Title: How Did the Cold War Affect U.S. Foreign Policy? | The Classroom
Headings: How Did the Cold War Affect U.S. Foreign Policy?
How Did the Cold War Affect U.S. Foreign Policy?
Origins of the Cold War
The Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, and Containment
Containment and the Flexible Response
The Evil Empire
Thawing Relations

Content: How Did the Cold War Affect U.S. Foreign Policy? | The Classroom
How Did the Cold War Affect U.S. Foreign Policy? The Cold War was a nearly 50-year-long political, ideological, and military struggle for global power that was waged between the United States and the Soviet Union. From the end of World War II until the early 1990s, the Cold War was the United States' preeminent international concern, directing all of the nation's major foreign policy decisions. Origins of the Cold War
Immediately after the Soviet Union rose out of the ashes of the Russian Empire in 1917, tensions began as the U.S. feared the spread of communism, a governmental system antithetical to its capitalist ideology. Tensions temporarily eased when the nations became unlikely allies in World War II, but reemerged with a vengeance as the U.S. demonstrated its nuclear power and the Soviet Union swallowed up Eastern European nations into its "bloc." The former allies quickly became enemies again. The Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, and Containment
By 1947, the U.S. had developed a clear policy of containment toward the Soviet Union, striving to prevent the spread of communism through economic, diplomatic, and military measures. Through the Marshall Plan the U.S. used nearly $13 billion in aid to fight communism by helping war-torn Europe return to prosperity. Similarly, during the struggle over Germany's capital, Berlin, the U.S. airlifted over 2.5 million tons of supplies to West Berlin until the Soviet Union lifted its blockade.