The state had always dictated how the citizens thought and acted. To think differently or act differently was an act of treason and punishable by severe methods (Rose-Ackerman)
The world democratic movement began in the American colonies. The theoretical concepts supporting a democratic form of government had been circulating since the ancient Greeks and the Romans had adopted a rough form of democracy but it remained for colonial America to actually organize a government based upon democratic thinking (Tocqueville)
A 1945 Report predicted that the Soviet Union was 5-20 years behind the United States in regrouping and repair of its own infrastructure and economy. If one imagines looking at the globe in 1946, the Soviet Union would see Japan as occupied by the United States, a looming presence in the Pacific and Indo-China by the United States, a Europe being propped up by the Marshall Plan and extreme loyalty to the Americans, an American economy still tooled for war, American technology far surpassing any the Soviets had at that moment, and finally a new President (Truman) who was strongly opposed to any Soviet grab for territory (Aid)
For fear of duplicity. Ironic, too, within weeks after this flight the United States placed its own satellites in orbit and were able to glean the same type of information safer, and without resorting to illegal actions (Bescholss)
policy was set to support the "free" peoples of the world -- and the definition of such be American style democracy. Post-war revisionists see this pronouncement as "the most important propaganda technique of the Truman Administration was the consistent interpretation of major international events [using] the terminology of the Truman Doctrine (Bostdorff)
" These were the events that overthrew Soviet-influenced Communist States in Eastern Europe and, eventually, the Soviet Union itself. The reasons for this are complex, but may be grouped into four major templates: 1) the economies were bankrupt, the system broke and unable to perform; 2) Standard of living declined and people were dissatisfied; 3) a new generation of leadership, not born under Stalinism, saw that change was inevitable; and 4) Technology and communication improved to the point where Eastern Europe wanted to join Western Europe to profit from a new free-enterprise system (Brown, 2007)
If we accept that civilizations are in conflict or cooperation based on cultural identity, even in this new paradigm of globalism, which has extended from simple economics to socio-political and cultural, we must accept the old adage of keeping our friends close, and our enemies closer. The new Russia is still governed by those who "learned" about power from a Stalinist system, but who now see the advantages of an economic hierarchy -- some even argue a more totalitarian elite (a new version of the nomenklatura) in charge without the ideology of Leninism, but a more capitalistic need for fiscal sustenance (Chapman, 2010)
Post-war revisionists see this pronouncement as "the most important propaganda technique of the Truman Administration was the consistent interpretation of major international events [using] the terminology of the Truman Doctrine (Bostdorff). Thus, despite any belief after the surrender of the Nazi regime, "the American dream of postwar peace and the Big three (United States, Great Britain, USSR) cooperation was to be shattered as the Soviet Union expanded into Eastern and Central Europe" (Churchill)
S. intervention, the war damage would not have been repaired as quickly and the resultant hardships encountered might have changed the socio-political spectrum of Europe and, with such horrible internal conditions, moved more of the population towards the Soviets (Foa, 2000)
After the Bay of Pigs fiasco, Khrushchev viewed President Kennedy as too indecisive and not prepared to make hard decisions, felt that Kennedy would back down even if he discovered missiles in Cuba. However, intelligence gathering continued after the Bay of Pigs in 1961, and regular U-2 flights over the island finally presented the evidence Kennedy needed to prove the Soviets were indeed, placing missiles off the American shore (Franklin)
This, of course, was clearly illegal and highly secret, so the plan had to be light, fly quickly and high, and be everything possible to escape notice by Soviet radar. The unique and remarkable design that allowed for this type of performance made the winning design, the U-2, difficult and dangerous to fly, let alone elude high-powered Soviet MIG fighters (French)
If one imagines looking at the globe in 1946, the Soviet Union would see Japan as occupied by the United States, a looming presence in the Pacific and Indo-China by the United States, a Europe being propped up by the Marshall Plan and extreme loyalty to the Americans, an American economy still tooled for war, American technology far surpassing any the Soviets had at that moment, and finally a new President (Truman) who was strongly opposed to any Soviet grab for territory (Aid). This, combined with the psychological makeup of Josef Stalin would result in a paranoia and distrust -- and the feeling of obligation to protect his country from being the victim of the United States as it had been of Germany (Gordin)
R. developed, Africa began to be decolonialized throwing the economic and political situation out of balance, the Korean War brought the United States into another global conflict, tensions heated up in Egypt (the Suez Canal Crisis) and Cuba (Castro and the Cuban Revolution), and America went through a turbulent time with Anti-Communist feelings and Senator Joseph McCarthy's accusations and focus on "reds in the State Department" (Hanson)
Since the 1980s, though there have been repeated attempts to establish a more settled system of government which would combine a strong and consistent central government (needed to provide stability and guidance) and the granting of appropriate power to the republics and far-flung regions of the country. This first experiment, glasnost organized by Mikhail Gorbachev founded quickly because the monopolistic CPSU lacked any semblance of credibility throughout most of the country -- its retention of power resulting solely on the military and secret police sectors (Hazan, 1990, 1-64)
This change, some call it flexibility, was the branch the Soviets offered to developing countries, like Cuba. Looking around and seeing the alienated or disenfranchized, Khrushchev felt the time was right to solidify alliances with anticolonialists in Ghana, the Congo, and especially, Cuba (Hopf)
S. push to establish democracy in Eastern Europe, where [it] never existed, seem[d] to be an attempt to reestablish the encirclement of unfriendly neighbors which was created after the last war and which might serve as a springboard of still another effort to destroy her (Iakolev)
Since both sides were ultimately so suspicious of each other, tensions grew, dialog lessened, allies were reestablished, and the global fight was on for the dominance of the Communist paradigm or Western-style democracy, a war not really ended until the Gorbachev regime in the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Thus, looking at the evidence of the time, Truman's meeting with Stalin, the Kennan telegram (Kennan), Soviet Atomic espionage, the "Iron Curtain," political and social events in Eastern Europe, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the exporting of communism into the developing world -- one can certainly conclude that while it may seem American foreign policy was a bit paranoid and reactionary, with the information available at the time, the response was likely not only reasonable, but prudent
The Russian political elite, including Mr. Putin, would like to be personally integrated into the Western structure, the Western community" (Levy, 2007)
Compare this to the Soviet Union, with 30+ million dead, 25 million homeless, almost 1 million acres of productive agricultural land destroyed, and the infrastructure of the transportation system in shambles, and most major cities and industry ravaged. After the fall of Germany, the Soviets may have been on the winning side, but their economy was in shambles and they were in a position in which their entire internal structure was at risk -- and facing an ever powerful United States who, in one fell swoop, became the only nation on earth to harness the power of atomic weaponry (Linz)
However, the advantages clearly outweigh the criticisms. Under the EU: war is less likely because the countries are tied economically; EU restrictions benefit all the EU, not a single country; the EU currency is more stable, and favors trade; as a whole, the EU is a stronger economy than individual European countries; European can now move freely around the EU for jobs, tourism, or entertainment -- one community, one goal (McCormick, 2007)