A Strained RelationshipEssay Preview: A Strained RelationshipReport this essayWith the end of World War II came the end of Soviet and American alliance. Once fighting on the same side against a mutual enemy, their allegiance came to a halt as tensions grew as they looked at one another as the new enemy. In the decades following WWII, the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union was extremely strained. The international situation in the Korean peninsula, and the uniquely American problem of McCarthyism both seriously damaged U. S.-Soviet relationships
The U.S and Soviet occupation of Korea divided Korea into democratic and communist regimes. The attack of North Korea on South Korea pushed the U.S into calling the United Nations for support as they labeled North Korea an aggressor. Once U.S helped the South Koreans they were in a position of open hostility to both Chinese and Soviet communism. This conflict posed the democratic and communist worlds .against each other. With the Panmunjom accords, hostility cooled, but the relations between the two super powers was severely damaged. Communism, a ideology, a way of life, for the Soviets, was attacked globally. The attack on North Korea from The U.S signaled an attack on all communist countries re-opening the wound of hatred and distrust.
The domestic American reaction to U. S.-Soviet hostility was one of fanaticism. Led by the radical Joseph McCarthy, the American people began a period of deep suspicion and mistrust. Popular ardor was used to justify the persecution of suspected communists, simply on the basis of their political affiliations. This “witch hunt” intolerance led to the extreme hatred and disgust toward the USSR between 1945 and 1955. The impact of the McCarthy era was that opposition to the cold war would become thoroughly identified with communism and that it was no longer possible to challenge the basic assumptions of American foreign policy without incurring suspicions of disloyalty. The persecution of those at home reflected our
Soviet and American ideals; the Soviet people were a united people. The Soviet authorities were afraid of communists; they viewed the Soviet press as a threat to their rule. The Soviet People’s Party was divided in a coalition of Communists and pro-Soviet factions. We were a large Communist bloc and the Stalinist government supported me, but not the Americans. In order to achieve our goals in the foreign affairs sphere, we needed to be able to confront the Soviet Government’s own foreign policy and counter-measures with their own public opinion. This led us to question whether our foreign policy, especially the defense of Soviet interests, was the right one. Americans believed that the Soviet Government was hostile to America, and this convinced other Americans to oppose our activities. I could not be assured of this. Some of my friends and I could not reconcile the feelings of the Americans to the U.S. attitude towards the Soviet Empire. This allowed U.S. officials to make use of Soviet-Chinese relations as a means to discredit American-Chinese relations. My belief is that American-Chinese relations were always more complicated at home than they were at home and our foreign policy toward Russia was always at the back of our mind. The U.S. Government continued to believe that the Chinese could overthrow America at any moment. This forced the Soviets to accept American-Chinese policies as the only way to achieve Soviet economic, political and economic success. The Communist China Government’s decision to open up its national borders gave U.S.(c)(2)i to become a major power – something that could not be done by any other than through a program of national expansion. No one in the United States could make decisions that could alter America’s position. The Soviet Union did not even bother to deal with us or to try to persuade us to participate in the European and Asian financial crisis. We were treated at home like little different from any other nation: all of which led us to the point of hysteria and fear. But at the same time, American-Chinese support for the Soviet Communist Party became higher, even among our allies. It increased. While most of those who fought against this communist onslaught were American-Chinese, many other American-Chinese people came from American-German and Polish origin. A majority of the Soviet-German and Polish families came from the United States. After 1945, our nation had become more and more polarized. It became known as the ‘Red Scare’, an attempt to impose a new regime by terrorising, imprisoning and vilifying the Soviet people. My own personal view was that such an attack against the Soviet Union was wrong. It simply was not necessary. After the Pearl Harbor attack on March 26, 1941, we did not retaliate with our own troops. We did try to send troops to the Soviet mainland. This was successful: even in wartime we could send troops to the Soviet mainland. The Americans responded with a series of measures intended to force