Cold War Foreign Policy Essay
Despite the United States’ own belief in self determination, the U.S. has long felt the obligation to help a struggling country, be a humanitarian aid or to bring peace, justice and freedom into the world. As one of the biggest and most powerful democracy governments in the world, the U.S. has a right to, but when is enough involvement? Although American foreign policies have been praised by many, they have also been cursed just as much. A key moment in American foreign policy history was during the Cold War era. During the Cold War the main priority of the U.S. was ending communism which eve n meant siding with terrorists. It even entailed involvement in Iran's presidential election. At the time many were in favor of what the United States
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was doing, but in modern times we see that relations with the Middle East have retaliated and are bitter because of these foreign policies of the Cold War. Due to the United States’ over bearing foreign policy decisions during the Cold War era, modern chaos and disruptions have arouse as a back stab.
Because communism was such a concern for the U.S., the U.S. sided with terrorist groups that countered the Soviet Union, but this resulted in anger in the Middle East and ultimately bitterness toward the U.S.. During the Cold War era, “America saw the world in rather simple terms: on one side, the Soviet Union and Third World nationalism, which America regarded as a Soviet tool; on the other side, Western nations and militant political Islam, which America considered an ally in the struggle against the Soviet Union.” Using the Middle East as allies during the Cold War as well as the resources in the area was a smart decision for the U.S. to make, but when the U.S. was focusing purely on containing communism they lost sight of the consequences of the future. They also lost sight of what they were doing in the present to the Middle East and how relations of the present could severely damage relations of the future. During, “the 1970s, when Russia was the biggest threat to America and radical Islam was not as a concern of the USA’s, the USA began funding and training Islamic militants to fight our Russian enemies in Afghanistan. These militants, known as the mujahideen would rebel the Russians out of Afghanistan and later become the Taliban, Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood.” Again, the U.S. had overlooked the destruction it was making in the Middle East to end the threat of the Soviet Union. At the time, Afghanistan's leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was very much against both the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Despite that, the United States went forth and trained Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s men and now the same men the United States trained are against the U.S. today. In Modern day, “America is using ISIS to serve as a pretext for U.S. military intervention abroad”. Today, the U.S. uses the uprising of ISIS to its advantage. By staging intervention as a humanitarian aid the U.S. is able to maintain presence in the Middle East and promote democracy and maintain resources. According to Garikai Chengu, “America’s relationship with Al Qaeda has always been a love-hate affair. Depending on whether a particular Al Qaeda terrorist group in a given region furthers American interests or not, the U.S. State Department either funds or aggressively targets that terrorist group. Even as American foreign policy makers claim to oppose Muslim extremism, they knowingly foment it as a weapon of foment foreign policy.” Likewise with ISIS, the U.S. uses Al Qaeda to its advantage. By using Al Qaeda as a “weapon of foreign policy” the U.S. is able to alter the natural course of the countries in the Middle East towards U.S. interests. Although controversial but understandable for American foreign policy uses, this could result in even more problems in the future of relationships with terrorist groups and Middle Eastern countries. With the foreign policies of today, backlash history could be repeated as to what happened during the Cold War era.
