Question about ethics of Cold War policy.

[David Floyd]

Can't recall the US winning many countries over from the communists back then. More than 3/5ths of the world's population was commie and it looked like a fair part of the rest was going to go also.

So what? This isn't the US's problem - and the US certainly had plenty of military power to prevent a Soviet invasion.

[MRT144]

get off it lancer...everyone in political power was an anti commie loon.

[Lancer]

David, communism was a huge prison system, and well worth fighting.

We just didn't pick our fights well. Again, Kennedy & Johnson.

[David Floyd]

David, communism was a huge prison system, and well worth fighting.

Communism was certainly a huge prison system, because it sought to strip away individual rights.

But then again, the United States was doing the same thing. By forcing people to fight communism, and by forcing its policies on other nations, the US was becoming just as bad as what it was fighting.

[Lancer]

MRT, if you could see the things I've seen, you would understand.

[Lancer]

Hey, we won David. That's why you have the freedom of speach you so enjoy misusing.

[David Floyd]

Hey, we won David. That's why you have the freedom of speach you so enjoy misusing.

No, I have freedom of speech because of my right to liberty, not because one oppressive nation forced another more oppressive nation to back down.

And by using the word "won", you are implying that there is a chance the US could have lost. If by that you mean there is a chance the US could have been invaded, that is absolutely incorrect.

[MRT144]

maybe i would, but all i see from you(and shi) is strict partisan politics. you deny everything wrong that a republican has done but come down 10 times as hard on a democrat.

[Japher]

Except that many of the people (not governments, but people) the US was "protecting" would have preferred communism, instead of their status as a US puppet.

I am not say what the people of those nations wanted, nor did I try to say that. Also, I don't think that anyone could accuratly tell us one way or another what the majority of the people really wanted.

Are you trying to say that the US did not suppress people and ideas and force its own politics on other nations? If that's your position, that's pretty laughable.

I did make mention that what we did since the "declaration of war" was ammoral:

I do, however, feel that actions sence these times have shown us, the US, to be behaving similarly to the communist states of post WWII.

Yet, I was addressing the mere action of the decleration.

Yes, the lack of morals stem from how we dealt with the conflicts with communism, but the consiquences are not the actions that justified the actual decleration.

Preventing the spread of communism was in no way wrong, on our part. Declaring war was suitable in these situations because it was the only method by which to avoid the spread. Now, if the people of the countries that we "protected" did not want our presence their in the first place, then yes it was probably wrong, but there is no way to determine this.

The reason I included an incomplete sentence containing the words Truman Doctrine is becuase that explained the moral justifications of war, according Truman and the presidents that followed. The Doctrine did not say fight to your dying breath to prevent communism. It said that we should support those countries that want help, so that they do not become communist. Nothing amoral about that.

Military conflict occured were they, the communsit, "fired the first shot", and "invaded". Thus, in a way we were defending ourselves and our interests.

Of course we can't say that the good ppl of Korea and Vietnam wanted our help, but how can we be sure that Turkey and Greece "really" wanted not to become communist as well?

[Lancer]

MRT, we were discussing the Vietnam war, and how can you do that without talking about Kennedy and Johnson?

[Sava]

Paranoid, ignorance, and intolerance on both sides fueled the Cold War. The Cold War was immoral, but on both sides. Unfortunately, the US still likes to meddle in the affairs of others perhaps because it's so used to doing so a'la Cold War. And even though the SU is not an enemy anymore, the US still continues as the largest manufacturer of biological and chemical weapons... as well as being the largest conventional arms manufacturer and exporter. As long as the leadership in this country gives kickbacks and tax credits to defense contractors, it will continue to spread weapons of death across the globe.

[MRT144]

"Democrats " thats the comment a pure partisan would make. sure kennedy and johnson got our asses into the war but its not like republicans were going "no, stop, we have no right to be there". and nixon dragged his feet getting us out.

[Shi Huangdi]

The way we fought the cold war so aggresively at times is the reason we won. I think in some cases going to war against a country simply because its communist, such as our action in Grenada, is acceptable because communism was an evil form of government and nobody has a right to inflict that evil on their people. We were perfectly justified to come in and stop the communists.

[MRT144]

Shi, you could just interchangibly use "america" with "communist" and youd see the way the rest of the world views us.

[DuncanK]

Originally posted by Lancer
David, communism was a huge prison system, and well worth fighting.

We just didn't pick our fights well. Again, Kennedy & Johnson.

The cold war wasn't\isn't about liberating people. The US doesn't give a **** about liberating people. The US is an Imperialist nation. It needs trading partners. If the world would have turned communist then the capitalists in the US could only be able to exploit their own people, not the other people of the world. That's what the cold war was\is about. It hasn't ended just because of the break up of the USSR or the changes in China. Things are just slow right now in most of the world. Things will heat up again eventually.