Cold War Dbq

The US and the USSR maintained their diplomatic relations, and yet, behaved like enemies. Many historians refer to the war as “diplomatic war”. The Cold War was defined by Fleming as “a war that is fought not in the battle field, but in the minds of men; one tries to control the minds of other.” Unlike a standard war, it was fought in the diplomatic channels and the United Nations forum. As the Cold War progressed, its nature underwent many changes during over four decades, however, three primary characteristics of the Cold War were recognized by the historians C. Kegley and E. Wittkopf, they are the

In 1946, in his famous telegram George Kennan explained this policy. He wrote “a political force committed fanatically to the belief that with the U.S. there can be no permanent modus vivendi”(Unit 7 Lesson 3 “The Beginnings of the Cold War”). As a result, America’s only choice was the long term, patient but tough and fearful containment of Russian expansive impulses. President Harry Truman agreed.to support free peoples who are resisting attempted enslavement by outside pressures. This way of thinking would shape American foreign policy for the next couple

The Cold War Era was a time in history where there was hostility between many different countries. The one most notable was the hostility between the Soviet Union and United States, the fight between Communism and Capitalism. As the most dominant country the U.S. offered assistance to countries threatened by Communism. They felt that Communism was wrong and was not the right way to run a government. Between the years 1945 and 1980 the United States and Soviet Union’s relationship was ruined, which caused a lot of distrust between the two. The two countries never went to war, but there were a lot of disagreements, among them the U.S. was a democracy and the Soviet Union was under a dictatorship. Leading up to the Cold War America became

After World War II, a state of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union took place from 1945 to 1991. Although these two nations had previously fought as allies their relationship quickly took a turn for the worst when the argument had risen over whether communism or democracy was the right way of government. The Soviet Union was determined to spread communism all over the world but The United States did everything in their power to try and stop it. Over the course of the Cold War the US gained much potential and power due to their efforts to dominate over the USSR. One of the main reasons the US gained power was because of the Marshall Plan that was signed off by president Truman in 1948. This Plan was devised as a way

After the defeat of the Axis powers in World War II it was apparent that the victors would come out as the new world powers. With the United States and the Soviet Union being the strongest nations of the victorious Allies they were the two countries who emerged as the new world powers but their views varied drastically. The Democratic United States and the Communist Soviets butted heads about each others views and the U.S. wanted to halt the spread of communism so it couldn’t get to the rest of the world. The U.S. adopted a policy of containment to keep communism in the USSR and the other places it had spread. The U.S.’s main goal was to prevent the spread of communism and they did everything

The Cold War was the hostile relationship, between 1947 to 1989, which existed between the Soviet Union and the United States and other Western Nations This struggle for global supremacy is characterized by mutual distrust, espionage, the stockpiling of weapons, and a race to develop technologies. However, when it comes to blaming one side on the how this war started, the fault clearly lies with the Soviet Union. The Soviet leader at this time, Stalin, forced the spread of communism as he feared anyone else, especially the United States who were aiming towards helping other countries develop into a capitalistic empire, as they now practiced. His attempts to force communism down Eastern Europeans throats was a major underlying cause to the Cold

The United States made a commitment to fight communism after World War II everywhere it could in the world and got involved in conflicts more because of self-interest and determination to beat communism than the cause. This first appears with the Truman Doctrine, which set the precedent for America to assist anti-communist regimes around the world. After World War II and up until the early 1990’s the foreign policy of the United States was based on the policy of the containment of Cold War ideology and to prevent nations from turning towards Soviet-based communism.

There was also a fear that Communism would expand and soon take over. This is commonly known as the red scare. After World War ll there was still fighting going on in the world. For example there were civil wars being fought in Greece and Turkey against Communism. Great Britain was worried that their stronghold territory would fall to Communism. So Britain explained their concern to the US. And because Communism is already a sensitive topic in the US Truman is able to explain the severity of the situation and gets the doctrine passed by stating “Should we fail to aid Greece and Turkey in this fateful hour, the effect will be far reaching to the west as well as to the east. We must take Immediate and resolute action.” The doctrine stated that the US will help any country with their fight against communism. The Truman Doctrine was issued on March 12th, 1947. Also taking place during this time was the Marshall Plan. Created by George Marshall, Truman’s secretary of state. This plan was to invest money into Western European to help with reconstruction. “Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos.” Marshall was given 13.5 billion dollars to ensure success in helping the rebuilding of industry and infrastructure of England. This not only help the European nation financially, but also declined the communist rate in Europe. The Soviet Union saw the Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine as an act of war. Andrei Vyshinsky stated this by saying “The so-called Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan are particularly glaring example of the way in which the principle of the United Nations are violated of the way in which the organization is ignored.” As seen the US had a long and hard fight against Communism going to any length to assure that Communism remained

