The Cold War 1980’s-1990’s

1872 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Origin and cause of the cold war pdf

Upon hearing the mention of “The Cold War” most people begin to imagine and think of a time focused on political and military tensions between two main powers, the United States of the Western world and The Soviet Union of the Communist world. The context of the Cold War has traditionally been seen this way, as a nontraditional war without any engagement of battle, as a nuclear arms race between to profoundly different political and economic ideologies. Though being accurate this view of the Cold War is not complete. The Cold War was not just a nonviolent war between the United States and the Soviet Union but one affecting the entire planet in different fashions and on multiple plains. It is for these reasons that while events during the 1980’s-1990’s seemingly led to the conventional end of conflict, they ironically only facilitated the existence and continuance of the Cold War even until today.

Probably one of the most recognized events of the 1980’s is the collapse of communism but first it is important to look at events that leading up to this collapse to provide a better context of events post collapse. One very significant period of time was the mid 1980’s when it seemed all eyes were on Africa in its entirety. The release of the song “We are the World” in 1985, the “Break the Chains” campaign of 1987, and the focus on the influential figure, Desmond Tutu, during 1986 are all examples of how the United States and other countries were focused on providing aid to africa. In her book, Enlightened Aid: U.S. Development as Foreign Policy in Ethiopia, Amanda McVety explains this aid and how United Sates foreign aid was a cold war project, “It offered a Cold War weapon that was not a weapon and promised peace through peaceful me...

... middle of paper ...

... 8.4 (2006): 29-56.

Print.

McVety, Amanda Kay. Enlightened Aid: U.S. Development as Foreign Aid Policy in

Ethiopia. New York: Oxford UP, 2012. Print.

"Suppression of Communism Act, No. 44 of 1950 Approved in Parliament | South

African History Online." South African History Online. Web. 03 May 2012.

no-44-1950-approved-parliament>.

Totten, Samuel, and Rifiki Ubaldo. We Cannot Forget. ; Interviews with Survivors of

the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda. Rutgers UP, 2011. Print.

"TED KENNEDY’S AFRICAN LEGACY." Africa Is a Country. Web. 03 May 2012.

.

Ye, Weili, and Xiaodong Ma. Growing up in the People's Republic: Conversations

between Two Daughters of China's Revolution. New York: Palgrave Macmillan,

2005. Print.

Show More
Related

  • Cold War Dbq Essay

    750 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Cold War was a period of dark and melancholic times when the entire world lived in fear that the boiling pot may spill. The protectionist measures taken by Eisenhower kept the communists in check to suspend the progression of USSR’s radical ambitions and programs. From the suspenseful delirium from the Cold War, the United States often engaged in a dangerous policy of brinksmanship through the mid-1950s. Fortunately, these actions did not lead to a global nuclear disaster as both the US and USSR fully understood what the weapons of mass destruction were capable of.

    Read More

  • How Did the Cold War Affect the Politics of Germany and Italy?

    1982 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Cold War was the most important historic event in the 20th century after the Second World War, from 1945 till 1991 between two most powerful countries in that period – Soviet Union and USA. The Cold War invested a lot in world politics. What is the Cold War? This was a war for dominance in the world. In 1945 the USA was the only one country in the world that had the nuclear weapons. But in the 1949 USSR started to learn their nuclear weapons. In further developments forced the USSR was soon created by nuclear, and then thermonuclear weapons. (Isaacs J, 2008) Fight has become very dangerous for all.

    Read More

  • The Cold War

    1758 Words  | 4 Pages

    The terms ‘hawks and doves' were quick labels attached to politicians in order to categorize their views on war and foreign policies, as to make them understandable and accessible for the public. However, these labels were not always accurate and in some cases could be quite misleading; it would have been more accurate not to label individuals as either Hawks or Doves, but instead, what they stood for.

