causes of the cold war
H. W. Brands claims that, " the burden of responsibility for the cold war rested on the United States, the more powerful of the two countries, and the one with less to fear from the other." (The Devil We Knew: Americans and the Cold War, 1993) This statement stems from the idea that America had no evidential basis for a foreign policy that called for a containment of Soviet expansion. Brands is claiming that the US had less to fear because an aggressive foreign force did not surround them. However, America did have a sense of fear. A fear that America's way of life and prosperity was being challenged by a foreign power who's aim was to undermine all that America had worked for over the last 150 years. A fear that America's domestic economy would crumble without movement into foreign markets. I would ask Mr. Brands at what point is fear a justification for protecting one's own interests. A question I grant is open to debate. Now it is true that the Soviet Union, after four long years of fighting, could not sustain a costly economic push into the foreign markets of Eastern Europe without fully controlling those markets. It is true that America was far from falling under a grass roots socialist revolut
ion. Historians understand this now with the release of Cold War Soviet documents showing that Russia was not at America's back door. However, I think that Truman said it eloquently in his defense over dropping the bomb, "Any schoolboys afterthought is worth more than all the generals' forethought." (Robert Messer, "New Evidence on Truman's Decision") However, his support of covert CIA operations in foreign governments which led to the Bay of Pigs disaster in 1961. His approval of U-2 spy plane operations over Russia led to Gary Powers capture in 1960. His public allowing of Senator McCarthy to continue his domestic attacks on supposed Communist sympathizers led to an increased fear in the American psyche against Communism. His prominent advisor John Foster Dulles and his idea of brinkmanship, when followed through in 1962 by his younger brother, leads to the Cuban Missile Crisis. All these behind the scene workings proved to be deadly in the 1960's. In effect, Eisenhowers' policies of the which seemed to promote a possible peace, actually created the atmosphere for increased conflict and brought the US and Russia to the brink of war. Based on the readings, I believe the fear held by most in the Truman Administration was founded. The limited evidence they had access to did point to a Soviet expansionist threat. Their understanding of a world market economy, one that led to a severe world wide depression just fifteen years earlier, proved a need to quickly restore European economic stability. All this deals mainly with the beginnings of the Cold War, the period between 1945-1949, when the majority of the foreign policies were formed. This was a time when the Cold War was quite Hot in many places. The Soviet propaganda machine in Moscow was denouncing the 'Capitalist Imperialist Pigs' as evil enemies of communism. Stalin's refusal to carry out
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Approximate Word count = 1255
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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