Propaganda During The Cold War

After World War II, two superpowers were emerging, the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic. Tensions rose between the two, eventually starting the Cold War. The Cold War was a state of political hostility that existed between the Soviet Union and The United States during the years 1945 and 1990. The soviets and americans clashed on many topics, mainly the constant fight between communism versus democracy and capitalism. A multitude of propaganda was being utilized on both sides, to forward theses ideals. Throughout the years of the Cold War, many presidents took different stands on how to proceed. After President Franklin D. Roosevelt passed away in 1945, his vice president, Harry S. Truman became president until 1953.
When President Truman issued the Truman Doctrine in 1947, he made the containment policy and it led to dominated foreign policy of the US (Kennedy 875). Ten years later, President Eisenhower issued a similar doctrine, but mainly focused on the middle east (Kennedy 902). The Korean War is a good example of President Truman’s foreign policy. Korea had been split at the 38th parallel, with the North leading a communist country and the South leading one that was not communist. In 1950, the North invaded the South. President Truman gave orders to General Douglas MacArthur to contain the communism to thee original line (Kennedy 884). Comparably, President Eisenhower took similar action with Vietnam in 1954. His foreign policy led Vietnam to split at the 17th parallel with the communism dominating in the North and non communism in the South (Kennedy 899). This similar approach, even with fighting countries being split, shows how the ideas in two presidents foreign policies are so connected to the containment of communism. Although the President Truman and Eisenhower had the same principles in their foreign policies, the two took different approaches in achieving their foreign
When communism began spreading into the middle east, President Eisenhower issued the Eisenhower Doctrine, promising United States help to the middle east if it is threatened by communism (Kennedy 902). An example of Eisenhower’s foreign policy action in the spread of communism was operation AJAX. The CIA pulled a coup that that put an American favoring leader, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in Iran for fear of Soviet Union invasion for oil (Kennedy 900). The actions that President Eisenhower took against the spread of communism was more in the appeal of assets and information that would benefit American economy and superiority of the nation. Although President Eisenhower did enhance the US air force, more intelligence missions and actions were took rather than the militarization that President Truman