Victories in Foreign Policy but a Domestic Downfall
Victories in Foreign Policy but a Domestic Downfall
The Second World War destroyed the old diplomatic system of "great powers" and replaced it with a polarized world of two superpowers. Germany, Japan, and Italy were occupied and demilitarized. France, Britain, and China had all suffered heavy losses, and their economies were in shambles. Although the Soviets had suffered over 15 million casualties during WW II and witnessed the burning and bombing of much of European Russia, the USSR still possessed the most powerful infantry in the world. The US undoubtedly emerged from the war as the world's most powerful nation. The US had the largest navy and air force, and its economy had grown massively during the war. Employment in the US for women had risen from about 20% in 1939 to 60% in 1945 (May 50). Perhaps most importantly, the US had a monopoly on the atom bomb. Both these countries, the US and the USSR, once allies had a different agenda on their mind. The United States was looking for stabilizing themselves and help out those countries that were destroyed after the war. On the other hand, the USSR was seeking to spread communism around and wanted to become a force to reckon with. The United States had feared the global spread of communism and sought to fight it, the Cold War began. With the beginning of the Cold War in effect, a set of policies was established to “contain” the spread of communism, both internally and externally, in the United States. These policies would prove to contain foreign affairs more effectively than to help with domestic ones. In the home front all that could be seen is fear of what was happening around them. The idea that at any given moment nuclear and atomic warfare could occur lead many people to think differently about the way they should live. Indeed, containment had its effect on shaping roles of women, how men should react to situations and brought about a sexual revolution to our nation, but they would have no real positive effect on the actual Cold War and their reactions were fired up by hostility.
America’s Policy of Containment was introduced by George Kennan in 1947. This policy had a few good points but many more bad points.Kennan's depiction of communism as a "malignant parasite" that had to be contained by all possible measures became the basis of the...