American Foreign Polocy during the Cold War

American Foreign Policy during the Cold War
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Required Resources
Read/review the following resources for this activity:
Textbook: Sections 28.2, 29.1, 30.3, 31.3
Lesson
Minimum of 1 scholarly source (in addition to the textbook)
Initial Post Pick three (3) of the following American Foreign policies:
Marshall Plan
Berlin Airlift
Containment
Anti-Communist Freedom Fighters
Vietnam (conflict) War
Détente’
SALT I & SALT II
Camp David Accords
Strategic Defense Initiative (nicknamed “Star Wars”)
Then, address the following for your selections:
Explain how each of your choices was an effective policy to thwart international communist expansion.
Based on your selections, analyze if the United States should have feared international communist subversion during the Cold War era (1945-1991).
Follow-Up Posts
Compare your selections and analysis of selections with the peer below. If they chose different groups, examine how yours are similar and/or different. If they chose the same groups, build on their posts by providing additional information about the groups that you have not already noted in your own post.
Peer’s Selection
Professor Hayburn and Classmates,
At the end of WWII, a number of struggles for control, in Europe, of the countries that Nazi Germany had occupied. Great Britain stated that it could no longer afford to support Greece in its effort to fight against Greek Communists and withdrew from the Greek civil war. After this, the U.S. stepped into this “power vacuum” and the United States announced the Truman Doctrine, offering financial aid to Greece against Communism. “Eventually, the program was expanded to include any state trying to withstand a Communist takeover. The Truman Doctrine thus became a hallmark of U.S. Cold War policy”. (Openstaxx U.S.History 2019) This was also the result of George Kennan warning Truman in a telegram that the Soviet Union and other communist powers were becoming prominent around the world. He warned Truman that the best way to stop the Soviet influence was through an economic policy that prevented expansion into these other areas. This policy became known as containment. This policy stayed in effect for U.S. policy making and military decisions for the next thirty years or more. This led to building up the military and the formation of the CIA, Containment at home led to many suspicions that the Communists would use atomic weapons against the U.S and that spies had given bomb-making secrets to the Soviets. Senator Joseph McCarthy, a Republican, accused the State Department of being filled with Communists. Klaus Fuchs, a German-born physicist (the Manhattan Project) was convicted of giving nuclear secrets to the Soviets and implicated other U.S. citizens, leading to the conviction of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. They were executed in June of 1953 without evidence. Later it was shown that Julius had actually done this. The Democrats were criticized and branded as Communists due to some of the socialist programs of the New Deal and the Fair Deal. The Soviets continued to take control of many areas around the world, including North Korea, while the U. S. controlled South Korea. When Truman ordered troops into Korea, MacArthur encouraged Truman to use nuclear weapons against the Communists, but he refused and relieved MacArthur of his duties. Back home, McCarthy continued to make communist accusations against other government agencies, and go after musicians, artists, gays, and lesbians. This led to a lot of fear of the communists and Russia. Eisenhower, elected in 1952 even went to giving children instruction to children as to what to do in case of a nuclear attack. With all this going on, it was only reasonable that the U. S. would have these fears of international subversion in the Cold War era.
The Berlin Blockade also contributed to this fear. The Soviets, in 1948, wanted Berlin all to themselves, not divided as it was between West Berlin (U.S., Britain, and France) and East Berlin (Russian). The Russians closed all the highways, canals, railroads, stopping access into Western-occupied Berlin, in an effort to prevent the people of West Berlin from getting food and other supplies. The Soviets hoped to get the U.S., Britain, and France out of Berlin. However, instead of retreating the U.S. along with their allies, agreed to supply their sectors of Berlin from the air. “This effort, known as the “Berlin Airlift,” lasted for more than a year and carried more than 2.3 million tons of cargo into West Berlin. (History.Com Editors 3/9/2011) It became clear to the Soviets by the spring of 1949 that this blockade had failed and that West Berliners did not reject the allies, but it also did not create a unified West German State. The Blockade did, however, lead to the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) which is an alliance still in existence today.
Because the U.S. had this fear of Communism, it continued to become involved in conflicts to prevent the Soviets and/or the Chinese Communists from overtaking many smaller countries and areas around the globe. One of these was the Korean War (1950-1953) and another was the Vietnam (conflict) War. In 1941, Ho Chi Minh, who had been trained in the Soviet Union as an agent of the Communist International, establish the League for the Independence of Vietnam after the Japanese invaded French Indochina (now Vietnam, Tonkin, Annam, Chochin China, Cambodia and Laos). without much resistance from France. This was known as the Viet Minh movement aimed to resist Japanese and French occupation of Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh, in September 1945 declares an independent North Vietnam and tries unsuccessfully to win the support of the U.S. for this. The French propose granting Vietnam limited self-government and the Viet Minh begins a guerrilla war against the French. In March 1947, Truman addresses Congress stating that the foreign policy (the Truman Doctrine) of the U.S. “is to assist any country whose stability is threatened by communism”. (History.com Editors 2017) To add to the fear of the Soviets and Chinese Communists, the Soviet Union exploded an atom bomb (8/1949 in Kazakhstan. This created another tense turning point for the United States in the Cold War. In June of 1950, the U.S. identified the Viet Minh as a Communist threat and they step up military assistance to France. 1954, the French are defeated by the Viet Minh and this ends the French rule in Indochina. President Eisenhower states that this fall of French Indochina to communists can lead to a “domino” effect in Southeast Asia. This domino theory is what dictates the policy on Vietnam for the next 10 years. In 1954 North and South Vietnam are established. 1959 North Vietnam builds up a supply route through Laos and Cambodia to support their guerilla attacks in South Vietnam. This is known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail that gets enhanced during the Vietnam War. In 1961 John F. Kennedy sends 500 Green Berets and helicopter to South Vietnam, authorizing secret operations against the Viet Cong (North Vietnam army) and they begin spraying agent orange over rural South Vietnam killing any cover and food for the Viet Cong. After Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, Lyndon Johnson accelerates the war with an attack on the Gulf of Tonkin, multiple bombings and in 1965, Johnson launches a three-year campaign of sustained bombings in North Vietnam and on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Not until January 1968 when the Tet Offensive begins and this bloody but effective attack shocks U.S. officials and a turning point in the war is begun and there is a gradual U.S. withdrawal from the region. This war most likely marks the beginning of the end of the U.S. fear and paranoia of a Communist takeover in the world. There remains some fear of this, even today, when we hear these accusations in congress by some Senators and politicians. Although history recognizes the end of the Cold War era in 1991, I think much of this fear goes on as evidenced by our views on China and Russia, and some of it, maybe a lot of it is justified even now with the hacking of our elections and other unsavory actions of Russia.
Chris McCreery
Corbett, P. S et al. OpenStax. (2019). U.S. history. OpenStax CNX. Chapter 28, 28.1 pp 830-834
History.com Editors, Berlin Airlift, History, A & E Television Networks, March 9, 2011, https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/berlin-airlift (Links to an external site.)
History.com Editors, Vietnam War Timeline, History, A & E Television Networks, September 13, 2017, https://www.history.com/topics/vietnan-war-timeline (Links to an external site.)

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