Presidental Foreign Policy in the Cold War

1. Changes in presidents from Truman through Johnson did indeed have little effect on the conduct of U.S. foreign policy with respect to the containment of Soviet Communism. Containment as a policy became so increasingly entrenched through the succeeding administrations that it carried the strength of an addiction for the leadership of the country. The very basis of U.S. foreign policy from Truman through Johnson---indeed, through Bush---was the ideology of the Cold War which saw the world controlled by two forces---the U.S. and its evil enemy the Soviet Union.

Once this policy was in effect, it had a life of its own, and no leader of the U.S. had the courage or wisdom or political independence to try to alter that policy in any significant way. From Truman through Johnson, at the very least, Presidents followed a policy which erroneously and disastrously assumed that all political and economic reform movements in Third World nations were not indigenous but were inspired instead by the evil Communist leaders of the Soviet Union. This philosophy of fear, hatred and ignorance was at the heart of the containment policy of the U.S.

It is not surprising, after World War II and the division of Europe into West and East, that Truman adopted George Kennan's containment policy. The Cold War, with all its paranoia and military build-ups, seems in retrospect almost inevitable in the wake of the horrors of World War II. It seems reasonable that some aggressive policy toward the pe

Related Essays

2004 Presidental Election Issues .... candidates clearly state their commitment to keeping America safe from terrorism and both believe they can reduce America's dependence on foreign oil, while .... (459 2 )

Impeachment Powers .... Thus a President who accepted a bribe from a foreign nation or who failed to attend to the public business during a war .... Presidental power is immense and unique .... (6591 26 )

whether he would have altered U.S. policy, though his test-ban treaty with the Soviets, his denunciation of the CIA after the Bay of Pigs disaster, and his plan to withdraw from Vietnam indicate at least a willingness to consider more flexibility in that policy. With his assassination (a result, in part, of just that flexibility?) and the ascension of Lyndon Johnson, strict Cold War ideology was re-established, with the Vietnam War its major consequence: That Johnson . . . shared the world view of almost every other policymaker . . . seems . . . clear: that appeasement did not pay; that America's primary interest lay in containing the expansionist aspirations of the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China (Martel 132). 3. American foreign policy is indeed often more a response to past events than to current situations. However, it is somewhat misleading to state that this policy is most characteristically manifested in the efforts of American policy makers to correct past mistakes. In fact, it is the failure of American policy makers to even acknowledge past mistakes, much less try to correct them, that is the basis of much if not most of failed U.S. policy abroad. Astonishingly, for example, we have the spectacle o

Category: Government - P