Cold War:
After WWII ended, the United States entered into a war that lasted for over four decades, and was unlike any war we had fought previously. Not a single shot was fired, because the cold war was a war fought with the threat of annihilation by both sides. This war was a war between the United States and the USSR, the Soviet Union. The purported reason behind the cold war was that both countries, the U.S. and the Soviet Union had very different kinds of government, the Soviet Union’s communism, and the United States democracy. Each country believed their form of government would be the best government for the whole world and their types of government were very different. The Communists formed the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) in the effort to begin a revolution for the purpose of overthrowing capitalism. Lenin and Stalin set up a totally state controlled economy. Due to the fact that socialism and capitalism are so opposite from democracy, the United States believed this form of government was a threat to the American freedom and way of life.
Both the United States, Soviet Union and several other nations continually competed for potential military superiority. This competition was evidenced in increases in conventional weaponry, increases in nuclear arsenals, technological innovations including computers, satellites and space travel. Nuclear delivery systems first started as propeller and jet bomber aircraft, short range nuclear missiles, to missiles that were capable of striking other continents, to the more technologically advanced satellite systems. As this Cold War escalated both the United States and the Soviet Union each had nuclear weapons enough to wipe out the whole world, the policies behin...
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...ndemn protesting wars as it once did.
Partly as a result of the lack of support for our military and the type of guerilla warfare our service men saw in Viet Nam, many came home with substance abuse problems. Our country had never seen the number of servicemen who suffered from drug abuse, mental conditions, such as Post traumatic Stress Disorder, and lacking the ability to integrate back into society, as we did after Viet Nam. Our society, I do not believe, was prepared for the large number of problems exhibited by these returning service men. The impact of Viet Nam can still be seen today when you look at the large number of ex service men who fought in Viet Nam who occupy Veteran’s hospitals for mental illnesses. Although recently our country has begun to recognize these brave soldiers of that war, we are still seeing fall out that stems from this war.
The post-war world left the Soviets and the United States in an ideological power struggle. The origin of the cold war is hard to pinpoint. There were several issues and disagreements that led to it. The political differences between the 2 nations were absolute opposites. America was a democracy, a system that allows its citizens to choose the political party in which runs the government. The Communists were led by one of the most vicious dictators in human history, Joseph Stalin.
The terms hawks and doves' were quick labels attached to politicians in order to categorize their views on war and foreign policies, as to make them understandable and accessible for the public. However, these labels were not always accurate and in some cases could be quite misleading; it would have been more accurate not to label individuals as either Hawks or Doves, but instead, what they stood for.
COLD WAR During 1945 and early in 1946, the Soviet Union cut off nearly all contacts between the West and the occupied territories of Eastern Europe. In March 1946, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill warned that "an iron curtain has descended across the Continent" of Europe. He made popular the phrase Iron Curtain to refer to Soviet barriers against the West (Kennedy 1034). Behind these barriers, the U.S.S.R. steadily expanded its power.
QUESTION 2: The Cold War is an international conflict, a global fight between the United States and the Soviet Union that began in Europe in the wake of World War II but quickly expanded into Asia and the Third World. These international events, however, undoubtedly influenced domestic American politics between 1945 and 1965. How did the international Cold War shape, influence, or change domestic American politics in the first twenty years of the conflict?
