THE

COLD WAR
Inducements to the Cold War
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Mandate: 1933-1945

Given Stalin's decision to sign a non-aggression pact with

Nazi Germany in late 1939, it was highly improbable that
the United States would consider forging an alliance with
the Soviet Union. On top of that, as an outcome of the
Soviet invasion of Eastern Poland and the “Winter War”
against Finland, President Roosevelt was led to publicly
condemn the actions of the Soviet State, remarking how its
"dictatorship was as absolute as any other country in the
World," and to "impose a "mortal embargo" on the export of
certain products to the Soviets." (U.S. Department of State).
Nevertheless, not losing sight of the fact that Nazi Germany
posed the greatest threat to world peace, President Franklin
Roosevelt “confided that he “would hold hands with the
devil" if necessary” (U.S. Department of State), ignoring
their differences, to unite for the "greater good.” However,
the war was only an antidote to retard the inevitable conflict
and tension between the United States and the Soviet
Union.
Decision Maker
President Harry S. Truman
Mandate: 1945-1953
Truman knew the taste of war. He had served as a captain in
the Field Artillery in France during the Great War and in the
Second World War, he headed the Senate War Investigating
Committee, checking into waste and corruption and saving an
astounding value of nearly 15 million dollars (The White
House). He certainly wasn’t surprised when the events of the
Cold War followed. He was, however, astonished of being
elected (officially, as he had assumed the cargo of President
due to Roosevelt’s death in 1945) the 33 rd President of the
United States, unexpectedly and against the odds.

As the Soviet Union pressured Turkey and threatened to take

over Greece with guerrillas in 1947, Truman proposed, as a
response to the possibility of Soviet expansion into the East
Mediterranean, the Truman Doctrine, which said, in its
essence, “that the United States would provide financial aid to
countries that claimed they were threatened by Communist
expansion” (Spielvoguel, 2021, p.890). In 1949, he negotiated
a military alliance to protect the Western nations, the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization, and in 1950, when the
communist government of North Korea attacked South Korea,
he did not deliberately declare war (which caused him to be
criticized for it) ; instead, he sent U.S. forces to only repel the
attack.
Experienced Presidency
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Mandate: 1953-1961
Eisenhower had experience. During World War I, he
commanded a tank training center and later received the
Distinguished Service Medal after being promoted to captain.
When war outbroke once more, he was appointed to the
army’s war plans division in Washington D.C., headed
important operations, such as the Allied invasion of French
North Africa, and rapidly advanced positions until being
nominated chief of staff by Truman in 1945. In May 1948, he
left active duty as the “most popular and respected soldier in
the United States” (Reeves, 1999). It was according to
expectations that Eisenhower won the elections of 1952.

In his prestige as commander general, he soon brought

armed peace along the borders of South Korea
through the signing of a truce. In 1955, when the leaders of
the French, British, and Russian governments met in Geneva,
there was a mutual agreement to Eisenhower’s proposal to
“exchange blueprints of each other’s military establishments
and provide within our countries facilities for aerial
photography to the other country.” (The White House).
During his stay in office, he developed and promoted a
program that concerned the loan of American uranium to
“have-not” nations for peaceful purposes, which was named
"atoms for peace." Indeed, the President’s main objective was
to maintain order around the globe, which he moderately
accomplished, considering the circumstances he faced.
Tragedy
President John F. Kennedy
Mandate: 1961-1963
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the 35 th President
of the United States, the youngest candidate to be
elected, and the youngest one to die. In 1941, he
joined the U.S. Navy, and in 1945, he was
discharged, being awarded the U.S. Navy and
Marine Corps Medal for heroism. Concerning his
political career, he never lost an election.
Kennedy backed the old Cold War policies such
as the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan.

In October 1962, after discovering nuclear missile

sites being built by the Soviet Union in Cuba,
President John F. Kennedy decided to place a
naval blockade around the island to contain and
prevent the coming of more military supplies. The
tension of nuclear attack was increasing, highest
as ever in the war. However, the leaders of both
nations recognized the devastating possibility of a
nuclear incident and made a deal of peace.

On November 22, 1963, John Kennedy was

assassinated in Dallas, Texas, as he rode a
motorcade.
The Path to Peace
President Lyndon B. Johnson
Mandate: 1963-1969
Lyndon Johnson was indeed a peacemaker. His last
reserves of incessant vigor were totally devoted to
the construction of a “Great Society.” In the 1960
presidential campaign, he was elected Vice President.
However, due to John F. Kennedy’s death in 1963,
Lyndon Johnson assumed the office of President of
the United States but soon won the following year’s
election.

Throughout his years in office, he seemed more

interested in domestic affairs than in foreign policies.
On July 2, 1964, Johnson signed into law
the Civil Rights Act, which is “the most
comprehensive and far-reaching legislation of
its kind in American history” (Encyclopaedia
Britannica, 1999). Despite his attempts to
maintain peace and construct a “Great Society,”
the Communist oppression on Vietnam
hardened things. After the destruction of two
U.S. destroyers by North Vietnamese forces, the
President asked permission from Congress to
increase military presence in Indochina. On
August 7, 1964, the resolution of the Gulf of
Tonkin was approved, and Lyndon Johnson was
granted permission to take any measures
necessary to maintain peace in Southeast Asia,
and so he did.
•President Lyndon Johnson’s visit
to Vietnam – October 26th, 1966
A Legacy of Impact
President Richard M. Nixon
Mandate: 1969-1974
During his stay in office, it is indubitable that Nixon left
his mark. Alike John Kennedy, Richard Nixon’s real
interest was in foreign policy and not in domestic affairs.
He was successful in improving relations with the Soviet
Union and establishing a positive interrelation with China.
In easing Cold War tensions, he “played China against the
Soviet Union, the Soviet Union against China, and both
against North Vietnam” (Hughes, Miller Center), making
strategic and smart decisions that would decisively impact
the future of the United States.

