The Cold War: The Causes Of The Cold War

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The Cold War was an extensive period of time directly following the end of WW2 in which major conflicts and tensions heated between two past and present global superpowers, the United States of America and the USSR, which is now known as the Russian Federation. The Cold War was like an artist, and the world its canvas, as between the years of 1947 and 1991, the War was splashed in many colours of attack, including espionage, a nuclear arms and space race and proxy wars, like that of the Vietnamese conflicts. While fortunately limited in its death toll compared to WW1 and WW2, the Cold War involved a number of very violent and devastating proxy conflicts, the major one being the Vietnam War, which amounted to the death of an estimated sum of 3 million people. On the other hand, the Cuban Missile Crisis is an example of an event much like the Vietnam War, save nuclear missiles, that was prevented with political tact and strategic vigilance. It is evident that, with these particular contentions under scrutiny, the Cold War’s final years were comfortably uneventful for all nations involved in the 40 year siege on Communism.
The beginning of the Cold War was barely unpredictable, and tensions leading up to the grand introduction were very high, however the not so light feather that tipped the scales was Winston Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech (March 5th, 1946). The level of political tensions were very high as the end of WW2 left the Soviets with little to desire, with a total death count of 27 million and American with the possession of nuclear warheads (Boston: Beacon Press, 1971), this new feeling of inferiority hit the Soviets hard. The Yalta Summit, following the end of WWII “had the big three meeting in Crimea, 1945, to decide w...

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...pport for internationalist foreign policy the next time the U.S was challenged. The leading individuals of both the Soviets and the U.S did not act rationally, but out of emotional counterattacks. J.F.K did not want the greater international public to fall under the impression that the U.S’s invasion of Cuba had failed, and make them look weak, so he kept the legislative U.S out of the Bay of Pigs; wether that led to death of 1500 Cuban revolutionaries bothered him not. J.F.K acted appropriately while dealing with the situation, and although only 1500 people died, this was a very loud incident compared to the end of the cold war.
One of the bloodiest attempts at shutting down Communism within the confinements of the Cold War era was the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War, also known as the second Indochina War, was a proxy war that occurred in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

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