My Epic Introduction

I've decided to post the introduction to my end of term paper for FYE. It's in no way finished but I'm quite proud of the introduction so far. I will post the entirety of the paper when I finish.

About the capitalist states, it doesn't depend on you whether we (Soviet Union) exist. If you don't like us, don't accept our invitations, and don't invite us to come to see you. Whether you like it our not, history is on our side. We will bury you.
-Nikita Khrushchev
Russian Soviet politician (1894 - 1971)

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.
-Ronald Reagan
40th president of US (1911 - 2004)

In February of 1917 something was happening in Russia that would fundamentally alter world politics and, ultimately, determine U.S. foreign policy for the next 90 years. This event, the Bolshevik Revolution, began in the streets, among the angered labor force of the once great Russian Empire. The people would, in time, make their way to the lavish palaces of the high aristocracy tearing down centuries of accumulated excess. The revolution, pushed by popular sentiment, hunger, and oppression, would only come to a stop at the Winter Palace, where after protracted resistance; the Czar’s government would finally surrender. Here “the people” made their stand. Here, the Czarist monarchy, which had stood for generations, would meet its bitter end. Eventually, through the work of Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, and Alexander Kerensky, the Russian Empire would become the United Soviet Socialist Republics.

At the same time, across an ocean, a very different revolution was taking place. In 1917, the United States stood on the precipice of war in Europe. Raking in great dividends from war loans to the Allies, and making nearly two billion dollars in war contracts with their brethren across the Atlantic, the United States was prospering. With the Russian state officially withdrawn from the war, the German divisions of the Eastern Front were pushed to the Western Front were they bolstered the German lines. Now that Germany had the “upper hand” in the Great War, U.S. involvement seem necessary for the preservation of England and France. Urged by American capitalists and justified by a series of German blunders (the Zimmerman telegram, the sinking of the Lusitania, and, in general, and Germany’s declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare) President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war on April 6, 1917 and officially entered the Great War on the side of the Allies. Upon entering the war, capitalism was proclaimed (unofficially) the standard in regards to American economic and political structure. It can be argued that, without the collective might of the capitalists and industrialists, the United States would never have been able to make war on Germany. After the war, President Wilson would marshal the United States into the image of “super power” and “protector of republicanism” through his famous Fourteen Points. Promising self determination to all colonies of empire, Wilson would set the standard for United States intervention. Later, Wilson’s “Open Door” would be the opening through which the United States would see the Cold War. From the end of World War II to the collapse of the Berlin Wall the United States would attempt to "make good" on Wilson’s promise at the end of the Great War: All nations have the right to determine how they will be governed.