The Cold War was an extensive period of time directly following the end of WW2 in which major conflicts and tensions heated between two past and present global superpowers, the United States of America and the USSR, which is now known as the Russian Federation. The Cold War was like an artist, and the world its canvas, as between the years of 1947 and 1991, the War was splashed in many colours of attack, including espionage, a nuclear arms and space race and proxy wars, like that of the Vietnamese
23 March 2014 Decades - The Cold War Today, there is a single event in history that which still has an effect on the entire world. It is one among many is still discussed and debated over of it’s beginnings. Source for many social and political going-ons in the world, the Cold War is that event. So what precisely was the Cold War? Since the country had won independence and started as it’s own, we have always fought for our freedoms and the natural rights of man. The war was an arms race and a battle
by the actions of the communist Soviet Union and the liberal-democratic United States, and the Cold War would be remembered largely as the result of two contrasting and powerful ideological empires edging one another out for worldwide dominance. People, when considering the gross scale events of the Cold War, were largely not influential. Whether it be the Cuban Missile Crisis, Korean and Vietnam wars, or simply the flow of daily life in both superpowers, almost every significant event can be tied
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. With the shock of two destructive world wars and then the creation
Introduction The Cold War was a war between the two superpowers, the United States of America and the Soviet Union between 1947 and 1990. The USA was capitalist whereas the USSR was communist. Each superpower favored and supported their ideology while attempting to spread it throughout the world in order to create a sphere of influence. These ideological differences therefore led to a war whereby the superpower either attempted to spread their ideology or contain the opposing ideology by a means
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. After WWII their relationship became even more tense due to the building of new weapons capable
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. In 1946, the U.S.S.R. organized Communist governments
The ‘Cold War’ is one of the most interesting ‘wars’ fought in world history. The sheer number of countries both directly and indirectly involved is enough to pose the question – To what extent was the Cold War a truly Global War? This essay will examine this idea. It will identify two main areas of argument, focusing on the earlier part of the conflict (1945-1963). Firstly it will examine the growing US and Soviet influence in the world post 1945. Secondly it will examine three main conflicts, the
In his book Cold War: The American Crusade against World Communism, James Warren discusses the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, its causes, its consequences, and its future. Warren also analyzes why the United States was so afraid of communism and how this fear controlled both U.S. domestic and foreign policy. In George Washington’s Farewell Address, he warned future leaders to avoid foreign entanglements. However, the United States strayed away from this policy in 1941 after
The Cold War was the perpetual rivalry that took place between the Soviet Union and The United States. The war was called the Cold War because no direct fighting took place between America and Russia. Instead, it was a war of words and threats. It was an ideological war based on ideas of communism and capitalism. The war never fully escalated because both powers knew that use of nuclear weapons would be disastrous, although, there was a nuclear arms escalation between both sides. The Truman Doctrine
Discussions of the causes of the Cold War are often divisive, creating disparate ideological camps that focus the blame in different directions depending on the academic’s political disposition. One popular argument places the blame largely on the American people, whose emphasis of “strength over compromise” and their deployment of the atomic bomb in the Second World War’s Pacific theatre apparently functioned as two key catalysts to the conflict between US and Soviet powers. This revisionist approach
The cold war era is when America was at its most suspicious and paranoid. The cold war grew out of tensions that were post WWII. Two worldly super powers clashed over rivalry and one wanted to have more influence. This rivalry went for almost half of the 20th century, and led to many international incidents that almost brought both powers to a mutual destruction. For the time of WWII the United States and the Soviet fought side by side as allies. Although they were allies with the same cause their
super power following World War II. Many of the Allies were deeply affected by the war financially and were struggling, thus leaving a vacuum that needed to be filled. The United States was thrust into the position of “policing” and assisting nations around the world. The Cold War was in many ways a psychological illusion however there were many factors that led to this illusion which were well founded. The Cold War stemmed from a multitude of factors, the difficult war against Nazi’s and Japan
The Cold War began in 1946, shortly after WWII, and ended more than four decades later in 1991. It began with the shifting struggle for power and prestige between the Western hemisphere and the Soviet Union. The U.S. and President Harry Truman fear of communist attack and the Soviet Union need for a secure western border led to America’s effort in providing economic stability and security to nations of the Western hemisphere. In addition, President Truman began his “Get Tough” policy that encouraged
The end of the cold war signified a new era of history that has changed the entire world. The face of Europe and Asia has changed dramatically. Vast changes have been felt socially, politically, and especially economically. Also the effect the cold war had on foreign policy was paramount. The effect of these changes is not only felt across the ocean but can be felt here in America. The goal of this paper is to define what the cold war specifically was, and reflect upon the various choices throughout
own government was an enemy as well. With the wave of the civil rights movement and the Women’s movement, the government attempted to reprimand the flaws in the system, but there was nothing they could do fast enough to satisfy the people. As the Cold War era heated up, Presidents began to become more and more nervous in the hot seat, and this is where we see the trend of seemingly bungling, clandestine presidencies with leaders who didn’t know how to spread themselves effectually across the issues
The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union resulted in major shift in United States foreign policy. For years, the United States supported tyrannical dictators in return for stable anti-communist government receptive to United States interests. The Cold War resulted in a new world order with the United States as the lone global hegemonic power. In Eastern Europe in particular, the end of the Cold War ushered in an era of economic growth and a large increase in the number of liberal
power, the rise of Soviet power, and the growing dangers of uncontrolled competition between the two superpowers. It was made clear that the policy was significant to the two nations when President Richard Nixon of the United States visited the cold war enemies’ secretary-general of the Soviet Communist Party, Leonid Brezhnev in Moscow, May 1972. It was hoped that this freshly established relationship between the two superpowers would progress into a permanent improvement in relations between the
The Origins of the Cold War The Cold War period from 1945 to 1985 was a result of distrust and misunderstanding between the USSR and the United States of America. This distrust never actually resulted any fighting between the two superpowers but they came very close to fighting on several occasions. The Cold War was a result of many different events and factors including the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the Potsdam Conference of 1945, the differences between communism and capitalism, the
The Cold War was the tension and struggle between the Capitalist Bloc dominated by the United States and the Communist Bloc dominated by the Soviet Union from 1946 to 1991, due to their ideological difference, mutual distrust and conflict of interests. The confrontation between the 2 superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, took on several forms to extend their global influence, which included setting up opposing plans and organisation, armament race, supporting allies in proxy wars, spy