American Policy Initiated the Cold War - Essay Example

American Policy Initiated the Cold War The Cold War, which endured from roughly the end of WWII to 1991, was not a war by conventional measure. The combatants of this War, the former Soviet Union and the U.S., along with its allies, fought this largely ideological battle by economic and political means via diplomatic brawls and propagandizing though it did include the occasional minor military clash. The U.S. and Soviets didn’t trust each other before the war. The introduction of nuclear arms into the mix along with the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan only served to heighten tensions between the two lone military super-powers and led to an all-out arms race between the two. The Cold War was waged on many fronts including Africa, Asia, Cuba and as far as outer space. The communist government of the Soviet Union was diametrically opposed to the democratic, capitalist U.S. Each country wanted desperately to widely distribute its form of governing throughout the rest of the world. The U.S. endorsed free trade and encouraged diplomatic relations with other countries but the Soviet Union sealed its borders to travel and trade with Western nations concerned that its citizens would be influenced by Western culture. The ‘trappings’ of the West, they feared, would steadily undermine its authoritarian style of governing. Given the circumstances of that time, the ideological differences and the emergence of both nations as superpowers each determined to eclipse the other, conflicts on the world stage was unavoidable. The Soviets occupied the land they had liberated during WWII which included most of Eastern Europe. The terms of the Yalta Conference legitimized the Soviet expansion. Poland, Eastern Germany, the former Czechoslovakia, Austria and other Eastern European countries became what was known as Soviet Satellites. Soviet military atrocities committed primarily in Poland were the catalyst for the U.S. ending the alliance it had with the Soviets during WWII. That alliance did not last very long after the two no longer needed one another to wage battle with Germany. President Truman cut all economic support to the Soviet Union and publicly declared Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin wanted to rule the world and did not want peace, all in 1945, the year WWII ended. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill aligned with Truman and first used the term “Iron Curtain” to describe the Soviet’s firm grasp on Eastern Europe saying all English speaking persons were against that country. This statement along with the obvious realignment of allies against them was infuriating to the Soviets. In addition, Truman proposed the Soviets give back German land while the U.S was giving economic aid to Germany, the justifiably hated enemy of the Soviets, which further exacerbated the situation. Truman added more fuel to the already white-hot fire in 1947 when he unveiled the Truman Doctrine, a policy outlining why and how the U.S. sought to contain the expansion of the Soviet Union. He thought it a duty of America and its allies to interfere with Soviet strategies regarding world domination or as many in the West and possibly in the Soviet Union assumed was their intent. Under the Truman doctrine, the U.S. gave economic and military support to countries bordering the Soviet Union which further tarnished relations between the two super powers, as if tensions weren’t high enough already. Truman’s next policy decision, the Marshall Plan, was the next step of the Truman Doctrine. The Marshall Plan gave billions of dollars in assistance to Western European countries to aid their economies; gain friends to the U.S. and by extension enticing those countries toward adopting similar democratic ideals thereby ending the spread of communism, the original goal of the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan. Yet again Truman had exacerbated tensions between the two nations. Soon after, in 1949, Truman led in the creation of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), a multi-national armed force with one motive, to stop the advancement of the Soviet Union. Truman’s policies were understandably troubling to say the least for the Soviets who responded by building up their weaponry fearing a further escalation of economic sanction and militaries of the world amassing at every border orchestrated by the U.S., their new arch-enemy. In response to the Soviet build up of arms, Truman decided to do the same in 1950. This was the beginning of what is known as ‘the arms race.’ For the next four decades the two Cold War combatants amassed unprecedented amounts of weapons including untold numbers of nuclear arms. The arms race of the Cold War raged throughout the 1950’s but calmed somewhat when Soviet leader Nikita Khruschchev and President Dwight Eisenhower met in the later part of the decade. The slight ease of tensions didn’t last long. In 1960 the Soviets shot down a U.S. spy plane. Eisenhower was forced to admit the U.S. was doing what both countries had been accusing each other of doing, advantage Soviets. Just a year later President John Kennedy invaded Cuba, a Soviet satellite country, to overthrow its new leader Fidel Castro, a committed ally of the Soviets. This attempt was a spectacular failure however. The Cuban Missile Crises followed when the U.S. learned the Soviets were sending missiles to Cuba to protect that small island nation from the U.S. That was their official motive. Whatever the reasoning, the U.S. viewed this action as a direct threat. Kennedy ordered a naval blockade surrounding Cuba which stopped Soviets ships from entering. It would be as close as the two super powers would come to nuclear war. Tensions were also aggravated when the Berlin Wall was built so as to divide East and West Germany in 1961. The wall was heavily guarded and fortified. Many East Germans were killed tying to escape their life of poverty and subjugation during the wall’s existence. Relations eased somewhat again when the two nations signed a treaty banning nuclear tests above ground. In addition, the ‘red phone’ was installed giving both nations leaders instant and direct access to the other. Diplomatic relations continued to improve during the Nixon administration. He and Soviet Premier Brezhnev held several meeting and signed a number of arms control agreements during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. The 1980’s saw a further reduction of nuclear arms, the fall of the Berlin Wall, end of Soviet domination of surrounding countries, the eventual breakup of the Soviet Union and democratization, of sorts, of Russia, in other words, the ending of the Cold War. The Cold War may have been a certainty given the circumstances present at the end of WWII but President Truman’s policy’s certainly helped to hasten its beginnings and intensified the mistrust between the two nations. During this nearly five decade long era of suspicion and passionate political posturing by the U.S. and Soviets the nuclear arms stockpiles grew along with fears by the governments and citizens of all countries of the world especially those in the two super powers. Still, to this day, each nation has enough nuclear bombs to blow the world up several times over, a daunting thought. The awful legacy of the Cold War remains and likely will for many decades to come not only the nuclear threat imposed on millions of innocent lives but the terrible monetary costs involved. The money spent during this period is probably incalculable but one wonders what the present day situation would be for the citizens of the earth if all that money were spent building new technologies, communities and infrastructures instead of bombs that were used only as a deterrent and thankfully so. Read More