Cold War Foreign Policy

“Their [Russia’s and America‘s] starting-point is different, and their courses are not the same; yet each of them seems marked by the will of Heaven to sway the destinies of half the globe,” Alexis de Torqueville, late 19th century. De Torqueville’s prophecy came true by the 1940s when the two super powers, the United States of America and the Soviet Union, had come head to head, swaying the “destinies of half the globe” and more. (de Torqueville, chapter 18)

The United States had recently participated in the second World War resulting in an Allied and American victory. Europe, however, was devastated, economically, politically, and socially.

“The United States [stood] at this time at the pinnacle of world power. It [was] a solemn moment for American democracy,” former Britain Prime Minister Winston Churchill stated in a speech delivered at Westminster College in 1946. (Churchill, page 1) At that time, American and Russian tensions had evolved into a full-throttle push into the Cold War.

The Cold War refers to the tensions that arose between Russia and America that became a strategic and political struggle that developed after World War II. It lasted for 35 years and it was the battle that determined the fate of democracy and

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Containment was a policy which was under the influence of realism, an ideology that Kennan was quick to adopt in his dealings with the Soviet Union. American Foreign Policy: Since World War II (Washington, D. , 1999)

Brinkley’s book provided an overview and information on the Cold War policy over the 35 years it was enacted. He asked for the United States to push the Soviet Union to the brink of war and then eventually it would collapse under pressure. ” (Spanier, back cover)

The American Cold War foreign policy set an example for many policy makers to refer to in the future.

In January of 1954, Dulles declared that in the future the American response to aggression would be “at places and with means of our own choosing.

The Marshall Plan was the response to the faltering economies in Western Europe. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles (1954), leader of State Department’s Foreign Services George Kennan!

, and other political figures had created a precedent in American history.

The Cold War significantly changed the way foreign policy is administered today. (NSC 68: United States Objectives and Programs for National Security, page 4)

Application to Today

The National Briefs of the Charlotte Observer, May 16, 2000, stated: “The House (of Representatives) moved Monday to set up a ‘Marshall Plan’ for AIDS-devastated Africa.

*National Security Council, NSC 68: United States Objectives and Programs of National Security [document on-line]; available from http://www. com; Internet; accessed 09 February 2001

Richardson’s document was helpful in the understanding of ideology during the Cold War.

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