HIST 405 Week 7: American Foreign Policy During the Cold War

HIST 405 Week 7: American Foreign Policy During the Cold War

American Foreign Policy during the Cold War

During the Cold War, the United States applied different strategies to fight the Soviet Union and its influence. Although the war did not involve military confrontation, the American foreign policy was pivotal in thwarting international communist expansion. Among the leading policies was containment. Implemented by George Kennan, the containment was established on the principle that the expansion of communist states would stop if the United States supported the nations that the Soviet Union threatened (Corbett et al., 2023; Kingston, 2023). A leading component of this strategy was the Truman Doctrine. Per Corbett et al. (2023), the Truman Doctrine offered military support (weapons and troops) and financial assistance to Greece and Turkey to train their militaries and reinforce their governments against communism. The strategy worked as expected by slowing communist expansion.

The other highly effective policy was the Camp David Accords. According to Sabel (2022), Camp David Accords primary focus was achieving peaceful co-existence between Egypt and Israel. Before the peace agreement, the Soviet Union took advantage of the instability to expand its influence. Therefore, the policy weakened communism growth by removing Egypt (a powerful Arab force) from the communists’ sphere of influence. Moreover, the peace demonstrated the United States as an able mediator who could make solid alliances with influential regional players like Egypt. The loss of Egypt implied reduced military strength and influence in a key area, which successfully thwarted communist expansion.

References

Corbett, P. S., Janssen, V., Lund, J. M., Pfannestiel, T., Vickery, P., & Waskiewicz, S. (2023, July 6). U.S. History. OpenStax, OER Commons. Retrieved June 15, 2024, from https://openstax.org/details/books/us-history

Kingston, A. J. (2023). USSR: 1917-1991: the rise and fall of the Soviet Union. A. J. Kingston.

Sabel, R. (2022). International law and the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Cambridge University Press.

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Week 7American Foreign Policy During the Cold War

Discussion

Required Resources

In your American History course, you will utilize scholarly sources to address questions in the weekly assignments. Please be advised that History.com, Wiki, Wikipedia, or websites such as cliffnotes.com, studymode.com, coursehero.com, and the like are not deemed scholarly sources. Therefore, use your course text and incorporate an additional scholarly source from the Chamberlain Library in your response.

Below is a list of resources you must choose from:

• Textbook: Chapter 28 (section 28.2), 29 (section 29.1), and 30 (section 30.3)
• Lesson
• Minimum of 1 scholarly source from the Chamberlain Library resources below:
  • The “Popular Data Bases” within the Library Guide for scholarly sources and videos via Search Popular History DatabasesLinks to an external site. or the History Library GuideLinks to an external site..
• Please review the following optional scholarly articles (sorted by topic). NOTE: You will need to log in to the Chamberlain Library before accessing these resources.

Marshall Plan

Berlin Airlift

Containment

Anti-Communist Freedom Fighters

Vietnam War

Détente

SALT I & SALT II

Camp David Accords

Strategic Defense Initiative (nicknamed “Star Wars”)

Initial Post Instructions

In preparation for the initial post, consider two (2) of the following American Foreign policies:

• Marshall Plan
• Berlin Airlift
• Containment
• Anti-Communist Freedom Fighters
• Vietnam (conflict) War
• Détente’
• SALT I & SALT II
• Camp David Accords
• Strategic Defense Initiative (nicknamed “Star Wars”)

Then, in one (1) to two (2) paragraphs, address one (1) of the following:

• Explain how each of your choices was an effective policy to thwart international communist expansion.
• Based on your selections, analyze if the United States should have feared international communist subversion during the Cold War era (1945–1991).

Follow-Up Post Instructions

• Respond to one peer.
• Further the dialogue by building upon their post with information you uncovered while researching.
• Include one (1) meaningful scholarly source to demonstrate much depth. A scholarly source can include your textbook, assigned readings, or additional scholarly research.

Writing Requirements

• Minimum of 2 posts (1 initial & 1 follow-up)
• APA format for in-text citations and list of references

Grading

This activity will be graded using the Discussion Grading Rubric.

• Review: Discussion GuidelinesLinks to an external site.Open this document with ReadSpeaker docReader
• Review the specific grading rubric by clicking on the three dots in the upper right corner.

Course Outcomes

• CO 3: Explain the influence of historical events on American culture and society.
• CO 4: Analyze America’s identity from the founding of the United States to the modern era.
• CO 6: Analyze America’s domestic politics and foreign policy in the World.

Due Dates

Due date for the initial post: By 11:59 p.m. MT; recommended by Wednesday

Due date for follow-up posts: By 11:59 p.m. MT on Sunday

Posts must be on two separate days.