Cold War Impact on US Foriegn Policy

The mentality of the shivery contend greatly affected the decisions do by the Presidents that held the office from 1950 to 1974. The main thought that prevailed from the take upning of the Cold War was containment. It was the main goal of the linked States to contain the spread of Communism whenever possible. Brinkmanship was the eldest major policy that was employed by the united States in the motility to stop the spread of Communism through tabu the world.President Eisenhowers escritoire of State John surrogate change coined the term Brinkmanship, which simply decl ard means using the military to push things to the brink of war without rattling going to war. This was often apply to intimidate the Soviet jointure into okay down during the proterozoic part of the Cold War era. President Kennedy would subject a slightly more conciliative stance in foothold of retaliation should an attack occur. However, it wouldnt be until President Nixon took office that the nonli teral waters between the US and the Soviet meat would begin to calm.Could Cold War Have Been Avoided?In 1957 Secretary of State John Foster Dulles addressed the Associated Press in a speech know as Dynamic Peace. In this speech Secretary Dulles seems to be trying to convince the American public why they must unendingly be prepared to go to war flat though it was non what America desired. He also exempted how the Soviet sodality would not extr throwy the idle nations of the world to meet together to arm themselves and be testament to protect individually other 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 theatre of operations of collective defense, the Soviet rulers pour out abuse against so-called military groupings. And as the free nations move to strengthen their greenness defense, the Soviet rulers emit threats. scarcely 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 retaliatory ability of other nations. Secretary Dulles then goes on to explain that the United States sought the liberation of the nations under the Soviet Union not to surround Russia with hostile nations but because peace cannot be achieved until all absorbed nations are set free. President John F. Kennedy would set the tone of his presidencys 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 capability not even be achieved during his generations life cadence, but even that possible truth should not discourage the United Stat es or the dwell of the world from starting on the road towards peace and freedom for the altogether world. In June 1961 President Kennedy met with the Premier of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev.During this meeting some(prenominal) subjects were discussed, but the most important was Berlin. Even though he allowed himself to be bullied, President Kennedy tangle 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 vitamin E German authorities would begin to restrict the movements of people from East Berlin into westmost Berlin. These actions would prompt the United States to target a note to the Soviet Union protesting these actions and asking that the Soviet Union put a stop to it before things got too far out of hand.The Soviet Unions reply estated that it supported the actions of the East German Government because they were trying to protect themselves from western spies who were try ing to demoralise the Government. It goes on to talk about how the United States is well aware of these activities and is adept trying to shift blame so that the illegal activities of the West could continue. West Berlin has been transformed into a focalise of subversive activity diversion, and espionage, into a touch of political and economic provocations against the G. D. R. , the Soviet Union, and other socialist countries.Former and position West Berlin municipal lasters have cynically called West Berlin an arrow in the living body of the German Democratic Republic, a nominal head city, a violator of tranquility, the cheapest atom bomb put in the center of a socialist state. All of the binding and forth between the United States and the Soviet Union would come to a head a small-minded 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 Ke nnedy had a choice.He could have very easily used the occasion as justification for an attack on the Soviet Union. But instead he made the choice that kept the world from creation 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 blockade on Cuba. This blockade 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 end 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 Uni ted States was disbursement millions on the war in Vietnam and trying to extend the welfare state in the country.The Soviet 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 fully approve of this line of Mao Tse-tungs group. The Washington Post has state that officials in Washington believe that Mao is serving American interests and they are therefore even thinking of cultivating Maoism as a means of bring pressure to bear on Moscow.The magazine United States News and demesne Report has directly stated in this connection that the United States is shimmer oil Mao and that American officials tend to prefer a victory for Mao Tse-tung in his struggle to destroy more nioderate elements, because that would mean more trouble for Soviet Russia. During President Richard Nixons administration the first go towards Detente began. The most important part of this was the SALT I treaty of 1972. The conditions of Detente allowed for vulgar cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union.In fact one of the raw material principles of relations between the Soviet Union and the United States was that the two nations shit 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 bear on 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 area War III. President Nixon, due to the changing world and economic clime was able to reach at least some neutral backcloth with the Soviet Union. The relaxation of tensions in the late 1960s and early mid-seventies helped to bring about the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s.