Sensing an opportunity, Nixon, as soon as he was elected,

began to send out tentative diplomatic feelers to China. In
February 1972, he made his first visit to Beijing, taking the
first step toward the budding rapprochement between the two
states. The Soviet Union, with fear of improved relations
between America and China, commenced bettering its own
relationship with the United States. In an invitation to meet with the
Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev, Richard Nixon was the first
President of the United States to visit Moscow. Now, concerning
the Vietnam War, throughout some years of flawed agreement
negotiations with the Soviets that merely interrupted and did
not end the war; in 1973, when South Vietnamese President
Thieu backed down, the Paris Peace Accord was signed
(on January 23, 1973), bringing an “end to the participation of
U.S. ground forces in the Vietnam War.” (Hughes, Milles Center).
Plans of the Past
President Gerald R. Ford
Mandate: 1974-1977
On the evening of August 8, 1974, President Nixon
addressed the nation and announced his intention
to resign, though his impeachment process was
already underway (based on recent discoveries that
linked him to the “Watergate” affair). His Vice-
President, Gerald Ford, assumed the office.
As he inherited Nixon’s advisers, Ford’s position
regarding foreign policies was similar to his.
Despite Richard Nixon’s resignation, Ford and
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger made it clear to
the Soviets that the United States would still
pursue détente, which was “an effort to lessen
tensions between the Soviet Union and the United
States that had existed since the end of World War
II” (Greene, Miller Center). It did not imply total
trust or a formal alliance, but it was a period in
which both nations would work together in order
to achieve national security and economic goals. In
November 1974, Gerald Ford and the Soviets
agreed to the Vladivostok Accord, which “provided
a general outline for a successor treaty to SALT I
(Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty)” (Greene,
Miller Center), previously negotiated by Nixon and
Kissinger in 1972.
Courage and Belief to Change
President Jimmy E. Carter
Mandate: 1977-1981
Jimmy Carter believed in the rule of law in
international affairs. He wanted the United States to
take the lead in promoting universal rights and to
avoid military interventions as much as possible. He
hoped that relations with the Soviet Union could
continue to improve and the two nations could come
to arms control agreements, which would drastically
relax Cold War tensions. Carter believed in holding
“accountable America's allies as well as its
adversaries for their human rights failings” (Strong,
Miller Center), a risky approach that threatened and
may have strained relations with friendly nations. One
of Carter’s greatest accomplishments and deeds
during his time in office was the negotiation of the
Torrijos-Carter Treaties. In 1978, after long flawed
attempts to reach an agreement concerning the
Panama Canal (which was in part under U.S. control),
President Jimmy Carter finally made the decision to
give the nation of Panama eventual control over the
canal, which he believed would “contribute to the
encirclement of the United States” (Department of
State). For it, he was largely criticized and accused of
showing “weakness,” not simply to Panama but to the
world. Regardless, his bravery in concluding
negotiations proved that it was not weakness but
courage he was intending to show.
Improvement Measures
President Ronald W. Reagan
Mandate: 1981-1989
Ronald Reagan was determined to change the nation.
In his belief that America’s international prestige and
power had precipitously declined, he was motivated
to bring new improvement measures to the country’s
foreign policies. Firstly, as he saw the Soviets taking
advantage of the détente (for example, the SALT II
nuclear treaty, which imposed greater limits to the
U.S. than to the U.S.S.R.), he made clear his distrust
of their Marxist ideology. In his speeches, he
remarked how the “West won’t contain communism;
it will transcend communism” and the manner in
which “the march of freedom and democracy will
leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash-heap of history”
(Canon, Miller Center). Throughout Reagan’s time in
office, U.S.-Soviet relations were unstable.

In 1985, the President, in an act of confrontation and

concern about Soviet occupation in Afghanistan,
elaborated the “Reagan Doctrine,” which, similar to
the Truman Doctrine, was to offer support to anti-
communist governments and insurgents wherever
they might be. Overall, Reagan’s military buildup
and development of foreign policies contributed to
the “recovery,” in part, of America’s international
prestige and power, which Ronald Reagan desired
and worked so incessantly to obtain.
The End of the War
President George H.W. Bush
Mandate:1989-1993
Despite the evident tension between the U.S. and the Soviet
Union in the previous years, President George Bush still had
hope for peace. In his inaugural address, he spoke of
softening relations with the U.S.S.R, “claiming that "a new
breeze is blowing" and adding that "great nations of the world
are moving toward democracy through the door to freedom”
(Knott, Miller Center).

With the tearing of the Berlin Wall that separated East and
West Berlin, the weakened state of the Soviet Union on the
way to ruin was made evident, and the communist regime
over Eastern Europe came to an end. Mikhail Gorbachev’s
administration of the U.S.S.R looked forward to changing the
totalitarian aspects of the government and “democratizing” its
political system, creating the possibility of an end to the Cold
War. In June 1990, at a summit in Washington D.C., Bush and
Gorbachev “signed a broad arms reduction agreement in
which the United States and Soviet Union consented to
decrease their nuclear arsenals” (Knott, Miller Center). Over
time, the soviet republics began to declare their independence
from the Soviet Union until Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus
announced they were forming a new confederation (Knott,
Miller Center). The U.S.S.R. was officially dissolved when
Gorbachev resigned in December 25, 1991, bringing a
satisfactory end to the Cold War.
 References

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