Why did the United States assume global responsibility for containing communism?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nublLQDGbU

In there was a Hollywood blacklist that consisted of  a list of actors, writers, directors, musicians and other entertainers. Their political beliefs and associations, regardless of their validity, caused them to be targets. This blacklist was created around mid 20th century. In 1947, a group of screenwriters and directors were the first to be victims of this blacklist when they chose not to give their testimonies.They were banned from further working in the entertainment industry. It was not until 1960 that the blacklist was thrown away. Because they were banned, we missed out on a decade worth of entertainment. That is 10 years of movies, shows, or of the such that could’ve topped movie charts for centuries to come.

In 1948 Eleanor Roosevelt drafted the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which established the principle that a nation’s treatment of its own citizens should be subject to outside evaluation. Not only people respected her role as First Lady to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but she was one of the most influential member of the UN’s Commission on Human Rights. Article 1)All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Article 2) Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of Article 3)Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person….Not only the American nation welcomed her policies, but it was adapted in most countries all over the world. Also still is being practice today.

The Korean War is a conflict between Communist and non-Communist forces in Korea from June 1950 to July 1953. At the end of WWII, when Japan collapsed, Korea had been divided into Soviet and American Zones. The war split the Korean Peninsula into two countries: the Democratic Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea).

The USSR and United States agreed to disarm Japan in halves, the Soviets taking the surrender north of the 38th parallel, the United States taking south of the 38th parallel. Later the USSR established a government in the North, while the USA established their own in the South. Eventually, the 38th parallel was extended through Korea to divide the country into the two separate sections that exist today, with the Communist government in control of North Korea and a Capitalist-democracy in control of South Korea.

There were over 33,000 Americans died in Korean, over I million Korean soldiers, 2 million civilians and hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops’ lives were taken during the Korean War.

Spy trials created many controversies. One such controversy is the trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. During the Cold War, they were the only two Americans to be executed for espionage-related activities, which resulted in their execution in 1953. Although he was later found guilty in 2008, when co-defendant Morton Sobell admitted that they were guilty of being Soviet Union’s spies, the information they passed on were of little or no value to the Soviet Union; if anything, they only helped speed up the process.

The spy trials had very little effect on today’s world but I’m sure it implemented fear to the citizens of the United States as they would be suspicious of everyone around them. Although this one trial took the lives of these two people, there were many other trials that caused many other people to be imprisoned.

How did the Cold War start? Who started it and for what reason it was fought are all questions which are important, but can all pretty much be answered by one word: containment. The fear of the spread of communism as the U.S.S.R expanded posed a direct threat to the U.S. In accordance with American ideals and capitalism, a world with safe choice of communism would possibly even create an uproar in the U.S. as well. In order to prevent this from happening, American foreign policy in Europe changed quickly.

Telegram, George Kennan to James Byrnes, February 22, 1946. Harry S. Truman Administration File, Elsey Papers.

This is a front page of one of the most influential pieces of history, the “Long telegram”.

The Telegram was sent In February 1946 in response to a request made by US Department of Treasury to US Embassy in Moscow as to why USSR did not support newly created World Bank and IMF. It was composed by then minister-counselor in the embassy George Kennan, an expert on Soviet Union. In the telegram he gave his conspicuous account on the state of things in SU, including its philosophy behind the foreign policy and, more importantly, its weaknesses. “According to Kennan, the Soviet Union did not see the possibility for long-term peaceful coexistence with the capitalist world. It was its ever-present aim to advance the socialist cause…” (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Telegram#The_Long_Telegram). Among the reasons, he pointed out, was that Stalin needed the people of SU to view the outside World as hostile to justify his autocratic policies. In Section five Kennan pointed to the weaknesses of the Soviet system, which he suggested to exploit in the U.S. foreign policies. He argued that the Soviet regime was inherently unstable, that Soviet’s aggressive foreign policies were not aligned with their economic situation, and, therefore, the US should not directly confront, but leave the SU alone, until it falls apart on its own. So, instead of confronting it, Kennan suggested to prevent SU’s further expansion of its power around the World, by containing it, and, in the long run, waiting till SU rots from inside.
This telegram had far-reaching consequences for the US foreign policy for decades to come. It defined the policy of Containment, and reoriented the US to try to affect internal processes and people of SU to escalate the collapse of the system. Some people consider this telegram as a mark for the beginning of the Cold War. If it did not happen, the US foreign policy towards SU would have been different, and today’s World might have been very different. At the very worse, we might have fought a WWIII or have been extinct. On the other hand, the SU could have evolved into something else.

