The Cold War

The Cold War dominated international relations from the late 1940s to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The conflict centered around the intense rivalry between two superpowers, the Communist empire of the Soviet Union and the leading Western democracy, the United States. Competition between these powers and their allies was usually conducted by means short of armed conflict but, in several instances, the Cold War took the world dangerously close to a nuclear war. Many see Truman’s policies as a reasonable response to Soviet efforts to increase Communist influence in the world. Critics, however, argue that Truman misunderstood and overreacted to Russia’s historic need to secure its borders. Others increasingly attacked his administration as being weak or “soft” on communism. The American political, economic, and social life was both affected and altered by the early years, 1946 to 1952, of the Cold War. In the early years of the Cold War, America began to adopt a new policy in U.S. involvement in world affairs. Early in1947, Truman adopted the advice of three top advisers in deciding to “contain” Soviet aggression. Truman also broke with American tradition of foreign affairs by entering into NATO. 

Truman's containment policy, which was to govern U.S> foreign policy for decades, was formulated by the secretary of state, General George Marshall and his advisors. They believed that a long containment of Russian expansive tendencies would eventually cause the Soviets to back off their Communist ideology of world domination and live in peace with the other nations of the world. Truman first implemented the containment policy in response to Soviet threats. One of these threats was a Communist-led uprising against the government in Greece.