Berlin Airlift Dbq

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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 …show more content…

The conflict began as a result of the Soviet Union setting up blockades to attempt to halt further support from western nations of the democratic sub-state known as West Berlin. The United States and other western European countries responded in the well known Berlin Airlift, which by name, they airlifted in food and other materials necessary for the survival of those within West Berlin. The overall efforts of the U.S. and other western nations was a success; after a year of effort (1948-1949) Joseph Stalin decided to remove the blockade of West Berlin, however many question as to whether the actions took were truly correct. Many debate to this day as to whether or not if the U.S. had taken direct military action against the Soviet Union at this time while we still had the advantage of being the only nation to develop the Atomic Bomb as to whether or not the war would have ended …show more content…

This event was in all senses of it a true crisis and was the closest to nuclear war the two nations had ever been. After the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion by the U.S. the Soviet Union got involved and began sending military support to Cuba, a nation merely 90 miles away from the coast of Florida. The U.S.S.R. armed Cuba with nuclear launch pads and enough nuclear missiles to completely annihilate the east coast of the United States within their 1.1 thousand mile radius as displayed in Document D. Any wrong turn could have resulted in the total destruction of both the United States and Soviet Union. The U.S.’s one failure to contain communism in a nation so close to home resulted in one of the most tense situations throughout the entirety of the Cold War and almost the mutual destruction of both involved

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