Cold War Essays (Examples)

Cold ar was a period of great danger and international tension, brought on by the power struggles between the United States and the Soviet Union. The communist ideology -- which the Soviets were aggressively trying to spread through Europe and elsewhere -- was seen as an enormous threat to the U.S., while the capitalist / democratic ideology was seen by the Soviets as a threat to their way of life as well. This paper delves into the post-II background to the Cold ar and reviews the situation in the U.S. given the threat of nuclear war between the two superpowers.

How did the Cold ar Begin?

The Cold ar began after the conclusion of II due to the political struggle for ideological control of countries, including several European nations. The question asked by Allied leaders was this: how would post-war Europe be shaped now that Nazi Germany is defeated?

By…

Cold War

Truman 1945-1953 and expansion of communism

As the 21 century approaches, there was every indication on the firmness of Present Harry S. Truman's reputation on the subject of his stewardship of foreign policy even though, as luck would have it, he took over Oval Office in the year 1945 inexperienced in affairs of the world. As he was approaching the end of his reign in the White House, there were accusations from the epublicans that his administration had surrendered about fifteen nations as well as subjecting five hundred million persons to communism and further sent close to twenty thousand Americans to the so call their "burial ground" in Korea. This deepened Truman's public favorable rating leaving it at 23%.

President Harry Truman adopted an international relations policy that he did set in his speech in March 1947. The speech stated that the United States would assist Turkey as…

As counties in Europe began to align themselves behind the Soviet sphere of influence or the U.S. - Western influence each side looked to fortify their positions. For the U.S. this meant the development of the policy of containment of the Soviet advance. Containment developed along a number of varying lines including political diplomacy, military expansion, and economic aid. President Truman articulated an economic aid package, the Truman Doctrine which provided some 400 million dollars to Greece and Turkey in an ostensible move "of a general war against communism" (the History Guide.org. N.D.). Additionally, an enormous package of economic aid known as the Marshall Plan was put into place by the U.S. To revive the ailing economies of Europe.

n June 5, 1947, in a commencement address at Harvard University, Secretary of State George C. Marshall first called for American assistance in restoring the economic infrastructure of Europe. Western Europe…

S.S.R., which would ostensibly eliminate the threat posed by the U.S.S.R.'s capabilities. The report takes on a tone almost encouraging that to happen. It was very much the public mood of the time that would have supported that initiative. That the world came so close to the use of nuclear confrontation during the Cuban Missile Crisis is indicative of this, and it was only the ability of JFK to resist the military and other forces that would have plunged the world into nuclear war and disaster.

The single purpose of this document was to provide the rationale for an assault against the U.S.S.R. It provided the basis for foreign policy for most of the Cold ar era, and that is supported by the poised position of the United States and other free world nations to strike out, and by the build up of nuclear arms in the U.S. And across…

cold war 'By the beginning of the twentieth century, weapons of war were themselves contributing to the outbreak of wars ... It comes as something of a surprise, then, to realize that the most striking innovation in the history of military technology has turned out to be a cause of peace and not war," (Gaddis 85). In fact, the most striking military innovation until that point, the creation of nuclear weapons, did turn out to be a cause of war, albeit the Cold War. In his book We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History, author John Lewis Gaddis examines the development of nuclear arms, their impact on the Cold War, and the impact of the Cold War on the development of nuclear arms. In fact, early nuclear armament closely mirrored Cold War ideology, especially the way nuclear weapons were used as a sort of political collateral. The Manhattan Project also…

Cold War

Polarity constitutes a system-level notion which associates with the distribution of power, actual or apparent, within the international system.

For roughly the first 350 years of its being which means from about the culmination of 16th century to the middle part of 20th century -- that system had been a multipolar, with five, or six or seven powers of approximately analogous might continually manipulating for gains. Thereafter, since the middle part of 1940s till the end of late 1980s, it came to be a bipolar system, with the two superpowers, the United States and ussia, matching one another in a long-drawn-out impasse.

The Cold War bounded the main outline of the global backdrop. It remained, at its hub, an ideologically stimulating altercation between the West, which is, the United States and its partners, and the Soviet Union and its subsidiaries. The citizens of America acknowledged that the ventures…

Cold ar began very shortly after the end of orld ar II when the Soviet Union built the Berlin all -- and made other moves in its campaign to spread communism -- and the United States and its allies worked to protect democratic states and to foster democratic advocacy in those states. It was called a "Cold ar" because even though both super powers had ample nuclear capability to destroy the world, the two countries engaged in a war of words, political theories, and a war of wills -- but no direct military conflict occurred between the two superpowers.

Results of Three Interviews

My neighbor Shelly is in her early 50s and she said she has studied the Cold ar in high school and college. She was willing to be interviewed and said she believed the Cold ar "…was the reason Lyndon Johnson got us into Vietnam" and hence it…

Cold war refers to the post world war 2 period till 1991 when there was a geopolitical game being played by two nations that emerged as super powers from the shambles of the world wars. This period was noted for the polarization of power and Russia and America were intensely battling out a strategic war game between them. It was a global conflict in every sense and even the continents of sub-Saharan Africa and South America which had immunity from the catastrophe of the previous two world wars were affected by it. The proxy war that was fought between these two global powers brought severe economic implications for the Middle East, Africa and other third world nations. The Truman doctrine (1947) is generally regarded as the important strategic initiative to counter the domination of communism in the European continent. Under the cushion of the United States the western European nations…

Cold War and Globalization

The Cold War, and the U.S. And Asia and Globalization

What was meant by the Cold War? Before defining the cold war, authors Bentley and Ziegler go into great depth to lay the foundation for the origins of the Cold War. More than sixty million people perished during WWII (965), including twenty million Soviets, fifteen million Chinese, six million Poles, four million Germans, two million Japanese, three hundred thousand Americans and four hundred thousand English. The Holocaust, meantime, resulted in the slaughter of nearly six million Jews of European ancestry.