Truman agreed with these people’s perspective, knowing the full capabilities the bombs have, but was reminded that even after the war, the USSR was the only superpower in the world that could compete with the U.S and the U.S fears the threatening force of the USSR. Other documents recalled that the Atomic bomb was necessary and that with its use can come another good thing, to threaten the Soviet Union and making them to know their place. However, because of the detonation of the Atomic bomb, this caused a chain reaction after the war and led up to the events to the Cold War. Even though there was a more peaceful approach to stop the War with Japan, the United States had to use the bomb to scare the Soviet Union hoping that they would not threaten the United States in the

The Cold War grew out of post-World War II tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. Although the war did not bring about large scale fighting, there remained a constant threat of a catastrophic nuclear war. During the war, the US sought to strictly limit the spread of communism through containment, an idea formulated by US diplomat George Kennan, which became the basis of Harry Truman’s foreign policy. The containment policy was a response to a series of moves by the Soviet Union to enlarge communist influence in Eastern Europe, China, Korea, Africa, and Vietnam. The president’s initial step toward containment came in response to a British request to support both Turkey and Greece against the spread of communism. By requesting Congress for $400 million in military and economic assistance for Greece and Turkey, Truman established the Truman Doctrine. This policy, marking an “informal declaration of Cold War against the Soviets”, established that the United States would provide military and economic assistance to all nations threatened by Communism. The United States further devised the Marshall plan, which provided massive financial aid to western European countries in order to strengthen their economy, which indirectly prevented the spread of communism. Eisenhower and Nixon’s containment policies, while sharing Truman’s idea that communism should be contained, implemented different policies regarding containment. Eisenhower’s “New Look” policy was fiscally

One of the most controversial topics among historians is the origins of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR). The war began in 1947 right after the end of World War II and lasted until 1991. This war was more of a time period of competition among powers, than an actual war, which lasted 44 years. They faced problems of ideologies of free-market capitalistic America versing communistic Russia, geopolitics, and an economic struggle between two former World War II allies. Historians have long argued and taken many different sides on who started the Cold War. These views have been categorized into: realism/traditionalism, revisionism, and post-revisionism. Nevertheless the rivalry between the two superpowers was tense. To understand the underlying problems between the USSR and the United States, it is crucial to go back into history and reflect on pre World War II.

The Cold war was a struggle for power between the Soviet Union and the United states going on from the late 1940’s until the decomposition of the Soviet Union in 1991. In only a few years these World War II partners turned into enemies locked in a global struggle with military, political, and ideological disputes.

In discussions of the causes of the Cold War, one controversial issue has been the question: who caused the Cold War? On the one hand, traditional historians argue that the leaders of the Soviet Union are to blame. On the other hand, revisionists contend that the Western leaders are to blame. Others even maintain that it was both the Western and the Soviet leaders who are equally responsible for the development of the Cold War. My own view is that the Western leaders were responsible for protecting democratic values that we enjoy today while the Soviet leadership’s ideology, aggressive and expansionist intrusions were mainly responsible for the development of the Cold War.

The historian’s belonging to this school see the Truman doctrine from 1947 as the point when the Cold War started. They put the responsibility for the Cold War on the Soviet Union and its expansionist policy. According to them, this is the reason, why Soviets broke promises from the negotiations during the World War II, especially the Yalta agreement. On the other hand, the U.S. politicians wanted to continue the cooperation between the Allies even after the defeat of the Axis. They put a lot of hope to the newly created organization – United Nations – and the principle of collective security. However, the U.S. needed to react to the Soviet aggression in Europe. They adopted the policy of containment. The orthodox scholars view this policy as necessity because without it “the Soviet Union would have become the master of all Europe, instead of only the eastern Europe” .

Between 1945 and 1991 there was a lengthy struggle of ideologies between the United States and the Soviet Union, which was fuelled in the aftermath of the surrender of Hitler’s Germany. America followed a political system of democracy, hence were capitalist, and in contrast the USSR was a communist state meaning they were anti-liberal. Both countries tried to strengthen themselves and weaken the other side, without becoming involved in a ‘hot’ war. They competed for influence in the world and wanted to advance their economic interests. Both countries aided to the start of the Cold War however, Joseph Stalin’s actions lead him to be mainly responsible, rather than Harry S. Truman.