The U.S. build stable relationships with leaders that shared common ideals and goals, but this resulted in overinvolvement and corruption and ultimately, uprising. In, “August 19, 1953, The CIA and the British intelligence agency MI6 direct a coup against Iran's democratically-elected prime minister, Mohammed Mossadeq and restore the pro-Western Shah to power.” Due to the United States want for control in the Middle East and not thinking of the repercussions, they installed the shah back to power after the Iranian people rid Iran of him. The United States completely contradicted their own belief of self determination. Plus, “He lived lavishly, while many other Iranians lived in poverty. The rise in oil prices in 1973 permitted the shah to increase his spending on weapons and by the mid-1970s, Iran accounted for half of U.S. arms exports.” It wasn’t just that the U.S. went against self determination but that they also installed a corrupt leader. While the U.S. thought they were doing a good deed they were being careless about their foreign policy and managing where their exports and funds went. “Both pahlavi and U.S. policymakers underestimated the sense of injustice felt by some in Iranian society. The shah followed a strong pro-american foreign policy that many Irains did not support and was seen as a puppet of the U.S. government.” Because the U.S. was being thoughtless remember that U.S. interests aren’t the only things on the line. The United States really did want a foreign puppet to be close to the action of the Middle East so the U.S. would have more say in the outcome of Middle Eastern chaos. A report from the U.S. National Security Council said that “it must not be forgotten that the Shah’s greatest single liability may well be his vulnerability to charges by both reactionary and radical opposition elements that he is a foreign puppet.” The U.S. took immense advantage of this corrupt leader which resulted in immense overinvolvement and distrust from the Iranians for generations to come. By trying to control the Middle East through pro-western relationships, the U.S. created more chaos and distrust from Middle Eastern countries.
In modern day, radicals and revolutionaries create chaos to bring attention to the overinvolvement and explication that the U.S.
has brought on their country(ies) which results in violent acts and casualties. In the 1990s, “When the Cold War ended, one might have expected that U.S. involvement in the region would decline, because there was no longer a significant external threat to contain. Instead, the U.S. role deepened… Instead of its earlier balance-of-power approach, the Clinton administration’s strategy of “dual containment” cast Washington in the role of regional policeman.” In modern day, even without the threat of communism the United States felt like it needed to contain the chaos in Iraq and Iran that they had caused. Not only did this stir up the anger in the Middle East, it resulted in more hatred for the overinvolvement of the United States. Bruce Laingen, during the Iran hostage crisis had an experience in which, “after he had spent more than a year as a hostage, one of his captors visited him in his solitary cell. Laingen exploded in rage, shouting at his jailer that this hostage-taking was immoral, illegal and "totally wrong." The jailer waited for him to finish, then replied without sympathy."You have nothing to complain about," he told Laingen. "The United States took our whole country hostage in 1953."” Many years after the coup of the shah in Iran, the injustice and anger toward the U.S. still runs deep. The injustice and outrage the people of Iran have felt towards the U.S. makes them want to be heard of from the world. This results in terrorist and violent acts toward the U.S.. One such of these violent acts was 9/11. Khalid Sheikh, one of the designers of the 9/11 attack said, "Allah aided us in conducting 9/11, destroying the capitalist economy, catching you with your pants down, and exposing all the hypocrisy of your long-held claim to democracy and freedom.” Although Khalid Sheikh and the terrorists responsible for 9/11 were not
responding to the injustice of the coup of the shah, they were responding to the other wrong doings and overinvolvement of the United States in the Middle East. They were the moving force of a backlash against the U.S. to show and bring attention to the many careless foreign policies and decisions the U.S. has wrought on the Middle East. Peaceful plans and attempts of negotiation with Middle Eastern countries specifically Iran, have been thwarted because of the hostility felt by the U.S. and Middle Eastern countries due to reckless foreign policies and then revenge. One such example was during the Iran nuclear crisis and then deal when, “The negotiations were difficult because the U.S. relationship with Iran has been filled with hostility and mistrust for decades.” Although the negotiations did end with a peaceful resolution, either side did not go without a fight about past American foreign policies. This slowed down the process and almost ended the peaceful attempts at a compromise. The repercussions in modern time and the future will continue because of the foolish and impulsive foreign policy decisions of the Cold War era.
