Free Essays on The Cold War

The Cold War Cold War began in 1945, at the end of World War II. It is described the intense rivalry that has existed since this date between Communists and non-Communists nations. On one side are the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and its Communists allies, often referred to as the Eastern bloc, which by the mid 1950’s included East Germany, Albania, Hungary, Poland Romania, China, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Bulgaria. On the other side is the United States along with its democratic allies, including Canada, France, West Germany, the Philippines, Japan, Great Britain, and many other countries of Western Europe and Latin America. This group was usually referred to as the Western bloc. Such intense rivalry is known as the Cold War because it has not actually led to fighting, or â€Å"hot† war. Characteristics such as mutual distrust, suspicion, and misunderstandings by both the US and the Soviet Union, and their respective allies, describe the Cold War through the years. At times, such conditions have increased the probability of a third world war. Some issues that led to the Cold War are, that the US has accused the U.S.S.R. of seeking to expand Communism throughout the world. Meanwhile, the Soviets have charged the US with practicing imperialism and with attempting to sop revolutionary activity in other countries. Another contribution to the East-West tension is each bloc’s vision of the world. On one side, the US, wants a world of independent nations based on democratic principles. On the other, the Soviet Union, has tried to control areas it considers very important to its national interest, including much of Eastern Europe. In 1941, during WWII, Germany attacked the Soviet Union. For this reason, the Soviet Union joined the Western Allies in fighting Germany. For a time it seemed that some sort of union might develop between the Soviet Union and the US because of their wartime cooperation. But this wasn’t possible. ... Free Essays on The Cold War Free Essays on The Cold War After a century of friendship, Americans and Russians quarreled over Asian questions in the 1890s, and became enemies in 1917 when the Communists seized power, established the Soviet Union, and declared ideological war on the capitalist nations of the West. The United States intervened in the Soviet Union, sending some 10,000 troops between 1918 and 1920, and then refused to recognize the new state until 1933. The two countries fought against Germany during World War II, but this alliance began to dissolve in 1944-1945, when the Russian leader Joseph Stalin, seeking Soviet security, used the Red Army to control much of Eastern Europe. U.S. President Harry S. Truman opposed Stalin's policy and moved to unite Europe under American leadership. Mistrust grew as both sides broke wartime agreements. Stalin failed to honor pledges to hold free elections in Eastern Europe. Truman refused to honor promises to send reparations from the defeated Germany to help rebuild the war-devastated Soviet Union. U.S. officials, concerned over Soviet pressures against Iran and Turkey, interpreted a 1946 speech by Stalin as declaring ideological war against the West. In 1947 the president proposed the Truman Doctrine, which had two objectives: to send U.S. aid to anticommunist forces in Greece and Turkey, and to create a public consensus so Americans would be willing to fight the cold war. He achieved both goals. That same year, journalist Walter Lippmann popularized the term cold war in a book of the same name. In Congress there was a series of highly publicized inquiries into pro-Communist activity in the United States. The best-known investigator, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, gave his name to an era of intense anticommunism. In 1948 the United States launched the $13 billion Marshall Plan to rebuild Western and Central Europe. When Stalin responded by extending his control over Eastern Europe and threatening the West's position in Germany, Truman helped to... Free Essays on The Cold War The Start of the Cold War The Cold War was a long drawn out conflict that began in 1947 between the Soviet Union and the United States. The struggle between the two powers had the many parts of the world in disarray. The western nations felt it necessary that the liberated states of Eastern Europe should be re-established with a democracy and a capitalist economy. They believed that these systems were more civilized and less violent than the nationalism of the preceding generations. Russia, under autocratic leader Joseph Stalin, felt that it had a right to the Eastern European nations it had occupied in World War II. After being invaded by Germany in two consecutive wars, the USSR felt it imperative that buffer states be created to protect the borders of the fatherland. With Communist regimes in place, the nations of Eastern Europe could be controlled by Russia and, by their location, protect it. Conflict between the two opposing victors of World War II was inevitable. Joseph Stalin, Winston S. Churchill and President Harry S. Truman were huge contributors to the Cold war. In the Following the discussion of Stalin’s reply to Churchill, Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech, Stalin’s and the Truman Doctrine will reflect the thoughts of the three gentlemen. Britain Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill (1874-1965) delivered his Iron Curtain† speech at Westminster College, in Fulton, Missouri, this speech was notable as the beginning of the Cold War. Churchill called the â€Å"Iron Curtain† a separation of the European continent into competing political, military, and economic blocs and the area controlled by the Soviet Union. In his speech he speaks that war should not come to pass but it was near due to the tensions flaring between the two. Churchill also expressed that the Russians simply â€Å"desire the fruits of war and the indefinite expansion of their power and doctrines.