Name Name Term Paper From Cold War to the Middle East: How American Foreign Policy has Shifted to the Middle East The actions taken by the United States in foreign states has constantly been changed from president to president. From Washington to Bush, every president has had to deal with foreign policy in some shape or form. Every one of these actions has sprung about a different reaction from the American public. Whether good or bad, every foreign policy decision made by a president keeps the American public fascinated and sometimes aggravated. Because foreign policy is based on the actions and events of other nations, decisions have to be made quick and restructured frequently. This can be seen fairly recently between the years of the Cold War and the present day. American foreign policy has grown and changed greatly since the days of containment during the Cold War to being strongly focused on tension and terrorism in the Middle East. There is no specific date as to the beginning of the Cold War, but its origins begin sometime shortly after World War II. It was after this war that the Soviet Union occupied Eastern Europe, something America was unwilling to accept. America wanted to promote democracy and other American ideas in Eastern Europe (Ambrose 53). After the Yalta conference, it seemed as though the Soviet Union would be on friendly terms with the Western world, however Stalin was quick to shatter this idea when “He refused to reorganize the Polish government in any significant way, suppressed freedom of speech, assembly, religion, and the press in Poland” (Ambrose 56). Stalin followed a similar pattern throughout the rest of Eastern Europe, making it unmistakably clear that the Soviet Union controlled the region, and shut out the West. (Ambrose 56) It was in great part from these actions by Stalin that led President Truman to take a stance on the communist Soviet Union that would later become the main idea of the Cold War, containment. Ambrose defines containment as “building up the military strength of America and her allies, and a willingness to stand up to the Russians wherever they applied pressure” (96). America believed that if one country fell to the Soviet Union, the neighboring countries would fall soon as well. This would be the main policy of the United States, and would be upheld by future presidents such as Eisenhower. Among the first major events of the Cold War, Korea became a standing point for America against Soviet aggression. “If the principal purpose of containment was to prevent further Soviet expansion, American inaction in the face of Soviet aggression would only encourage future aggressive acts” (Spanier 67). Since the United States goal during this time was to stop the spread of Soviet expansion, President Truman put his policy of containment into action and took a stance in Korea against Russia. It was feared that if America did not take respond to pleas for help from its allies, or did not defend its allies from attacks, that those allies would lose trust in America, and turn to the Soviets for help (Spanier 67). Soon after the start of the Cold War, containment began to take a new focus. Instead of being aimed at stopping Soviet expansion it became an anti-communist view. The fall of mainland China to a communist government was blamed for this shift of policy (Spanier 69). Containment was now America and its allies willing to stand up to the Soviet Union trying to spread communism. America viewed communism countries as a threat and wanted to spread democratic ideas to foreign countries. Now instead of just fearing Soviet expansion, America wanted to stop the Soviet’s expansion to stop them from spreading communist ideals and governments to foreign states. After Eisenhower became president, he followed similar policies towards communism as Truman, however American foreign policy was again shifted slightly, and in his Doctrine he adds the Middle East in his foreign goals. In Section II of Eisenhower’s Doctrine on the Middle East, Eisenhower points out that “Russia’s rulers have long sought to dominate the Middle East”, and later says, “The reason for Russia’s interest in the Middle East is solely that of power politics. Considering her announced purpose of Communizing the world, it is easy to understand her hope of dominating the Middle East” (www.fordham.edu 1). In section VI Eisenhower lays out his policy which was basically a more specific form on containment saying that the United States would use its military forces to protect the territory and political independence of countries in search of aid from aggressive Communist nations (www.fordham.edu 3). But the US and Eisenhower did not believe it was enough to stop communism to just help countries that were experiencing aggression by Communist countries, but they believed that it was necessary to support countries that might be vulnerable to Communist invasion. One such nation America supported against the spread of communist was Afghanistan. This action was one that has played a major part in the growth of American foreign policy. This single action may demonstrate how much our foreign policy has been restructured from Cold War containment to present day policies against terrorism and tensions in the Middle East. During the Cold War we were willing to support anyone who was willing to fight communist aggression, while now we are fighting against