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American failures in Cuba and Vietnam

The American failures in Cuba and Vietnam in the 1960s were due in large part to the fear, arrogance and ignorance of Cold War policies that developed in the aftermath of World War II. By the 1960s, the foreign policy of the United States was based on Cold War ideology and the policy of containment of communism, especially Soviet Communism. This policy held sway in Cuba and Vietnam in the 1960s, from Eisenhower to Kennedy to Johnson to Nixon. 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 basis of U.S. foreign policy was the conviction that the world was controlled by two forces---the U.S., representing goodness, and its evil enemy the Soviet Union.

Once this Cold War 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 fully alter that policy insofar as it would have affected policy toward Cuba or Vietnam. That is, throughout the 1960s, both nations were viewed by American leaders as pawns of the Soviet communists. U.S. leaders saw it as their responsibility to struggle to rescue Cuba and Vietnam from their evil Soviet captor. Of course, the U.S. had previously shown no inclination to free Vietnam from the imperialist French or Cuba from the dictator Batista. In fact, the French in Vietnam and Batista in Cuba were unconditionally supported by the "freedom-loving" American leaders. These facts reveal the false ideals underlying American Cold War ideology. The U.S. in the 1960s supported any leader in the world that was anti-communist, regardless of the way he treated his people or exercised his power.

The U.S. leadership throughout the 1960s continued to follow Cold War policy which erroneously and disastrously assumed that all political and economic reform movements in Third World nations were not indigenous bu...

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American failures in Cuba and Vietnam. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 04:03, March 19, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1700666.html