At the end of WWII, approximately eight million Germans fled their native land to apparently avoid the torture they believed they would receive at the hands of the marauding Soviets, who "pillaged and raped with abandon in Berlin" (966). On top of those eight million people who were displaced, there were an estimated twelve million prisoners…

elations with West improved a lot. Economic liberalization process also started after the rise of Gorbachev as many economic and social problems plagued Soviet Union. In the face of economic issues facing the empire the cost of managing the cold war with respect to the Cold War arms race almost endangered its survival. The Chernobyl catastrophe in 1986 made matters even worse for the Soviet epublic. On American front epublican government came into force with onal eagan sitting in the Washington D.C. with a stern stance on the foreign policy. The result of these two new governments came in the form of meeting of the respective head of states for reducing their military arsenal. The two super powers then started negotiating on a continuous basis resulting in a number of treaties between the two states. "During his second term he held five summit meetings with a Soviet leader -- more…

Cold War

Prior to World War II, American foreign policy had been predicted upon isolationism. Afterward, determined to avoid the mistakes of the pre-war period, American leaders embarked upon an unprecedented era of worldwide commitments. This included entry into a number of alliances with foreign nations, interventions in foreign conflicts (either covertly or overtly) and an unlimited commitment to maintain the nation's military readiness. In doing so, they irrevocably changed this nation forever.

For most Americans, the effect of the Cold War was that any illusions that being separated from Europe by an ocean provided safety was shattered. The United States had chosen to end World War II in the Pacific by use of two atomic bombs. At the same time atomic energy was being harnesses for use in weapons, both the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) were developing rocket-propelled systems that could carry these…

Marshall feared that their poverty might make them vulnerable to Soviet wooing, causing them to attach them to communism. America, therefore, felt that it had to preempt potential ussian manipulation by stepping in there first. Although Marshall emphasized that the program was open to all European nations, he structured it in such a way (by making capitalism part of its expected character and linchpin of performance) that it effectively debarred communist-related nations from participating.

A few years later, in 1950 Truman expanded his strategy of containment by issuing a report (the NSC-68) that stressed employment of U.S. military to impede communist expansion. Observed the National Security Council:

It was and continues to be cardinal in this policy that we possess superior overall power in ourselves or in dependable combination with other likeminded nations. One of the most important ingredients of power is military strength (Shmoop.com)

To that end, the NSC…

Periods of detente dot the Cold ar timeline however, the end of each detente was marked by a specific and flagrant inequality that invariably led to additional hostilities. It is interesting to note two of the events that ended periods of detente. Specifically, the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Communists and the erection of the Berlin all marked the end of two of the most notable periods of detente. Those events also helped to shape world opinion about the Soviet Union and opened the Communist movement to many criticisms from former allies.

An Uneasy Truce

President John F. Kennedy led the world through the Cuban Missile Crisis and faced down the Soviet enemy. Out of the resolution from the Cuban Missile Crisis came an uneasy truce that essentially began the next to last stage of the Cold ar. Soviet designs on America were clear to everyone in the world.

Future policies…

The U.S.S.. eventually had its way in Eastern Europe as seen with the triumph of communism in countries such as Poland and Czechoslovakia. The U.S.S.. even extended its communist influence in countries such China, Afghanistan and Cuba. The Eastern European communist countries were collectively known as the Iron Curtain.

In response to the efforts of the Soviet Union to increase her sphere of influence, the U.S. conceptualized the Truman Doctrine and implemented the Marshall Plan. Both policies were formulated with the specific intention of mitigating the spread of communism in the international community. The world during the Cold War era became a battleground of communist and democratic ideals. The Marshall Plan involves financial aid to countries ravaged by World War II. The U.S. is working on the pretext that helping impoverished countries to rebuild would rear them away from the clutches of communism because the U.S. believes that poverty and…

Cold War on the Periphery

When hearing the words "Cold War," what normally comes to mind are the events between the U.S.S.. And the United States following World War II including the arms race. Competition for the Third World was included in this period, but receives little exposure in comparison. In the book Cold War and the Periphery, obert McMahon explores in detail how the United States' alliance with Pakistan increased the tension between India and Pakistan and encouraged the Soviet Union to establish closer ties with India.

In the 1940s, almost all of the Central Intelligence Agency's strategic studies showed that the Indian territory including Pakistan was of considerable importance to the U.S. because it consisted of one-fifth of the world's population, had a land mass as large as Europe, and was located in a significant geographical area. The CIA also concluded that the resources were numerous: "It ranks…

Cold War

During the Cold War era, the United States and the Soviet Union dominated the European political landscape. They also engaged each other ideologically in Korea (Weber, n.d.).