those that we supported. By the time of George Herbert Walker Bush’s inauguration in January 1989, the Soviet Union was beginning to dissipate and the Cold War coming to an end (Spanier 226). And by December 1991, a new American foreign policy was already being formed as the Soviet Union ceased to exist. After the Cold War, America’s new focus turned towards the Middle East and Persian Gulf. As soon as Israel declared itself as an independent state, the US supported it. This led to many conflicts between religious groups, and mid east territories. Areas such as Egypt and Syria both attempted to take back what they considered their land. And the Palestinians have been in constant conflict with the Israelis. Israel was and still is an important area for America; it is a watchdog for the US in the Middle East as well as being a vital area for protecting oil supplies. The problem of the small Middle East countries controlling so much of the world’s oil has been one of the main reasons for the US’s shift in views on foreign policy, as well as the greatly increasing problem of terrorists from the region. The next main trouble spot to emerge after the Cold War was the Persian Gulf (Spanier 255). With the rivalry of superpowers between the US and Soviet Union, Saddam Hussein attempted to fill the power vacuum left behind (Spanier 255). He seized the opportunity to invade his neighbor Kuwait. From fear of Hussein controlling so much of the world’s oil, Bush ordered Operation Desert Shield (later named Operation Desert Storm) into action. This became a quick attack removing Hussein from Kuwait and pushing him back into Iraq, however it did not remove him from power. Saddam remained a powerful threat in the eyes of America. Terrorism is not a new concept at all. It has and always will be around, but it has become more prevalent recently, and been a major issue in the structure of post Cold War foreign policy. From bombings of American embassies and terrorist attacks on US armed forces in foreign territories, to the attacks on American soil. And the one that has had the greatest influence on foreign policy has been the attacks that took place on September 11, 2001. This one act of terrorism has sparked America’s war on terrorism leading to attacks in Afghanistan and Iraq by the US and its allies. Nearly a year after the tragedy of September 11, the Bush Doctrine was released. In this document we can easily see how the focus of foreign policy has shifted from anti-soviets and anti-communism from the Cold War era, to issues of global terrorism, tensions in the Middle East, and threat of weapons of mass destruction (www.whitehouse.gov vii). In an effort to disrupt the terrorist groups, Bush wanted to “disrupt and destroy terrorist organizations of global reach and attack their leadership; command, control, and communications; material support; and finances” (www.whitehouse.gov 5). He tried to accomplish this in Afghanistan by going after the Osama Bin Laden and his terrorist organization. One part of foreign policy that has not changed since the Cold War days has been the fear of nuclear weapons, and weapons of mass destruction. What has changed is where the threat is coming from. Following the new policy against terrorism, America’s fears of Soviet arsenals of WMD are now suppressed by the fear of a terrorist or rouge nation controlling a WMD. This is written into foreign policy in the Bush Doctrine on page 13: “But new deadly challenges have emerged from rogue states and terrorists. None of these contemporary threats rival the sheer destructive power that was arrayed against us by the Soviet Union. However, the nature and motivations of these new adversaries, their determination to obtain destructive powers hitherto available only to the world’s strongest states, and the greater likelihood that they will use weapons of mass destruction against us, make today’s security environment more complex and dangerous” (www.whitehouse.gov). This was very evident in Iraq when the US went after Saddam Hussein fearing that he was in possession or close to having control of WMD. From Cold War to terrorism, and from Truman to Bush, American foreign policy has seen constant restructure. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the United States has had to nearly completely restructure their foreign policy. Without the Soviet Union to dictate their policies, America has had to find new areas of the world to focus their foreign policy on. The major area to come in play for the US since the Cold War has been the Middle East. America’s foreign policy has changed from strong views of containment against the Soviets and Communism to policies to defuse tensions in the Middle East (and other areas of the world), and to combat modern terrorists. Works Cited Ambrose, Stephen E. Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy Since 1938. 7th ed. New York: Penguin Books, 1993. Modern History Sourcebook: President Eisenhower: The Eisenhower Doctrine on the Middle East, A Message to Congress, January 5, 1957. Modern History Sourcebook. 27 Oct. 2003 http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1957eisenhowerdoctrine.html. Spanier, John, and Steven W. Hook. American Foreign Policy Since World War II. 13th ed. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 1995. Whitehouse. 27 Oct. 2003 http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss.pdf.