To begin, Kennan describes that current policies towards the Soviet Union is flawed since Washington believes that they can influence the Soviets to agree to long-term peaceful coexistence. However, this could never be the solution because the Soviet government is influenced by the dynamics of a “police regime and antagonistic capitalist encirclement” that seeks to destroy the harmony and freedom of America (Doc 1). Since the Soviet mindset of security derives from the idea of deadly destruction of rival Western powers, Kennan argues that diplomacy and peace negotiations will not work. The Soviets “do not work by fixed plans and are impervious to the logic of reason” (Doc 1). Consequently, Kennan’s solution to overcoming the Soviets is “without recourse to military conflict” through spreading awareness of the benefits of Western Freedom and showing pressure and guidance.
During and before the cold war communism was a threat to the United States. The policy of containment was made when Truman was president, by George F. Kennan(Containment and the Marshall Plan). Eisenhower helped enforce the policy after Truman’s two term presidency ended (Biography.com Editors). On January 5,1957, Eisenhower made the Eisenhower Doctrine was for those not controlled by communism who needed
World War II caused many tensions in the world, even in the allied nations. After the war, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union were especially tense. The communistic ideals of the Soviet Union clashed with United States capitalism on many occasions. The Soviets wanted to expand their empire and economy to other areas of the world; the U.S. wanted the opposite. They were determined to keep communism where it is, which brings up the question: how did the U.S. contain communism?
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”.
In an effort to stop communism from spreading, the United States and its allies practiced containment. Containment is the act of keeping something harmful under control, this meant that the United States and its allies will get involved if they needed in order to stop communism from spreading. The U.S and its allies managed to help several countries from falling into communism, but they also suffered their hardships and lost many men during a war to protect their allie, South Korea. On February 1946, the United States, State Department received a telegram, the telegram seemed to give of two warnings.
Many times during the interview with Liz Bentz, she repeated the phrase, “It was a victory for truth.” Deception stood at the forefront of the Cold War; thus with the fall of the deceitful USSR, the United States came out victorious in a war, in eyes of Bentz, on truth. Born during the Cold War, Liz Bentz witnessed the fall of an empire at a young age, and she has a story to tell about it. To better understand her story requires background information on the war itself.
Q7. Women began demanding more political and social freedoms after they had taken on more responsibilities when all of the men had left for war. Women believed that by taking on more responsibilities back at home, they were entitled to more of the same freedoms like men. At the beginning of World War I, men were happily being shipped off to war in order to fight for their country; however, they hadn’t the slightest idea of what they got themselves into. They would find that they would be sending their men off to the slaughter.
The end of the Second World War brought dramatic changes to the world, including the role of the United States. In an effort to maintain a global position of dominance, the nation engaged in a Cold War with the Soviet Union. While Americans supported a capitalistic model of society, the Soviets supported a Communist one. These two world powers fought to exchange socioeconomic models for alliance and support from third-world countries. The US was frightened by the spread of Communism, especially to their own nation.
Ever since his unquestionable win in 1952’s election, President Dwight Eisenhower was pushed to the lead of the cold war. While an expansion of domestic and international fear of communism spread, Eisenhower had the success of bringing about a settlement that would end the Korean War. By many people, President Eisenhower has been thought to be taking an offhand attitude towards the Cold War. Nevertheless, Eisenhower was effectively enclosing communism and attempted to guard international freedom from any sort of communist sabotage. In his famous Doctrine, Eisenhower spoke about the inclining catastrophe of the Cold War in the 1950’s Dwight David Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas on the 14th of October 1890.
To conclude the argument on the nature of Soviet Union conduct, George F. Kennan sustains that the United States should not expect Soviet policies to reflect the possibility of co-existing capitalism and communism. He believes that the United States can influence internal developments in Russia and the worldwide communist movement. Kennan stresses the responsibility of the United States on the future conduct of the Soviet Union.
The Cold War is a very significant event, and perhaps one of the most important throughout US history. The Cold War shaped American in many aspects like, foreign policy, political ideology (ism’s), economy, the presidency, and lives of American’s. According to APA, (American Psychological Association) the Cold War was, “intense economic, political, military, and ideological rivalry between nations, short of military conflict; sustained hostile political policies and an atmosphere of strain between opposed countries.” The Cold War on foreign policy had to step up against the Soviet Union, the strategy they implemented was called “containment”. Containment was a policy used by the US using strategies to prevent the spread of communism overseas
Presidents Truman and Eisenhower believed that communist expansion could be handled mainly with containment, whereas Kennedy believed in both containment and military force. By providing financial assistance to vulnerable countries, Truman was able to prevent the “domino effect” of communism during his term. In addition to similar practices during Eisenhower’s presidency, Eisenhower involved the US more actively by meeting with foreign leaders, improving relationships with these countries, and adopting the Massive Retaliation policy. Kennedy played a much more hands-on role in preventing communism. Though he attempted to meet with leaders to strengthen relationships, he also resorted to military actions in both Cuba and Vietnam.
Containment was used by the United States so they could prevent communism spreading and was used towards the Guatemalans, Greece, Turkey, and Cuba during the cold war. In which was successful in stopping communism from spreading but did require people being killed or be put in jail which is bad because they got punished for something they believed on. This happened around 1954 because at that time they were fighting the cold war so they had to come with a quick and effective way to stop communism from spreading and containment was the solution. Containment was a big step for the Unites states, they were to intimidate the Soviet Union.
The Korean War emerged after the Soviet Union intended to spread Communism around the world; it began with China, following to North Korea, intending to reach the South area. Communism represented a threat to the United States since the latter “prized the concepts of personal liberty and freedom of political organization” (Staff, 2010), while the former aimed a society that followed Karl Marx’s motto: from each according to his ability, to each according to his need. During the Red Scare—national anti-communism movement—the United States saw Communism as a threat, the United States firmly believed that engaging into a war that fought the spread of Communism was for the common good. The Just Ad Bellum principle states that for a war to be just, it must be declared openly by a proper sovereign authority.
The Cold War lasted forty plus years and these conflicting ideologies threatened peace throughout the world, consequently the battle verses communism and democracy was at the root of the Cold War conflict. Social, political, and economic conditions of the world were influenced by the ongoing threats of the Cold War. In the Soviet Union, communist rulers firmly controlled all aspects of Soviet life and they dominated Eastern Europe through imperialism. The Soviet government held a tight grip on its citizens and used fear to control them, hence western influences were forbidden because the government thought it would poison and threaten their beliefs. The government and economy was often unstable and was frequently on the verge of collapse,