Both the US and Soviet Union developed technology and used these new nuclear powerz to build many weapons. The charts presented in document 7 depict the build up of long range bombers during the early stages before the war. As years went on, the US and Soviet Union both had an increasing number of weapons such as ballistic missiles and long range bombers. In document 8, President John Kennedy states that there is, “unmistakable evidence that a series of offensive missile sites are now being built” (Doc 8). This increase of nuclear development forced both the US and Soviets to become prepared and angry at what was possible to come. Along with offensive purposes, these nuclear weapons were made as a defensive tactic, according to Document 9. If one side had weapons, the other had to make more in order to be more
After World War II, the last remaining Superpowers became the two most powerful countries in the world. These two nations being the United States and Soviet Union. But because of each country's strong and different views on things like economics and government, a Cold War was started. This war was a battle fought of ideas, not a physical clash. One of the main differences in ideas was communism. The Soviet Union were communist which basically meant the government was in charge of/controlled everything and everyone was paid relatively the same. The United States, on the other hand, were capitalists, which means the people of the US control the production of goods, what they did as work, etc. The Soviet Union had control over Eastern Europe and
The clash of ideologies between the Soviet Union and the United States left the Cold War inevitable. Tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States created opposing views for political and economic order. “Tensions between the Unites States and the Soviet Union dated back to the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, which created a communist state (Rosenberg and Rosenberg, pgs.5-6). Prior to the Cold War and WWII the United States wasn’t overly concerned with exporting democracy, part of that was a byproduct and caused by the Cold War. A sense of democracy was the best form of governance in America’s eyes and the best way to reduce conflict between nations. The Soviet Union, within the tenants of Marxism felt that the belief that all nations would become Communist societies after a certain point. Mounting distrust continued when tensions between the Soviets and the Germans
The time period labeled as the Cold War could be described as one of great tension and fear. At the end of World War II the United States and the Soviet Union met head to head in a clash between democracy and communism. The conflict was born out of a conflict of ideals; the Soviet Union believed that democracy was a failing system and communism would spread throughout the world, and at the opposite end of that the United States hoped to contain the spread of communism. This direct conflict of ideals lead several policies and alliances, namely; the Truman Doctrine which stated the U.S. would get involved to help nations threatened by communism and the U.S.S.R.’s policy of expansion of communism. These conflicts of interest resulted in the fifty
From 1945 to1975 many nations around the world were afraid of the belief called communism that eventually led to a Cold War. Many people were afraid that it would spread like a disease all around the world and affect everyone to the comfort of their homes. Communism limits the freedom and gives little or no democracy to the people it rules or governs. The two powerful nations the United States non-communist and the Soviet Union (USSR) communist and get themselves into a feud between each other and drag other nations along in the fight. This communism belief threatened many people at this time and the effort to stop communism from spreading or do exactly that, had taken its tole on the people of the U.S and the people around the world.
After World War II America and Russia became superpowers. Even thought they fought together against the Nazis they soon became hostile rivals. Between 1945 and
The cold war which is the period of tension between the United States and Soviet Union drastically altered life for Americans. The tensions have still been escalating to this period. In World War 2 Russia was an ally of the us and England because the war against Germany. Although Stalin was considered a devil because of how he treated his people; he was a totalitarian dictator murdered people left and right, the political and military relationship between Russia has been on rocky ground ever since then. The fear of nuclear destruction had a big part to do with higher education, economy, immigration policy, civil rights and civil liberties. A period of time known as the red scare which was also known as the red menace had a profound effect on the American society as a whole It had an direct impact on the lives of Americans for instance with the launch of sputnik 1 which was launched in 1957 the us took measures to launch an overhaul in science education. This satellite launch emphasized that the Soviet Union had trampled the us into space. . As mentioned in a speech by Precedent john F Kennedy June, 10, 1963 “it is an ironic but accurate fact; that the two strongest powers are the two with the most danger of devastation. All we have built, all we have worked for would be destroyed in the first 24 hrs and even in the cold war with brings burdens and dangers to so many countries including this nations closest allies our two countries bare the heaviest burdens. For wee are both devoting massive sums of money to weapons. That could be better devoted to combat ignorance, poverty and disease.” (kennedy) Mad short for Mutual assured destruction or also referred to as mutual suicide on September 1867 Sec. of Defense Robert McNamara be...
In 1945, most of the countries around the world are devastated further to World War II which had stroke the globe for six years. Only the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, also called USSR, seem to be in a stable economic situation despite weighty losses. Both states are considered to be the great winners of the war and this is the beginning of a confrontation between two superpowers but also the confrontation between two distinct ideologies: communism and capitalism.
From when World War II ended in 1945, all the way up to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Cold War was the center of attention of international affairs. It was a struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union. From an American view the Cold War was a mostly a war on communism. The US caused and maintained the Cold War, the US is to blame for the Cold War for disparish of the communist Soviet Union in support of the political and economic systems.
At the same time, the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were involved in the Cold War. They were competing against one another, constantly trying to show that their country (and therefore their form of government and ideals) was the better choice. They were competing for influence over the rest of the world. Eventually the USSR and Communism lost, but far more important results came out of this competition instead.