U.S. Leaders in the Cold War As World War II ended in 1945, the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics began a decades long struggle for global supremacy known as the Cold War, which lasted until 1991. During this period of time the following Presidents governed the United States: Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush. For the purpose of this essay I’m going to focus on three of the more influential Presidents: Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan. All three of these Presidents played crucial, but very different roles during the Cold War. Truman recognized the threat of Stalin and the expansion of Communism. Nixon realized that the escalation of Mutually Assured Destruction
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In the book The Cold War on page 154-155 it talks about how when he took presidency that he had many problems he needed to fix. Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara had introduced the idea of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD). This strategy was based on the belief that if Soviet atomic missiles ever attacked the U.S., the U.S. would have second-strike capability to annihilate all of the Soviet Union. Therefore, there would never be an incentive for the Soviet’s to attack the United States. Even though Nixon was a staunch anti-communist, his goal when becoming President was to ease the tensions with Communist nations, namely the Soviet Union and The Peoples Republic of China. Relations between the two biggest Communist nations, the Soviet Union and China, had deteriorated, and Nixon saw an opportunity to open diplomatic relations with China. "There is no place on this small planet for a billion of its potentially most able people to live in angry isolation." (http://millercenter.org/president/biography/nixon-foreign-affairs). Nixon relied heavily on his National Security Advisor (and later Secretary of State) Henry Kissinger, to work with him to bring the Cold War under control. They believed that if the United States improved their relationship with China that the Soviets would have no choice but to cooperate. In 1971, Nixon lowered restrictions on trade with China and in 1972 he became the first President to visit China. Nixon then visited the Soviet Union and met with Russian president Leonid Brezhnev in May 1972. The two signed the first Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty (SALT1), which placed limitations on the production and deployment of ballistic
In the book The Cold War on page 154-155 it talks about how when he took presidency that he had many problems he needed to fix. Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara had introduced the idea of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD). This strategy was based on the belief that if Soviet atomic missiles ever attacked the U.S., the U.S. would have second-strike capability to annihilate all of the Soviet Union. Therefore, there would never be an incentive for the Soviet’s to attack the United States. Even though Nixon was a staunch anti-communist, his goal when becoming President was to ease the tensions with Communist nations, namely the Soviet Union and The Peoples Republic of China. Relations between the two biggest Communist nations, the Soviet Union and China, had deteriorated, and Nixon saw an opportunity to open diplomatic relations with China. "There is no place on this small planet for a billion of its potentially most able people to live in angry isolation." (http://millercenter.org/president/biography/nixon-foreign-affairs). Nixon relied heavily on his National Security Advisor (and later Secretary of State) Henry Kissinger, to work with him to bring the Cold War under control. They believed that if the United States improved their relationship with China that the Soviets would have no choice but to cooperate. In 1971, Nixon lowered restrictions on trade with China and in 1972 he became the first President to visit China. Nixon then visited the Soviet Union and met with Russian president Leonid Brezhnev in May 1972. The two signed the first Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty (SALT1), which placed limitations on the production and deployment of ballistic