The overbearing, impulsive and unthinking policies of the Cold War era have been seen as the best and worst of all time. Most of these actions came about because the gravity and priority of containing communism, which resulted in the U.S. siding with terrorists without realizing the potential damage it could do to America in the future. Some Middle Eastern countries, such as Iran, were subject to American influence through some of theses foreign policies. Using its power as a country, the U.S. altered the outcome of the Iranian election, resulting in retaliation and hate towards the U.S.. Due to these uncareful foreign policies modern chaos and hate toward the U.S.has arose on American soil and overseas. With intervention and overinvolvement in the Middle East today, future problems are sure to come up but, if the U.S. knows of the it’s overinvolvement and problems it is causing in the Middle East, why does it continue to intervene?
was doing, but in modern times we see that relations with the Middle East have retaliated and are bitter because of these foreign policies of the Cold War. Due to the United States’ over bearing foreign policy decisions during the Cold War era, modern chaos and disruptions have arouse as a back stab.
Because communism was such a concern for the U.S., the U.S. sided with terrorist groups that countered the Soviet Union, but this resulted in anger in the Middle East and ultimately bitterness toward the U.S.. During the Cold War era, “America saw the world in rather simple terms: on one side, the Soviet Union and Third World nationalism, which America regarded as a Soviet tool; on the other side, Western nations and militant political Islam, which America considered an ally in the struggle against the Soviet Union.” Using the Middle East as allies during the Cold War as well as the resources in the area was a smart decision for the U.S. to make, but when the U.S. was focusing purely on containing communism they lost sight of the consequences of the future. They also lost sight of what they were doing in the present to the Middle East and how relations of the present could severely damage relations of the future. During, “the 1970s, when Russia was the biggest threat to America and radical Islam was not as a concern of the USA’s, the USA began funding and training Islamic militants to fight our Russian enemies in Afghanistan. These militants, known as the mujahideen would rebel the Russians out of Afghanistan and later become the Taliban, Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood.” Again, the U.S. had overlooked the destruction it was making in the Middle East to end the threat of the Soviet Union. At the time, Afghanistan's leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was very much against both the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Despite that, the United States went forth and trained Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s men and now the same men the United States trained are against the U.S. today. In Modern day, “America is using ISIS to serve as a pretext for U.S. military intervention abroad”. Today, the U.S. uses the uprising of ISIS to its advantage. By staging intervention as a humanitarian aid the U.S. is able to maintain presence in the Middle East and promote democracy and maintain resources. According to Garikai Chengu, “America’s relationship with Al Qaeda has always been a love-hate affair. Depending on whether a particular Al Qaeda terrorist group in a given region furthers American interests or not, the U.S. State Department either funds or aggressively targets that terrorist group. Even as American foreign policy makers claim to oppose Muslim extremism, they knowingly foment it as a weapon of foment foreign policy.” Likewise with ISIS, the U.S. uses Al Qaeda to its advantage. By using Al Qaeda as a “weapon of foreign policy” the U.S. is able to alter the natural course of the countries in the Middle East towards U.S. interests. Although controversial but understandable for American foreign policy uses, this could result in even more problems in the future of relationships with terrorist groups and Middle Eastern countries. With the foreign policies of today, backlash history could be repeated as to what happened during the Cold War era.
The U.S. build stable relationships with leaders that shared common ideals and goals, but this resulted in overinvolvement and corruption and ultimately, uprising. In, “August 19, 1953, The CIA and the British intelligence agency MI6 direct a coup against Iran's democratically-elected prime minister, Mohammed Mossadeq and restore the pro-Western Shah to power.” Due to the United States want for control in the Middle East and not thinking of the repercussions, they installed the shah back to power after the Iranian people rid Iran of him. The United States completely contradicted their own belief of self determination. Plus, “He lived lavishly, while many other Iranians lived in poverty. The rise in oil prices in 1973 permitted the shah to increase his spending on weapons and by the mid-1970s, Iran accounted for half of U.S. arms exports.” It wasn’t just that the U.S. went against self determination but that they also installed a corrupt leader. While the U.S. thought they were doing a good deed they were being careless about their foreign policy and managing where their exports and funds went. “Both pahlavi and U.S. policymakers underestimated the sense of injustice felt by some in Iranian society. The shah followed a strong pro-american foreign policy that many Irains did not support and was seen as a puppet of the U.S. government.” Because the U.S. was being thoughtless remember that U.S. interests aren’t the only things on the line. The United States really did want a foreign puppet to be close to the action of the Middle East so the U.S. would have more say in the outcome of Middle Eastern chaos. A report from the U.S. National Security Council said that “it must not be forgotten that the Shah’s greatest single liability may well be his vulnerability to charges by both reactionary and radical opposition elements that he is a foreign puppet.” The U.S. took immense advantage of this corrupt leader which resulted in immense overinvolvement and distrust from the Iranians for generations to come. By trying to control the Middle East through pro-western relationships, the U.S. created more chaos and distrust from Middle Eastern countries.
