Cold War Readings Devil's Advocate

Ethan David Cold War Responsibility During WWII, the Soviets crushed the Nazi’s leaving only the United States and Soviet Union as world powers. The US had also dropped weapons of mass destructions on Japan, leading to the withdrawal of Japan from WWII. Europe was also destroyed as a result of WWII, leading to the United States attempting a recovery plan, the Marshall Plan. The Soviet Union and its allies were more responsible than the United States for starting the Cold War because the Soviets threateningly attempted to convert many democratic countries into communist nations by the influence of such a large country (Russia), and the continued threat of attack by increasing weapon number and potential, also with mobilizing and building up

The Cold War began with Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Britain, giving a speech of imposing an, “iron curtain,” separating East and West Germany. The Soviet Union having control over East Germany, and the United States controlling West Germany. Berlin, the capital of Germany, was also separated, the Soviet Union took over East Berlin and Germany took over West Berlin. The countries had different government systems, the U.S. was Democratic and the Soviet Union was Communist. Tension started to build around the two world powers. Soon enough, a cold war broke out, the countries fought economically, politically and competed in an arms race against one another.

Following the events of World War 2, a new conflict arose. Except this one didn’t involve actual fighting. The Cold War began after reciprocated feelings of distrust and conflicting ideas about which government was best between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. While the Cold War affected life in the United States and the Soviet Union, it also influenced life in countries all over the world.

After World War II there was still a main conflict between the two major world superpowers; the US and allied countries that supported democracy and on the other hand the Soviet Union (USSR) who supported communism and wanted to spread it. The conflict was that the Soviet Union tried spreading communism in other countries, but the United States was not going to allow that. This conflict influenced the Cold War to be fought by the Eastern Bloc (Soviet Union) and Western Bloc (the United States and allies). When the Eastern Europe was taken over by the USSR and turned into communism the US helped the Western Europe to not be taken over by communism. As an adviser to the President of the United States the policy that he should follow is to rapidly build up the political,

As the biggest most tragic war known as WWII came to an end, many nations were relieved and happy. However, the happiness of these nations did not last long because a new conflict started emerging the cold war. It was tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. They both had different perspectives on the type of government. The United States believed in a democratic government while the Soviet Union believed in a communist government. This affected many nations around the world. Two nations that had a huge impact on the cold war were Europe and Asia.

The soviets are to blame for the start of the cold war. The cold war revolved around three conflicts, spheres of influence, ideology, and military factors. The soviets used these three conflicts to start the cold war. One way the soviets started the cold war was through spheres of influence. In document number two it says, “The following circumstances should not be forgotten.”

There have been various ideologies, events, and origins of the Cold War that have dominated American foreign policy from 1946 to 1989. The Cold War was a time of conflict between between the U.S. and the USSR; the two Superpowers saw each other as a threat. Thus they continued to fight to preserve their positions. Each side became involved in events such as the Korean War. They each stood behind the other nations fighting. Together the rise in communism, a rise of the Soviet influence dominated American foreign policy, and the creation of the Warsaw Pact.

After World War two the two allies soon split. The United States and the Soviet Union were immediately against each other. This was the beginning of the Cold War. The three main causes of the Cold War were spheres of influence, ideology, and military factors. With my information, I believe that the Soviet Union was the most responsible for the Cold War.

Throughout the Cold War, America grew into a state of frenzy, the US was in fear of communism taking hold across Europe and the USSR wanted to create a line of allies between themselves and Germany, Russia had just been attacked twice by m by Germany in 50 years and did not want it to happen again. With Russia trying to create more communist allies for protection and America's fear of the spread of communism adding in miscommunication and mistrust the two countries clash and a metaphorical iron curtain fell down between the democratic West and communist east. This affected US domestic policy and society in many ways including fear of the spread of communism, preparing for war activities, and competition with the Soviets. A great way to show how fear of the spread of communism or the red scare affected

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.

Research this week was fruitful and my bibliography grew substantially. A large part of the reason for this growth was the mining of the bibliography of other sources. One of the most fruitful was, The Cold War in a Cold Land: Fighting Communism on the Northern Plains. The book provided me with a variety of both primary and secondary sources. The list of sources includes, books, articles, and government reports. A second book that provided more sources was, How We Forgot the Cold War. The bibliography provided some sources created by the North Dakota State Historical Society. In addition to these sources, I have been looking into newspapers. I have ordered some rolls of microfilm of the Griggs County Sentinel-Courier and am still waiting for them to arrive. I started with these rolls because they came from the paper closest to the geographic center of my research, as well as the dates of my research. In addition to the rolls, I have ordered The Cold War in a Cold Land, which provided a list of other newspapers that may be useful. In addition to ordering more microfilm reels that I will have sent to me at school, I will also have the opportunity to examine many more when I return home for spring break. Many are housed at the State Historical Society, just twenty minutes

How did conflicting ideas in the Cold War turn the United States into a super power and could the strategies that helped fight them help the US fight terrorism? The Cold War was lasted from 1947 to 1991, which is 45 years in combat agents the Soviet Union. Even though there was no direct combat between the two countries, they both lost millions of dollars and lives. Both sides had their own ideas of how governments should be run; the United States had the idea of a capitalist while Russia had the idea of a communist (“The Cold”). During this time, Russia was spreading its beliefs across Europe by taking over Germany, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic), Austria, and many others (“What”).

The tension between the Soviet Union and the United States escalated with the end of World War II in the summer of 1945. The Soviet Union and the United States, having been on the Allies fighting against the Axis, were both victorious world superpowers at the end of WWII. With conflicting government systems (on one side socialism and on the other democracy) however, these two nations would fight a cold war for the next few decades in hope of making their rule secure. This would shape America’s foreign and domestic policy for the next few decades and define the Cold War presidents. The Cold War presidents, Harry S. Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Henry Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, each altered domestic and foreign affairs including civil rights, containment policies, and welfare reforms. Harry S. Truman, the first president of the Cold War, succeed President Franklin Roosevelt and began forming various foreign policies in order to cope with the increasing bitter relations between the two nations. Every president after Truman until George H. W. Bush formed unique or built upon previous foreign policies during the Cold War. After analyzing all nine presidents’ achievements and failures, they have been ranked in order from most successful to least successful as Eisenhower, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Ford.

In 1961 President John F Kennedy put together a doctrine, which altered from President Eisenhower’s one. It was to “Respond flexibly to communist expansion, especially guerrilla warfare.” (Roskin & Berry, 2010, p. 58) It was a time when the Cold War was at its height and nuclear weapons a mass threat and source of power. This doctrine was aimed at using alternative means before opening into combat. This, in light of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, it succeeded in doing.

When the second world war ended in 1945, the U.S. emerged as a world power. Even though America was already a major player, the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as the defeat of Germany, made sure that America stayed on top. However, when the Cold War started in 1947, the race between the Soviet Union and the U.S. for top nation was on.