World War II was an enormous theatre. During the war time President Franklin oosevelt cut out an image for himself. He was capable of articulating false freedom of speech and religion. The last straw that broke the camel's back was when the Japanese Air Armada bombed Pearl Harbor. A couple of days later, oosevelt, before a joint session, declared war against Japan. Three days later, Germany and Italy declared war against the U.S. Nazi invasion of Poland then ensued. Women and children became combatants in the war. Civilians were fired and eventually killed or maimed. In 1937, Pablo Picasso was bombed. At Nanking, the Japanese soldiers short, stabbed, beheaded, and raped non-resistant men, women, and children. In August 1945, the United…

Cold War and the Policy of Detente

There is no clear and important threat to United States as can be seen directly now, and that had been the major determinant of foreign policy for United States for many years, after the Second World War. This has led to a situation where there are many impressions about the policies that are best suited for America and those originate from different philosophies about the fundamental national interests and values. Issues and problems that were not being considered earlier are now attracting the attention, debate and scrutiny of policy makers since the position has changed since the fall of communism. It is true that United States had to bear the biggest burden for the defeat of Communism, and this is leading to the pursuance of a lot of other priorities that had not been considered then. (Bring Back the Laxalt Doctrine)

At the…

Cold War in Vietnam

It has been more than 45 years since the Vietnam War, but still it is an on-going dilemma for the historians of American foreign relations. The Vietnam War occurred between 1945 and 1975, and it took place in Vietnam Laos and Cambodia. It was a War fought for the independence of the Democratic epublic of Vietnam (DMV) formally the Socialist epublic of Vietnam, which was divided into North and South Vietnam after the first Indo China War against France in 1954. However, it can also be termed as a Civil War between the communist and anti-communist ideologies. Various Nations were involved in it, and the War ended resulting in the freedom for North Vietnam in 1975. The war was fought between the Communist North Vietnam with support from its Communist Soviet allies, and the Government of South Vietnam supported by the United States, and other members…

Cold ar Rhetoric and American Involvement: An Evaluation of the Validity of the Cold ar Assumptions made by U.S. policy makers in the 1940's and 1950's

During the 1940s and the 1950s, U.S. foreign policy makers were faced with an unprecedented and unexpected threat from the Soviet Union. Because of this threat, this period of U.S. History became known as 'The Cold ar.' The Soviet ally whom the United States had relied upon during orld ar II had metamorphosed into a danger to U.S. international security, rather than a friend. The U.S.S.R.'s influence, by the end of the 1940s, had spread across Eastern Europe and threatened estern Europe. The United States began to see communism itself as an infection, spawned by Stalin, rather than as a complex ideology. U.S. policy makers feared that communism, which they equated with Soviet foreign influence, could spread anywhere around the globe where revolution might…

Cold War

Europe at the end of 1945 was devastated. here was no real strong government, millions of people had been killed, and much of Europe's infrastructure as completely broken, most public services ineffective, and starvation was rampant. However, because the United States had never been invaded, and the war won by the Allies, President ruman and his staff were more determined than ever to bring democracy to the rest of the world. he Marshall Plan, for instance, was an economic incentive to help Europe rebuild. However, because Europe was in such turmoil and there was somewhat of a power vacuum that France, England, the United States, and of course, the Soviet Union, wished to fill.

Because of the disaster after World War I and the ineffectiveness of the Versailles reaty and Reparations, ruman's administration believed that it was crucial to allow Germany to move back into the Greater European…

Cold War

In 1945, the Second World War ended, causing the Nationalists and Communists of China to engage in a civil war which could not be controlled by any people who tried to intercede. This civil war caused the Chinese people to be engulfed in their own issues for the next four years that they were not affected by the ongoing Soviet-American tension. In the year 1949 however, the Communist party in China defeated its rival and therefore established the People's epublic of China. The first conflict that it had to face from the American side was that the U.S. did not recognize the communist republic and only recognized the epublic of China which was a Nationalist Government set in Taiwan.

From 1950 to 1953, the People's epublic of China, generally known as PC, fought against the Americans the Korean War. As an outcome, Chinese-Americans were seen to be favoring…

Cold War

Over the years, an intricate relationship of ideological, political and economic factors leading to changes between careful teamwork and frequent unpleasant superpower competition was driving the affairs between the Soviet Union and the United States. here was some opinion that the Cold War started even before the end of the World War II. When the atomic bombs were tested first in New Mexico and then on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, by that time United States and USSR were in the hub of shaping up the earlier Axis territories. hus, both the Nuclear Age and the nuclear arms race that arouses the Cold War began simultaneously. (he Cold War: (http://www.nuclearfiles.org)

he two countries were time and again disallowed from achieving a shared agreement on major policy matters due to the specific differences, like in the case of the Cuban missile emergency that brought them to the verge of war. (he…

Cold War
The Cold War was a period of escalating tension between two empires that sought to exert their power and influence on the world stage. In the West was the U.S. In the East was Soviet Russia. While both promoted their own values and socio-economic and political systems, they shared a similar need to expand their rule following the end of WWII, with each developing threatening postures near to the other’s borders—the U.S. forming NATO and the Soviets planting missiles in Cuba. From the perspective of people who were not citizens of the U.S. or the Soviet Union, the economic, strategic, political and culture ambitions of the "superpowers" intersected with, and shaped the lives of people outside of those countries in numerous cases. For instance, the natives of the Marshall Islands got an up close and personal look at U.S. nuclear testing during Operation Crossroads, as shown in Robert…

