THE EVOLUTION OF AMERICAN NATIONAL SECURITY POLICY SINCE THE END OF SECOND WORLD WAR

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1. Belligerence, 1947-1952. There are different opinions about the date when the Cold War began. In fact, there is no date of the begining of the
Cold War. It didn’t begin in one night. It began step by step. And it began from both sides.

In February 1946, Stalin gave a speech in which he spoke about “the inevitability of conflict with the capitalist powers”.[10]

On February 22, 1946, George F.Kennan, at that time charge d’affaires in the US embassy in Moscow, sent to Washington his famous “long telegram” assessing the motivations of the Soviets. Later he published his well-known article “X” in the Foreign Affairs (1947). In it, Kennan argued that Soviet leaders would forever feel insecure about their political ability to maintain power against forces both within Soviet society andin the outside world. Their insecurity would lead to an activist - and perhaps hostile -
Soviet foreign policy.[11]

In March 1947, the Truman Doctrine was announced. This was a dramatic departure from traditional US foreign, defense, and security policy. It was based on a view of international politics as a contest for world domination, with the SU as an imperial power bent on world conquest.[12]

This was the start of containment policy. Containment was designed to circumscribe Soviet expansionism in order to (1) save the international system from a revolutionary state, and (2) force internal changes in the
SU.[13] Containment was a desired condition in US-Soviet relations. It was a geopolitical rather than ideological or military strategy. Its ultimate objective was a stable and peaceful international system.[14]

Soon the first results of the containment appeared. The National
Security Act (1947) created a unified Department of Defense with an autonomous Air Force, a Joint Chiefs of Staff system, the Central
Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Council.[15] In June 1947, the Marshall Plan for the economic recovery of Europe was announced.

In July 1947, intelligence analysts in the War Department maintained that the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan provoked a more aggresive
Soviet attitude toward the US.[16] So, the result of the beginning of containment was the escalation.

Another step to deeper hostility was the document called NSC-68
(approved by President Truman on September 30, 1950). NSC-68 was designed to (1) bolster the conventional capabilities, (2) strenghten the strategic nuclear forces, (3) assist the US allies, especially in Europe.[17]

The aim of NSC-68 was “to check and roll back the Kremlin’s drive for world domination.”[18]

The first military attempt to contain the communism was the Korean
War (1950), which had pushed the budget appropriations for defense up to a peak of almost $57 billion (67 per cent of the whole budget) for fiscal year 1952.[19] The Korean War marked a globalisation of containment in terms of operational commitments as well as rhetoric.[20]

This period was also marked by the creation of North Atlantic Treaty
Organisation (NATO). The NATO Pact was signed in April 1949. This was open- ended, multilateral, peacetime alliance among the US, Canada, and West
European nations that commited the US to consider an attack on any member nation as an attack on itself.[21] The creation of NATO was a response to
Soviet actions in Czekoslovakia, Berlin, and Greece.

Also the US signed bilateral mutual defense treaties with Japan and the Philippines and a trilateral pact with Australia and New Zealand (the
ANZUS Treaty). All three were signed in 1951.

2. Tough Talk, Accomodative Action, 1953-1962. This was the period of the
American superiority in terms of the nuclear capabilities. But President
Eisenhover understood that American resources are not endless. The idea of his policy was security and solvency - to regain American initiative in foreign policy without bankrupting the nation.[22] His policy had two elements. The first was “New Look” defense policy, and second - the formation of a global alliance system.

The “New Look” was based on three concepts: rollback, brinkmanship,and massive retaliation.[23]

Rollback stated the goal the US was to pursue: reject merely containing the spread of communist influence and instead “roll back” the iron curtain.[24]

Brinkmanship was a strategy for dealing with the Soviets by backing them into the corner with the threat of nuclear amihilation.[25]

Massive retaliation was a countervalue nuclear weapons strategy that sought to achieve American foreign policy objectives by threatening mass destruction of the Soviet population and industrial centers.[26]

All this was called compellence strategy, which lasted until1961.

In the early 1960s the American superiority declined. This pushed towards deterrence strategy. Deterrence means discouraging an adversary from taking military action by convincing him that the cost and risk of such action would outweight the potential gain.[27] The concept of flexible response was formulated. It means the increase of conventional war capabilities. In 1962 the capacity to wage “two-and-one-half “ wars was embraced as the official strategy.[28]

The formation of the global alliance system continued. The US signed bilateral agreements with South Korea (1953), the Republic of China
(Taiwan) (1954), Iran (1959), Pakistan (1959), and Turkey (1959). In 1954
South East Asian Treaty Organisation (SEATO) was created. In 1959 the US became a member of Central Treaty Organisation (CENTO).

Also the Middle East became the area of concern, especially after the
Suez crizis (1956). Fear of Communist incursions in this area led to the formulation of Eisenhower Doctrine.[29]

Of course, the most important event during this period was the Cuban crisis (1962). It was the most dangerous event of the Cold War, and a good lesson for the officials of both superpowers. A nuclear exchange was so close that both White House and Kremlin officials frankly expected the bombs to fall.[30] They recognized that the superpowers must change their policies.

3. Competetive Coexistence, 1963-1968. Because of growing parity of
American and Soviet military capabilities the fact was that the alternatives were coexistence or noncoexistence.[31] The powers began to look for the ways to coexistence. One of the first signs was the instaliation of the “hot line” linking the White House and the Kremlin With a direct communication system in 1963. Also a number of agreements were negotiated: The Antarctic Treaty (1959), The Partial Test Ban Treaty
(1963), The Outer Space Treaty (1967), The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty
(1968). All this paved the way towards detente.

4. Detente, 1969-1978. Detente - a policy and a process designed to relax tensions between the superpowers.[32] Nixon and Kissinger viewed detente as yet another in a long series of attempts to contain the power and the influence of the SU.[33]

In July 1969, the Nixon Doctrine was declared. There were three major points: (1) that the US will keep all of its treaty commitments; (2) that the US will provide a shield if a nuclear power threatens the freedom of a allied nation; and (3) that the US will furnish military and economic assistance when requested in accordance with treaty commitments.[34]