Strangely, America's role as policeman in Europe actually led to its becoming involved in military conflicts in Southeast Asia. Although the U.S. did not fight the Soviet Union directly in Korea or Vietnam, both conflicts were due to the U.S.'s policy of defeating the spread of Communism no matter where it might occur. Fears of escalation during both the Korean and Vietnam conflicts caused the U.S. To adopt a military strategy that favored limited warfare (Brodie).
The Cold War had a tremendous impact on the growth of the United States as an industrial and world military power. America's presence throughout the world militarily and the dependence of Western Europe and Japan on the American economy for the sustenance of their own economies caused America's political and economic influence to expanded substantially. Beginning with the Berlin airlift (Reeves) where the United States provided food and other vital items to West Berliners cut off from the rest of West Germany to the adoption of the Truman Doctrine (Truman) where the United States officially committed itself to providing financial and military aid to nations in Europe fighting Communism, the United States positioned itself as the world's leader in the battle against the spread of Communism.
The fear of Communism caused a major shift in defense spending by the United States. The Soviet Union's development of an atomic bomb and, later, nuclear weaponry initiated a major military build-up by the U.S. government (Lieber). Prior to the Second World War, defense spending was a major portion of the U.S. budget only during times of sustained war but during the Cold War defense spending escalated to be a major part of the total national budget. This situation continued throughout the entire Cold War period and has not subsided.
The result of the Cold War is that it no longer allowed the United States to isolate itself from the rest of the world. The circumstances surrounding the Cold War forced the United States to take a leadership role in world affairs and to involve itself in situations that it had attempted to avoid for several decades. Adding to the situation was...
Telecommunications made it easier to transfer ideas and information instantly and without the delays that hindered previous efforts at military and strategic intervention. Similarly, the barriers to international trade had largely been lifted. The seeds of the World Trade Organization had already been laid by the end of the Second World War. Finally, the United Nations and other trans-national governing bodies would become legitimized sources of power. Nations who
On the other hand there was growing opposition in intelligentsia circles to pro-soviet regimes in all East European countries and Eastern Germany. If in earlier years Soviet Union was able to aid economies of these countries in order to support communist regimes, then starting from the years fro stagnation in late 1970's the situation changed. Findings were shortening and the U.S.S.R. was not able to support unprofitable industries of
Cold War Q’s: The Soviet Long Game and the Policy of Containment 1 The origins of the Cold War were in the uneasy alliance between the US and the Soviet Union during WW2. The aim of both nations was to destroy Germany, which alone stood in all of Europe to confront the wave of Marxist-Communism washing over the continent. Spain’s Civil War was a prelude to WW2, and there Franco was victorious. Germany
Cold War A Critical Debate of Cold War in 'Origins of Modern World' By definition, the term Cold War implies a state of no war and no peace between two opponents. It is the kind of international rivalry in which states use all types of measures (including political, economic, social, diplomatic, technical, military and paramilitary) to achieve national objectives, however, it avoids overt armed conflict. It is a jargon, which is generally
Though our historical reflection allows us to resolve that this approach had a great deal in common with colonialism in terms of the self-interested foreign rule which it often brought to occupied locales, the belief for its supporters at the time was that nation-building was a new and morally-superior approach to the issue of advancing the Third World. Several of the more historically prominent moments of tumult to be sparked
How the Quakers Opposed the Detainment of Japanese Americans during WWII The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), the co-beneficiary of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947, was established in Philadelphia by individuals from the Religious Society of Friends (i.e., the Quakers) in Spring 1917. The link between AFSC and the Religious Society of Friends was always tenuous, as the activism of the organization was something universal that many non-Quakers around the
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