The Pros And Cons Of The Cold War

The Soviet Union had grudges held against the United States, like not entering the war soon enough causing many of the Russian soldiers to die, which also added tension to their alliance. Their tensions in their alliance soon were cause of the Cold war. First, the United States feared that the Russians would try to take control and influence the popularity of communism to other countries. Next is that fear had become a reality when the Soviet Union aimed to increase communism control and spread it through out the world. The United States had developed the atomic bomb and dropped it on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet Union wanted to gain information.

The United States had bought Alaska from Russia partly so that the tsar would not be offended by a refusal. This kind of relation between the two became a rarity later on, especially in the twentieth century. The tense ambiance of this period gave no room for a civil affiliation between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic. After World War II, the two nations battled it out in a conceptual war known as the Cold War. It was characterized by a competition between the nations’ political philosophies- the USSR wanted communism to dominate the world, while the US wanted democracy to prevail.

Fidel Castro the leader of Cuba was communist. The US did not want any communist countries in the Western Hemisphere. They attempted to overthrow him but failed. This attack was called the Bay of Pigs invasion. The whole intention of the invasion was to destroy communism in Cuba and put an end to Fidel Castro.

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.

Italy saw it as nothing more than an opportunity to make extra money, regardless of opposing economic systems. Back in Cuba, Castro has begun to make enemies for himself. The many policies he has instilled angered many who fought beside him in the revolution to overthrow Batista and many didn’t approve of the socialist reforms he made such as the naturalization of businesses and his collectivization of agriculture. Castro felt he needed protection against the United States and ... ... middle of paper ... ...defeated in Vietnam in the later years to come. I feel that the Cuban missile crisis served not only as another example of how nuclear war is in fact possible but also allowed interaction between opposing systems of government that were both seeking to expand their influence on third world countries.

using the bombs during WWII not only to defeat the Japanese, but also to intimidate the Soviet Union and prove their power to the world. The U.S. knew Japan would surrender soon without the use of a destructive weapon. The Soviet Union definitely had some influence on the military decision made by the American government. As Professor Stoff mentioned in one of his lectures, Churchill believed Stalin was more dangerous than Hitler. Although the Soviet Union was an “ally” to America, they never really had an actual relationship.

The Cold War had lots of confrontations that involved using principles and practicing them. One example is the Cuban Missile Crisis. Cuba was coming off the failed invasion by the United States at the Bay of Pigs. They allied themselves with the Soviet Union and, in order to protect Cuba, The Soviet Union sent missiles to Cuba. The Americans found out using a spy plane.

The Bay of Pigs Invasion By late 1958 Castro was still fighting a guerilla war against the Fulgencio Batista. Before he came to power, there was an incident between his troops and some vacationing American troops from the nearby American naval base at Guantanamo Bay. During the incident some U.S. Marines were held captive by Castro’s forces but were later released after a ransom was secretly paid. Because of what happened the United States and the chief of U.S. Naval Operations, Admiral Burke, wanted to send in the Marines to destroy Castro's forces but Secretary of State Foster Dulles didn’t want any of that to happen.

1) After World War II (1939-1945), the United States and the Soviet Union became the strongest superpowers of the world. Although they shared a common enemy of the Nazi’s during the war, they did not share similar beliefs and interests economically and politically. The main difference between these powers was that the Soviets followed Karl Marx’s ideology of communism while the United States had a democracy and followed capitalism. This caused the two powers to become enemies post-war, later dividing up the world into two sides; The U.S. creating an alliance called NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), and the Soviets creating an alliance called the Warsaw Pact. With the fear of starting a nuclear war, the contrasting factions entered

A “Cold War” has the definition of, “a conflict characterized by the use of means short of sustained overt military action”. This is exactly what happened between two world superpowers, the United States, which was led by President Kennedy, and the Soviet Union, which was led by Premier Khrushchev, between the years of 1945 and 1990. The U.S. tried to keep communist contained so that it would not spread, but the U.S.S.R. had other plans. Though no large scale military attack between the two directly, there were several small skirmishes in which both countries had a hand in and high, war threatening moves were made by both sides. These small skirmishes and threatening movements by both sides caused the closest thing to WWIII publicly known to date during the Cold War.