Why was the United States unable to avoid entering a Cold War with the Soviet Union?
After World War II, the world has divided into two opposite parts with two contrasting belief systems. Ahead of the one was the Soviet Union, while the United States led the other. Therefore, the conflict began, which was a fight for the world’s superiority. The disagreement between the two leading countries was unavoidable because the United States despised the idea of communism spreading, as the Soviet Union did not want the liberty of democracy and capitalism to infiltrate the minds of their citizens (Black, 2016). The Cold War started because one half of the world feared communism and the limitations of human freedoms that came with it. At the same time, the communists wanted their influence to spread further, poisoning the European countries. The conflict of interests and the reasonable fear of communism spreading provoked the unavoidable conflict between the two powers.
When a Soviet Union gained control over a big part of European countries, America showcased concern since they were afraid that the ideology of communism would be infiltrating America, prohibiting all freedoms worldwide. As the United States had no desire to see the communism on their soil, they decided to fight it as the only equal force that could oppose the Soviets. In 1946, Winston Churchill presented a speech where he expressed his concerns about the danger to the democracy within the Europe. Therefore, America was obligated to fight the ‘evil force’ that opposed their worldview and created an alliance with other democratic countries to stop the spread of illness. The danger of communism became more realistic when the western hemisphere became affected, which imposed a new field of rivalry between the two powers.
Evaluation of Truman’s foreign policy
Truman’s leading position as the president of the United States had several characteristics: he was concentrating on the end of the World War II, its consequences, and the start of the Cold War. Within the post-war years, Truman had a couple of meetings with the leader of the USSR Joseph Stalin concerning peace, one of which was Potsdam Conference. Leaders of the winning countries decided who takes which lands, where Truman learned that Stalin is as bad as Hitler. Therefore, president of the US decided that it would be beneficial to confront communism and control its expansion within European countries.
As a consequence, he, along with his allies, decided to form a military unit to prevent communist ideas from spreading further, which was the NATO. Moreover, Truman presented various possibilities to the refugees of communist regimes and rewarded countries, who did the democratic revolutions. For this reason, many people believed that he was too entitled and over his head to lead, since instead of peaceful solution, Truman decided that it would be more beneficial to choose competing passive-aggressive strategy. From there, Soviet Union and the United States clashed in several places: Germany, Korea, and Greece.
It is true that Trumans actions were the main reason why the relationship between USSR and the United States became worse than ever. However, in my opinion, Stalin and Truman were two extremes of the polar opposite worldviews. It is unlikely for them to establish good relationships with each other, since one would always want to have more, and the other one would always act paranoid and do everything to stop the first in his conquest. The actions of both men led to the Cold War and if someone else was in the place of ex-president Truman, I believe the Cold War would still escalate, since Britain would need some support against the spreading communist regime.
Reference
Black, J. (2016). Geopolitics and the quest for dominance. Indiana University Press.