Managing Armageddon: The Truman Administration, Atomic War, and the National Security Resources Board

1990 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-424
Author(s):  
Philip J. Funigiello
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
National Security ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
Truman Administration ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The New Deal ◽  
At Home

“How shall we be governed in an atomic war? Who will make the decisions for defense and survival, and what compulsions will support their peremptory execution? What will be the measure of our cherished liberties?” Clinton L. Rossiter, the distinguished authority on the Constitution, asked these questions at the height of the cold war, a time when relations with the Soviet Union had become very troubled and, at home, red-baiting political campaigns, intolerance, fear, and repression had destroyed much of the liberalism of the New Deal.

The Handbook of European Defence Policies and Armed Forces

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
National Security ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Blind Spot ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
National Defence

The armed forces of Europe have undergone a dramatic transformation since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Handbook of European Defence Policies and Armed Forces provides the first comprehensive analysis of national security and defence policies, strategies, doctrines, capabilities, and military operations, as well as the alliances and partnerships of European armed forces in response to the security challenges Europe has faced since the end of the cold war. A truly cross-European comparison of the evolution of national defence policies and armed forces remains a notable blind spot in the existing literature. This Handbook aims to fill this gap with fifty-one contributions on European defence and international security from around the world. The six parts focus on: country-based assessments of the evolution of the national defence policies of Europe’s major, medium, and lesser powers since the end of the cold war; the alliances and security partnerships developed by European states to cooperate in the provision of national security; the security challenges faced by European states and their armed forces, ranging from interstate through intra-state and transnational; the national security strategies and doctrines developed in response to these challenges; the military capabilities, and the underlying defence and technological industrial base, brought to bear to support national strategies and doctrines; and, finally, the national or multilateral military operations by European armed forces. The contributions to The Handbook collectively demonstrate the fruitfulness of giving analytical precedence back to the comparative study of national defence policies and armed forces across Europe.

The Truman Doctrine Speech: A Case Study of the Dynamics of Presidential Opinion Leadership

1976 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Kernell
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
Truman Administration ◽  
Opinion Leadership ◽  
Single Event ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Truman Doctrine ◽  
The Cold War

During the twenty year period of 1945 through 1965 perhaps the most dramatic example of presumed presidential opinion leadership is President Truman’s speech proclaiming what came to be called the Truman Doctrine. Delivered to Congress and broadcast across the nation on radio, the speech has been widely acknowledged as establishing the temper of postwar U.S. foreign policy. Historians whether sympathetic or critical of the Truman administration agree that this speech more than any other single event marks the beginning of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Moreover, its implications for the future did not require hindsight available only to historians. Immediately, contemporaries in Washington and abroad grasped that President Truman was advocating a fundamental change in the U.S. responsibility and posture toward the world.

2. Dividing Europe

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Messenger
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
National Security ◽  
European Integration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Marshall Plan ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Schuman Plan

This chapter examines how the politics of the Cold War shaped integration and created and cemented the division of Europe in the immediate postwar era. It first provides an overview of the origins of the Cold War in Europe before discussing the Marshall Plan and the Schuman Plan. It then considers the Western Alliance and German rearmament, the Soviet Union's attitude towards European integration, and alternatives to integration including the Western European Union and NATO. The chapter shows that the outbreak of the Cold War not only enabled the United States to remain engaged in European affairs but also spurred the process of European integration while ensuring that it would be confined to the western part of the continent. Of great significance was the connection made by American and French officials, notably Jean Monnet, between economic development, national security, and the double containment of Germany and the Soviet Union.

After the Cold War: Wilsonianism Resurgent?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Smith
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
National Security ◽  
World Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Selective Approach ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter examines the United States's Wilsonianism in the post-Cold War era, first under George H. W. Bush and then under Bill Clinton. It considers how Bush, who became president as the Soviet Union was disintegrating and its leaders were looking for a new framework of understanding with the West, used Wilsonianism to address the question of establishing a world order favorable to American national security. It also discusses various Bush initiatives that were designed to establish a new world order after the cold war, Clinton's selective approach to liberal democratic internationalism, the effects of liberal economic practices on American national security, and the link between nationalism and liberal democracy. Finally, it assesses some of the challenges involved in the United States' efforts to bring about stable constitutional governance in many parts of the world.

