The intrusion of the Cold War desecrated the world in three ways. In 1947, The United States (U.S.) had resentment over the non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union (USSR) and Germany. The U.S. and USSR had different political governments; the U.S. was a capitalist nation and the USSR was a communist nation. These differences and geopolitical tensions between the superpowers became to be known as the Cold war, which lasted until 1991. However, the war did not remain between the two countries, it affected other global nations. The U.S. and USSR’s differences in worldly aspirations (Cold War) transformed political alliances, cultural aspects, and economic prosperities in the progressions of Third World nations, including Nicaragua, Iran, …show more content…
and USSR to fight for Nicaragua’s form of government. The U.S. supported anti-Communist Nicaraguan forces called the Contras, or the contra revolucionarios. To weaken the Communist Nicaraguan force (Sandinistas): President Ronald Reagan inflicted a trade embargo, held CIA attacks, funded the Contras army, and taught the citizens to protest the Sandinistas. The USSR funded the Sandinistas, which caused citizens to flee. The U.S. and USSR aided their favored political governments in attempt to tilt the sides of politics. These actions caused a widespread of fleeing, revolts, scared civilians, and an astronomical destruction to Nicaragua’s economy because the embargo isolated Nicaragua, who relied on global …show more content…
Soviet influence in the country began to increase, so a Muslim revolt threatened the Afghanistan’s Communist Regime, which led to a Soviet invasion in 1979. To combat Soviet invasion, the U.S. supplied the Afghan rebels, Mujahideens, because the Soviet invasion was a threat to Middle Eastern oil supplies, restricted U.S. grain shipments to the USSR, and boycotted Moscow in the 1980 Olympics to protest the control of the Persian Gulf. Though Afghanistan was victorious, the country’s infrastructure was ruined and became poor, there was a million deaths, and five million Afghans
When focusing on Nicaragua one will need to pay close attention to the rebel group called the Sandinistas who took over Nicaragua’s previous dictator, Anastasio Somoza in 1979, in which the United States Congress decided it would be best to provide them with aid that lasted till 1981.1 Nicaragua’s geographic location made it a big concern for President Reagan based on his philosophy that surrounded the Reagan Doctrine. At that point, President Reagan ended the aid deal and adamantly advised that support be sent to those who were trying to over throw the new socialized, Sandinista leadership.2 Furthermore, the Nicaraguan’s were dealing with some of the worst warfare ever, by the mass killings that took place, which were at the mercy of death squads.3 This gruesome realization allowed President Reaga...
A war does not necessarily require physical weapons to fight. From 1947 to 1991, military tension and ideological conflicts held place. Cold War is defined as a state of political hostility existing between countries, characterized by threats, violent propaganda, subversive activities, and other measures short of open warfare, in particular. The causes of the Cold War between United States and the Soviet Union were the mutual distrust that had taken place in World War II, intense rivalry between the two super powers, and conflicting ideologies. The two superpowers differed in views of political and economic principles and were eager to spread their ideologies to other countries. The United States were in favor of democracy and capitalism while the Soviet Union sought for the chances of influencing communism. Cold War did not involve the use of physical arms but was intensely fought. Propaganda, economic aids, Arms Race, and the creation of alliances were the main methods to fight the war. The use of propaganda played a crucial role in containment by criticizing the other power and raised the morale and spirit of their nation. The economic support for nations helped them recover from the desperate situation after World War II, which prevented the nations from falling under communism. Also, the Arms Race and forming alliances between the two main powers were important weapons for competition and rivalry in Cold War.
The Cold War was a series of global conflicts connected by the common goal of self determination. The global war which spanned from the 1940s to the 1990s was not solely based on the differing ideologies of communism and capitalism, but rather stemmed from the opportunity after World War II to alter the international system. Countries like the USSR, US, and the global south engaged in conflicts in order to defend their self determination. During the Cold War period self determination could be described as having the ability to make independent decisions within the international system, such as by determining its own statehood, government, and treaties. In the first part of the Cold War, ranging
The Cold War was the most important historic event in the 20th century after the Second World War, from 1945 till 1991 between two most powerful countries in that period – Soviet Union and USA. The Cold War invested a lot in world politics. What is the Cold War? This was a war for dominance in the world. In 1945 the USA was the only one country in the world that had the nuclear weapons. But in the 1949 USSR started to learn their nuclear weapons. In further developments forced the USSR was soon created by nuclear, and then thermonuclear weapons. (Isaacs J, 2008) Fight has become very dangerous for all.
The Cold War was a post-World War II struggle between the United States. and its allies and the group of nations led by the Soviet Union. Direct military conflict did not occur between the two superpowers, but intense economic and diplomatic struggles erupted in the country. Different interests led to mutual suspicion and hostility in a rising philosophy. The United States played a major role in the ending of the Cold War.
