Cold War Impact on US Foriegn Policy

The mentality of the unwarmed War greatly affected the decisions made by the chairwomans that held the baron from 1950 to 1974. The main thought that prevailed from the buzz offning of the Cold War was containment. It was the main goal of the unite States to contain the spread of Communism whenever possible. Brinkmanship was the first major policy that was engaged by the unify States in the effort to stop the spread of Communism throughout the world.President Eisenhowers Secretary of State John Foster alter coined the term Brinkmanship, which simply give tongue to means using the military to push things to the brink of war without actually going to war. This was often used to intimidate the Soviet coupling into backing down during the early part of the Cold War era. President Kennedy would take a slightly more flexible post in terms of retaliation should an attack occur. However, it wouldnt be until President Nixon took office that the metaphorical waters in the midst of the US and the Soviet Union would begin to calm.Could Cold War Have Been Avoided?In 1957 Secretary of State John Foster Dulles considered the Associated Press in a speech known as Dynamic Peace. In this speech Secretary Dulles seems to be trying to convince the American public why they must always be vigilant to go to war counterbalance though it was not what America desired. He also explained how the Soviet Union would not want the free nations of the world to work at together to arm themselves and be willing to protect each former(a) from attack. The Soviet rulers understandably prefer that the free nations should be weak and divided, as when the men in the Kremlin stole, one by one, the independence of a dozen nations. So, at each enlargement of the area of collective defense, the Soviet rulers pour out convolute against so-called militaristic groupings. And as the free nations move to strengthen their common defense, the Soviet rulers emit threats. But we can, I think, be confident that such Soviet assaults will not disintegrate the free world.Collective measures are here to stay. . . . Dulles goes on to talk about how the greatest deterrent of war is the justificatory ability of other nations. Secretary Dulles then goes on to explain that the linked States sought the liberation of the nations under the Soviet Union not to border Russia with hostile nations but because peace cannot be achieved until all captive nations are set free. President John F. Kennedy would set the tone of his administrations stance on the Cold War and the Soviet Union during his inaugural address.He asked that the nations of the world to come together to fight the common enemies of man tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself. His address gave realistic expectations by saying that his goals might not even be achieved during his generations lifetime, but even that possible truth should not caution the unify States or the rest of the world from starting on the road toward s peace and freedom for the whole world. In June 1961 President Kennedy met with the Premier of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev.During this meeting many subjects were discussed, but the most important was Berlin. Even though he allowed himself to be bullied, President Kennedy felt he made it clear to Khrushchev that the United States was not willing to compromise on a withdrawal from Berlin. Only a few short months later East German authorities would begin to restrict the movements of people from East Berlin into West Berlin. These actions would prompt the United States to send a note to the Soviet Union protesting these actions and asking that the Soviet Union honk a stop to it before things got too far out of hand.The Soviet Unions reply stated that it supported the actions of the East German authorities because they were trying to protect themselves from western spies who were trying to undermine the Government. It goes on to talk about how the United States is well aware of these activities and is just trying to shift blessed so that the illegal activities of the West could continue. West Berlin has been transformed into a center of subversive activity diversion, and espionage, into a center of political and economic provocations against the G. D. R. , the Soviet Union, and other socialist countries.Former and present West Berlin municipal cartroaders have cynically called West Berlin an arrow in the living body of the German democratic Republic, a front city, a violator of tranquility, the cheapest atom bomb put in the center of a socialist state. All of the back and forth between the United States and the Soviet Union would come to a head a little more than a year later with the Cuban Missile Crisis. When the United States government discovered that the Soviet Union was building bases meant to house ballistic missiles President Kennedy had a choice.He could have very easily used the join as justification for an attack on the Soviet Union. But i nstead he made the choice that kept the world from World War III. instead of attacking the Soviet Union President Kennedy, on October 22, 1962, addressed the nation and the world and announced that there would be a shut off on Cuba. This block off would only turn away ships carrying weapons and not stop ships carrying the necessities that the people of Cuba would need. We are not at this time, however, denying the necessities of life as the Soviets attempted to do in their Berlin blockade of 1948. On October 28, 1962 the confrontation ended with the Soviet Union agreeing to dismantle their offensive weapons in Cuba. As time continued to go by both the United States and the Soviet Union were in positions where a relaxation of the tensions between them was necessary. Soviet leadership felt that the financial costs of the nuclear arms race were unsustainable. The United States was spending millions on the war in Vietnam and trying to extend the welfare state in the country.The Sovie t Union was experiencing troubles in their relationships with China, and they worried that these troubles might lead to an American-Chinese alliance. All this is, in the first place, a stab in the back for the heroic Vietnamese people in their struggle against the American aggressors, Imperialist circles full approve of this line of Mao Tse-tungs group. The Washington Post has said that officials in Washington believe that Mao is serving American interests and they are therefore even thinking of cultivating Maoism as a means of bringing pressure to bear on Moscow.The magazine United States News and World Report has directly stated in this connection that the United States is gambling oil Mao and that American officials tend to prefer a victory for Mao Tse-tung in his struggle to suppress more nioderate elements, because that would mean more trouble for Soviet Russia. During President Richard Nixons administration the first steps towards Detente began. The most important part of th is was the SALT I treaty of 1972. The conditions of Detente allowed for mutual cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union.In fact one of the basic principles of relations between the Soviet Union and the United States was that the two nations work together especially in the areas of science and technology. In July of 1975 the United States and the USSR would work together on the Apollo-Soyuz project. Even though the idea of containment was the driving advertize behind many of the decisions made by US presidents during the Cold War, each President had their own ideas on how best to achieve that containment.For President Eisenhower the best strategy was Brinkmanship, while President Kennedy took a slightly more flexible approach. Had Kennedy followed the lines of Brinkmanship the Cuban Missile Crisis would most likely have been the start of World War III. President Nixon, due to the changing world and economic climate was able to reach at least some neutral ground w ith the Soviet Union. The relaxation of tensions in the late 1960s and early 1970s helped to bring about the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s.