unit12post-ww11 american foreign policy.pptVIP

  Cold WarCold War is the conflict between the Communist nations led by the Soviet Union and the democratic nations led by the United States. It is fought by all means - propaganda, economic war, diplomatic haggling and occasional military clashes. It is fought in all places - in neutral states, in newly independent nations in Africa, Asia and even in outer space.The historians have so far not reached any agreement on the time in which the Cold War began. It is, however, quite safe to say that since 1947 when President Truman of the United States declared an anti-communist policy, the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union has begun. Over the years, leaders on both sides changed. Yet the Cold War continued. It was the major force in world politics for most of the second half of the twentieth century. Historians disagree about how long the Cold War lasted. Some believe it ended when the United States and the Soviet Union improved relations during the nineteen-sixties and early nineteen-seventies. Others believe it ended when the Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989. The Arms Race between the United States and the Soviet Union: (1) In 1949, the Soviet Union detonated the first atomic device. (2) In 1952, the U.S tested the hydrogen bomb for the first time, and the Soviet Union tested it in 1953. (3) In 1957, the Soviet Union set up two sputniks into the orbit, which made the United States fear and anxiety. (4) After Eisenhower and Kennedy took the power, the United States began to research and produce nuclear weapons and the carrying vehicles. (5) By the 1980s, the two countries had over 5000 nuclear weapons which could kill the people many times in the world. (6) In 1982, Ronald Reagan became president, he wanted to beat the Soviet Union in the space technology race and so he initiated the star war project. In the late 1940s, the United States put into effect the containment policy. In order to prev