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HIST 2773 Cold War DBQ
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Get Help Now!Using information from all of the documents and your knowledge of United States history, write an essay in which you discuss the causes of the Cold War and its impact upon foreign and domestic policy of the United States.
- President Truman’s address to Congress, March 12, 1947
“Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the Congress of the United States: The United States has received from the Greek government an urgent appeal for financialand economic assistance. The very existence of the Greek state is today threatened by the terrorist activities of several thousand armed men, led by communists, who defy the government’s authority at a number of points. Greece is in desperate need of financial and economic assistance to enable it to resume purchases of food, clothing, fuel and seeds. It must have assistance if it is to become a self-supporting and self-respecting democracy. Greece’s neighbor, Turkey, also deserves our attention. Since the war Turkey has sought financial assistance for the purpose of effecting that modernization necessary for the maintenance of its national integrity. I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. If Greece should fall under the control of an armed minority, the effect upon its neighbor, Turkey, would be immediate and serious. Confusion and disorder might well spread throughout the entire Middle East. I therefore ask the Congress to provide authority for assistance to Greece and Turkey in the amount of $400 million and to authorize the detail of American civilian and military personnel to Greece and Turkey.”
- John F. Kennedy Address to the Nation, July 25, 1961
“The immediate threat to free men is in West Berlin. But that isolated outpost is not an isolated problem. The threat is worldwide. Our effort must be equally wide and strong and not be obsessed by any single manufactured crisis. We face a challenge in Berlin, but there is also a challenge in Southeast Asia, where the borders are less guarded, the enemy harder to find, and the dangers of communism less apparent to those who have so little.
We face a challenge in our own hemisphere, and indeed wherever else the freedom of human beings is at stake. Thus, our presence in West Berlin and our access thereto, cannot be ended by any act of the Soviet government. The NATO shield was long ago extended to cover West Berlin –and we have given our word that an attack upon that city will be regarded as an attack upon us all.”
- Winston Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech – Westminster College – Fulton, Missouri – 1946
“To give security to these countless homes, they must be shielded from the two giant marauders, war and tyranny. We all know the frightful disturbances in which the ordinary family is plunged when the cruse of war swoops down upon the breadwinner and those for whom he works and contrives. The awful ruin of Europe, with all its vanished glories, and of large parts of Asia glares us in the eyes. When the designs of wicked men or the aggressive urge of mighty states dissolve over large areas the frame of civilized society, humble folk are confronted with difficulties with which they cannot cope. For them all is distorted, all is broken, even ground to pulp.”
- Secretary of State George C. Marshall Speech at Harvard, 1947
“Poverty and unemployment would reinforce communism’s appeal, he said, while recovery would create stability and thriving democratic institutions. Fearing U.S. dominance, the Soviets rejected Marshall Plan aid. They were soon followed by Eastern European countries under their influence.” “Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos.”
- Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Vyshinsky speech to the U.N. General Assembly September 1947
“[The Marshall Plan] attempts to impose its will on other independent states, while at the same time obviously using the economic resources distributed as relief to individual needy nations as an instrument of political pressure. This policy conflicts sharply with the principle expressed by the General Assembly in its resolution of 11 December 1946, which declares that relief supplies to other countries “should … at no time be used as a political weapon. The implementation of the Marshall Plan will mean placing European countries under the
economic and political control of the United States…[and] to confront the European countries in need of relief with the necessity of renouncing their inalienable right […] to plan their national economy in their own way. Moreover, this plan is an attempt to split Europe into two camps and, with the help of the United Kingdom and France, to complete the formation of a bloc of several European countries hostile to the interests of the democratic countries of Eastern Europe and most particularly to the interests of the Soviet Union.”
- North Atlantic Treaty; April 4, 1949
“The Parties will contribute toward the further development of peaceful and friendly international relations by strengthening their free institutions, by bringing about a better understanding of the principles upon which these institutions are founded, and by promoting conditions of stability and well-being. In order more effectively to achieve the objectives of this Treaty, the Parties, separately and jointly, by means of continuous and effective self-help and mutual aid, will maintain and develop their individual and collective capacity to resist armed attack. The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all … and will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually, and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.”
- General Douglas MacArthur Writings
August 1950
“The prestige of the Western world hangs in the balance. Oriental millions are watching the outcome. It is plainly apparent that here in Asia is where the Communist conspirators have elected to make their play for global conquest. The test is not in Berlin or Vienna, in London, Paris or Washington. It is here and now????it is along the Naktong River in South Korea. We have joined the issue on the battlefield. Actually, we here fight Europe’s war with arms, while there it is still confined to words. If we lose the war to Communism in Asia, the fate of Europe will be gravely jeopardized. Win it and Europe will probably be saved from war and stay free. Make the wrong decision her????the fatal decision of inertia and we will be done. I can almost hear the ticking of the second hand of destiny.
We must act now or we will die.”
March 1951
“It seems strangely difficult for some to realize that here in Asia where the Communist conspirators have elected to make their play for global conquest, and we have joined the issue here raised on the battlefield, that here we fight Europe’s war with arms while the diplomats there still fight it with words; that if we lose this war to Communism in Asia the fall of Europe is inevitable; win it and Europe most probably would avoid war and yet preserve freedom. As you point out, we must win. There is no substitute for victory.”
- Eisenhower’s Address to Congress January 5, 1957
“Thus, we have these simple and indisputable facts:
- The Middle East, which has always been coveted by Russia, would today be prized more than ever by International Communism.
- The Soviet rulers continue to show that they do not scruple to use any means to gain their ends.
- The free nations of the Mid East need, and for the most part want, added strength to assure their continued independence….
…The action which I propose would have the following features.
It would, first of all, authorize the United States to cooperate with and assist any nation or group of nations in the general area of the Middle East in the development of economic
strength dedicated to the maintenance of national independence. It would, in the second place, authorize the Executive to undertake in the same region programs of military assistance and cooperation with any nation or group of nations which desires such aid. It would, in the third place, authorize such assistance and cooperation to include the employment of the armed forces of the United States to secure and protect the territorial integrity and political independence of such nations, requesting such aid, against overt armed aggression from any nation controlled by International Communism. These measures would have to be consonant with the treaty obligations of the United States, including the Charter of the United Nations and with any action or recommendations of the United Nations. They would also, if armed attack occurs, be
subject to the overriding authority of the United Nations Security Council in accordance with the Charter.”
- NSC – 68
“In particular, the United States now faces the contingency that within the next four or five years the Soviet Union will possess the military capability of delivering a surprise atomic attack of such weight that the United STates must have substantially increased general air, ground, and sea strength, atomic capabilities, and air and civilian defenses to deter war and provide reasonable assurance, in the event of war, that it could survive the initial blow and go on to the eventual attainment of its objectives.”
“Our position as the center of power in the free world places a heavy responsibility upon the United States for leadership. We must organize and enlist the energies and resources of the free world in a positive program for peace which will frustrate the Kremlin design for world domination by creating a situation in the free world to which the Kremlin will be compelled to adjust…This program must light the path to peace and order among nations in a system based on peace and justice…The only sure victory lies in the frustration of the Kremlin design by the steady development of the moral and material strength by the free world and its projection into the Soviet world in such a way to bring about an internal change in the Soviet system.”
“In summary, we must, by means of a rapid and sustained build-up of the political, economic, and military strength of the free world, and by means of an affirmative program intended to wrest the initiative from the Soviet Union, confront it with convincing evidence of the determination and ability of the free world to frustrate the Kremlin design of a world dominated by its will.”