The idea of containment as a U.S. policy started in 1946 when George Kennan telegramed the Truman Administration explaining that the Soviets can not be dealt with as a normal government. The Soviets idea of communism is expanding throughout different parts of the world and it must be contained and therefore started the containment policy. Ultimately, the United States didn’t want the “domino effect” where more and more countries would be reeled into communism.

I think if the United States and other countries did not act out to prevent the growth of communism, most of the world would be in a communistic government. Who knows, United States may have turned into communism as well and life for everyone would be much different.

Not only did the mere presence of a large scale alliance encourage a repeat of the past but the attitude at which they approached the alliance aided digression. One would recall that the harsh nature of the treaty of Versailles was the main tool that Hitiler used to persuades the german people into conquest. One would think that after episode the world would learn that once you have beatene an opponet u let them go in oppose to holding there head underwater, becauses that would leave them no choice but to retaliate once again, out of desperation. However Lord Ismay, NATO’s first Secretary general said the purpose of the organization was “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down”. Fortunately, these seeds never grew into a war. It was still however a wreckless action to take at the time they took it. We were one bad decision away, from turning the Cuban Missle Crises to World War III.

The establishment of NATO is life changing to history because today the organization still makes decisions on whether or not there should be agreements on attacks today. The effects of NATO today are seen in the attacks of September 11, 2001. The response to attacks established by NATO are not always what some people in the United States would want to see. There is a lot of danger which lurks within these decisions which can affect many people in different countries across the globe. I think that establishing NATO could be helpful but also fatal depending on the weapon of choice for attack where potential innocent people could be hurt.History could have been different by the United States being subject to another attack by the Germans. There would probably have still been a division in the country and the US would have been subject to control from another country. There really is no telling how much of a difference could have been made or whether or not this would have made this world better or worse. It is up to many of us to decide out or decision in this case.

USA was able to fight back in a demoncratic form in korea,Veitnam and Germany to prevent communism domination. If USA didn’t intervene, East and West Germany may be unified as a communist country. North Korea and South Korean may also be unified as a Communist country. USA played major role in keeping communism from widespread around the world, unfortunately, they failed to put Vietnam to unify as a demoncratic country. 

This picture depicts a clear scenario of how JFK was battling against khrushchev while they both sitting on nuclear weapons, alerting everyone that there might be a nuclear war. It clearly showed the tension between USSR and USA when USA tried to contain the widespread of communism.

At the end of WWII, each of the four major nations that had won the war took control over sections of Germany and of the capital city of Berlin as well.  Eventually there were different currencies from the different occupiers floating around in the different “zones” and it led to the split.  This area would be know as west Germany, an ally to the US, French, and British.  This area was far into a dangerous area that the Soviets had control over, bordering Soviet East Germany.  In response to the split of Germany, the Soviets blockaded the area, blocking all supply lines to West Germany.  They blocked road and rail traffic completely.  The only way to get supplies into West Germany, to their allies, was by air.  An 11month air drop of supplies then followed, mainly consisting of food and fuel.

A direct result of this blockade was the creation of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which was the first peace time treaty that was militaristic in nature.  Its main purpose was to stop the spread of Communism, and protect America and the European nations whom signed it. The idea was that if Communists took control of one country all the others would join together and fight it back.  Had we not had NATO, the US may have potentially become communist, or worse we might not be here do to the concept of “MAD” (Mutually Assured Destruction).  This ideology was essentially that if the Soviet Union launched its nuclear missiles at the US, we would launch ours right back at them, thus obliterating each other, and potentially the world.

The Truman Doctrine was a policy set forth by U.S. President Harry Truman on March 12, 1947 stating that the U.S. would support Greece and Turkey with economic and military aid to prevent their falling into the Soviet sphere. Truman stated the Doctrine would be “the policy of the United States to support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.”  Truman reasoned, because these “totalitarian regimes” coerced “free peoples,” they represented a threat to international peace and the national security of the United States. While his request was limited to $400 million in military aid to two governments, Truman’s rhetoric had assumed that the US had assumed a permanent global resposibility.

