Cold War Dbq

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.

During the Cold War there are several events and foreign policy interactions that affected the us. The first subject is the way that the United States and USSR handled nuclear weapons and the fear that people had about them. The Space Race was a time of technological advances in which the US was afraid of what russia would do if they had control over space. Joseph McCarthy and the start of McCarthyism was the start of heavy anti communist views. The tension and fear of the Arms race struck fear into both sides leading to several events caused by each side. Tension and fear during The Cold War had a significant effect on the technology, political views, events, the way people lived, and foreign policy.

During the time period of 1945 to 1990, the U.S. had almost double the amount of warheads than the USSR (Document 9). Another reason why the West started the war was because the United States was bribing other countries to expand its military sphere of influence, “... the war broke out as the inevitable result of capitalist with raw material and markets usually attempting to change the situation and to redistribute spheres of influence in its own favor by employing armed force,” says Joseph Stalin in his response to the Iron Curtain speech (Document 7). Joseph Stalin’s response to the Iron Curtain speech (Document 3) suggest that the West allowed Germany to invade Russia. “The Germans made their invasion of the USSR through Finland, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungaria. The Germans were able to make their invasion because, at the time, governments hostile o the Soviet Union existed in these

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.

The Cold War was a very frightening time for the world. panic rose as tensions grew around the world superpowers. Fear of a 3rd world war raged throughout the globe. The Cold War caused devastation throughout 1947 to 1991 from Western Europe, Korea to Vietnam, and even the U.S. Naturally people have to blame someone for these events. For decades people have disputed, who is the most responsible for the Cold War.The facts and evidence point to the west. The west is the most responsible for various reasons. The Western European Countries let Hitler rise to power. The U.S. Started the arms race. The West quickly criticized Stalin's expansion of the Soviet Union and communism. Some would say that the Cold War's roots go back to World War 2.

The three great conflicts of the twentieth century: World Wars I and II and the Cold War impacted the progression of the intelligence revolution. During these conflict the United States leadership “looked to intelligence as a weapon of defense and as an aid to victory. ”1 Further, it was the pressures of these wars that the intelligence community expanded, moving closer to the inner circle of the government.2 Furthermore, as the intelligence community expanded, and intelligence professionals developed their skills in conducting threat assessment. In view of, a need to expand the intelligence community it began the rise of the intelligence community in the 20th century.3

On the other hand, The Soviet Union wanted Europe to be a communist country. This actually resulted in The Soviet Union to start communist expansion, which made American fear Russians plan to take over the world. In 1945 during the Yalta and Potsdam conference, the allies came together to discuss what will happen to Europe. Joseph Stalin even pledged to stop being a part of Sovietization and instead he is going to allow free elections to occur in the occupied countries. He soon broke his promise when the Soviet Union helped establish communist governments.

Later, events like Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech, and the Berlin Blockade, many attribute to the start of the Cold War. These were simply the two strongest European nations coming out of WWII trying to gain leverage in the newly structured continent. While it was a strong move by the Soviet Union, Berlin was inside their occupation zone laid out at Potsdam. More than anything, the issue of Berlin, was much like that of the Truman Doctrine and Marshal Plan that are often included in causes of the Cold War. These were all issues of the United States trying to move their democratic ideals into other parts of the world, while the Soviets were trying to spread communism. This battle is not new, given that the Red Scare occurred in 1920, so it clearly is the continuance of two countries ideals, not the start of the Cold War. While this struggle has been going on for years and did not cause the Cold War, it definitely played a key role how it did culminate.

Many political leaders of that time believed in the Domino theory, in which if you let one country fall to communism, others would follow soon after. Many years of good economic and political relations as well as many lives were lost on both sides. After the U.S. and the allies won the war in Europe, they began to rebuild Europe with billions of American dollars. The Cold War’s effect on Berlin kept people in East Berlin and Russia in the dark about countries and the world outside because their radio transmissions were blocked. People could not go from East Berlin to West Berlin without being shot.

After the Second World War, the United States of America entered a new war with the USSR that involved little fight but instead contained large amounts of arguing and threats. The Cold War began on 1947, just a few years after world war two. The Cold War started because of the tension between the United States and the USSR with the USSR wanted to establish communism on German soil while the United States wanted to democratize Germany. This went against the beliefs of the USSR, so they threatened to wage war on the United States. Most of the Cold War was filled with arguments and oversea threats, fighting was done in proxy wars, such as the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Before the Berlin Wall was built, there was already large amounts tension

The USSR felt threatened by the US’s growing power and to protect themselves they tried to force their allies, including the US, to halt their wish for combining all of Germany into one. When they refused, the Soviet Union decided to detach themselves from the previously formed Allied Control Council. The USSR saw the introduction of a new Deutsche Mark in West Berlin as a violation of the agreement the allies had previously agreed on, and because of this they felt they needed to protect their portion of land from the West. However, the way the Soviet Union went about protecting their power caused a devastating fate for their citizens. They created a blockade of all rail, roads, and water communications between Berlin and the West. This was not enough for the USSR. They later announced that their previous allies would have no authority within Berlin. Soon the people in Berlin began to lose food and supplies necessary to maintain a healthy way of living. As a result, the US began to drop off crates full of food and supplies for everyone in Berlin by plane. This became known as the Berlin Airlift. Due to the increase in fuel and electricity shortages, the airlift lasted for

The Cold War was a cold war between The United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, often abbreviated as USSR. It was a “cold war” because neither side actually took direct military action against the other. Although it was a “cold war” this did not mean it was not intense, in fact it was probably one of the most intense wars in modern history. There are many explanations of why the Cold War was started but there is a widely accepted consensus that both The United States and the USSR wanted to become the world’s main super power. (Leffler and Painter, 2005)

The Berlin Blockade was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War and began in 1948. The city of Berlin

But although they were struggling they had a huge army in possession and their ideologies were spreading fast like never before. Communism was gaining supporters in many countries, The U.S. wasn’t taking this pleasantly. This helped the communist bloc form and spread it across most of Eastern

The Cold War was the state of tension between two major powers USA and USSR. Despite not having any large-scale fighting directly between the two powers, it was termed a “cold war”. This however is not to say that it did not impact other events. The Cold War conflict occurred due to several factors ranging from rivalries to difference in ideologies. America feared a communist attack and USSR disagreed with American capitalism. Till today, there are debates as to which country or which leader or even what was the most responsible for the cause of the Cold War leading to the Korean War.