HIS-450 From World War to Cold War Worksheet

HIS-450 Topic 1 From World War to Cold
War Worksheet
Instructions: In 200 words Each, respond to the following prompts.
Each prompt should be supported with research. Each response is
worth 7 points.
1. Describe the significance of the Truman Doctrine to the Cold War.
Truman doctrine was pronounced by the American president Harry S.
Truman on 22nd May, 1947 in the post-world war era. The World War II led
to a complete devastation and instability both politically and
economically. The Soviet States of Russia was becoming powerful and it
seemed that the states of Turkey and Greece would fall under the control
of Soviet Russia (Underhill, 2017). The reason behind that was the
announcement made by the United Kingdom that they would not be
providing any financial or military assistance to the Greek Government.
There was a civil war going on between the Greek Government and the
Greek Communist party (Policy statement about American objectives in
Southeast Asia, 1952).
In his speech to the joint session of congress, Truman announced that
USA would not take a backseat in the world affairs and would provide aid
to the European countries seeking establish a democratic government.
This led to the growing unrest between the USA and the Russia that led to
the cold war between the two countries (Chambers, 2017). He opined that
assisting these countries were important as the world might fall into a
minority ruling based on terrorism and oppression. This announcement
had under veiled reference to Russian communist government which
ignited the growing political problems between the two countries.
2. How did the Marshall Plan impact the future of Europe?
The Marshall Plan was the legal implementation of the Truman
Doctrine. Following the World War II, the Greek Government appealed to
Truman for economic and military assistance as Britain had withdrawn
their support from the Greek government in their struggle with the Greek
Communist party (Center & Owen, 2016). Truman announced his
intension to help Greece in their aim to become a democratic nation. The
Truman Doctrine was followed by Marshall Plan through which Truman
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was able to grant an aid of $13 million to Greece. In his appeal, Truman
also asked for financial and military assistance to Turkey for the
establishment of Democratic government.
The Marshall Plan and Truman Doctrine both led to a clear division
between the USA ideology and that of the Soviet Union. This tension
finally led to Cold war between the two countries which created a clear
division within the nations of the world between USA and Russian allies
(Charap & Shapiro, 2016). As the need of Europe at that time was much
more dependent on USA, most of the countries that established a
democratic government post war, did so with the aid of USA.
3. How did the social and racial changes that occurred during WWII
impact U.S. society after the war?
The end of the Second World War brought with it many social changes
that changed the course if American history. Post World War era saw a
massive migration towards cities and towns mainly with the African
American population (Cowan, 2018). They migrated mainly to the
northern regions of America where they had the right to vote. The
Mexican migration also showed increased rate. This led to the increase in
political interest in these regions. Apart from that, there were widespread
racial discriminations going on.
The black and Mexican war veterans who returned from war saw the
discriminations that they had to face and started protesting against it
which finally led to Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Movement was
a response of the African American soldiers who fought for the American
cause and felt betrayed of their emancipation promises. After returning
they became determined to exact their full rights as citizens of America
(Riches, 2017). Another impact that America had was the increase of
women employment in the post war era. Due to the mobilization of
soldiers in the war zones, women had to sustain the living of their family.
Moreover, there were also an increase in the number of women in the
military.
4. What is NATO and why was (is) it important to the West?
NATO or North Atlantic Treaty Organization was a military alliance that
was established in 1949. This association was created to balance the
power of the soviet armies that were posted in the central and western
European countries even after the post-world war (McGhee, 2016). The
original members of NATO ware USA, UK, Canada, France, Belgium,
Denmark, Italy, Iceland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway and Portugal.
The NATO is geographically defined as gives provision for the European
and American countries to join forces and thus can be seen as the