Cold War Essay

The Cold War was an over 40 year war between the former World War II alliances The United States and The Soviet Union. This was a war that begun by political disagreements, harsh anti-communist words from Winston Churchill, and a power imbalance between The Soviet Union and The United States. Though it was a war, a new, lethal weapon was used to emotionally harm the opposing country rather than causing physical damage.

William A. Williams, The Tragedy of American Diplomacy (New York City, USA: W.W. Norton, 2009).

Gaddis’s novel, The Cold War follows the events of The Cold War in a clear, comprehensive, chronological order. In order to provide the reader with a better grasp of events covered in the volume, Gaddis delivers a brief overview of World War II before delving into the history of the Cold War itself. By reading this work, one can learn of the devious and sometimes underhanded plans that cunning leaders took in order to secure security and prosperity for both their nations and themselves. However, one also learns of bold, daring moves

First within each book read this semester, each author takes a unique view on the Cold War. In John Gaddis’s The Cold War: A New History, Gaddis takes a series of books on the Cold War, condenses them and is able to give a fresh synopsis of the Cold War. His topics are broad and give a clear overview of the Cold War. He looks upon the leaders of the Cold War, including Joseph Stalin, Ronald Reagan, Nikita Khrushchev and others to find reasoning on the outcome of the Cold War. His story looks at the foreign policies of each country and dissects reasoning for the events that occurred during the time.

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

Within theories and finding, The Truman Doctrine was established and on March 12th, 1947. Truman speech pledged “American support for free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures” (Simkin, n.d.) Congress also agreed to give economic aid to the military to help fight Greece against communism as he felt that the political stability was threatened. With Greece in trouble Truman as concerned the other countries would fall into Communism and was known as the ‘domino theory’. If it was not for Truman then Greece and Turkey could no longer afford to fight the rebels. “Truman said that the Cold War was a choice between freedom and oppression; Therefore, Americans would have to abandon their decisions not to get involved in European affairs; America was OBLIGED to get involved” (Clare, n.d.). The Truman Doctrine was an American challenge not only to Soviet ambitions but also through a policy of containment.

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” .

In July 1947, George Kennan, an American political advisor, diplomat, political scientist, and historian, published the “X” article in the journal Foreign Affairs, and this article sets forth

On February 22nd 1946 US Ambassador in the USSR Kennan sent an 8000 word long telegram which is considered to be the corner stone in estimation of USSR. In it he described Soviet Union as a political force which is fanatical sure that there can not be no long term modus vivendi with the USA. He assured that this should be the main point Washington should consider in building any relationship with Moscow. This forced the officials of Truman cabinet to start something of a competition on who will create a better punishment for the USSR. On September 24th, 1946 Truman's special assistant Clifford presented a special report "American Policy Towards Soviet Union." Here are some fragments from it.

Harry Truman took the office of President just a few months before the end of World War II. Truman inherited a plethora of dilemmas heading into the post War World II era, and he decided to take his stance on international affairs in 1947 with the Truman Doctrine. Essentially, the Truman Doctrine promised that America would personally intervene in order to insure that democracy would remain secure in foreign governments. This was a stark contrast from the popular isolationist paradigm of the ‘20s and ‘30s. Furthermore, the Truman Doctrine prompted an unusual act of international involvement when Congress agreed to aid Greek and Turkish militaries in an effort to counter communist influence in these regions. Additionally, Truman’s handling of the Korean War is another example of his firm stance of containment. Truman made no qualms about aiding the indigenous troops of South Korea with weapons and troops, but he did openly reject the notion of meeting either China or the Soviet Union in an open land battle. Furthermore, Truman fired General Douglas MacArthur based on the general’s strong notion to invade China and reluctance to respect the President’s authority. Truman’s decisions

In May of 1947 Henry S. Truman gave a speech about defending freedom and resisting communisms influence with a set of plans and policies that came to be known as the “Truman Doctrine”. This was a time of great stress on the international community, as the world tried to pick up the pieces, and decide their new roles following WWII, the United States and the Soviet Union were trying to get a feel for the position of power that they now possessed. The wartime camaradery with the Soviets based on a shared enemy in WWII (Germany) evaporated soon after the war ended. Due to the Economic strain inflicted upon it in during the war, Britain was inhibited in fully influencing their usual sphere of power and had to subsequently stop providing foreign

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.

Thinking about the decisions, strategies and goals of Soviet Union and the United States views on world domination and the possible accomplishment of such. The first and main would be to think and observe critically concerning the worldwide political scenery in the years after World War II (1945). This moment in history; taking all the way through the Cold War, may be seen as a lapse of severe ideological polarization through the world. Noticeably there were followers of the two conflicting camps expressing confidence that their philosophy would emerge victorious over the other and become the pre-outstanding type of government around

The ‘Cold War’ is one of the most interesting ‘wars’ fought in world history. The sheer number of countries both directly and indirectly involved is enough to pose the question – To what extent was the Cold War a truly Global War? This essay will examine this idea. It will identify two main areas of argument, focusing on the earlier part of the conflict (1945-1963). Firstly it will examine the growing US and Soviet influence in the world post 1945. Secondly it will examine three main conflicts, the Berlin Blockade, the Korean War and the Cuban Missile Crisis that these two super powers were involved in. Overall this essay will argue that the Cold War was no doubt a truly global war.

This book is based on the views and discussions of Henry Kissinger and American Diplomacy