Essay on Post Cold War Text

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Truman asked congress for $400 million to assist the greek and turkish governments. President truman also asked congress to send united states military advisers to both countries, per those countries request. These requests became known as the truman doctrine it was a proposal to make the countries prosperous enough that the countries would not be tempted by communism. The plan was to support countries that resisted suppression from armed minorities. In many ways, the cold war began even before the guns fell silent in germany and in the pacific in 1945. Soviet relations for decades and resurfaced as soon as the alliance against adolf hitler was no longer necessary.

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President harry s truman and soviet premier joseph stalin from working together. Stalin intended to destroy germany rsquo s industrial capabilities in order to prevent the country from remilitarizing and wanted germany to pay outrageous sums in war reparations. Moreover, he wanted to erect pro soviet governments throughout eastern europe to protect the ussr from any future invasions. He believed that only industrialization and democracy in germany and throughout the continent would ensure postwar stability. Unable to compromise or find common ground, the world rsquo s two remaining superpowers inevitably clashed.

Truman worked tirelessly to clean up the postwar mess and establish a new international order. He helped create the world bank and the international monetary fund imf and funded the rebuilding of japan under general douglas macarthur. Which set aside more than $10 billion for the rebuilding and reindustrialization of germany. The marshall plan was so successful that factories in western europe were exceeding their prewar production levels within just a few years. Although stalin joined with the united states in founding the united nations. He protested the marshall plan as well as the formation of the world bank and imf. In defiance, he followed through on his plan to create a buffer between the soviet union and germany by setting up pro communist governments in poland and other eastern european countries.

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As a result, the so called iron curtain soon divided east from west in europe. Stalin also tried unsuccessfully to drive french, british, and american occupation forces from the german city of berlin by blocking highway and railway access. Determined not to let the city fall, truman ordered the berlin airlift to drop food and medical supplies for starving berliners. The berlin crisis, as well as the formation of the eastern bloc of soviet dominated countries in eastern europe, caused foreign policy officials in washington to believe that the united states needed to check soviet influence abroad in order to prevent the further spread of communism. Truman incorporated this desire for containment into his truman doctrine. He and congress then pledged $ 400 million to fighting communist revolutionaries in greece and turkey.

Truman also convinced the western european powers to join the north atlantic treaty organization nato . So that they might mutually defend themselves against the danger of soviet invasion. Threatened, the ussr sponsored a similar treaty of its own in eastern europe, called the warsaw pact. In the domestic policy arena, truman signed the national security act in 1947 to restructure america rsquo s defenses for the new communist threat. The act reorganized the military under the new office of the secretary of defense and the new joint chiefs of staff. It also created the national security council to advise the president on global affairs and the central intelligence agency to conduct espionage.

Truman rsquo s leadership in confronting the soviet union and rebuilding europe convinced democrats to nominate him again for the 1948 election. His fair deal domestic policies and support for civil rights, however, divided the republican party and nearly cost truman the election. Developments in eastern europe, the fall of china to communist revolutionaries in 1949. And the soviet union rsquo s development of nuclear weapons terrified americans, who feared that communists would try to infiltrate or attack the united states from within. Nixon and the house un american activities committee led the earliest red hunts for communists in the government, which culminated with the prosecution of federal employee alger hiss and the executions of suspected spies julius and ethel rosenberg.

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Truman initially supported these inquiries and even established a loyalty review board to assist in the search. He eventually began to express concern, however, that the red hunts were quickly devolving into witch hunts. Cold war tensions between the united states and the ussr eventually exploded in korea when soviet backed north korea invaded south korea in 1950. Determined not to let communism spread in east asia, truman quadrupled military spending and ordered general macarthur to retake the southern half of the peninsula.

Macarthur succeeded and then pushed the north koreans almost up to the chinese border. Threatened, over a million soldiers from communist china poured into korea, forcing macarthur to retreat back to the 38 th parallel. When macarthur began to criticize truman publicly for his unwillingness to use nuclear weapons in korea, truman was forced to fire his top general for insubordination. United states forces remained entrenched at the 38 th parallel for two more years, at the cost of more than 50. Eisenhower rsquo s election in 1952 ushered in an unprecedented era of economic growth and prosperity in the united states. The average national income doubled during the 1950 s and then doubled again the following decade, primarily due to continued defense spending and to the 1944 montgomery g.i. The postwar ldquo baby boom rdquo contributed to population growth, while the great migration of african americans to northern cities, ldquo white flight rdquo from the cities to the suburbs, and the rush to the sun belt altered population demographics.

Most american families had a car, a television, and a refrigerator and owned their own home. Popular television sitcoms like leave it to beaver and ozzie and harriet glamorized suburbia and consumerism. Ldquo ike rdquo eisenhower had entered the white house determined to block the creation of new social welfare programs, which he called ldquo creeping socialism. rdquo he did not, however, cut federal funding from existing new deal programs. In fact, he expanded social security and the federal housing administration and even set aside tens of millions of dollars for the creation of the first interstates under the federal highway act. Still a conservative, though, eisenhower refused to endorse the blossoming civil rights movement and signed the landrum griffin act. Also known as the labor management reporting and disclosure act, in the wake of numerous afl cio labor union scandals in the mid 1950 s. Even though mccarthy had no proof to support these claims, americans supported his endeavors to find more ldquo soviet agents rdquo hiding in washington.

Thousands of former new dealers and red hunt critics from all walks of life were wrongfully persecuted. Mccarthy rsquo s influence eventually waned after he humiliated himself during the nationally televised army mccarthy hearings in 1954. In addition to halting ldquo creeping socialism rdquo at home, eisenhower also wanted to ldquo roll back rdquo communist advances abroad. Eisenhower devised a new look at foreign policy that emphasized the use of nuclear weapons, rather than conventional weapons and troops, to contain communism. Eisenhower threatened the ussr with ldquo massive retaliation , rdquo or nuclear war, against soviet aggression or the spread of communism. Eisenhower also made full use of the newly created cia to help overthrow unfriendly governments in developing countries. He resolved the suez crisis peacefully before it led to war and committed american funds to fighting ho chi minh rsquo s pro communist forces in vietnam after the french defeat at dien bien phu in 1954.

The soviet launch of the sputnik satellites in 1957 started the space race. Prompting eisenhower to create the national aeronautics and space administration nasa . He warned americans of the growing military industrial complex that threatened to restrict civil liberties and dominate american foreign policy making. Facing term limits, eisenhower endorsed vice president richard nixon for the republican presidential nomination in 1960. After a close race, kennedy defeated nixon, thanks in large part to the african american vote and kennedy rsquo s polished performance in the first ever televised presidential debates.