The Cold War and Reagan

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The Cold War and Reagan

Topics

What was the cold war?

What were the causes?

The Cold War at Home.

-The U.S. involvement.

What major roles did President Reagan serve in the cold war?

A cold war is defined as "a conflict between nations for national advantage conducted by political, economic, and psychological means instead of direct military action." The Cold War defined by the same source was determined to be "the contest for power between the communist nations headed by the Soviet Union and the nations of the West headed by the United States that began after World War II"(Barnhart & Thorndike, 198).

Causes of the Cold War included the struggle between conflicting values, those of Democracy in the West and statism in the East. After WWII the re-establishment of Eastern European countries destroyed in the war led to much disagreement about governmental structures, the West wanted Democracies with capitalist systems while the East (USSR) wanted a communist regime. The USSR would then be able to use the countries as buffer states against any further attack. This attack on the Soviets that might come would not take long to go through the buffer states protecting them against the new mechanism of war. World War II had created fear in the Soviets, mainly because of the use of the Atomic Bomb, and therefore they pushed towards nuclear technology. The label "iron curtain" was placed on the barrier existing between the Soviet bloc and the rest of the world, this idea was pushed by Winston Churchill to further British power in Western Europe. Forty-six years of a blind war followed and the West and the East fought "a war of nerves."

As soon as World War II had ended threats of war with the Soviet Union beg...

... middle of paper ...

...The Cold War was fought through the build up of arms, technology, and psychologically on the home front with a battle of nerves.

Works Cited

Internet Sources

- http://ac.acusd.edu/History/20th/coldwar8.html

- http://ac.acusd.edu/History/20th/reagan.html

- http://icdweb.cc.purdue.edu/~phealy/foreign.html

- http://icdweb.cc.purdue.edu/~phealy/mccarthy.html

- http://icdweb.cc.purdue.edu/~phealy/yalta.html

- http://www.tntech.edu/~mww/www/reagan.html

- http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/glimpse/presidents/html/rr40.html

- Barnhart, Clarence L., Thorndike E.L., Thorndike Barnhart Advanced Dictionary,

Glenview, Illinois: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1974.

- Cannon, Lou. President Reagan: the Role of a Lifetime. New York: Simon and Schuster,

1991.

- Wills, Gary. Reagan’s America. New York, Viking Penguin, 1988.

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