† All in all Churchill feels that there is no need ... Free Essays on The Cold War The Cold War as it is called was a war that started because of tensions between the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union and its allies. The tensions that developed were primarily over military, political, cultural and social ideas that varied greatly between the two nations. Each Nation and its allies developed a distrust that would last for many years and introduce new military and political methods that would shape our future. The Cold War was not a war as we would think with destruction and loss of life. What the Cold War became was distrust between Nations that caused conflict and tension between these nations. The two major countries involved in the conflict were the United States and the Soviet Union. Both of these nations distrusted each other and were unable to negotiate the issues that were fostering the Cold War because of the distrust that they had for each other. The United States and its allies were concerned that Russia was a communist county, ruled by a dictator who cared little about human rights The United States accused the Soviet Union of seeking to expand their version of communism throughout the world. Brittan and the United States (Led by President Truman) wanted to help Germany recover and to prevent large areas of Europe from coming under Communist control. They did not trust USSR since Stalin had signed the Nazi Soviet pact in 1939.Russia believed America was a capitalist democra cy, which valued freedom. Stalin wanted reparations from Germany and a buffer of friendly states. From past history the USSR did not trust Britain and the USA because they had tried to destroy the Russian Revolution in 1918. Stalin thought the USA and Britain had not helped the USSR enough in World War II. They charged the United States with practicing imperialism and attempting to stop revolutionary activity in other countries. Both nations were somewhat correct in their fears. The United States was trying to enc... Free Essays on The Cold War The Cold War can basically be summed up by two statements, the first by Alexis de Tocqueville, â€Å"There are now two great nations in the world, which starting from different points, seem to be advancing toward the same goal: the Soviets and the Americans, each seems called by some secret design of providence one day to hold in its hands the destinies of half the world. The second statement by Fred Inglis, â€Å"They made it, of course; they drew the iron curtain across the middle of Europe, partly to stop us looking in, partly to stop their own poor wretches looking out enviously at the boundless goods and comforts on our side. Behind the iron curtain were the hapless peoples held captive by the grim-faced Russians and their stooges in office in the satellites; in front of it were ourselves, expressing sympathy for the captives but apologetically remaining very thoroughly armed, in however subdued a way. To pinpoint the factors that contributed to the Cold War, we must first start with World War II itself. America was fighting two wars on two different fronts, protecting itself from future attacks and at the same time promoting democracy. The Soviets fighting a war in Europe and their western borders, against Nazi Germany, were trying to expand their buffer zone against future attacks by claiming eastern European countries. Then transform them into communist controlled states, all loyal to Moscow. On February 4, 1945 Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Franklin D. Roosevelt met for the Yalta Conference. What came out of the Yalta Conference was that the Soviets were to keep control of the territory it seized in 1939 from Poland, and that Europe was to be split up into four different zones. On July 25, 1945 the Potsdam Conference was held, by this time the U.S. could start seeing that Stalin had an agenda of his own. Stalin in violation of the Yalta Conference set up a pro Soviet government in Poland. On March 12, 1946 the... Free Essays on The Cold War In December of 1991, as the world watched in amazement, the Soviet Union disintegrated into fifteen separate countries. Its collapse was hailed by the west as a victory for freedom, a triumph of democracy over totalitarianism, and evidence of the superiority of capitalism over socialism. The United States rejoiced as its formidable enemy was brought to its knees, thereby ending the Cold War which had hovered over these two superpowers since the end of World War II. Indeed, the breakup of the Soviet Union transformed the entire world political situation, leading to a