DBQ: The Cold War

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The Cold War although includes the word “war” was more of a tension essentially between the USA and the USSR after World War Two. These two major powers, USA and USSR, had growing tension and both sides tried to prove its power by spreading their different views on economics and political systems. The USA was capitalist while the USSR were communists. Communists believed that everyone should be equal while capitalists believed that one should be paid depending on the amount worked. The different views led to many crises such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Berlin wall, conflicts in Korea, Vietnam and Latin America. There was also a dramatic increase in the production of weapons of destruction. The Cold War primarily started due to the different
The Soviet union and America both created alliances in order to prevent each other from spreading their ideal government. For example, NATO which stands for North Atlantic Treaty was signed by USA, Canada, and the ten nations of Western Europe in 1948. Its purpose was to help each other in times of danger. It stated that “ an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe oor in North America shall be considered as an attack against them all.” ( Document 4)This explains how the Soviet Union will not try to influence these areas with communism as they know that the after effect will lead to a huge war against huge powers. To respond to the formation of NATO, the Soviet Union created the Warsaw pact (Document 5). This pact was like NATO as it was a collective defense treaty among the Soviet Union, the satellite states and eastern Europe. The “satellites” acted as a buffer for the Soviet Union as it blocked the NATO members from entering the Soviet Union from the West to the East because of the many nations in between NATO and the Soviet Union. The alliances made were also known as military blocs. These were effective “weapons” for the Cold War because it “is perfectly obvious that when nations compete to increase their military might, the danger of war becomes greater.” ( Document 5) These military blocs were a good weapon as it made the other nations fear the start of a war. Like the quote explains, the Soviets and the USA knew that these military blocs meant that war was going to start. However, both sides knew that the outcome would not benefit them so they both created these alliances to strike

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