Annotated Bibliography: The Cold War

With little knowledge of the Cold War I started to read “The Cold War, A New History” by John Lewis Gaddis. As an upcoming student of the Cold War, this book helped me to fully understand what the Cold War actually was. Furthermore, Gaddis was appraised as the “Dean of Cold War Historians” by The New York Times. Still today, Gaddis is a leading

Between 1945 and 1960, the United States was confronted with a colossal predicament. A Cold War had emerged between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. This war did not involve any direct attacks between the two, instead indirect confrontations. Subsequently, the war took a massive toll on the U.S. An era of high tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union posed a communist threat to America.

After World War II there was still a main conflict between the two major world superpowers; the US and allied countries that supported democracy and on the other hand the Soviet Union (USSR) who supported communism and wanted to spread it. The conflict was that the Soviet Union tried spreading communism in other countries, but the United States was not going to allow that. This conflict influenced the Cold War to be fought by the Eastern Bloc (Soviet Union) and Western Bloc (the United States and allies). When the Eastern Europe was taken over by the USSR and turned into communism the US helped the Western Europe to not be taken over by communism. As an adviser to the President of the United States the policy that he should follow is to rapidly build up the political,

Europe after the capitulation of Nazi Germany and the subsequent Allied victory in World War II was in ruins from years of fighting and bombing. Cities and infrastructure lay flattened and shortages of vital consumer products of food and fuel persisted across Europe. The economic situation of Europe was also in tatters; many countries suffered from severe inflation, debt, trade deficits, and depleted gold supplies. The United States having remained virtually untouched by the destruction had emerged from World War II stronger than ever before both an industrial economic, and military powerhouse. The Soviet Union though also suffering from the wounds of the war began to establish pro-Soviet communist governments in the Eastern European countries

For this assignment, you will choose your topic and the six (or more) related events and developments that span the years 1865 to the present. You will then find one scholarly source related to each event or

The Cold War was a significant time for the United States and the Soviet Union, while the rest of the world watched intently. Although no actual war took place, both of these powerful countries did their best to promote their political and ideological ideas while trying to gain some ground in the seemingly never ending arms race. This war was driven by both fear and the strive to become the strongest and most powerful country. During the time of the Cold War, the United States proved to be a strong influence over Canada. Given its location, it was obvious as to which side Canada was on. While Canada believed in the same ideologies as the US, this nation was still reluctant to fully emerge themselves into the hysteria that had been emerging in the US. However, even though Canada had just received world recognition for its contribution during the Second World War, this large yet acutely populated country had much still to prove. During this time, Canada just recently became a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). But while Canada was making huge steps in their peacekeeping and military growth, there were still rumours of espionage circling the country.

Stoddard wrote about everything from what the weather was like to the disagreements on funding for the Civil War. This resource would not be very useful in a research paper about the New York City draft riots of 1863. One could argue that Stoddard’s personal feelings about the political climate and national finances of the time would be useful in hindsight, helping to understand the general atmosphere of the day, but his feelings as top official did not compare to that of the lower class people of New York City. He did, however, give a glimpse to his book, “Volcano under the City”, but that was an entirely different resource. Overall, this article would suffice in a research paper on Abraham Lincoln and his administration, but not for the draft riots of

In 1961 President John F Kennedy put together a doctrine, which altered from President Eisenhower’s one. It was to “Respond flexibly to communist expansion, especially guerrilla warfare.” (Roskin & Berry, 2010, p. 58) It was a time when the Cold War was at its height and nuclear weapons a mass threat and source of power. This doctrine was aimed at using alternative means before opening into combat. This, in light of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, it succeeded in doing.

1947 through 1991 was the time period of the Cold War; the Cold War was a result caused by the tension of the after math of what had happened with world war 2 .The tension that was there wasn 't just any kind of tension it was military tension between the power of the eastern bloc and the power of the western bloc. The Cold War wasn 't only one war but it was decades of "little"wars and intimidation. Germany was busy after the war, there where so much tension between the Soviet Union and the western allies because they had feared each other because they had thought a new war could arise. Minister Churchill then decided that he would put what would be an iron curtain across Europe. The Cold War had so many little conflicts within it like the Chinese revolution, the Palestine liberation organisation, and so many more hundreds if you would that happened in the Cold War time.

In The Cold War: A New History, John L. Gaddis creates a thorough timeline of the events stretching from the end of World War II through the fall of the USSR which helps newer generations understand the gravity of the situation. As Michael Bechloss said “By 2006, Americans too young to have lived through the era of duck-and-cover drills require a scholar of extraordinary gifts to tell why nine presidents deployed our national treasure against an empire that broke apart so clumsily in the end.” This quote does an excellent job explaining how my generation and the ones following will have a limited understanding of the events surrounding the cold war and their role in shaping the world we know today. As Gaddis himself said in a NPR interview;

With this book, a major element of American history was analyzed. The Cold War is rampant with American foreign policy and influential in shaping the modern world. Strategies of Containment outlines American policy from the end of World War II until present day. Gaddis outlines the policies of presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, including policies influenced by others such as George Kennan, John Dulles, and Henry Kissinger. The author, John Lewis Gaddis has written many books on the Cold War and is an avid researcher in the field. Some of his other works include: The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1941-1947, The Long Peace: Inquiries into the History of the Cold War, We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War

The Cold War: A New History written by John Lewis Gaddis (a professor at Yale University who wrote other books such as The United States and the Origins of the Cold War and Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of Postwar American National Security) delivers a summarized, yet skewed interpretation of what had happened during the era known as the Cold War. Throughout the book, the author attempts to provide history of the Cold War, while adding in generalizations, incomplete facts, as well as flat out bias.

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

The Cold War was fought between the United States of America and the Soviet Union. The war was a battle to be the most powerful country in the world. Although the Cold War was not a violent one it affected many other countries besides the United States and the Soviet Union. Most of the battles were races to get the achieve technology. South Korea was deeply affected by the Cold War; “Letter to General-Lieutenant Hodge on Northern Korea Providing Electricity to Southern Korea” proves that South Korea’s debt to North Korea was directly associated with the Cold War. North Korea was also very much affected by the Cold War; “Soviet Report on Communists in Korea, 1945” validates the fact that the North Korean

When people think of wars they think of mass casualties and cities being destroyed. However, one of history's most important and most dangerous wars didn’t have any mass casualties. This was the Cold War. In my opinion The Cold War was the most dangerous war since WWII. It was the most dangerous war since WWII due to nuclear weapons, the two largest powerhouse countries being involved, and foreign entanglements that stemmed from it.