Interntional Relations After the Cold War

After World War II, the US and Soviet Union became enemies and entered a Cold War. The two countries had been allies in the fight against Nazi Germany but tension developed as the two countries emerged from the war as global powers. The allies had teamed up because of need, not desire. As the Soviet Union sought to spread communism, capitalist America adopted a policy of containment. Their growing suspicions of each other led to the Cold War, an indirect conflict that stemmed from a fear of nuclear destruction and was fought by each country supporting different international conflicts through aid and acquisition.

When Germany invaded Russia it united the Soviets with Western Europe. Later on America join in an alliance against their common enemy. The war altered the global balance of power, weakening Europe and leaving Russia and the United States as the global super powers. However, the wartime alliance was not an easy one and with Russia liberating many areas of Eastern Europe which it want to put its own brand of government. They wanted to turn Eastern Europe into soviet satellite states to gain... ... middle of paper ... ...etonated its first atomic weapon, negating the America advantage and reducing the chance of the powers engaging in a ‘regular’ war because of fears over the consequences of nuclear conflict.

In response to Stalin’s claim, America proposed the policy of Containment to stem the spread of Communism, and the Soviet Union’s ascension to greater power. In response, The Iron curtain was “drawn” and divided Europe into Pro-Communism against Pro-Capitalist. (The Berlin Wall would ultimately be built to act as a scar between America and the Soviet Union). The heated relationship between the two countries led to the Cold War, with no direct battlefront action, yet intense policy affairs between their polar political views. The results of WWII left most of the Eu... ... middle of paper ... ...he NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization).

This report is going to verify that Cold War is a war by the following evidences. The Cold War is the name of a term given to the relationship that developed between the USA and the USSR after World War Two (History learning site, What is Cold War, para.1). It’s a psychological and economic raise warfare between the most powerful states in Europe without any combating and weapons are in used. Despite they did ‘fight’ for prove that their beliefs and ideologies using client states that fought for their beliefs on their behalf; USA is capitalism or democracy and USSR is hold on communism (para.11). The Cold War was a state of economic, political and military tension between the one who win the World War II and its allies.

Each superpower, the United States, Britain, France and Russia had their own idea of how postwar Europe should look, and many of their ideas clashed. The Cold War arose not from one isolated event, but from the different ideologies and interests between the Soviet Union and the west. Also the Russian government was seeking revenge on the United States because the United States did not enter the war effort soon enough and that caused for more Russian casualties. After WWII After WWII, Germany was divided into four zones and occupied by Britain, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Berlin itself was occupied by the western powers; however, it was surrounded by the Soviet zone.

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. Containment seemed to be the strategy of choice for the United States. This strategy also gave America a reason t... ... middle of paper ... ...ould change Russia’s relationship with the rest of the world. The first policy was “Glasnost” which meant political openness and the second was “Perestroika” which meant economic reform. It was not long that the hold that the USSR had over Eastern Europe was starting to fade.

This in turn influenced the economic policies that drove the main powers of the Cold War even further apart. By far, the biggest contributor to the formation of the Cold War was the fact that both sides believed the communist Soviet Union and the capitalist west ideologies were incompatible with each other. The essence of the Cold War was seen as the opposition of communism and capitalism (Kishlansky, Geary, and O’Brien 874). This belief was present as soon as 1946, when Winston Churchill gave a speech characterizing the Soviet Union as a government that was capable of trying to “enforce totalitarian systems upon the free democratic world” (Churchill 303). He also contrasted the Soviet Union as a state where control was “enforced upon the common people by… police governments,” while the U.S. and Great Britain embodied “the great principles of freedom and the rights of man” (Churchill 303).

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.

Those countries became known as satellite nations. The US and Britain was not happy with Stalin at all. This disagreement sparked the Cold War. Then Churchill made his famous Iron Curtain speech about how Europe in now divided by this invisible iron curtain(Document 1). Communist nations would fight to spread communism and noncommunist nations would fight to stop the spread of communism.

The main source of conflict between USA and USSR was the future status of Europe. The USA wanted a democratic capitalist continent that it could influence. The USSR wanted to spread Communism and prevent the disasters of World War II recurring again. While Stalin was a brutal and ruthless dictator responsible for millions of deaths, feared and resented by many eastern Europeans, he actually did not intend to conquer the world. This was the basic misunderstanding which fueled the Cold War: the U.S. government, as well as many private citizens, believed that the Russians were engaged in a world-wide con... ... middle of paper ... ...e of 1954, West Germany was permitted to join NATO.