In modern day, radicals and revolutionaries create chaos to bring attention to the overinvolvement and explication that the U.S.
has brought on their country(ies) which results in violent acts and casualties. In the 1990s, “When the Cold War ended, one might have expected that U.S. involvement in the region would decline, because there was no longer a significant external threat to contain. Instead, the U.S. role deepened… Instead of its earlier balance-of-power approach, the Clinton administration’s strategy of “dual containment” cast Washington in the role of regional policeman.” In modern day, even without the threat of communism the United States felt like it needed to contain the chaos in Iraq and Iran that they had caused. Not only did this stir up the anger in the Middle East, it resulted in more hatred for the overinvolvement of the United States. Bruce Laingen, during the Iran hostage crisis had an experience in which, “after he had spent more than a year as a hostage, one of his captors visited him in his solitary cell. Laingen exploded in rage, shouting at his jailer that this hostage-taking was immoral, illegal and "totally wrong." The jailer waited for him to finish, then replied without sympathy."You have nothing to complain about," he told Laingen. "The United States took our whole country hostage in 1953."” Many years after the coup of the shah in Iran, the injustice and anger toward the U.S. still runs deep. The injustice and outrage the people of Iran have felt towards the U.S. makes them want to be heard of from the world. This results in terrorist and violent acts toward the U.S.. One such of these violent acts was 9/11. Khalid Sheikh, one of the designers of the 9/11 attack said, "Allah aided us in conducting 9/11, destroying the capitalist economy, catching you with your pants down, and exposing all the hypocrisy of your long-held claim to democracy and freedom.” Although Khalid Sheikh and the terrorists responsible for 9/11 were not
responding to the injustice of the coup of the shah, they were responding to the other wrong doings and overinvolvement of the United States in the Middle East. They were the moving force of a backlash against the U.S. to show and bring attention to the many careless foreign policies and decisions the U.S. has wrought on the Middle East. Peaceful plans and attempts of negotiation with Middle Eastern countries specifically Iran, have been thwarted because of the hostility felt by the U.S. and Middle Eastern countries due to reckless foreign policies and then revenge. One such example was during the Iran nuclear crisis and then deal when, “The negotiations were difficult because the U.S. relationship with Iran has been filled with hostility and mistrust for decades.” Although the negotiations did end with a peaceful resolution, either side did not go without a fight about past American foreign policies. This slowed down the process and almost ended the peaceful attempts at a compromise. The repercussions in modern time and the future will continue because of the foolish and impulsive foreign policy decisions of the Cold War era.
The overbearing, impulsive and unthinking policies of the Cold War era have been seen as the best and worst of all time. Most of these actions came about because the gravity and priority of containing communism, which resulted in the U.S. siding with terrorists without realizing the potential damage it could do to America in the future. Some Middle Eastern countries, such as Iran, were subject to American influence through some of theses foreign policies. Using its power as a country, the U.S. altered the outcome of the Iranian election, resulting in retaliation and hate towards the U.S.. Due to these uncareful foreign policies modern chaos and hate toward the U.S.has arose on American soil and overseas. With intervention and overinvolvement in the Middle East today, future problems are sure to come up but, if the U.S. knows of the it’s overinvolvement and problems it is causing in the Middle East, why does it continue to intervene?