The possibility of a nuclear war laid on the hearts and minds of American officials every day during the period known as the Cold War. With the slightest miscalculation of Soviet intentions or erred judgement in communist maneuvers America could have been thrust into a war with the Soviet Union an equally dangerous nuclear nation. In some ways the knowledge that both sides possessed enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world helped contain the situation but in other ways it only added more strain to the enormous pressure. There are a few theories which help thoroughly analyze the rise of the Cold War and determine the reason it started. Through grasping ideas behind the origins of the cold war you can begin to see that the cold war was not …show more content…
The domino theory states that the spread of communism is like a row of dominos and once one nation falls to communism all the other nations around it will began to fall. This hardline theory implied to U.S officials that the American government must be willing to militarily protect the noncommunist countries around the Soviet’s iron curtain. The policy of containment would be put in place which was actively stopping the spread of communism and containing communism to countries that were already communist. At first this only meant sending military supplies and monetary aide to countries such as Greece who were in the middle of civil war with the communist right wing. This policy would only continue to escalate and become more aggressive as seen in 1950 when the soviet backed communist North Korea invaded south Korea sparking the Korean war. Fearing a spread of communism throughout Asia the U.S entered the war on behalf of south Korea and engaged in a three-year long stalemate with Soviet back north Koreans. Other proxy wars would occur under the cold war but for numerous reasons including the threat of nuclear weapons a direct engagement between the U.S and the Soviet Union never …show more content…
During Eisenhower’s terms as president the U.S followed a policy of massive retaliation which meant that if attacked the U.S would respond with a large number of nuclear weapons rather than deploying ground forces (Shivley pp,6). As the soviet Nuclear capabilities grew this theory would give way for the idea of mutually assured destruction, which noted that both sides would theoretically be able to destroy the other opponent with nukes. With these elements of danger looming in the background both nations were reluctant to enter into dangerous disagreement or conflicts in fear of causing the other nation to declare war. Even with this knowledge of nuclear weapons both the U.S and soviet came inches away form a nuclear war when in 1962 the U.S became enraged over the placement of Soviet nuclear weapons in its southern neighbor Cuba. The placement of nuclear weapons in this case added ma extra strain to the cold war relations between the two countries and almost led to disastrous war. In the end the thought of a nuclear war along with the rationale following calmer agreement talks ended this
The Cold War was a period of dark and melancholic times when the entire world lived in fear that the boiling pot may spill. The protectionist measures taken by Eisenhower kept the communists in check to suspend the progression of USSR’s radical ambitions and programs. From the suspenseful delirium from the Cold War, the United States often engaged in a dangerous policy of brinksmanship through the mid-1950s. Fortunately, these actions did not lead to a global nuclear disaster as both the US and USSR fully understood what the weapons of mass destruction were capable of.
During the cold war, the United States engaged in many aggressive policies both at home and abroad, in which to fight communism and the spread of communist ideas. Faced with a new challenge and new global responsibilities the U.S. needed to retain what it had fought so strongly for in World War II. It needed to contain the communist ideas pouring from the Soviet Union while preventing communist influence at home, without triggering World War III. With the policies of containment, McCarthyism, and brinkmanship, the United States hoped to effectively stop the spread of communism and their newest threat, the Soviet Union.
The Cold War in 1945 to 1953 brought about a period of tension and hostility due to the feud between the United States and the Soviet Union. The period began with the end of the Second World War. The situation acquired the title for there was no physical active war between the two rivals. The probability of the tension got to be the fear of the then rise in nuclear ammunition. Things began to roll when a US based U2 sky plane got to take photos of some USSR intermediate ballistic missiles with the capability of transporting nuclear heads.