Imagining a Global Sovereignty: U.S. Counternarcotic Operations in Istanbul during the Early Cold War and the Origins of the Foreign “War on Drugs”

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 28-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew R. Pembleton
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
National Security ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
Drug Control ◽  
Federal Bureau ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Deep State ◽  
Cold War Era ◽  
The Cold War

Drawing on declassified records of the little-known Federal Bureau of Narcotics, this article examines counternarcotics operations in postwar Istanbul in the context of the Cold War and its impact on U.S. officials’ conceptions of national security. Ever-expanding drug control operations demonstrated the emergence of U.S. hegemonic impulses independent of the deepening conflict with the Soviet Union. The article challenges the view that U.S. policy on drug control during the early Cold War era existed primarily as an adjunct of the “deep state.” Actual U.S. policies were shaped by a much more complex set of factors.

scholarly journals Post-cold war Russian identity

2004 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-55
Author(s):  
Vladimir Rukavishnikov
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
National Security ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Security Environment ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
First Time ◽  
Russian Identity

The collapse of the Soviet Union meant the end not only of the Cold war but also of the crucial turn in Russia?s fate. For the first time in its history Russia exists as a nation-state not as an empire. Along with the search of new identity Russians faced new challenges and threats to country?s national security and integrity (the Chechen separatist?s uprising, etc). The transitional crisis of identity seems to be finished off at the beginning of 21st century, yet the process of acceptance of new security environment and multi-cultural realities is going on. The paper examines the process of reformation of Russian national and ethnic identity and development national self-understanding in the post-Cold war era.

7. Fighting the Cold War: The Offensive Strategies

2020 ◽  
pp. 178-202
Author(s):  
John W. Young ◽  
John Kent
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
National Security ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Intelligence Gathering ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Berlin Crises ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Offensive Strategies

This chapter examines the offensive strategies employed by the United States and the Soviet Union in fighting the Cold War. It begins with a discussion of US covert operations and its revised national security strategy, focusing on Operation Solarium, the search for a post-Solarium national security policy, and subversion and intelligence gathering. It then considers the Berlin Crises, noting that Berlin was at the heart of the Cold War, the heart of the German question, and on several occasions became the focus of tension between the two blocs in Europe. The airlift of 1948–9 to preserve the Western position in the city, which was an island in East Germany, had become a potent Cold War symbol. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the Offshore Islands Crises and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Red Scare Politics: California's Campaign Against Un-American Activities, 1940–1970

1986 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Heale
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
American Politics ◽  
Political Process ◽  
State Level ◽  
Truman Administration ◽  
Red Scare ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Political Dimensions ◽  
The Cold War

The explanations for the red scare of the Cold War years have often been concerned with the direction taken by anti-Communist pressures. These have sometimes been represented as welling up from below, perhaps in the form of grassroots anxieties and resentments directed at well-to-do liberals and intellectuals, or as Catholic and immigrant enmity towards the Soviet Union. Such populistic currents may be portrayed as disturbing the normal routines of American politics. More often in recent years anti-Communist sentiments have been presented as elite-inspired influences working their way down in the polity, such as the anti-Soviet rhetoric and policies of the Truman administration, or the partisan opportunism of Republican politicians. The American political process itself may then be held to account. There have been a few attempts to test these interpretations by studies at state level, although it is not self-evident that such studies will favour either of these explanations. Indeed, the more detailed the study the more it is likely to acknowledge the complexity of American anti-communism. The evidence of California suggests that the second great red scare arose out of the convergence of pressures both from aboveandfrom below, in a process involving at least three different political dimensions.

America and the World: Isolationism Resurgent?

1996 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 149-163
Author(s):  
Arthur M. Schlesinger
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
National Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Natural State ◽  
Global Organizations ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The World ◽  
The Cold War

Building on an earlier argument that isolationism may well be America's natural state, Schlesinger explains how the apparent rejection of isolationism during the long standoff with the Soviet Union during the Cold War was nothing more than a reaction to what was perceived as a direct and urgent threat to the security of the United States. In the wake of the Cold War's end, the incompatibility between collective international action and conceptions of national interest has highlighted the difficulties of democracies in sending their armies to war, especially those that do not directly threaten national security. While much more can and should be done to enhance the effectiveness of global organizations already in place, what is needed, Schlesinger argues, is both a reexamination of the Wilsonian doctrine of collective security and a greater concentration on preventive diplomacy.

scholarly journals Types of military presence of USSR during the cold war

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Aleksandr Yur'evich Karasev
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
National Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Modern World ◽  
National Interests ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Military Presence ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Military

In modern world, different aspects of military science are of crucial significance in the questions related to ensuring national security and protection of national interests of the countries. The activity of separate entities, groups or units of the state militarized formations implemented abroad for solution of tasks within the framework of ensuring national security is defined as “military presence”. The author determines the types of military presence used by the Soviet Union during the cold war in different geographical areas; formulates conclusions based on the analysis of usage of each type of military presence and their impact upon international situation; as well as notes the priorities of realization of USSR military-land and naval presence. The research methodology contains the methods of politological and historical studies, historiography, and systemic approach. The main conclusions consist in the thesis that during the cold war period all types of military presence operated as a universal mechanism in the context of military policy of the Soviet Union: the entire palette of forms of military presence, from fly-over and call at the allies’ ports to placement of the land military objects. At the same time, international relations during the indicated period were viewed through the prism of opposition between the Soviet Union and the United States due to the military presence policy that allowed influencing global processes.

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