In this essay, I will summarize two specific events that occurred within the framework of the Cold War. From there, I will analyze their potential effects if nuclear weaponry had not been involved. Lastly, I will explain how nuclear power had a positive effect on the war, due to its influence via deterrence. Finally, I will summarize the importance of nuclear power in the Cold War.
After the German invasion of Russia during World War Two, the U.S and the Soviets became allies and had a mutual beneficial relationship in terms of U.S help in the Eastern Front for the Soviets, and the strategic opportunity it posed to the U.S in terms of the Second World War, however as world war two ended there was no common enemy for the Soviets and U.S to relate too, and as a result it became evident that the relationship was in decline between the two nations after World War Two.
The Cold War was an interesting time period for the world, seeing that it was after one of the biggest and most memorable wars ever. Yet, it was a different type of war. One that no one had ever seen before, it was a war without fighting (kind of). It was a war fought in between the USSR and the United States. Each side also included their allies: the US had NATO and the USSR had the Warsaw pact. The timeframe of this war was from 1947 to 1991. Despite the fact that this war is one of the longest in our history, I have chosen three main points that I think are vital for understanding the Cold War.
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 stated that it was America’s responsibility to contain communism. I think America should not have got involved in a war against communism and neither should China and Russia have rallied against democracy.
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.
The purpose of this paper is to explore the origins of the Cold War. To accomplish this exploration, the works of W.A. Williams, Robert Jervis, and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. serves as the foundation. Before a closer examination of these works, a short explanation of the three common viewpoints regarding the study of the Cold War is warranted. These viewpoints are Attribution, Structural, and Misperception. With these viewpoints to guide the way, the above authors look at the origins of the Cold War. I will make my own points about the origins later.
Nearly 70 years ago, when the Soviet Union reigned in Europe along with the US, they were still in relative peace with the other world power. In fact, the “Big Three,” American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Soviet Premier Josef Stalin, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had frequent meetings to discuss strategy and happenings in Europe at the time. Allies they had been, but then something changed though, and growing tensions forced the powers to drift apart. Eventually, it led to the US and the Soviet Union becoming enemies, trapped in a global struggle between political, military, economic, and ideological structures. What caused this opposition, and how is it still going on today?
During the late 1940’s, the tension between the United States and the Soviet Union quickly increased as both nations began to distrust the other’s political ideals, which eventually led to the Cold War. Since the Soviets completed the atomic bomb, thee threat of being attacked by an atomic bomb at any given time also hung in the air. In addition, Americans also began to fear that the influence of communism would spread across the world and infiltrate the government of the United States. In the end, Eisenhower acknowledged the fears that the Soviet Union brought but ended up doing virtually nothing to quell those fears.
Cold War involves USA and USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) as the main sides and this war happened in 1945 until 1991. When this war happened, these two sides, USA and USSR actually didn’t fight each other. Instead, they fight for their beliefs by using other countries fighting for their beliefs.
The term “Cold War” refers to the second half of the 20th century, usually from the end of the World War II until 1990, when the Soviet Union collapsed. Since the 1940s and 1950s the scholars have disagreed on the topic of the origins of the Cold War. There are several groups of historians and their interpretations are very different, sometimes even contradictory. The three main schools are the orthodox, the revisionist and the realist. The classification is not completely accurate because we can find several differences in theories of scholars within the same group and often the authors reevaluated their ideas over time.
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 origins of the Cold War can be traced to the conclusion of World War II. Beginning with the Yalta Convention in 1945, and continuing with the Potsdam Conference later that year, the United States and the United Soviet Socialist Republic became embittered with each other over the division of Europe. This was a direct result of capitalism and communism with the blockade of Germany, the support of Communism in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Turkey and Greece and the refusal of Soviet forces to demobilize. Soon, the argument turned to America’s use of the atomic bomb in Japan in August 1945. The Soviets at first highly commended America for hastening Japan’s surrender but then repudiated it several weeks later. They claimed that it destroyed the balance of power between the two great world powers. By the early 1950’s, the focus shifted from the dilemmas in Europe to an even bigger threat, the threat of nuclear war. Both the US and the USSR claimed supremacy in Nuclear technology, specifically, the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). However, events changed permanently on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, the first successful orbiting satellite. The United States immediately reacted to the launch by claiming it would have been first in launching a satellite had it not been for planning mistakes.
LaFeber, Walter. America, Russia, and the Cold War, 1945-1971. Second ed. New York: Wiley, 1972. Print.