This House Would Condem American Actions During The Cold War

I would first like to begin by defining 'this house' as the United Nations and 'condemn' as a symbolic resolution that would act a guideline for future foreign policy for all nations. During this debate I will focus on, although will not be limited to, the following failures; --The Domino Theory and subsequent policy of Containment. (Defined here; . http://www.u-s-history.com... ) --The covert operations and intelligence gathering of the CIA. --The Marshall Plan (Defined as; . http://www.archives.gov... ) --The establishment of foreign governments, both democratic and authoritarian, throughout the world. --The use of force in Latin America, Indo-China and Korea. As I have limited this debate to two rounds, I will do my best to sum up my arguments now and use the next round for rebuttals to my opponent's platform. =============== The world in 1945 did not resemble the previous colonial world. Because of the two previous wars, old colonial powers cut loose many of their substituents and countries around the world to find themselves just so; countries. They were no longer cogs in the German, British, French or Japanese empires. At the same time, a new fever was sweeping the world; Communism. The so called 'Specter' that Marx spoke of now floated freely over Europe, Asia, Latin America and even North America. Soon paranoia took hold. The United States' plan for European reconstruction was hindered by Stalin's greedy grab for territory. The 'Big Three' (U. S, U. K, U. S. S. R) focused on reorganized a tattered Europe. Agreements were made to divide Germany, and herein lies the first mistake. The concession of East Germany and East Berlin to the Soviet Union was a thorn in the side of Western foreign policy for years to come. Furthermore, the appeasement of Stalin's grab of Romania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia to name a few was unacceptable and uncorrected for 50 years. I have established a context and now will build my case. Firstly, American indirect interventionism should be recognized as counter productive because of its unintentional bolstering of Communist parties throughout the world. The CIA's dropping of ex-pats into Eastern Bloc (such as Poland), Latin America (Honduras and Nicaragua) and Asian (including Korea) countries resulted in the deaths of thousands of opponents to the authoritarian governments and caused them to increase security. The American government, anticipating large-scale riots in Czechoslovakia and Poland, planted machine guns in the ground at various points throughout the country, yet once the actual revolution started, the rioters could not find the weapons. In some cases, these machine guns fell into the hands of the army and were likely used to kill those they were intended to help. Furthermore, its indiscriminate undermining of democratically elected governments sets up a precedent of hypocrisy. In Nicaragua, the Sandinista movement overthrew a ruthless dictator (on U. S payroll) and replaced him with a revolutionary government. Before given the chance to govern or hold elections, the CIA was given permission to start a right-wing paramilitary campaign against the government. This resulted in billions lost from the Nicaraguan economy, a campaign of torture and murder of thousands of civilians by the right-wing paramilitaries and the transformation of Nicaragua into a perpetual war-state. A similar situation occurred in Chile, where the CIA funded operations that led to the deposition and murder of a democratically elected, non-aligned, moderate Socialist and the installation and support of the brutal dictator Augusto Pinochet. But we see a more dire pattern being established. In the so called post-imperialist age, a new hegemony appears. With the use of 'dollar democracy' (a. k. a. The Marshall Plan) a mirror effect can be observed in that whenever American dollars were poured into Western bloc countries, a similar effect would happen on the Eastern side. This, in effect, caused an even steeper decline in U. S-Soviet relations and a hastening of the arms race. Furthermore, this foreign aid likely created a European dependence on the American Dollar that would make them more susceptible to economic collapse. If we look at the example of Japan, we see an economy that modernized and recovered at a blistering pace with absolutely no U. S aid whatsoever. Furthermore, it successfully fended off Communism (while still allowing Democratic Socialism) despite dire predictions of the Domino Effect being caused by neighboring Korea. While the economic and covert imperialism did become a concern in the Soviet Union and later an important point of propaganda for the Soviets, the more blatant face of U. S ambition was her military adventures. U. S interventionism in Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, China, Cuba, Lebanon, Thailand, the Dominican Republic, Iran, El Salvador and Honduras (among others) caused international outrage. It gave Communists everywhere a bully pulpit from which to oppose U. S military domination of the globe The so-called policy of 'containment' was, in reality, an erratic path of destruction through which the U. S plowed, removing some Communist governments while bolstering every neighboring Communist party. The Domino Effect certainly came true in Indo-China, where the invasion of Vietnam led to increased activity by the Viet-Cong, the success of the Khmer Rouge and the eventual success of the Burmese junta in taking over Mynmar and establish their own way to authoritarianist Socialism. And what exactly did the U. S achieve? The Cold War was ended not by dollar diplomacy or the Truman doctrine, but by poor economic and social organization by the likes of Stalin and Brezhnev. American foreign policy in the Cold War came very close to destroying the world in the Cuban Missile Crisis. By a further failure of the CIA, Kennedy had no knowledge of the tactical nuclear weapons on Cuba. The only reason America knew of these weapons and averted a large-scale invasion of the island was due to a meeting in which a Soviet ambassador let the information slip to John Foster Dulles, thinking the Americans already knew. The only reason Cuba needed the missiles was due to a rejected by Washington of Casto's overtures of diplomacy (going so far as to send a low-level aid to meet with him when he visited New York. ) Castro turned to the Soviet Union only because he feared for the safety of his island and was worried of the reinstallation of the brutal dictator Batista (at the time staying in Florida at the expense of the U. S government. ) I have presented a case where nearly every action of the United States against the Soviet Union resulted in wasted resources, brutal dictatorships and countless deaths. I look forward to my opponent's defense of these tired policies and look forward to responding.