Cold War Dbq Analysis

The Cold War forced America to change its economy from a nineteenth century, industrialized economy to a modern, mobilized economy in order to keep the United States ready for any conflict and for intervention. Through the battles between communism and capitalism, a military-industrial complex was created, meaning the government's role in keeping America in a constant state of alert and readiness was put into place.

Throughout the Cold War, America’s foreign policy made a great difference and was very effective. Document A states that the policy towards the Soviet Union must be long-term, which America did just that. It says to keep the Soviets more of a rival than a partner, which they did very effectively. The Truman Doctrine stated that America would help other countries fight communism both politically and physically. This was very effective because it prevented the spread of communism. The Doctrine was clearly shown in Document B, where the U.S. assisted South Korea from communist North Korea.

After World War 2, everyone was happy, unfortunately this happiness didn’t last long. The Soviet Union and United States had many differences. One of those many being, the Soviets believing in Communism and the United States believing in Capitalism. This little disagreement sparked one of the deadliest wars in U.S. history. The U.S. put the Soviets under a policy known as containment. This meant the Soviets were going to be watched and kept under control. This was to insure Communism wouldn’t spread fast or anywhere else. The strongest example of containment is the Cuban missile crisis, while North Korea vs. South Korea is the weakest example.

According to excerpts from Joseph Stalin’s Dialectical and Historical Materialism, “the transition from capitalism to socialism and the liberation of the working class from the yoke of capitalism cannot be effected by slow changes… but only… by revolution.” The USSR wasn’t content with the idea of capitalism. But the USSR thinks that a rapid revolution, violence, is the only way and it is natural and inevitable. They [the Soviet Union] believe that instead of fixing the struggle between the rich and poor, they want to struggle to go all the way through until we have a society that favors and takes care of the working class. However, the US believes that they should always keep the door open to them and be ready and willing to work together. “Today the ruling circles of the United States and Great Britain head one international grouping which has as its aim the consolidation of capitalism and the achievement of the domination of these countries over other peoples…” is an excerpt from “The Task of Our Time: United Against the Enslavement of the People” The US and Great Britain wanted other countries to become capitalists which was the opposite of what the USSR wanted to do. And the USSR wanted to spread communism and they were not in favor of capitalism. The USSR may say that the Cold War was a reaction to this because the US was the first

During the years of the Cold War, the United States had to strategize a way to block the spread of communism. The Cold War deliberates tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The Soviets had progressed in their communist ways and the capitalist US wanted to block their spread of communism because of the awful reaction communism had cost. Most importantly are the events that took place during the Cold War that represent containment such as the Korean War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Soviet Blockade.

There are many opinions on who started the Cold War, whether it be the USSR’s fault or the United States. With old trust issues rising up again, the next forty years resulted in constant tension and aggression between the two rival powers. But, when it’s time to place the blame for this tedious conflict, it is clear the United States can be blamed, for they were constantly imposing their greater power, and led the USSR to lose their trust due to international acts of aggression from the US. From 1945-1991 the US took action abroad to stop the USSR from gaining more global power, they misinterpreted Soviet motives, and threatened the USSR with acts of aggression through major bomb threats. With both nations having different motives after WWII,

During the Cold War the soviets accomplished many great things. According to Karl Marx societies experienced certain stages ; capitalism, socialism, and finally communism. Capitalism was about private ownership and greed. Both socialism and communism were about equally distribution of wealth and ownership. There wouldn't be any labels such as Rich and/or poor. In 69 years as a country the Soviet Union accomplished many great and cruel things, military strength, the great Terror and cultural achievements. These should all be included in their textbooks to remember this time in history.

Add Quote? Some sort of attention getter. The beginning of the Cold War seemed inevitable following World War II as tensions in conflicting ideological systems only grew more hostile. What was once a “marriage of convenience” between Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union began to unravel due to the pressures of dealing with a postwar world. For historians, the debate as to how and why the Cold War started is contested as thousands of theories are offered to help explain it.

After the Second World War, the imperialist countries were devastated with Germany being divided among the allied victors. Consequently, the United States and Russia were the most powerful countries in the world. From 1945 to 1991, democracy was represented by the United States and communism was represented by the Soviet Union. Russia aimed to conquer as many countries as possible to insure communist domination of the world. This rivalry was called the Cold War, where both countries competed for their type of government, but did not necessarily go to war with weapons. Both countries, threatened each other with powerful nuclear weapons, causing mass hysteria. During the Cold War, Americans feared communism, a nuclear war, and Soviet dominance

When World War II ended, nations rejoiced the end of a long bloody war. However, tension between two previous allied emerged. Thus conflict, referred to as the Cold War, was due to the disagreement over what type of government should be reinstalled in Germany. While the Soviet Union supported communism, a system in which wealth is divided equally among individuals and major productive resources are owned by the public or state, the United States of America supported democracy, a government that is ran by the people. This conflict not only affected Germany, but also many other, region of the world.

The Cold War was an intellectual battle between communists and anti communists to have their own dominance over the modern world. The Cold War started as most wars do, two sides disagreeing with each other. In this case one side wanted to stop the spread of communism and the other side wanted them to butt out. What happens when both sides have strong opinions and potentially dangerous ideas? It just adds more fuel to the fire. The two sides specifically were the USA and the USSR. Needless to say the USA was against communism and the USSR wasn’t.

“We shall pay the price, bear any burden, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” (John F Kennedy) Before the Cold War, Russia and the United States fought next to each other in World War II. The U.S even gave them millions of dollars worth of weapons and other support to help defeat the Nazis. But when Joseph Stalin took over, created the Soviet Union and started spreading communism the U.S had to do something about it. During the Cold War the United States and the Soviet Union were pitted against each other, each with hopes on spreading their own but very different governments and requirements, taking extreme measures like containment, the Truman Doctrine, Berlin Blockade, or the Cuban Missile Crisis.

These two powers had differing ideologies, with the US believing in democracy and the USSR believing in communism. These superpowers were at incredible tension starting right after WWII due to their ideologies, and that tension is what we now call the Cold War. The Cold War was a “war” in which each side never actually fought each other, but both fought to spread their ideology. By the 1960s, from actual wars in both Korea and Vietnam, to both sides aiding poorer countries in hopes of swaying them to their ideology, the Cold War had reached many facets.

Another reason of why the Cold War started is because of the competition and tension between the contradicting beliefs of communism and capitalism. While the United States valued capitalism, the Soviet Union held a communist government. The two ideologies greatly differ on an elemental scale. Whereas capitalism praises the importance of freedom of an individual, communism disregards individual rights and the totalitarian government has absolute control of all aspects. Capitalist and communist governments also had conflicting goals which led them to more tension and conflicts. They both wanted to expand their type of government. Therefore, they competed to influence other countries to become either communist or capitalist countries.

The US really feared a drop in the trade and didn’t want to slip back into the depression so had to protect their relations with Europe. It was however as important for both nations as the USSR also necessitated to rebuilt its economy after the war. A mutual fear appeared between the USSR and the US because both had a lot to lose if one were to take control of the continent: their economy was dependent on their trade with Europe. For instance, to try to protect its interests, the US sided with monarchists against the communists in Greece in 1947. The US’s military power, as strong as it was, was still threatened by the USSR.