Cold War

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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.

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