Essay Example on Coming out of the World War the United States and the Soviet Union

Coming out of the World War the United States and the Soviet Union were feeling confident after their wins The United States was capitalist where almost everything was privately owned The Soviet Union on the other hand were communists where almost everything was publicly owned Both of these powerhouses wanted to spread their culture and ideology This ultimately led to the Cold War The Cold War was not battles between the US and USSR but rather a proxy war Rather than battles being held in the respective countries they were held elsewhere using other countries like puppets During this time the US had to get other countries to go along with them in the fight to contain communism There were two different ways that the US could persuade other countries to go along with them soft power and hard power Although not always a success soft and hard power are the In order to stop the Soviets from spreading Communist beliefs to other countries they needed to be contained This originated from George Kennan In 1946 and 1947 George wanted the US to contain the Soviets and apprehend the spread of communism This was the first taste of hard power being used for foreign policies Following this NATO was founded in 1949 An attack on any NATO country is considered to be an attack on all NATO countries 

The Korean war was between communist backed North Korea and Democratic backed South Korea The outcome of the war only raised tensions Back home an Arms race was forming between the Soviets and the Americans Both the Soviets and the Americans had access to nuclear bombs This caused fear in both countries causing them to increase production In 1953 Eisenhower came into office with new foreign policy ideas Eisenhower believed that Truman's approach had caused the United States into an endless series of conflicts Eisenhower was nuclear hungry he believed that the US should start to build more and more nuclear missiles in preparation By the end of the 1950 s US had over 20 000 thousand nuclear warheads while the USSR lagging behind with a little over 1 500 This was Eisenhower's use of hard power As the arms race gradually increases so does the suspicion of espionage within the United States Truman's Loyalty Program allowed the FBI to examine people who were thought to be disloyal and possible communist This use of hard power only put more fear into the citizens The program prompted the HUAC House un UnAmerican Activities Committee to blame Hollywood screenwriters for putting communist propaganda into movies The accused had to testify for their so called actions They were urged to give up other Hollywood actors and screenwriters who were disloyal The screenwriters were blackmailed and harassed by society After the entire debacle their careers were over The Truman Loyalty Program only caused a growing suspicion of communism in America rather than diminishing the problem In this case Truman's hard power backfired and made the problem worse than it already was Instead Truman should have used soft power to ease the citizens As seen throughout the 1950 s soft power is the most effective way of dealing with foreign affairs Soft power was used throughout the 1950's and the Cold War The Marshall Plan and Berlin Airlift were the most popular and successful Hard power was successful only half of the time George Kennan s hard power idea of containment was an exceptional idea which proved to be a major success However Truman's use of hard power to expose communist spies was a major disappointment Both hard power and soft power were used for the American foreign policies