It can be said that actions taken by the United States in the early years of the Cold War were completely rational and based on the real fear that the Soviet Union was out to destroy America and our way of life. There are many reasons that one can agree with this statement, but there are also a number of reasons to disagree with this statement. Regardless of what side you embrace, the United States upholds a persona of value and trust, whereas the Soviet Union had a personality that was irrational and untrustworthy. .
In defense of the statement, there are many ways the Soviet Union's personality and actions were comparable to the Nazis. Chafe states this by saying: "from a Western perspective, there seemed little basis for distinguishing between Soviet tyranny and Nazi totalitarianism"(Chafe 32). He goes on to say, "Stated bluntly, the Soviet Union bore the massive share of Nazi aggression" (Chafe 35). .
Since Americans felt it was their mission to "impact their faith and values to the rest of the world"(Chafe p.33), they wanted to take action to defend the innocent victims. The Soviet Union clearly violated the rights of people. On page 32, Chafe states "anyone who protested was killed or sent to one of the hundreds of prison camps". They also violated other rights such as "democratic procedures and international rules of civility"(Chafe 32). .
From another point of view, one might go against the statement and say that the actions of the United States were irrational. "From a Soviet perspective, the United States seemed unwilling to join collectively to oppose the Japanese and German menace. On two occasions, the United States had refused to act in concert against Nazi Germany"(Chafe 32). The Soviets did not think of America as helping them get things in order, they thought the opposite. .
During the time of the Soviet's suffering, there was much controversy as to whether the U.