complete reformulation of political, economic and military alliances all over the globe. What led to this monumental historical event? The disintegration of the Soviet Union began on the peripheries, in the non-Russian areas. The first region to produce mass, organized dissent was the Baltic region, where, in 1987, the government of Estonia demanded autonomy. This move was later followed by similar moves in Lithuania and Latvia, the other two Baltic republics. The nationalist movements in the Baltics constituted a strong challenge to Gorbachev's policy of glasnost. He did not want to crack down too severely on the participants in these movements, yet at the same time, it became increasingly evident that allowing them to run their course would spell disaster for the Soviet Union, which would completely collapse if all of the periphery republics were to demand independence. Once this "Pandora's box" had been opened, nationalist movements emerged in Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Byelorussia, and the Central Asian republics. The power of the Central Government was considerably weakened by these movements; they could no longer rely on the cooperation of Government figures in the republics. Finally, the situation came to a head in August of 1991. In a last-ditch effort to save the Soviet Union, which was floundering under the impact of the political movements which had emerged... Free Essays on The Cold War The Cold War Cold War began in 1945, at the end of World War II. It is described the intense rivalry that has existed since this date between Communists and non-Communists nations. On one side are the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and its Communists allies, often referred to as the Eastern bloc, which by the mid 1950’s included East Germany, Albania, Hungary, Poland Romania, China, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Bulgaria. On the other side is the United States along with its democratic allies, including Canada, France, West Germany, the Philippines, Japan, Great Britain, and many other countries of Western Europe and Latin America. This group was usually referred to as the Western bloc. Such intense rivalry is known as the Cold War because it has not actually led to fighting, or â€Å"hot† war. Characteristics such as mutual distrust, suspicion, and misunderstandings by both the US and the Soviet Union, and their respective allies, describe the Cold War through the years. At times, such conditions have increased the probability of a third world war. Some issues that led to the Cold War are, that the US has accused the U.S.S.R. of seeking to expand Communism throughout the world. Meanwhile, the Soviets have charged the US with practicing imperialism and with attempting to sop revolutionary activity in other countries. Another contribution to the East-West tension is each bloc’s vision of the world. On one side, the US, wants a world of independent nations based on democratic principles. On the other, the Soviet Union, has tried to control areas it considers very important to its national interest, including much of Eastern Europe. In 1941, during WWII, Germany attacked the Soviet Union. For this reason, the Soviet Union joined the Western Allies in fighting Germany. For a time it seemed that some sort of union might develop between the Soviet Union and the US because of their wartime cooperation. But this wasn’t possible. ... Free Essays on The Cold War The Cold War was the term used to describe the intense rivalry that developed after World War II between groups of Communist and non Communist nations. It was called the cold war because it did not really result in fighting. According to the article on the cold war in the World Book 2000 encyclopedia , on compact disc, the cold war began at the end of the second world war. It was symbolized by mutual distrust suspicion and misunderstanding by the United States , the Soviet Union and their allies . At these instances these conditions increased the chances of a third world war. The Soviet Union was accused of attempting to diffuse communism throughout the world by united states . The soviets in turn a accused the United States with practicing imperialism and also trying to stop revolutionary activity in other countries the Soviets also accused the united states and other capitalist allies of the west of attempting to en circle the soviet union so that they could eventually over throw it’s communist for of government it is with this accusation that two great blocs came into being the united states led the western bloc it included by the early 1950’s Britain, Canada, France, West Germany, Japan, The Philippines and many other countries of Western Europe and Latin America. The soviet union led the eastern bloc , which included Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania . Following the communist take over of its government in 1949 , China joined the eastern bloc. Nations who were impartial and were not included in either bloc included India, Indonesia Cambodia and most of the African states. This was just the beginning. It is interesting that the east and west blocs both remained united amongst themselves . They challenged each other and their polices ,accusing them of betrayal. Even though they chose to join such blocs. It is obvious tha...