Cold War Q’s:  The Soviet Long Game and the Policy of Containment
1
The origins of the Cold War were in the uneasy alliance between the US and the Soviet Union during WW2. The aim of both nations was to destroy Germany, which alone stood in all of Europe to confront the wave of Marxist-Communism washing over the continent. Spain’s Civil War was a prelude to WW2, and there Franco was victorious. Germany and Italy were under pressure from the Communists, and both Hitler and Mussolini used Fascism to strike back. Hitler united Germany in the style of Bismarck before him, which neither France nor England viewed favorably. The Soviet Union’s ambitions for westward imperialism were also threatened by German rehabilitation and expansion since the crushing defeat under the Versailles Treaty. The US entered WW2 on the Western Front while the Soviets, the Germans and the half-million non-German volunteers of the…

Conceptions of the Cold War
The Cold War was the time period following the end of World War II, when the world was basically divided between Communism on the one hand and Capitalism on the other. The West favored Capitalism and the East favored Communism. The U.S. was the main power in the West and Soviet Russia was the main power in the East. The economic approaches of the two powers were only part of the story, however; this was also a war for hegemony. The U.S. wanted to influence the world order just as much as the Soviets did. Each tried to spread their influence—the U.S. throughout Europe via the Marshall Plan (Hogan & Hogan, 1989); the Soviets throughout Asia and Latin America through subsidization of Communist takeovers. The scare of Communism taking over in the U.S. was evident: McCarthyism was the result of this scare, but the assassination…

Question 1
There are varying definitions for a nation-state and non-state actor. First it is important to understand what each one signifies to understand the differences. The nation-state, is a kind of unit that may join a political entity of a country. From such alignment, it aims to gain its political legitimacy. “…nation-state is a recent creation originating in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The nation-state can be seen as a construct formed by non-state actors to further specific group interests”[footnoteRef:1]. [1: Cedric Ryngaert, Non-State Actor Dynamics in International Law: From Law-Takers to Law-Makers (Routledge, 2016), 14.]
The nation-state actor can do certain things because he or she is working for the government. They can compromise or disrupt target environments, persons, or organizations in order to gain access to important and valuable intelligence or information. They also can generate incidents that have global significance. They work towards the goals of…

Cold War Qs1To say that the Cold War was won is to speak simplistically about what the Cold War was. Yes, the Soviet Union collapsed, but the animosity between the US and Russia persists even to today. There is still conflict between Russia, the US and their proxies in the Middle East. The alliance between Russia and China is viewed with hostility by the US, partly because of American distrust of China and partly because of the threat that a multi-polar world order poses to the hegemonic interests of the US (Lieberthal & Jisi, 2012). The ideological conflict between Russia and the Cold War was not really settled after 1991. It simply has changed. In fact, many Soviet principles, such as collectivism, are now embraced by and embedded in American institutions and organizations, while Russia has pivoted toward promoting traditional values like church and family in its nation. The conflict…

Cold War’s Impact on American Life
As John David Skrentny points out, the Cold War helped to remove some of the obstacles that prevented African Americans from obtaining their civil rights in the 20th century. The Communists of the Soviet Union used American racism as a cudgel with which to browbeat America for its hypocritical values and so-called freedom. America was essentially forced to respond by adopting a more liberal stance towards equal rights and to pursue a policy and culture of desegregation.
Middle class white Americans were shaped by the Cold War in other ways: rather than open up for them an avenue of social advancement as it did for African Americans, many middle class white Americans became fearful and paranoid about the Red Menace, and they turned to leaders like Senator Joe McCarthy for help in uncovering Communists in the government and in Hollywood. This led to the…

How the Quakers Opposed the Detainment of Japanese Americans during WWII
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), the co-beneficiary of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947, was established in Philadelphia by individuals from the Religious Society of Friends (i.e., the Quakers) in Spring 1917. The link between AFSC and the Religious Society of Friends was always tenuous, as the activism of the organization was something universal that many non-Quakers around the world could celebrate, while the actual tenets of Quakerism were not nearly as popular as the peace movement that the Religious Society of Friends took part in. Initially, the goals of the committee were limited; however, over the 20th century, the AFSC embraced pacifism and began taking part in the fight for peace (Ingle, 2016). The AFSC essentially helped to support and come to the aid of the victims of war, whether they were Jewish, Russian, European, African, etc.…

This happened as a side effect of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev experimentation with liberalization of the economy and the political system to increase productivity and encourage innovation. This liberalization, for the first time, allowed criticism of the Soviet System by nationalist leaders. However, as a result, they began to demand freedom and declared the independence of their republics. In 1991, the leaders of Russia, elarus and Ukraine signed the elovezh agreement, which declared that "the U.S.S.R., as a subject of international law and a geopolitical reality, ceased to exist.

y the end of the early 1990s, there were no important Cold War issues left. y that time, both sides had practically identical goals, a Europe whole and free, and a world where international disputes would be solved through negotiation rather than through attempts by one side or the other to impose its will by force. This all came about through…

During the period of transition, defense spending needed to be maintained in order to avoid returning to depression. The Cold War provided a means for this. The intense rhetoric provided justification to the American people, but the combination of high defense spending and the rhetoric only further inflamed the U.S.S.R.