The Korean War , although successful in preventing the spread of communism, was one of the first tests of communism in Asia. North Korea was strictly communist while South Korea was democratic. As usual, the United States supported democratic South Korea and the Truman Doctrine was applied to the Korean situation. The North Korean forces crossed the dividing line (38th parallel) and invaded South Korea. Thus, they provoked a war over communism. With the possibility of democratic South Korea falling to the communistic North, the U.S. stepped in and supplied aid mostly through troops. The U.S. then urged the United Nations to support South Korea and fight against the communist North. Once the North Korean forces were defeated at Inchon, they eventually got pushed back to the 38th parallel. However, against President Truman’s word, American General MacArthur decided to keep pushing back the North Korean forces by crossing the dividing line. This caused more trouble because the People’s Republic of China (Communist China) now sent troops to aid the communists against the pro...
As both of the world’s superpowers attempted to outstrip each other in a nuclear arms race, it grew increasingly apparent that should one nation attempt to strike the other or its allies with nuclear weapons, the consequences from the secondary strike would cause an unacceptable loss of life and likely the extinction of the human race. Consider the Cuban Missile Crisis, for instance. There were multiple times where all out nuclear war between the East and the West came close to occurring. From the Soviet and American missiles that were readied in Cuba and in other parts of the globe, to nuclear torpedoes aboard the Soviet submarine B-59, and nuclear missiles carried aboard US bombers and interceptors, the realization that complete annihilation for nations would ensue with one wrong move greatly influenced the decisions of Soviet and US leaders alike. This was especially true when President Kennedy attempted to use diplomatic and military pressure against Khrushchev to remove the missiles, rather than ordering bomber runs and an invasion against Cuba.
In February 1946, George F. Kennan, an American diplomat in Moscow, proposed a policy of containment. Containment is the blocking of another nation’s attempts to spread its influence. During the late 1940s and early 1950s the United States used this policy against the Soviets. The United States wanted to take measures to prevent any extension of communist rule to other countries. The conflicting U.S. and Soviet aims in Eastern Europe led to the Cold War. The Berlin airlift, formation of NATO, and the Truman Doctrine all relate to this policy of containment.
There have been many attempts to explain the origins of the Cold War that developed between the capitalist West and the communist East after the Second World War. Indeed, there is great disagreement in explaining the source for the Cold War; some explanations draw on events pre-1945; some draw only on issues of ideology; others look to economics; security concerns dominate some arguments; personalities are seen as the root cause for some historians. So wide is the range of the historiography of the origins of the Cold War that is has been said "the Cold War has also spawned a war among historians, a controversy over how the Cold War got started, whether or not it was inevitable, and (above all) who bears the main responsibility for starting it" (Hammond 4). There are three main schools of thought in the historiography: the traditional view, known alternatively as the orthodox or liberal view, which finds fault lying mostly with the Russians and deems security concerns to be the root cause of the Cold War; the revisionist view, which argues that it is, in fact, the United States and the West to blame for the Cold War and not the Russians, and cites economic open-door interests for spawning the Cold War; finally, the post-revisionist view which finds fault with both sides in the conflict and points to issues raised both by the traditionalists as well as the revisionists for combining to cause the Cold War. While strong arguments are made by historians writing from the traditionalist school, as well as those writing from the revisionist school, I claim that the viewpoint of the post-revisionists is the most accurate in describing the origins of the Cold War.
After the Korean War, it was believed that the United States’ nuclear build-up had played a key role in achieving armistice. At this time, early in President Eisenhower's term in office, he had announced his policy of nuclear superiority. During this time period of nuclear build up, the Soviet Union began to find ways to overcome deficiencies in their strategic technologies2. Not soon after Eisenhower made his policy known, Russia became the first country to successfully test ICBMs, or Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. These tactical nuclear weapons are land based rocket propelled vehicles capable of intercontinental range in excess of 4000 nautical miles....
