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Cold War Research Paper

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The Cold War and Its Lasting Effects

The time period in which the Cold War occurred—roughly 1950-1990—was a tense one. Two major world superpowers were set to face off with one another on a major scale. Both the United States and the Soviet Union had built up well-documented nuclear capabilities. As tensions rose and time went on, the world was on edge. This edginess, I argue, continues to this day. In this essay, I will discuss the issues of the development and proliferation of nuclear weapons during the Cold War, as well as the downward pressure towards sub-strategic conflict and its effect on the post-Cold War world. The development and proliferation of nuclear weapons by the two superpowers during the Cold War strained peace and meant …show more content…

Secretary of State John Kerry apparently “ ‘let [members of the Gulf Cooperation Council] know that there is going to be live oversight over Iran not to gain or to get any nuclear weapons’ ” (Gordon). I argue that the fear of nuclear weapons is due to the happenings of the Cold War. The fact that the United States almost went to nuclear war with the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis and Bay of Pigs conflict is in the front of the minds of world leaders and those in charge of countries worldwide. Due to this, any discussion of nuclear capabilities is understandably handled with an abundance of …show more content…

As Bacevich notes in “The Tyranny of Defense, Inc.”, the “national-security state derived its raison d’être from—and vigorously promoted a belief in—the existence of looming national peril”. The national security threat in the present situation is terrorism. Terrorists could, theoretically, attain a nuclear weapon and use it on United States citizens. The possibility of this, I argue, is due to the proliferation of nuclear weapons stockpiled by many countries during the Cold War, and not necessarily kept under control after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Even during times of relative peace, countries have to deal with the possible nuclear capabilities of other countries—the United States is doing so now with Iran. North Korea is also a worry as they continue to test delivery methods for their nuclear

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