Cold War Ideology and Policies

Cold War Ideology and Policies

Jackie Carter

HIST 135

June 26, 2011

Shara Forrister

Cold War Ideology and Policies

During World War II, Russia and the United States were never friendly. They formed an alliance to stop Hitler. The United States and the Soviet Union stood alone as “superpowers” with the ability to annihilate each other and the rest of the world (Davidson, 2006). Americans were fearful and suspicious of Stalin and the communist party. Stalin made it no secret that he wanted to expand communist control to the other territories surrounding Russia, the United States and the world. The United States was against the spread of communism. At the same time Stalin felt threatened by the alliance created between the United States and Europe. After World War II, Russia’s economy was decimated, their farmland and industry was destroyed, and America had forces occupied in Europe and Asia. America’s economy seemed to grow with the help of these occupied countries. Stalin also felt threatened by the military’s new atomic weapons (Davidson, 2006).

To stop the spread of communism in Greece and Turkey the United States adopted the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan. After Great Britain announced that it could no longer support Greece or Turkey, President Truman with the support of Congress provided $400 million in military and economic aid to aid Greek and Turkish resistance (Davidson, 2006). The Marshall plan was developed to give economic aid Germany, Italy, and France. This helped improve conditions which Communists could not exploit. However this did not deter Stalin. In 1947 Soviet forces replaced Hungary’s moderate government with a Communist run government and in 1948 the Czechoslovakian government was over thrown by the Communist regime. After the takeover of Hungary and Czechoslovakia, hostilities increased between the Soviet Union and its former allies. The United States along with Great Britain, France, and a few other...