The Contra War consisted of many parties, although primarily included the Contras, the Sandinistas or FSLN, and the United States Government. The Nicaraguan Revolution spanned from 1970 to 1990, while the Contra War in which the Contras rebelled against the Sandinistas occurred from 1979 to 1990. The Contras rebelled with the support of the United States against the Sandinistas who recently obtained power in Nicaragua. The current state of tension created by the Cold War, having to do with Communist and Democratic disputes, set the stage for the conflict. The Contra War was a highly controversial period of conflict in Nicaraguan history that comprised of many clashing perspectives. The major parties involved in the war included the United States Government that supported the rebelling Contras and strongly opposed the Sandinista authority in Nicaragua. Along with the Contras or counterrevolutionaries that were disaffected by the Sandinista policies and wanted freedom from the Sandinista Government. A final major party involved in the conflict was Sandinistas, who detested the U.S. backed Contras and were fighting for peace in Nicaragua, after a long period of turmoil and insurrection.
Throughout the Cold War the United States considered the installation in Latin America of radical regimes-socialist, Marxist-Leninist, or “leftist” in any way- to be utterly intolerable. Any such development would represent an advance for the communist cause and a vital loss for the West. Acceptance of this outcome could weaken the credibility of the United States as the leader of the west and as a rival for the USSR. In the eyes of Cold Warriors, the consolidation of any left-wing regime in the Western Hemisphere would have dire and perilous implications for U.S. national security and for the global distribution of power. It was therefore crucial to resist this possibility by any means necessary in countries such as Grenada, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.
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.
Odd Arne Westad, Director of the Cold War Studies Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science, explains how the Cold War “shaped the world we live in today — its politics, economics, and military affairs“ (Westad, The Global Cold War, 1). Furthermore, Westad continues, “ the globalization of the Cold War during the last century created foundations” for most of the historic conflicts we see today. The Cold War, asserts Westad, centers on how the Third World policies of the two twentieth-century superpowers — the United States and the Soviet Union — escalates to antipathy and conflict that in the end helped oust one world power while challenging the other. This supplies a universal understanding on the Cold War (Westad, The Global Cold War, 1). After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union opposed each other over the expansion of their power.
Background. In 1979, a political coalition called the Sandinistas led a revolution in Nicaragua and took control of the government. After United States President Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, he claimed the Sandinistas had set up a Communist dictatorship. He directed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to begin aiding the contras, Nicaraguan rebels who were fighting to overthrow the Sandinistas. In 1983, however, Congress voted to limit the CIA support. In October 1984, Congress voted to cut off all aid to the contras.
The Mujahdeen declared jihad, a holy war, on the Amin government, which included Russia. The Soviet Union took action on December 27th, 1979, by murdering Amin and appointing Kamal Barbak to lead Afghanistan. Many countries were disapproving of Russia's actions and in their perspective, felt that it was both inappropriate and unnecessary in Russia's involvement. The United Nations, an international organization to sustain peace, promote social progress, and to create friendly relations between nations, condemned the Soviet Union's actions in January 1980.... ...
protect Middle Eastern oil supplies from the intruding Soviet power. “The organization also discussed about economic sanctions and trade embargoes against the Soviet Union, called for a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, and stepped up its aid to the Afghan insurgents.” (U.S. DOS). Instead, it took ten years of abrasive revolt before Moscow finally departed, at the cost of millions of lives and billions of dollars. The Soviets left a broken country in which the Taliban, an Islamic fanatic group, seized power, later arranging Osama bin Laden with a training base from which to launch terrorist activity worldwide. The Soviet stance on human rights and its invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 created new tensions between the two countries. On the
The Cold War was an argument between the Soviet Union and the United States of America after WWII. During WWII the USA and the Soviet Union were allies fighting a common cause; Adolph Hitler who was attempting to overthrow the surrounding countries. Although the USA and the Soviet Union were allies, the relationship between the two countries was very tense (What Was). Neither country trusted the other.
With the shock of two destructive world wars and then the creation of the United Nations, whose aim is to preserve peace, it is unconceivable for these two nations to fight directly in order to promote their own ideology. But the US and the USSR end up to be in competition in numerous ways, particularly in technological and industrial fields. In the same time they start to spread their influence over their former allies. This phenomenon have led to the creation of a bipolar world, divided in two powerful blocs surrounded by buffer zones, and to the beginning of what we call the Cold War because of the absence of direct conflicts between the two nations.
The Cold War is the closest the world has ever come to complete destruction. In this period of time, two world super powers were in a stalemate economically and militarily and were constantly competing to be the superior. The Cold War started as result of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union had some differences on their perspectives of the world. United States being the richest country in the world promoted democracy and capitalism in the world. The newly formed Soviet Union thought that communism was a better political system because it transformed their economy and status in the world from nothing but a declining empire to a super power once again. The Cold War was a long series of events in which the communist tried to spread their ideas of government and socialist economy, known as expansionism, and the United States and some of the other Western powers such as Great Britain tried to contain it. Containment, a term introduced by George F. Kennan, was the foreign policy the United States practiced from 1946 to 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed. The United States saw the Soviet Union to be a direct threat to the free world. During president Truman and Eisenhower’s administration the policy of containment evolved so drastically that American presidents would put anything on the line, including world peace.