A Propaganda Tool During the Course of Cold War - Research Paper Example

COLD WAR POLITICS Words (1092) The liberals see Wilson as "prophet of 20th century" who took out the US from isolation and steered it towards worldstage of international politics. For liberals a nation policy should be guided by morality. For them US is the champion of democracy and it should export its values. The liberals believe in the democratic peace theory and hold the view that democracies do not create wars, but all solve problems amicably. Thus according to liberals the issue is not security or war, but economic prosperity. The liberals believe in the institution of nuclear non-proliferation through mutual cooperation among the states. American believes that America is a virtuous and democratic state and role model, which should be followed by other states to become good states. According to the realist view, it is a government foremost responsibility to use all means at its disposal ranging from democracy, threat of force and even war in order to seek the national interest. According to the realist national security and survival does not lie in idealism but rather in power of balance. The realist believe that in real politics it is essential need to pursue power at all cost by the states, however there must be a clear comprehension of what is achievable and what is not. The realists are concerned about security rather than think about cheating or lying. Their ambition is to tailor the US foreign policy according to the real world scenario rather than pursuing idealism. The realists believe that the Wilsonian idealism cannot promote peace and democracy in the arena of international politics. During the early phase of Cold War the liberals saw optimism in three key areas: the role of institutions, the dominion of ideas and material prosperity. According to liberals the key institution, which can play a vital role in the international political affairs, can only be UN, which can decide the issues of inequality among the nations. If a weaker nation is invaded by a powerful nation, mediation can workout a solution. The UN could tackle the elementary causes of disparity and dissatisfaction and intercede between the parties. Thus for the liberals after WWII, there was no visible threat, democracy was spreading, so the basic concern of the nations should be the well being of the states and improving their economic condition. As antagonism between the US and USSR existed long before WWII which was basically the ideological difference between two countries leading to Cold War. This hostility directed the course of events into to intense development and deployment and stock piling of nuclear weapons in both the countries. As both sides viewed themselves the champions of the world, they aggressively persuaded smaller nations to join their camp. In 1946 /1947 USSR brought communist regimes in Romania and Bulgaria. US felt threatened by the USSR violent approach and adopted the Trueman doctrine, which allowed US to help its allies and to contain the USSR expansion. In 1959 the Vietnam War started and Vietnam became a hot bed of rivalry between the two great powers. The realist could no longer follow the liberal ideas as they saw the USSR expansion and its increasing power a serious threat to American security, and they decided to contain this expansion by all means. In early 1970s, after the advent of nuclear ICBMs it was no longer possible for both the super powers to conqueror each other. It was no longer possible to have the same view of the world as the Cold War has been pushed the world into a perilous age which US has never imagined. This led to a military doctrine MAD (mutual assured destruction) and the idea behind this doctrine was that, the Western bloc will not be attacked as both superpowers have more than enough stockpile of nuclear weapons to wipe off each other from the face of earth, including all the human beings in the world. Thus the idea of attacking each other seemed a suicidal and unpractical act as a result nuclear weapon instead of threat worked as a Deterrence to keep each other off the fence. The Cold War created a dtente a policy advocating a intricate system of international relation, where the world did not look like two split blocks. It allowed the smaller and less powerful nations to assert their freedom and independence and pursue their interests more openly rather than becoming a bone of contention between two super powers. However espionage and the propaganda continued even in the during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.It was assured that smaller wars cannot give rise to big war directly as a result the realists kept on promulgating their policy of weakening USSR by aiding the afghan warriors by the help all European nations. In the early 1980s, when president Regan came into power, the US foreign policy changed its tone and became the mouthpiece of liberals labeling USSR as an Evil empire. Behind this moralistic rhetoric US continued its policy of weakening the USSR by all possible means, and this propaganda continued throughout the eighties in which President Regan constantly portrayed US morally right and a champion of democracy which believes in moral values, allying the Pope John Paul II as well to preach against the Evil USSR. President Regan earlier announced a factitious star war program, which the USSR believed and ultimately led them to waste resources and made USSR a bankrupt country leading it dismemberment in 1989. The Cold War politics was combination of liberal and realist polices which gave victory to US. However it is true that behind the garb of Evil empire rhetoric, it was the realist who left no chance of exploitation and destruction of USSR. Even today in the wake of Iraq invasion the US rhetoric is still the same, liberating Iraq, although critics believe there are underlying other aims behind the rhetoric of right and wrong. From the above discussion it is clear that the realist were leading the Cold War as their calculations were more practical and accurate, however there is no doubt that the realist used liberalism as a propaganda tool during the course of Cold War. The reason of this moralistic tone is that Americans tends to side with liberal view. Politicians and policy makers normally put their agenda in the form of wrong and right, making it more acceptable to the general American public to gather support and sympathy for its policies. Reference: Martin J. Medhurst (1997), Cold War Rhetoric: Strategy, Metaphor, and Ideology, Michigan State University Press. Read More