History Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

History - Assignment Example To what degree do you find his arguments persuasive? (see the box on pg 793) Brezhnev believed that if a country was shifting from Communism to capitalism, it was the duty of those who support Communism to step in and try to stop the shift. He clearly saw it as a good versus evil issue. When Czechoslovakia appeared to be switching to capitalism in 1968, Brezhnev ordered troops to prevent the uprising, and crush the Prague Spring. His arguments are ridiculous. He refused to listen to the will of the people in Czechoslovakia, preferring to kill them instead. The Prague Spring was not the imposition of an invading force; it was the people making a choice for themselves. His policy was also retroactive. This doctrine, espoused by President Harry Truman, suggested that the U.S. would help subjugated people try to free themselves from domination by Communists. At the time it focused on Greece and Turkey, where Communists were trying to take over, but it eventually extended to many other countries. Truman wanted to prevent the Soviet Union from dominating the Third World and he was willing to use American force to do this. Both of these groups were Cold War military alliances. The West had NATO—the North Atlantic Treaty Organization—that included America, Canada, Western Europe, and a few other countries. The Warsaw Pact was the Soviet Union and its allies. Those who foresaw the Cold War turning into a hot war, believed these alliances would fight one another. In each alliance, the countries had mutual assistance pacts. NATO, for example, considered an attack on any NATO country an attack on all of them. This was a crisis that involved the Soviet Union, America, and Cuba. In the early 1960s, the Americans learned that the Russians were putting nuclear missiles on Cuba and point them at the U.S. This led to a serious standoff and a blockade of Cuba. Many believe this was the