Inflammation also stemmed from several short-term incidents that occurred in the post-war years. The Soviet Union, for example, attempted a blockade of West Berlin, which ultimately failed. The establishment of the People's Republic of China and the start of the Korean War exacerbated Communist-Capitalist tensions further.

The Cold War was inevitable. The length and depth of the conflict, however, could have been ameliorated. Stalin's paranoia at the time made distrust of the West inevitable - he did not trust anybody in Russia, either. For the U.S.' part, a return to isolationism was not a viable option, and the extension of…

S. was willing to stand up to the Soviets. When the U.S. tried to unite East and West Germany, Stalin build a blockade into West Berlin, but the U.S. flew supplies in over the blockade to keep their influence strong in Germany. The Soviets resented that. The entire buildup of bad feelings between the two superpowers was ideological and political. The communists wanted to spread their influence, and they began supporting revolutionary movements in Africa, Asia, and in Latin America, to expand communism. President Eisenhower in the 1950s threatened to use nuclear weapons if the Soviets intervened in the Middle East during the Suez risis. Basically, the U.S. And Soviets challenged each other to go one better each time a new move was made; it was like a chess match, only the loser might have been both countries because the Soviets had the atomic bomb by 1949, and if one…

Cold War

Economic fear caused by two vastly different ideologies, communism and capitalism, was a major factor promoting America's distrust of Russia and the subsequent Cold War. The spread of communism was viewed as a threat to American businesses who already felt vulnerable because of the Great Depression in the 1930s. Things came to a head after Stalin publicly emphasized capitalist ill-will and hostility by claiming that capitalism harbored elements of general crisis and armed conflict. As a result, Truman became irate and adopted a tougher line instead of continued compromise, prompting the United States not to recognize Rumania and ulgaria, to insist on internalization of waterways such as the Kiel Canal, the Rhine-Danube and the lack Sea Straits, to try to control Japan and the Pacific, and to attempt to create a strong central government in China and Korea.

The Americans were also threatened by what it perceived to…

Telecommunications made it easier to transfer ideas and information instantly and without the delays that hindered previous efforts at military and strategic intervention. Similarly, the barriers to international trade had largely been lifted. The seeds of the World Trade Organization had already been laid by the end of the Second World War. Finally, the United Nations and other trans-national governing bodies would become legitimized sources of power. Nations who could climb on board stood a chance and those who could not join in faced a perilous century of poverty and political disenfranchisement. America directly contributed to the imbalance of power that would ensue throughout the 20th century.

Being a bully seemed to come easy to the Americans. Armed with what had become the largest and most well-endowed military in the world, the United States forged a path toward hegemony almost effortlessly. As if it were trying to be the world's…

This is in fact what drove most European wars in the past. By reverting back to that system, Europe placed itself in the path of potential skirmishes as seen in previous generations, "Europe is reverting to a state system that created powerful incentives for aggression in the past," (Mearsheimer "Why We Will Soon Miss the Cold War" 1990:1). Smaller powers, now with a stronger more independent voice, have a greater potential of starting conflicts on their own, both within Europe and outside the region. Without the strong united front against the Easter Soviet powers, the smaller powers within Europe itself are free to break away and potentially start their own troubles elsewhere; "Without a common Soviet threat or an American night watchman, Western European states will do what they did for centuries before the onset of the Col War -- look upon one another with abiding suspicion," (Mearsheimer "Why We…

They did not like the reforms or the way Gorbachev was running the country allowing all the freedoms -- glasnost and perestroika. They presented him with documents signing away his powers as General Secretary. Gorbachev exploded and ordered them to leave. They did, but Gorbachev knew he was in a grave situation, cut off from the world, not telephones, and guarded.

Yeltsin

However, the "old guard" had made one huge mistake. They had failed to take into account or arrest the second most powerful man in the country, a man by the name of oris Yeltsin. He had just been elected as the first President of Russia, and he and Gorbachev were bitter rivals to control the entire USSR. However, not today. y Yeltsin's choice, he joined with Gorbachev in spirit and ideology, rushed to the Russian parliament and declared the supposed coup the act of mad men and threw…

China and the Cold War

The term "cold war" is used for explaining the shifting efforts of the Western powers and the Communist bloc from the ending of World War II until 1989 in order to attain supremacy influence and esteem on a global level. If seen from a worldwide magnitude, the conflict can be understood as an ideological clash between communism and capitalist democracy ("cold war," 2012). China occupied an exceptional place in the Cold War for the reason that it was the point of both the affection and aggression of the two main world powers i.e. The United States of America and Soviet Union (Bernstein, 2003, p. 91).

Cold War -- China's ole

The West and the Soviet Union had a long history of joint mistrust and this resistance was every now and then apparent in the Grand Alliance during World War II. After the end of the…

That intervention considered, it is fair to say that on the one hand, the fact that the U.S. came out as the winner of the Cold War was obvious, and on the other hand that a certain change had occurred in terms of the rule of the international law.

The following years saw an increase in the intrastate violence, taking into account the Somalia crisis, the situations in South Africa, the genocide in Rwanda, or the war in the former Yugoslavia. All these elements of the international political scene were signs of the power vacuum that was created as a result of the fall of the higher authority in the communist world, the U.S.S.R. More precisely, although the cases in Africa were in fact reminiscences of post colonial revolts, the situations worsened as there was no authority to report to in terms of international situations. However, a certain modification did…

His early thesis is that the U.S. was engaged in interventions long before the Cold ar "broke out" - and those interventions (including those borne of Manifest Destiny) were based not so much on greed or empire building but on the ideology that all nations should be allowed to enjoy individual liberty, economics based on an open and free market, and social progress. And after II, the interventions by both superpowers "were not [necessarily based on] exploitation or subjection, but control and improvement" (estad, p. 5).

