doctrine was a response towards the Soviet invasion in Turkey and Greece. Following the Doctrine was the containment policy, preventing the spread of communism by containing the source where it originated from.

Post World War II the United States was suffering from what is called “Red Scare”. The Red scare was a propaganda tactic to make the American public fear the communist countries. This propaganda was fueled further by the Korean War and the Cold War. This was fueled by a congressman by the name of Joe McCarthy. President Harry Truman also added on to this propaganda as well.

Maxwell D. Taylor and The Changes American National Security Between the Eisenhower Administration and the Kennedy Administration The Cold War in the 1950s-1960s shaped American national security more than ever. The transition from the Eisenhower Administration to the Kennedy Administration showed the changes national security would go through in the course of almost a decade. However, there have been many criticisms of national security during this time period, and Maxwell D. Taylor, Kennedy’s chief military advisor, is one of those critics.

1. Source B mentions that the reason for Truman dropping the bomb was to save American lives, but it was a speech to the nation. Source A transmits a completely different message. It mentions that “the end of Japanese war no longer depended upon the pouring in of [the Russian] armies.” They way this phrase is interpreted is that Truman dropped the bomb because he no longer wanted the help of the Soviets so he didn’t have to share the reward, which was Tokyo.

John F. Kennedy was a great president for the United States and on November 22,1963 the United States was greatly affected because our President was assassinated that day. It was later proven that Lee Harvey Oswald was responsible for it. The assassination of President Kennedy had a negative impact on Americans, and Lee Harvey acted alone assassinating President Kennedy. The assassination of John F. Kennedy had a greatly impacted Americans and the nation.

During the year 1947, a speech delivered by President Harry S. Truman, know as The Truman Doctrine, sometimes called “Truman’s containment speech”, which warned United State Congress that we should support other countries, or they would fall to Communism. Greece was in a sensitive situation, they can fall to communism anytime which would make them more powerful. He talked about some reasons why United State should help others. In his speech, he never mentioned the word “containment”, but all his points were lead to it. First part of the speech, he outlined the situation of Greece.

The Cold War caused many issues between communist countries and the United States for about forty-five years, but president Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy only dealt with it for about seventeen years. While all of the Cold War presidents dealt with communism, Truman and Eisenhower favored Policy of Containment and president Kennedy favored Flexible Response. The Cold War started in 1947 and ended in 1991 so it was about 45 years (Ayer 817). The first president was Harry Truman he used Policy of Containment to deal with communist countries. The Cold War was tension between The Soviet Union and The United States Western powers (Ayer 817).