If Truman never became president and made this doctrine, Greece and Turkey could have been taken by th Soviet Union and fallen to cummunism. Communism could have spread to major portions of the world as well as to the US. Then the fear of the Americans that the communist will take away their freedom would come true.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was approved by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. This was impacted by the events that took place during World War ll and the Cold War. Because of the inhumane treatment by the Nazis during World War ll, a variety of rights were set in place for people around the world to enjoy. I believe that history would have been different without this enactment. Nations would not take into consideration the judgment of other nations and continue to oppress its citizens, limiting their rights and benefits. Although there was no enforcement to this declaration, it became a prominent ideal to treat people across the world with respect. Had this event not occur, the America today would be more involved with intervening with international disputes regarding the treatment of human beings.

The fair deal was a legislation program announced by President Truman in 1945.President Truman called the Congress to increase the minimum wage, expand the public housing, Social Security, national health insurance, and aid to education. The purpose of this legislation aimed the economy from wartime to peacetime.

I think this such of legislation program was a  inevitable result after WWII because the goverment had to do something to help those soldiers. In order to  give them a stable life, the goverment provided them a job, house and education opprturnity.

I am actually happy that Joseph McCarthy existed in history. He won election to the senate with an idiotic campaign where he claimed that he knew communist supporters in the United States. McCarthy’s downfall in 1954 showed that Hey! The people of the United States are not that oblivious to stupidness. I think that if McCarthy didn’t exist there will have been many other people taking advantage of the anti-communist hysteria for their own selfish benefits.

Postwar America saw a rising consciousness over the issue of racial inequality and universal human rights. In October 1947, a commission on Civil Rights issued a 178 page report called “To Secure These Rights,”  which prompted the federal Government to step up their actions against racial segregation and to assume responsibility in abolishing racial inequality. If these steps were not taken to secure the rights of non-whites, then our lives would be drastically different. We would be attending different schools (one for white and other for non-whites), different buses and job-opportunities for non-whites would be severely limited. We might have even had different blogs to post our assignments!!  The existence of racial segregation would undermine the very meaning of Freedom in America.

During Truman’s presidency, he focused much of his attention on the civil rights movement in America. While this seems like a good thing, the timing was wrong. Truman’s attempts at enacting civil rights legislation did not receive much popular positive public response. This was a time during the anti-communist movement during the Cold War. Some of Truman’s civil rights movements included something called “To Secure These Rights” which was a document that called on the federal government to assume the responsibility for abolishing segregation and ensuring equal treatment in housing, employment, education, and the criminal justice system.

I think that American society would have eventually come to enact some of this legislation because eventually people would come to realize that they are not being treated fairly and begin to fight for that right. Such legislation is definitely important to me because as an Asian-American in society, which some may consider a minority. Despite the efforts put in by Truman and other presidents to provide equal rights for all minorities there are still some setbacks today that many have to face. It seems that the civil rights movement is a fight that will never end.

Senator Joseph R. McCarthy was barely known outside of Wisconsin, the state he was elected for. In order to make up for that he claimed that he had a list of 205 communists working for the State Department. He did this in February 1950, during a speech at Wheeling, West Virginia. Although this was totally fabricated, he convinced the Senate subcommittee that he chaired to hold hearing against many people, as well as the Defense Department, The Voice of America, and many other government agencies. This was only happening because people believed what McCarthy was saying. However, this would not last for much longer.

In 1954 the Senate looked into something that McCarthy claimed was true. He said that the army had coddled communists. The army decided to hold publicly televised hearing with McCarthy, and those ultimately led America to finally see that McCarthy made all his accusations without any basis. McCarthy died only three years later.

Senator McCarthy changed the near and distant future in many ways. This most important thing he did was that he created this extreme fear of communism, for no reason. He made America believe that the communists were not only in our country, but within our own government. Many people were wary of the government during this time period, and it was only due to the fictitious accusations of McCarthy. I do not think that the anticommunist movement would have been so strong if McCarthy was not a part of it. His words were gobbled up by the public because he was working in Congress. He used his power to try and gain fame.

McCarthy also had an impact on today’s times. He affected the way we accept information as true. Nowadays we don’t just accept what anybody says. We investigate every detail, we ask for sources, and we challenge everything we can. Back in the 50’s McCarthy was able to get away with saying what he wanted, and not many people questioned him. However, we learned from our mistakes, and we saw the importance of challenging out superiors, and finding out if what they are saying is actually true.

This act restated the right of workers to bargain collectively for improved working conditions. However, its major thrust was to limit some of the extreme practices of unions. The act prohibited union form engaging in certain types of strikes, charging excessive initiation fees, and engaging in secondary boycotts.