How America Became a Superpower

Angela Vu

Mr. Manley

Honors U.S. History 2

23 October 2018

                                “How America Became a Superpower”

        The United States benefited from the Cold War, because the war gave leeway towards a successful and powerful country. By the circumstances of problematic causes that affected the United States, the country learned to solve these problems by creating alliances. Coincidentally, this also made them more powerful as a country. The creation of the Marshall plan, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the United Nations transformed the United States into gaining strong alliances and support from other countries.

        The Marshall plan gave the United States the opportunity to create relations among other countries in Europe. This was an American initiative to aid western Europe’s economy after World War II. By creating this plan, this insured independent allies, stable trade, and a secure relationship. This enabled trust and cooperation among government officials and workers. Overall, the plan has put a strong American influence over Western Europe and convinced  many other countries to trust the Americans, which in turn gave them opportunity to create allies.

        Competition with the Soviet Union led the United States to establish its first permanent alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). To prevent the spread of communism from the Soviet Union, the United States, Canada, and Western Europe worked together by preventing this cause. The creation of NATO helped grow military and political presence in an effort to contain the spread of communism. This helped the United States to officially delegate its foreign policy to other nations. In doing so, this gave a strong American Influence among allied countries. Not only has NATO gave the United States and their allies a strong reliable relationship, but it has helped spread American political and moral views.

        The intended reason of the creation of the United Nations was to construct a way to preserve world peace during the Cold War between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their respective allies. The United Nations served as the centerpiece of a post-war system of collective security mainly backed by the United States. This allowed the American’s effort within the United Nations flow into countries where political conditions were more propitious. By the end of the Cold War, U.S. foreign policy was oriented around one all-encompassing principle: the containment of the Soviet Union and global communism. The principles and purposes of the United Nations largely mirrored the values and interests of the United States. Because of this, an impressive array of functional, humaritan and development agencies were established promoting social progress around the world. These improvements were largely influenced by the United States. Since the United States’ allies developed a similar views as the Americans, this created a stronger relationship between them. The organization reflected the rise of the United States to global leadership in the postwar period.

        By the end of the Cold War, the United States had become one of the most powerful countries in the world. The United States gained the ability to project dominating power and influence over the world. With the help of the Marshall plan that gave them the opportunity to create allies, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization which officialized their relationship between allies and spread their foreign policy, and the United Nations which United States had become a strong part of thus representing their rise in global power and political views. Despite being such a weak country before the Cold War, the United States had used the war to their advantage to rise in power by formed alliances.