Imagine you are an American diplomat in 1970. You are part of a team sent to a strategic Third
World country in hopes of making an alliance. Soviet diplomats have been there before you and have
suggested to the leaders of this Third World country that the United States should not be trusted as a
partner because of how Americans treat their own minority populations. You have been asked to provide
a formal, written rebuttal to the Soviet claims.
After giving the matter some thought, you have decided to base your rebuttal on key changes in both
foreign and domestic policy over the past 50 years to convince this Third World country to join with the
Americans as allies in the Cold War. You realize that you cannot simply “sugarcoat” things and be
believable, therefore you plan to provide a thoughtful response that does admit inequities in American
society in addition to discussing ongoing changes and positive policies.
Note 1: Successful responses will consider a broad range of evidence in support of arguments. Take a
few moments to consider how you would respond by making a list of both “good” and “bad” aspects of
American society and policy. When looking at the “good,” ask yourself why they are good for the
purposes of this rebuttal, how would non-Americans perceive things? When looking at the “bad” (which is
what the Soviets used against us in the Cold War, as well as the Nazis in WWII, as propaganda),
consider change over time. Are there groups working toward ameliorating the bad? Are public policy
changes taking place, even if at a slow pace? Or is nothing being done? Admitting injustices while
discussing efforts at reform may be enough to sway someone to your side.
One way to organize would be along the lines of first discussing domestic socio-economic issues,
followed by domestic political issues, and finally foreign policies in the era under discussion. Remember
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that each of these elements of the overall argument would have its own paragraph and thesis (the rule of
three)
Convincing Soviets that USA is trustworthy
US and the Soviet Union differed in their ideologies and this contributed to their
constrained relationships. Cold war was precipitated with events that happened during the World
War II. Before 1970, these two nations used various ways such as propaganda, alliance systems,
espionage, secret operations, nuclear arsenal, military forces U.S dollars among others in
projecting themselves positively to gain approval and to take over and influence most of the third
world nations and developing nations across the world. Therefore, during this period of cold war,
the state of hostility was permanent between these two powers but did not erupt into an armed
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confrontation of war. This paper therefore, delineates on the three aspects that manifested which
US can use to gain approval and influence third world nations to join US as allied in the cold
war. These aspects are categorized as domestic socio-economic, political issues and foreign
policies in 1970 in US
Domestic socio-economic issues in US portray America in the wrongful way. This is
something that Soviet Union has depicted in the quest of denting the name of US and putting
America in the negative limelight. America, advances capitalism and believes that it is the best
way to trigger economic development. The government over the years has as well instituted
various changes in is policies geared at ensuring that the people are able to live stable lives. I
take this opportunity to refute the claims by the Soviet Union that America do not support
inequality and as well do not overspend 1 . These claims lack tangible evidence. The economy is
stable and people have been empowered. The nation spends its resources wisely in ensuring that
it helps to improve the living standards of the poor. The gap between the rich and the poor is
wide but initiatives are underway to reduce this to ensure that every American citizen is able to
earn a dissent livelihood. America is not cold to other nations as the Soviet Union may allege. In
fact, it is a nation that believes in cooperation. The nation believes in fair trade as one way of
increasing and promoting the economy of different countries. Racist is one of the major
problems that have affected US for quite a number of years. This however, has been fought and
we have put in place modalities to ensure diversity and appreciation of people from different
races. The constitution, now grants every citizens regardless of their race the privilege to vote,
to stay every part they want and to be employed in any sector.
1 Waltraud Queise Morales, “US intervention and the New World Order: lessons from Cold War and
post-Cold War cases,” Third World Quarterly 15, no. 1 (March 1994): 77-101.
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Political issues as well have played a key role in ensuring that America achieves its
current states. Various leaders have been instrumental in coming up with various ideologies that
has helped America achieve its objectives. The United States, believes in democracy 2 . The
people are given the mandate to elect their leaders without any form of coercion. Leaders are as
well obliged to respect the supremacy of the constitution in their responsibilities. This is
something that puts America in the world map. Oppression and any forms of discriminations are
things that America does not support. It is a country that respects the human rights and freedoms
of the people. This therefore, makes the nation the better option to work with. Most of the third
world countries are mostly lead by dictatorial leadership and by joining US, such leadership
challenges are likely to be suppressed for the benefit of the people. America is also ready to
develop its country from any external aggressions for instance during the cold war it invested in
weapons such as tanks, nuclear warheads, strategic bombers and assault weapons such as MI
Abrams tanks. This was a political decision which was aimed at ensuring that incase of any
attack, the government could protect its citizens. Therefore, the values and political ideologies is
not to destroy the others but to ensure that there is fairness and protection of the rights of those
they feel are oppressed. The attack of Vietnam was also a political ideologies issue aimed a
ensuring that communism ideologies are not spread to the country.
Foreign policy has also played a key role over the years in the quest of ensuring that
peace deals and cooperation between the US and other countries such as Soviet Union are
attained 3 . US have signed numerous treaties and agreements geared at ensuring that the
2 Ibid
3 Yoon Jong-Han, “The Effect of US Foreign Policy on the Relationship Between South and North Korea:
Time Series Analysis of the Post-Cold War Era,” Journal of East Asian Studies 11, no. 2 (May 2011): 255-
287.
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countries that are at loggerhead bury their differences and again live are unity and cooperate with
each other. In the event that dialogue and treaty failed, US used other competitive methods
such as prestige wars, wars of words, deterrence, espionage and brinkmanship 4 . These tactics
were aimed at ensuring that US wins over its enemies. For instance, Reagan confrontation policy
towards the third world regimes that he deemed hostile. US provided increase military and other
assistance to pro-US third world regimes as one of the strategies to influence these countries. In
the case of EL Salvador, US under Reagan administration increased in its military and economic
assistance in the quest to prevent leftist guerilla forces from taking power. Therefore, such
initiatives were aimed at preventing expansion of Soviet Union ideologies to many countries.
In conclusion, it is actually evident that, USA did its best in projecting itself in good
limelight amidst efforts by other super power such as Soviet Union from denting its image.
Domestic, socio-economic, political and foreign issues as discussed above indicates that indeed,
US has experienced or embraced various changes which makes it the best partner to work with.
US is a nation respects the freedoms of people as it embraces democracy. It also agitated for
equality and economic growth and as well embraces dialogues in its conflict resolution. War is
the last option in the situation where there are not other alternatives and is used to protect its
sovereign and its people.
4 Benedict DeDominicis, “US post cold war grand strategy and multilateral national integration in Europe
and East Asia,” Global Conference on Business & Finance Proceedings 9, no. 1 (July 2014): 50-55.
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Bibliography
DeDominicis Benedict. “US post cold war grand strategy and multilateral national integration in
Europe and East Asia,” Global Conference on Business & Finance Proceedings 9, no. 1
(July 2014): 50-55.
Jong-Han Yoon. “The Effect of US Foreign Policy on the Relationship Between South and North
Korea: Time Series Analysis of the Post-Cold War Era,” Journal of East Asian Studies
11, no. 2 (May 2011): 255-287.
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Morales, Waltraud Queise. “US intervention and the New World Order: lessons from Cold War
and post-Cold War cases,” Third World Quarterly 15, no. 1 (March 1994): 77-101.
