Cold War Dbq Essay

After World War II, only two world superpowers remained: the United States of America and the Soviet Union. The contradictory political regimes of the democratic United States and the communist Soviet Union were believed to be mutually exclusive which increased bitterness between them. Inevitably, the apparent tension between the two superpowers led to the Cold War which lasted about 45 years. It was war without bloodshed or battle, instead it was a metaphorical war where the U.S and the Soviet Union increased their weapons and fought for political influence, one always wanting to excel or maintain within the range of the other. The United States’ desperate need to contain the communist political ideology from spreading any further and meet the Soviet Union’s increased development of nuclear weapons led to the their involvement in the Cold War. The impact the Cold War had on life during the 1950’s and 1960’s can be measured through the creation of the House Un-American

The Cold War, a period of sustained political and military tension between the USA and the USSR, resulted in various viewpoints concerning the cause of the tension emerging. Until today the question remains unresolved, even after the 1991 release of Soviet archives. The main point of disagreement relates to the roles that ideology played in the events between 1945 and 1949. Was it the strongly opposing ideologies, capitalism and communism, or power and material interest that drove both superpowers to the decades of struggle for global supremacy.

The hysteria of the Cold War caused for many precautions. Throughout the mid 1900s, the spread of communism was causing concern to the United States. President Dwight D. Eisenhower worked to solve these issues both politically and socially to prevent further fear from the American citizens.

After World War II, the Eastern and Western Allies started to grow apart. The Eastern Bloc was led by the Soviet Union and promoted communism, while the Western Bloc was led by the United States and promoted capitalism, through democracy. Both wanted their country’s ideals to spread throughout the world, and at the same time, prevent the opposing superpower from taking over. In an attempt to stop the spread of communism, the United States created NATO and the Truman Doctrine, while the Soviet Union tried to stop democracy by creating the Warsaw Pact. At this point, the world was divided, and most third world countries became pawns in the fight of communism versus capitalism.

The Cold war began after World War two and ended in the early 1990s. The cold war was a series of events that occurred because the United States and Soviet Union fighting for power. Both superpowers fought for who would have the biggest influence on the nations. The United States was democratic while the Soviet Union was communist thus they tried to contain the spread of each other’s beliefs while dragging other countries into the cold war including Europe, Latin America and Asia. The cold war had a big impact on both Asia and Europe.

It is the 20th century, the USA and USSR are at the brink of nuclear war. Nobody knows what happens next…

The United States mission to eradicate and halt the spread of communism within Europe and Asia was a new challenge and a new responsibility. America hoped to effectively stop and fight against communism; which is had so vigorously fought against in WWII. The United States needed to control the communist ideas and influence it had on other countries; while preventing its influence ever coming to America. The United States planned on and hoped to stop the corruption of communism from the new threats; The Soviet Union and Asia.

Following WWII and during the Cold War, there was a sense of instability in Europe. To counteract this, many nations believed that a united Europe could suppress the intense nationalism and militarism that lead to both world wars. Other nations reacted with advocacy, protest or were simply equivocal. Post WWII Europe was extremely chaotic and disjointed. Alliances had been made and broken during the world wars, so tensions were at an all time high throughout the continent.

During the Second World War, USA and the Soviet Union came together against a common enemy. It was the immediate events after the War which lead to renewed tensions between the superpowers. Many commentators attribute the Berlin Blockade crisis of 1948 to be the catalyst that sparked the beginning of the Cold War. The Cold War period was a state of political and military tension running parallel with the development of nuclear weapons between the United States and the Soviet Union. The ideological differences between these two Superpowers put massive strain on their relationship. USA was democratic, capitalist state. Their ideals were heavily based on a classist society, where the means for producing and distributing goods is owned by a small minority of people (World Socialist Movement 2016). The Soviet Union’s communist ideals were at the other end of the spectrum. Their ideas were based around communal management and public ownership of major production mediums (Richard Dagger 2014). It is obvious that these ideologies are extremely different. Over the next four decades the world came close to

The relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union was very tense, especially during the Cold War. Prior to this war, during World War II, they worked together as allies. Both of them had different ways of economically thinking. The Soviet Union was communist and the United States was capitalist. However, during this time Russia wanted to spread communism across the world, but the United States aided the cessation of the spread.

In this paper I will discuss what actions and thoughts added up to cause the cold war. The cold war lasted from September 1, 1945 to about December 25, 1991. That is about forty-five years, which is an extremely long time. The cold war was a global competition basically between two sides, the Free World, which was led by the United States of America, and the Communist World led by the Soviet Union. The struggle took place through indirect military conflict, and direct competition in the areas of economics, diplomacy, culture, space exploration, and political theory. It also involved nuclear stand offs, espionage, and global competition for other nations. The cold war has established the framework for most

This fear of communism shaped the U.S.’s identity and security relationship. The U.S. identified with liberal and capitalism and so found communism a threat due to its different beliefs. The ‘domino effect’ was an imagined Soviet foreign policy that U.S. policy makers feared. It was the belief that Soviets were

The traditional, orthodox interpretation places the responsibility of the Cold War on Stalin’s personality and on communist ideology. It claims that as long as Stalin and the authoritarian government were in power, a cold war was unavoidable. It argues that Stalin violated agreements that he had made at Yalta, imposed Soviet policy on Eastern European countries aiming at political domination and conspired to advocate communism throughout the world. As a result, United States officials were forced to respond to Soviet aggression with foreign policies such as the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan. Yet revisionists argue that there was “no proof of Stalin promoting communism outside Russia” and that Stalin’s decisions were first and foremost, pro-Soviet and not of communist intentions. Up until 1947, it is evident through Marshall Plan as well as statements and interviews made by Stalin that he was still thinking of cooperation with the United States, Britain and France. Despite post-war conflicts and instability of Soviet-American relations, the USSR’s initial embrace of the Marshall Plan at its announcement expressed

“The Cold War became a dominant influence on many aspects of American society for much of the second half of the twentieth century. It escalated due to antagonist values between the United States, representing capitalism and democracy, and the Soviet Union, representing communism and authoritarianism” (Tradshad, par. 1). This long lasting war had a lot of negative effects on the American people, but also helped many in a positive way of becoming free citizens. Although most people had feelings of hatred toward the Soviet Union, a sense of fear swept over the United States and many actions had to be taken to keep the enemy and their influences out. 4 done.

In The Sources of Soviet Conduct, George F. Kennan explained “Containment was the central post-war concept of the United States and its allies in dealing with the Soviet Union”. To contain communism, the United Stated strategy was to have a strong