Cold War Foreign Policy Essay

Despite the United States’ own belief in self determination, the U.S. has long felt the obligation to help a struggling country, be a humanitarian aid or to bring peace, justice and freedom into the world. As one of the biggest and most powerful democracy governments in the world, the U.S. has a right to, but when is enough involvement? Although American foreign policies have been praised by many, they have also been cursed just as much. A key moment in American foreign policy history was during the Cold War era. During the Cold War the main priority of the U.S. was ending communism which eve n meant siding with terrorists. It even entailed involvement in Iran's presidential election. At the time many were in favor of what the United States
has brought on their country(ies) which results in violent acts and casualties. In the 1990s, “When the Cold War ended, one might have expected that U.S. involvement in the region would decline, because there was no longer a significant external threat to contain. Instead, the U.S. role deepened… Instead of its earlier balance-of-power approach, the Clinton administration’s strategy of “dual containment” cast Washington in the role of regional policeman.” In modern day, even without the threat of communism the United States felt like it needed to contain the chaos in Iraq and Iran that they had caused. Not only did this stir up the anger in the Middle East, it resulted in more hatred for the overinvolvement of the United States. Bruce Laingen, during the Iran hostage crisis had an experience in which, “after he had spent more than a year as a hostage, one of his captors visited him in his solitary cell. Laingen exploded in rage, shouting at his jailer that this hostage-taking was immoral, illegal and "totally wrong." The jailer waited for him to finish, then replied without sympathy."You have nothing to complain about," he told Laingen. "The United States took our whole country hostage in 1953."” Many years after the coup of the shah in Iran, the injustice and anger toward the U.S. still runs deep. The injustice and outrage the people of Iran have felt towards the U.S. makes them want to be heard of from the world. This results in terrorist and violent acts toward the U.S.. One such of these violent acts was 9/11. Khalid Sheikh, one of the designers of the 9/11 attack said, "Allah aided us in conducting 9/11, destroying the capitalist economy, catching you with your pants down, and exposing all the hypocrisy of your long-held claim to democracy and freedom.” Although Khalid Sheikh and the terrorists responsible for 9/11 were not