    Read More

  • Space Race: A Reflection of the Cold War Rivalry

    1178 Words  | 3 Pages

    The political ideologies of the USA and of the Soviet Union were of profound significance in the development of the Cold War. Problems between the two power nations arose when America refused to accept the Soviet Union in the international community. The relationship between the USA and the Soviet Union was filled with mutual distrust and hostility. Many historians believe the cold war was “inevitable” between a democratic, capitalist nation and a communist Union. Winston Churchill called the cold war “The balance of terror” (1). Cold war anxieties began to build up with America and the Soviet Union advancing in the arms race for world dominance and supremacy. America feared the spread of Communism

    Read More

  • Cold War

    1240 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the late 1940's and the 1950's, the Cold War became increasingly tense. Each side accused the other of wanting to rule the world (Walker 388). Each side believed its political and economic systems were better than the other's. Each strengthened its armed forces. Both sides viewed the Cold War as a dispute between right and wron...

    Read More

  • The Cold War

    1177 Words  | 3 Pages

    Odd Arne Westad, Director of the Cold War Studies Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science, explains how the Cold War “shaped the world we live in today — its politics, economics, and military affairs“ (Westad, The Global Cold War, 1). Furthermore, Westad continues, “ the globalization of the Cold War during the last century created foundations” for most of the historic conflicts we see today. The Cold War, asserts Westad, centers on how the Third World policies of the two twentieth-century superpowers — the United States and the Soviet Union — escalates to antipathy and conflict that in the end helped oust one world power while challenging the other. This supplies a universal understanding on the Cold War (Westad, The Global Cold War, 1). After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union opposed each other over the expansion of their power.

    Read More

  • The Historiography of the Origins of the Cold War

    2675 Words  | 6 Pages

    There have been many attempts to explain the origins of the Cold War that developed between the capitalist West and the communist East after the Second World War. Indeed, there is great disagreement in explaining the source for the Cold War; some explanations draw on events pre-1945; some draw only on issues of ideology; others look to economics; security concerns dominate some arguments; personalities are seen as the root cause for some historians. So wide is the range of the historiography of the origins of the Cold War that is has been said "the Cold War has also spawned a war among historians, a controversy over how the Cold War got started, whether or not it was inevitable, and (above all) who bears the main responsibility for starting it" (Hammond 4). There are three main schools of thought in the historiography: the traditional view, known alternatively as the orthodox or liberal view, which finds fault lying mostly with the Russians and deems security concerns to be the root cause of the Cold War; the revisionist view, which argues that it is, in fact, the United States and the West to blame for the Cold War and not the Russians, and cites economic open-door interests for spawning the Cold War; finally, the post-revisionist view which finds fault with both sides in the conflict and points to issues raised both by the traditionalists as well as the revisionists for combining to cause the Cold War. While strong arguments are made by historians writing from the traditionalist school, as well as those writing from the revisionist school, I claim that the viewpoint of the post-revisionists is the most accurate in describing the origins of the Cold War.

    Read More

  • The Struggles of Liang Heng in Son of the Revolution

    1190 Words  | 3 Pages

    " The Son of Revolution" indicates the bounds and paradox of the communist government, which quarantined many individuals, regardless of the fact that its main focus was on equality and the betterment of the community. Works Cited: Liang, Heng, and Judith Shapiro. 1984. Son of the revolution. New York: Vintage Books.

    Read More

  • Analyzing the Impact of the Reagan Doctrine

    1123 Words  | 3 Pages

    Reagan’s foreign policy intention was to eliminate the efforts of the Soviet Union to prolong its domination and from this time, he opted for the formulation of his doctrine to aid the rebels who in various countries of the world who were attempting to overthrown the Soviet regimes (Carpenter, 1986). Relative to this point, it must be mentioned that in distinction to the earlier Cold War doctrine of “inclosing”, Reagan’s Doctrine projected “American moral and material backing for rebellious actions trying to oust Soviet-backed regimes in various Third World nations” (Carpenter, 1986). Additionally, it must be stated that the Reagan Doctrine came into being as the outcome of the thwarting of the U.S. administration over the Soviet progresses in Africa, Central America, and Central Asia. “Just as the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and Chinese leader Mao reinforced armed revolutions against colonial or U.S.-aligned states, American power would now reassure and upkeep rebels against communist states” (“The Reagan Doctrine”,