There are flaws in the book, albeit estad has written a book that is far more expansive and inclusive than the other two, so he should be given respect - more than just the benefit of the doubt. In fact, estad's book contains ten maps, ten good photographs and five poster reproductions of propaganda materials used during the Cold ar. One of the few…

In fact, many people believe it was the final factor that led to disintegration of Soviet/U.S. relations, and directly led to the failure of the Moscow Conference of foreign ministers in March 1947. The conference had been convened in an attempt for the two powers to come to an agreement about situations in Europe, including whether or not to unify the German state, but with its failure, relations between the two countries became even more strained.

The Marshall Plan followed the Truman Doctrine in 1947, and was an attempt to boost the European economy after the war. Historian Whitcomb writes, "The Marshall Plan was conceived as a 'counter-offensive' to Moscow's moves in Eastern Europe and as a reaction to Stalin's decision, registered at the Moscow Conference, to rebuff all gestures of compromise looking toward settlement of the problems dividing Europe" (Whitcomb 84). It was an attempt to rebuild Europe instead…

It was during the middle of the 1980s that the Soviet Union first decided that a pattern of renewal was needed for the country. Of course, that was not something that could take place overnight. The country would have to weed out economic problems, along with issues like corruption and alcoholism that were further weakening the country and its economy. The position that the Soviet Union held from a global standpoint was worsening, and action had to be taken if the country was to pull itself back from the brink and find a way to survive and to grow once again. The Soviet Union was giving help to many third-world nations, but it wasn't getting anything in return. In addition, there was no friendship or alliance with the United States, and the Soviet Union decided to start correction some of the issues that was plaguing it in an effort to…

Cold War Era

Many films about the cold war era, especially the early films, speak out against its ideals, while others support these ideals. elow is a consideration of selected Cold War era films, and how these were influenced by the Cold War.

Dr. Strangelove

Dr. Strangelove is subtitled "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the omb." Its producer/director is Stanley Kubrick and the film was released during 1964. The film is a satire with the aim of exposing Cold War politics that could result in absurd accidents such as a nuclear attack. The more serious film Fail-Safe, released during the same year, has often been compared with Dr. Strangelove. This is discussed in more detail later.

Part of Dr. Strangelove's theme is the evils of technology. This is the culprit causing the disastrous accident. It is interesting that a disclaimer had to accompany the film's release shortly…

Coldest ar: A Memoir of Korea, a novel written by James Brady. This paper clearly outlines the summary of the book and highlights some of the events written by the author in his book. This paper explains Brady's purpose behind writing his masterpiece and clearly defines its theme. Critical analysis of the novel and information about the author are also included.

The Coldest ar: A Memoir Of Korea

The Coldest ar: A Memoir of Korea written by James Brady gives a first person's account of the second Korean war. In the book the author compares the tactical approach of the army vs. marine rifle companies. Serving as a young marine lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps for a year, Brady tells the story by illustrating to his audience the deplorable conditions of the soldiers and the critical experience they underwent, through his analysis and encountering. The author talks about…

S. administration after Truman's adopted Kennan's policy of 'containment' or its variation as a cornerstone of their foreign policy right until the eventual collapse of Communism in 1989. ("Kennan and Containment" n.d.)

eferences

Bell, P.M.H. (2001). The World since 1945 -- an International History. New York: Oxford University Press

George F. Kennan on the Web" (2005). History Politics and Future. etrieved on May 28, 2005 at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/2496/future/kennan.html

Historian Walter Lefeber on Truman's Soviet Policy." (2000). PBS Online. etrieved on May 28, 2005 at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/truman/filmmore/it_1.html

Kennan and Containment." (n.d.) Bureau of Public Affairs: U.S. Department of State. etrieved on May 28, 2005 at http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/cwr/17601.htm

Legvold, . (2005). "Cold War." Article in Encyclopedia Encarta Online. etrieved on May 28, 2005 at http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761569374/Cold_War.html#p11

While the U.S. represented democracy, individual liberty and capitalism, the U.S.S.. was committed to the spread of the communist revolution among the 'down-trodden' masses of the world

The USS had…

At first, this meant economic and political supremacy, but, as time evolved, other aspects were being taken into consideration, such as supremacy in sports. It is notorious, for example, that the ice hockey finals between the two national teams were considered the most important event of the Winter Olympics.

he last paragraph gives us a clue as to why the war was cold: there was no direct military confrontation. Indeed, if any, military confrontation between the two countries took the form of support towards different factions in a third country. his is the case in the Korean War, for example. While the Americans actually had troops and fought in the Peninsula, the Russians were satisfied to military supply the North Korean Army.

As I have previously stated, the cold war took the form of a constant competition for supremacy, without the risk of a full action war between the two…

Cold War

It is true that the West became more suspicious when the soviets began installing puppet governments in neighboring nations. Going back to the annals of history, Yugoslavia is one such country where the Soviets installed a puppet government. When Yugoslavia was pressured by the German Nazi government in 1941, she formed an alliance with the Axis of Powers. However, the Yugoslav military formed resistance armies. This is when the Partisans organized by Josip Broz Tito came into perspective. The Partisans overthrew the pro-German government. Tito's government was the puppet of the Soviet considering the fact that he was a very close ally of the Soviet. Germany later invaded Yugoslavia and took over power.

