The Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was established in 1947 under President Harry S. Truman (Barney, 2010). The fundamental purpose of the Truman Doctrine was to contain the spread of communism throughout the world. The Truman Doctrine involved the Unites States provide military, economic and political assistance to democratic nations under threat of communism by the Soviet Union (Barney, 2010).
One of the precursors to the Cold war and the cause of the Truman Doctrine was the Soviet Union’s aggression particularly towards Poland. The Soviet Union had already sent military troops to Poland as well installation of a communist provisional government against the provisions of the Yalta conference (Barney, 2010). Therefore, the United States realized that it had to implement zealous international foreign policy to prevent the threat of communism to democracy and sovereignty of nations
The relationship that existed between the Unites States and Russia was of mutual distrust and differences in political, economic and military ideologies. The United States advocated for a capitalistic society where free and fair democratic elections are conducted as well as personal freedom and freedom of the press. On the other hand, the Soviet Union advocated for communism where there is no free and fair democratic elections and the society heavily controlled through censorship of the media and the state (Hastedt, 2009).
The cold war relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union was also synonymous with the arms race that saw the United States the Soviet Union develop intercontinental ballistic range missiles. The Soviet Union covertly installed ballistic missiles in Cuba with the ability to reach mainland United States and launch a nuclear attack (Hastedt, 2009). This led to the Cuban missile crisis that forced the United States to impose a blockade on Cuba through diplomatic sanctions.
In addition, the cultural and ideological differences during the nuclear proliferation lead to the doctrine of the Mutual Assured destruction (Hastedt, 2009). The doctrine effectively meant that both the United States and the Soviet Union had the nuclear capability not only annihilate each other’s countries but the entire world.
The bilateral relationship between the Soviet Union and the United States is constantly deteriorating particularly due to military, political and economic ideological differences (Merkin, & Ramadan, 2016). For instance, the United States and Russia are engaged in a proxy war in regards to the management of the civil war in Syria (Merkin & Ramadan, 2016).
