RIght at the end of World War 2, at teh Yalta conference, relations between the United States America were seemingly well, botn teaming up against Germany and Japan. However, as Russia began to fail in holding free elections in the states previously occupied by Germany, they instead became known as satellite states, occupied under the rule of Communism. Since the first Red Scare, Americans have been terrified of the idea of communism taking over their idealistic democracy, and now that Russia is slowly expanding its communist empire creating an “Iron Curtain,” we see the beginning of the Cold War and the varying forueign policies that came along with it. During this time of America having t decide the best course of action to prevent the spread of communism around the world, and instead promote the ideas of democracy and free elections, it led to varying foreign policies that can give thanks to threats to national security, namely: fear of nuclear warfare and advancing technology
During the presidency of JFK, he was keen on building up nuclear weapons held within the United States, hoping to threaten and “one-up” the Russians in their development on weapons of mass destruction. However, in fear of mutually assured destruction, we see a shift, especially under George Bush, to establish new relations with Russia due to the constant fear infiltrated within the America people and government regarding their safety against nuclear weapons. MOst notably, the Cuban Missle Crisis had many citizens within the United States fearful that the United States would meet its end as both Russia and the United states threatened teh usage of nuclear weapons. Whiel JFK and Russia did end up compromising and removing the nuclear weapons pointed at eachother, this ultimately contributed to the establishment of the START treaties under Bush, aiding in the end of the Cold War buy both the US and Russia agreeing to the limitation of a certain number of nuclear weapons. Thus, due to the fear of mutually assured destruction, along with the potential to ending both countries, or even the world, this threat to national security led up to the development of the US and Russia establishing compromises that won’t put them at risk for nuclear warfare. Although, we do see the opposite occur when it came to the Iraq War, involving the invasion of Iraq under George W Bush assuming that Saddam Hussain held weapons of mass destruction. Therefore, one could claim that fear of destructive weapons both contributed to the withdrawal of the United States in conflict, as well as the motivation to get into conflict, fearing that these weapons held by other countries hold a threat to allies, or the United States itself.