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Causes And Effects Of The Cold War

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Abi Amarnath
Mrs. Saunders
12 November 2014
English II

Causes and Effects of the Cold War
Richard Nixon once said of the Cold War that “the Cold War isn 't thawing; it is burning with a deadly heat. Communism isn 't sleeping; it is, as always, plotting, scheming, working, fighting.”(www.brainyquote.com). An analysis of the Cold War between 1947-1991 reveals that the Cold War was caused by a difference in political ideals between the USA and the Soviet Union, the aftermath of WWII, and the “Iron Curtain” in Europe. Further analysis reveals the Cold War contributed to many other conflicts, such as the bomb shelter craze in the US, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Korean War. One of the main causes of the Cold War was the difference in political ideals between the democratic US and the communist Soviet Union. The Cold war was, in essence, a war based off of the political differences between the Soviet Union and the US, (Browne). Mutual suspicion had long existed between the West and the USSR, and friction was sometimes manifest in the Grand Alliance during World War II.(Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia). In a comment following the test of the first Soviet atomic bomb in 1949, U.S. Representative Carl Durham said “The American people … must be prepared to sacrifice all sorts of otherwise desirable welfare programs on the domestic front in order to be sure of adequate defenses in the light of this situation.” (Pearson). Fearing the appeal of Communism, President Truman,

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