The end of the Cold War was one of the most unexpected and important events in geopolitics in the 20th century. The end of the Cold War can be defined as the end of the bipolar power struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union, which had existed since the end of the World War II. The conclusion of the Cold War can be attributed to Gorbachev’s series of liberalizations in the 1980s, which exposed the underlying economic problems in the Soviet Union and Eastern bloc states that had developed in the 1960s and 70s and prevented the USSR from being able to compete with the US as a superpower. Nevertheless, Reagan’s policies of a renewed offensive against communism, Gorbachev’s rejection of the Brezhnev doctrine and the many nationalities
The Cold War stretched out from 1945 to 1990 and commenced during the time when Truman was the leader of the USA and Stalin the leader of the USSR. The USSR and the USA never went to war on their own soil but fought ‘proxy wars’ through allied countries. The first of these was in Korea. After the end of World War II both countries were keen to establish their strength in Europe and Asia. Both were interested in maintaining their markets and controlling the military might of the other side. Both were also committed to winning the battle of ideas: communism vs. capitalism. In an attempt to prevent communism taking hold in Korea general McArthur quadrupled his forces there. The USSR responded by sending over 1 million soldiers. Today Korea is still divided into the communist north and capitalist south. . Further proxy wars were fought in Angola, Nicaragua and Afghanistan. This was particularly shown during the USSR’s occupation of Afghanistan. This occurred in 1979. In response the USA supported the Mujahedeen or Afghani ‘freedom fighters’ dragging out the war. What would have been a fairly easy takeover for the USSR became a long and protracted war due to the USA involvement. The USSR was finally defeated by the Afghanis ten years later.
On October 14, 1962 brought the world close to a nuclear confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. Political position adopted by both sides nearly prevented a resolution., but a compromise was found and the nuclear war averted. There was a direct and dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet and was the moment when two superpowers came closest to nuclear conflict.
A frequent question that comes along with the Cold war was why did it happen and could we have avoided it. The Cold War was not actually a way and mainly created sharp boundaries between the Soviet Union and the U.S.One way that the Cold War could have been prevented was at the time of the split of Germany after WWII. West Germany was held by the Allied powers of UK, Britain and France. The Soviet Union contained East Germany, and they spread their ideas of Communism. Berlin was also located inside East Germany, but the berlin wall separated the East (Communist) and West (Capitalist). There were tons of violence and many attempts to enter into West Berlin by the East Berliners. This had lasted all the way up until the Wall was demolished into pieces by 1989 after the dissolution of East and West Germany. So this could have been prevented because the U.S and Soviet Union could have met at common ground when deciding on their government systems. Since a giant part of the Cold War had to do with the Soviet Union being a communist government while the U.S. had a capitalist government. In the Cold War there were many nuclear threats. We could have looked at the Nuclear bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki towards the end of WWII. Looking at these bombing would have showed us the true power of a nuclear bomb on a country and how inhumane dropping a nuclear bomb would be. From those 2 bombings above alone killed over 200,000 people.
even though these were the only potential military threat to the US. It was always the "political" threat of so-called “Communism" that was the primary concern. Of course, both the US and USSR would have preferred that the other simply disappear. But since this would obviously have involved mutual annihilation, the Cold War was established.
The Cold War (1945-1991) was a substantial war that was fought on an. economic, philosophical, cultural, social and political level. This impacted globally and changed the majority of the world’s societies to a. liberated fashion, rather than the archaic and conservative ways. Global war is a war engaged in by all if not most of the principle nations of the world, a prime example of such would be of the two great wars. Therefore the cold war can’t be classified as a global war in terms of the military and actual warfare’s, as the two superpowers (Soviet Union and USA) fought indirectly with each other, however to an extent the cold war can be said it’s a global war in terms of its politics and economics. The The effects of the Cold War were definitely felt globally and had an aftermath.
After World War II there was a strong anti-communist movement in America for decades prior to the 1950s. Nuclear weapons also sent a shot of distrust and fear between America and Russia. Information about nuclear weapons was very limited to the public. There are some facts, details, and reasons on why did this war happen, effects of the Cold War, and how society reacted to the War.