In 1943, the Partisans with assistance from United States and other allies freed Belgrade and established communist rule there. These developments coupled with the division of Germany into German Federal Republic and the German Democratic…

Moreover, ending the cold war enabled the formation of international alliances that help and support members, and also fight together against common enemies.

ibliography

Cold War, MSN Encarta, Encyclopedia Article, Microsoft Corporation, 2006

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761569374_1/Cold_War.html, last accessed on February 27, 2007

Walter Lippmann, the Cold War: A Study in U.S. Foreign Policy, Harper & rothers, 1947

Cold War, Wikipedia, the Free Online Encyclopedia, February 24, 2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_war,last accessed on February 27, 2007

Proxy War, Wikipedia, the Free Online Encyclopedia, February 21, 2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_war,last accessed on February 27, 2007

At Cold War's End: U.S. Intelligence on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, 1989-1991, History Staff, Center for the Study of Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency, 1999, https://www.cia.gov/csi/books/19335/art-1.html#rtoc7,last accessed on February 27, 2007

Peter Nolan, China's Rise, Russia's Fall. Macmillan Press, 1995. pp. 17-18

Christopher Reeves, Western Europe during the Cold War and eyond, Jagiellonian University of Krakow, Center for European Studies

http://www.ces.uj.edu.pl/reeves/beyond.htm, last…

They could do it time and time again with success. The first electric car was used on the moon during the Apollo 14 (Endeavor and Falcon) mission (Kennedy Space Center).

Meanwhile in Russia

hile the space program in the United States was busy becoming a popular culture icon, the Russian space program took on a different personality. They still launched missions for "national prestige" (ade). However, the majority of Soviet missions were for military purposes. The Soviet economy played a major role in space efforts. The soviet economy was planned in five-year increments, with long-range military plans being made for the next ten years (ade). This significantly affected the pace of space program development. The Russian space plan was slow to react to American successes.

First generation Soviet launchers had poor reliability. The ten-year plan for the second generation was not approved until 1976 (ade). Third generation plans were approved…

Nuclear confrontation between the two superpowers was profoundly frightening, not just for those who would have borne the full brunt of any nuclear exchange... But for the international community as a whole. Quite literally, the prospect of nuclear war constituted a threat of truly global dimensions. (O'Neil A. 2004)

There are many other important aspects that mark the beginning of the Cold War Era. One was the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO in 1949. NATO as a joint military group was created to "... defend against Soviet forces in Europe." (Cold War) The first members of NATO were Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the United States. (Cold War) A similar organization was formed by the Soviet Union and its east European allies known as the Warsaw Pact. This also serves to emphasize the entrenchment of the Cold War into…

On the other hand there was growing opposition in intelligentsia circles to pro-soviet regimes in all East European countries and Eastern Germany. If in earlier years Soviet Union was able to aid economies of these countries in order to support communist regimes, then starting from the years fro stagnation in late 1970's the situation changed. Findings were shortening and the U.S.S.. was not able to support unprofitable industries of its partners as its own economy was experiencing troubles:

The growth of the Soviet economy has been systematically decelerating since the 1950s as a consequence of dwindling supplies of new labor, the increasing cost of raw material inputs, and the constraints on factor productivity improvement imposed by the rigidities of the planning and management system. The average annual growth of Soviet GNP dropped from 5.3% in the late 1960s to 3.7% in the early 1970s, to 2.6% in the late 1970s.…

Kennedy and Khruschev

The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 is widely considered to be the moment when the Cold ar between the U.S.A. And the U.S.S.R. came closest to outright hostility and indeed nuclear war. hat is most interesting about the Cuban Missile Crisis in retrospect is its strategic handling by the two national leaders involved, Nikita Khrushchev and John F. Kennedy. I hope by an examination of the correspondence exchanged by these two leaders during the period to demonstrate that Kennedy's handling of the crisis, while marked by some errors, was more responsible than Khrushchev's. In some sense, the Cuban Missile Crisis began as an irresponsible gamble by Khrushchev: if he exhibited some clever statesmanship during the crisis, this does not erase the fact that it was begun by him as an attempt to take advantage of a perceived weakness on Kennedy's part that was not ultimately there.…

Cold War

Analyzing Different Perspectives

The term "cold war" refers to a type of conflict that does not utilize any direct military action, in the modern lexicon another way to refer to this would be no military interventions and "no boots" on the ground. However, though the military does not engage the enemy directly, they are often engaged in many indirect pursuits against their target including tasks such as gathering intelligence, building capabilities, using espionage, and sometimes even fighting a proxy war. Yet not just the military is involved in fighting a cold war, the economies of the two countries can be used against each other as well as various political strategies. There are also propaganda campaigns instituted in the countries to attempt to align the populations to the aims of its leaders.

"The Cold War" was the most extreme example of such a form of conflict in history. The…

Strangely, America's role as policeman in Europe actually led to its becoming involved in military conflicts in Southeast Asia. Although the U.S. did not fight the Soviet Union directly in Korea or Vietnam, both conflicts were due to the U.S.'s policy of defeating the spread of Communism no matter where it might occur. Fears of escalation during both the Korean and Vietnam conflicts caused the U.S. To adopt a military strategy that favored limited warfare (Brodie).

