Cold War's Impact on America Politically, Socially, and Economically
As the Soviet Union approaches Berlin from the East, the allied forces invade from the west. Hitler’s German war-machine was crumbling. The United States had to make an enormous decision. Should they attack the Red Army of the Soviet Union? Should they keep the increasingly shaky alliance with the Russians and end the war in Europe? America chose to remain allies, resulting in a decision that affected the world for the next 46 years. World War 2 had concluded but now there was a new enemy, the Soviet Communist.
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.
America has a capitalist economic system that allows private ownership of business and property. This freedom allows citizens the opportunity for financial success. All businesses and institutions of the Russian socialist economy were owned, regulated, and operated by the government.
The purpose of American government is to protect the individual rights of its citizens. The soviet regime stood for control. World War 2 had just ended, and these two super-powers were becoming agitated, leery, and even paranoid of looming intentions.
Although U.S.S.R and the U.S. were allies in the war, the suspicion and distrust was radiating from both sides. The Verona Project ...
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...mic age is unimaginable. Taxes were raised on Americans, giving huge amounts of money to the military and national defense.
To conclude, the cold war had an enormous effect on nearly every aspect of American life. With varying results, some were good and others were bad. I sense that the Cold war was helpful to us as a nation. Russian competition pushed the U.S. toward improvements in technology, military, science, and education. In a world with 2 superpowers the U.S. was driven to be better than the competitor. But now we are alone at the top and there is nowhere to go but down. Hopefully the termination of the U.S.S.R. didn’t open up a spot for a new and better world power to emerge in the near future.
Bibliography
Present Tense: The United States Since 1945, Michael Schaller, Virginia Scharf, & Robert Schulzinger. Houghton-Mifflin, ISBN 0395745349, 2003
The alliance formed between the US and USSR during the second world war was not strong enough to overcome the decades of uneasiness which existed between the two ideologically polar opposite countries. With their German enemy defeated, the two emerging nuclear superpowers no longer had any common ground on which to base a political, economical, or any other type of relationship. Tensions ran high as the USSR sought to expand Soviet influence throughout Europe while the US and other Western European nations made their opposition to such actions well known. The Eastern countries already under Soviet rule yearned for their independence, while the Western countries were willing to go to great lengths to limit Soviet expansion. "Containment of 'world revolution' became the watchword of American foreign policy throughout the 1950s a...
The. The Foundation of An Alliance." Anti-Comintern Pact -. Ed. Scott Wolfrom.
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 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 Soviet Union and the United States served as Allies during World War II. At the end of the war however each side wanted to deal with the aftermath differently. The United States was in favor of a peaceful and cooperative relationship with Germany and their Allies. The Soviet Union wanted revenge on the crimes and atrocities that were committed against them. The United States wanted to push democracy in Eastern Europe yet the Soviets countered this by saying the United States was hypocritical, since at that time the United States supported the Latin countries that were governed by dictatorships. The Soviets were under the impression that this was an effort to boost the UNITED STATES economy.
At this time, many other European Communist nations began to fall as well. People pointed out that there was not an obvious winner of the Cold War. However, thousands of Americans lost their lives waging proxy wars in Korea and Vietnam. “People believed the military spending policies of the Reagan-Bush years forced the Soviets to the brink of economic collapse.”
War. Humans have thrived from war for as long as we can remember. The United States has been fighting wars ever since we found the new country in North America that we now call the United States. We fought against our selves for the freedom of others. We fought in several world wars. We have always fought. But in the late 1940's “war” changed forever. This was well known as the Cold War. Why was this so different? “ The world had never experienced anything like it. The Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States was a half century of military build-up, political maneuvering for international support (Hanes, Sharon M., and Richard C. Hanes).” This means that the world has always seen war as either hand to hand combat or gun to gun combat. With soldiers and foot patrols, but this was basically an arms race. Who was to blame for this struggle? I believe that the Cold War was caused by both nations.
After WWII ended the Soviet Union began to do its expansion into Eastern Europe. This feed the paranoia of America thinking that the Soviet Union wanted to take over the world. The Soviets did not like the Americans interventional approach to foreign relations. They felt that they should be able to rule their country however they saw fit without being slapped on the hands by an outsider. The fact of the matter is that both sides had their reasons of hating the other and both sides were to blame for cold war and in some respect it might have even been inevitable.
Throughout the Cold War, Korean War, and Vietnam War the main problem was communism. Although the United States and the Soviet Union were allies in World War Two, during the Cold War the United States and the Soviet Union were known as enemies. The Soviet leaders bragged to other nations that communism would “scrape apart” free-enterprise systems around the world. This attitude angered the capitalists which led into the fifty year Cold War. The United States tried creating many tactics and strategies to contain the “bleeding” of communism, but during the cold war, communism spread faster then it could be restrained. The United States used the Marshall Plan , the Trueman Doctrine, and the Berlin Airlift to help lead people to a capitalist form of government.
The Cold War is a term developed to represent the antagonistic relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union between the mid 1940s until the end of the 1990s. The development of tension between these two countries represented two differentiating perspectives on ideological that also impacted the rest of the world. As a result, I believe the Cold War still has an impact on our world today due to the constant issue of the security dilemma as well as the current relations countries have with each other.
The cold war was a conflict between capitalist’s nations and communist nations following World War 2. The main reason the Cold War was started was over an ideological power struggle between atheistic communism and democratic capitalism. The principle players were the former Soviet Union (Communism) and the United States (Capitalism). The Cold War began in 1948 after Germany was divided between the western allies and the Soviets. What motivates a nation to become involved in world affairs is the idea of wanting other nations to adopt the same form of government.
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 of destroying entire countries.
While, on the other hand, the United States just wanted to stop the spread of communism, which they felt, would spread rapidly throughout the world if they did not put an end to it soon. Both the United States and the Soviet Union wanted to avoid WWIII in the process of trying to achieve their goals. The Cold War was failed by the Soviet Union for many reasons, including the sudden collapse of communism (Baylis & Smith, 2001.) This sudden collapse of communism was brought on ultimately by internal factors. Soviet Union president Gorbachev’s reforms: glasnost (openness) and perestroika (political reconstruction) ultimately caused the collapse of the Soviet Empire.
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 end of the day, the Cold War was not a proud moment for the countries involved, especially for European nations. The lesson that can be learned today from this battle between capitalism and communism is that in the end capitalism will prevail. All of these nations that were once part of the Soviet empire have now adopted some form of capitalism. Even the former Soviets have implemented their version of capitalism (though it seems Russia is trying to bring the old ways back into the fold). Today and in the future, the Cold War will be looked at as a war of superpowers trying to control the way the world runs their government.