Seeds of the Cold War

¶ … seeds of the Cold War were laid in the waning days of the Second World War as the leaders of the Allied nations, Great Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union jockeyed for position as to how each would influence post-war Europe. Great Britain's Winston Churchill and the United States' Franklin Roosevelt both recognized that once Hitler and Germany were defeated that dealing with the threat of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe would be the next problem that would have to be addressed. Although the military support of the Soviet Union was needed in order to bring down Germany, neutralizing the Communists after the War was already heavily on the minds of Roosevelt and Churchill as the Allies discussed how to defeat Germany.

Once Germany was defeated the rush for control of the European continent began in earnest. In an effort to avoid open conflict between the Allies the three major Allied powers met at Yalta on the Crimean Sea to decide the fate of Europe. The Soviet Union and Britain both had strong vested interests in controlling as much of Europe as possible. The United States, on the other hand, was anxious to return to its pre-War state of isolation. Isolation had been the predominant foreign policy position of the United States for several decades. The United States had been reluctantly drawn into the First World War and attempted to avoid involvement in the Second World War and the prevailing political thought was that once the War was concluded that the U.S. would like to resume its position of isolation. Unfortunately, as matters developed and the Soviet Union's power in Eastern Europe increased, the United States became intricately involved in European political affairs.

As the War in Europe came to an end, the nations in Eastern Europe which had been occupied by Soviet forces during the latter stages of the War established itself into an organization under the guidelines of a document known as the Warsaw Pact. In essence, these countries such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia were satellites of the Soviet Union and, although technically independent states, were subject to the whims and authority of the Soviet Union and Joseph Stalin. Meanwhile the nations of Eastern Europe and the United States formed a similar organization known as NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). The merits of both organizations are subject to debate but suffice it so that both organizations feared the other both politically and militarily and that these organizations formed the line of demarcation relative to what would become the Cold War.

The America that entered the Second World War was not the same America when the veterans of the War began to return. Before the War the United States was displaying signs of becoming a world industrial power but with the industrial base of Europe and Japan destroyed by the effects of the War the United States emerged as the only Western industrial power. The only nation in the world capable of challenging the U.S. was the Soviet Union and this additional factor added to the tensions of the Cold War.

Prior to the Second World War the United States played only a secondary role in European and other World affairs but because the United States enjoyed a brief period of military dominance (6 years) when they, and they alone, possessed nuclear capability (Sherwin). This factor thrust the nation into a feeling of superiority and invulnerability but this was short-lived as the Soviet Union developed its own nuclear capability and the balance of power was quickly adjusted. A frenzy of fear developed in American society fueled by reports from the media and manifested by the McCarthy Congressional hearings and investigations. The fervidness of the McCarthy eventually dissipated somewhat but the fear of Communism remained strong in American society for several decades (Zeinert).

The rise of the Soviet Union and America's involvement in NATO caused the country to abandon its primary foreign policy based on isolation. Suddenly, the United States was placed in the position of being a policeman for democratic ideals and being the source of military power to combat further Soviet expansion in Europe (Cox). Strangely, America's role as policeman in Europe actually led to its becoming involved in military conflicts in Southeast Asia. Although the U.S. did not fight the Soviet Union directly in Korea or Vietnam, both conflicts were due to the U.S.'s policy of defeating the spread of Communism no matter where it might occur. Fears of escalation during both the Korean and Vietnam conflicts caused the U.S. To adopt a military strategy that favored limited warfare (Brodie).

The Cold War had a tremendous impact on the growth of the United States as an industrial and world military power. America's presence throughout the world militarily and the dependence of Western Europe and Japan on the American economy for the sustenance of their own economies caused America's political and economic influence to expanded substantially. Beginning with the Berlin airlift (Reeves) where the United States provided food and other vital items to West Berliners cut off from the rest of West Germany to the adoption of the Truman Doctrine (Truman) where the United States officially committed itself to providing financial and military aid to nations in Europe fighting Communism, the United States positioned itself as the world's leader in the battle against the spread of Communism.

The fear of Communism caused a major shift in defense spending by the United States. The Soviet Union's development of an atomic bomb and, later, nuclear weaponry initiated a major military build-up by the U.S. government (Lieber). Prior to the Second World War, defense spending was a major portion of the U.S. budget only during times of sustained war but during the Cold War defense spending escalated to be a major part of the total national budget. This situation continued throughout the entire Cold War period and has not subsided.