The Cold ar had a tremendous impact on the growth of the United States as an industrial and world military power. America's presence throughout the world militarily and the dependence of estern Europe and Japan on the American economy for the sustenance of their own economies caused America's political and economic influence to expanded substantially. Beginning with the Berlin airlift (Reeves) where the United States provided food and other vital items to est Berliners…

Cold ar

hat were the important events and factors that led to the end of the Cold ar? There are several theories and explanations, and this paper reviews those theories and explanations.

First of all, it should be noted that not all scholars accept that the Cold ar began after II. Professor Jack Matlock of Princeton University -- who served as ambassador to the U.S.S.R. -- writes in the peer-reviewed Harvard International Review that if the Cold ar began in 1945 or 1946, it "…must have ended around 1990" because that was when the "Iron Curtain" in Eastern Europe came down and the military confrontation between the East (Soviets) and est (U.S.) slowed to a standstill (Matlock, 2001, p. 1). But, on the other hand, if the Cold ar began in 1917, when the Bolsheviks won control of Russia, then it ended at a different time than 1990, Matlock asserts.…

Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union is known as such because it was waged not through direct conflict, but in through military and political stand-off between nations. On an international level, the Cold War was waged through techniques such as the U.S.S.R. extending its sphere of influence into Eastern Europe and the United States' Berlin airlift. However, its effects were also felt inside the United States, with the hysteria that resulted in the form of McCarthyism and the often-obsessive fear people expressed in regards to protecting themselves from possible nuclear conflict. The hatred an American expressed for communism was used to validate his or her status as a 'real' American. This line of reasoning can be seen today in issues of discrimination against Arabs and other demonized ethnic groups, as well as upon moral issues as abortion and gay parenting. One's stance on these issues is…

Though our historical reflection allows us to resolve that this approach had a great deal in common with colonialism in terms of the self-interested foreign rule which it often brought to occupied locales, the belief for its supporters at the time was that nation-building was a new and morally-superior approach to the issue of advancing the Third orld.

Several of the more historically prominent moments of tumult to be sparked by the Cold ar held to suggest in retrospect that moral differentiation between colonialism and nation-building is baseless. Indeed, the victims of both American and Russian occupation would suffer immensely, experiencing the regression and devastation of foreign aggression and war with little means for self-directed defense. In Chapter 5, the author calls to conversation the issues of Cuba and Vietnam, both of which would find themselves of geographical relevance to the philosophical and strategic positioning of opposing worldviews. Outcomes would…

The same access to formerly secret information from the Cold War era also revealed the extent to which Soviet infiltration of the highest level of American military projects had served to further exhaust the American economy by necessitating continual development of strategic and tactical weapon systems to counter escalating technological improvements in Soviet military systems. The first successful test of a Soviet nuclear weapon in 1949 was directly attributable to Soviet infiltration of the top secret Manhattan Project; American pilots flew combat missions against Soviet Mig fighters developed with information stolen from American weapon designs through espionage; and that dynamic persisted virtually throughout the Cold War (Langewiesche 2007).

The financial strain of continuous nuclear deterrence and the perpetual modernization and updating of sophisticated strategic weapon systems was among the principle causes of the eventual collapse of the former Soviet Union. By 1989, the protracted war in Afghanistan had all but…

As a matter of fact, by the end of 1980s, Soviet Union ran on these very principles.

Kennan criticized the possibilities that Soviets may be involved in invading the pro-Soviet countries with their mind sets and weaken them even if they do not form a higher level of apprehension for them.

Pro-ussian countries will be weakened through a designed framework to tackle the mindsets of the people following western ideologies.

Fights will be sparked in the countries where both countries have western ideologies

Soviet policies will be a negative framework destructive in nature, clearing their path with whatever that comes onto them that they don't like (ussell, 2000).

Kennan was afraid that communism will overshadow the governments of the West but that never happened. At least not to the extent that it was feared by Kennan. Britain and mostly America was afraid of the way communist were taking over and…

Deterrence in the Post-Cold War Era

The same types of deterrence strategies that were used to good effect in the Cold War may not be as effective against non-state actors as with nation states in the 21st century. This paper discusses the factors involved in developing timely and effective responses to non-state actors to determine whether the concepts of cumulative deterrence and/or tailored deterrence can also be effective against non-state actors today. A summary of the research and important findings concerning security and deterrence in the post-Cold War era are provided in the conclusion.

Many military and political strategists today may lament the "good old days of Communism" when the actors were well-known and their geographic locations were established with certainty. At that time, it was a straightforward matter to convince political leaders in Western Europe of the need for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to counter the Soviet-led…

If forced to choose, though, it would seem that the U.S. was more aggressive, simply because it fought so hard to keep communism at bay and ensure that it did not spread to other countries. The real reason that the U.S. And the U.S.S.R. were both so aggressive during this time appears to be that there is simply so much difference between democracy and communism, and both countries thought that they were right in the way that they did things - that no one else's ideas would work or would be just as good or better than theirs. Some of the struggle also came from the desire to have power. The U.S. And the U.S.S.R. were the two most powerful nations in the world when the cold war began and both countries were fighting to stay on top and be the most dominant country. This led them to increasingly aggressive…