Soviet and American cold war polices - Term Paper Example

This cold war mindset of America began during the presidency of Truman in the 1940's and continued on well into the 1950's. Although the Truman administration already had a strong anti communism stance, his death allowed his vice president to implement even more stringent cold war policies against the perceived enemy, Russia1 The reason that these cold war policies between the two nations became such a serious matter for the international community is that both countries, armed with their nuclear weapons, were constantly threatening each other with the total destruction of their rival nation should they meet in actual combat.

The Russian (collective name for the Soviet Union) policy under Stalin was clear as daylight. Russia would dominate and create subservient countries in Eastern Europe in order to prevent the spread of democracy and the American policies in their region. Russia fully utilized its occupation of certain European countries in order to actively recruit and assist in the spread of their ideology. By 1948, at least seven European countries had been established as communist governments with Russia implementing unequal trade agreements with other Eastern European countries, creating what then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill termed as the “Iron Curtain”.

2 On the other hand, the United States and its allies did their best to implement their cold war policy of containment. This meant that the Russian communist ideologies would not be allowed to spread outside of Eastern Europe. This was to be achieved by preventing Russia from using the power and position it achieved during the world war in its quest to reshape the post war international order. 3 It is important to note that during the time that the U.S. cold war policy was being implemented, there were certain politician in America who actually opposed the policy that was beginning to take shape.

One of the more notable opponents of the cold war policy was was the former vice president to Franklin Delano Roosevelt named Henry Wallace. He took a stand against the U.S. policy of containment and was a very vocal advocate of the cause. According to Wallace, appearing before the Senate Armed Service Committee he took the opportunity to “criticize Truman's call for universal military training” 4 which would force all young American men of a certain age into military service. This was the beginning of the military draft era in American history.

Wallace believed that Truman was instead trying to deliberately start a crisis by implementing a program that would lead to "death and taxes for the many and very handsome profits for the few."5 Rather, he advocated that the U.S. implement a foreign policy based upon the need for peaceful foreign policy among nations. One can imagine that due to the cold war policies