    Read More

  • The Cold War

    832 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many people argue that the USA was the pre-eminent superpower throughout the Cold War and since this time the only true global power. While it is seen that the USA was the pre-eminent superpower during this period the USSR’s power cannot be denied. The Cold War is defined as a battle of ideologies with communism and capitalism battling to become the dominating world view.

    Read More

  • The Causes of the Cold War - Post-Revisionist

    3007 Words  | 7 Pages

    Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signified, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold but not clothed." There was never a war that this idea can be more correct applied to than the Cold War. According to noted author and Cold War historian Walter Lippman, the Cold War can be defined as a state of tension between states, which behave with great distrust and hostility towards each other, but do not resort to violence. The Cold War encompasses a period from the end of the Second World War (WWII), in 1945, to the fall of the Soviet Union, in 1989. It also encompassed the Korean and Vietnam Wars and other armed conflicts in the Middle East and Africa, that, essentially, were not wars for people but instead for territories and ideologies. "Nevertheless, like its predecessors, the Cold War has been a worldwide power contest in which one expanding power has threatened to make itself predominant, and in which other powers have banded together in a defensive coalition to frustrate it---as was the case before 1815, as was the case in 1914-1918 as was the case from 1939-1945" (Halle 9). From this power contest, the Cold War erupted.

    Read More

  • The cold war

    2042 Words  | 5 Pages

    Macdonald, D. J (1995), 'Communist bloc: expansion in the early cold war: Challenging realism, refuting Revisionism', International Security, Vol. 20, N°3, The MIT Press. (Online). Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2539142?seq=7 (Accessed: 16th November 2013)

    Read More

  • Sputnik And The Cold War Essay

    702 Words  | 2 Pages

    Introduction In the fall of 1945, with the drop of the atomic bombs “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” respectively on the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Second World War came to an end. In the German capital, the Berlin Wall was soon erected in 1964 and the so-called “Iron Curtain”, dubbed by British prime minister Winston Churchill, divided the world into sectors of Communism and Capitalism. With the fall of one war, there rose another, in which the main belligerents, the United States of America (USA) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), would take the world as their theater to fight ideological battles. The Cold War was also one of the most dreaded wars in history, as there was the incorporation of nuclear technology

    Read More

  • who if any one won the cold war?

    680 Words  | 2 Pages

    The time period between 1945 and 1991 is considered to be the era of the Cold War. The Cold War, known as the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, each known during this time as the “super powers”. This conflict consisted of the differing attitudes on the ideological, political, and military interests of these two states and their allies, exte nded around the globe. A common political debate covers the issue of who, if anyone won the Cold War. Many believe the United States won the Cold War since (it) had resulted in the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union. While others are to believe the United States had not won it as much as the Soviet Union had lost it since they feel Reagan did not end the Cold War, but that he prolonged it (Baylis & Smith, 2001.) This has lead me to believe that there is no winner, only losers of the cold war. The cold war for the Soviet Union was to ensure security, block out capitalism, gain power, and improve their economy. While, on the other hand the United States just wanted to stop the spread of communism, which they felt, would spread rapidly throughout the world if they did not put an end to it soon. Both the United States and the Soviet Union wanted to avoid WWIII in the process of trying to achieve their goals.

    Read More

  • Ethiopia

    2428 Words  | 5 Pages

    Martins, P. M.G. 2007, “The impact of external aid on government spending, revenue and domestic borrowing in Ethiopia”, International Poverty Centre Working Paper no. 41.

    Read More

More about The Cold War 1980’s-1990’s

Open Document