Iron Curtain Research Paper

• Countries in Eastern Europe (and the eastern half of Germany) fell under the control of the Communist rule of the U.S.S.R after World War II. Winston Churchill used the phrase Iron Curtain to describe the divide between the Capitalist West and Communist East.

An “iron curtain” of Communism spread over Eastern Europe as the post-World War II world tried to re-build Germany and Easter Europe. As the dictator Joseph Stalin sealed off the Eastern Bloc, the rest of Europe began to re-build under a democratic rule. This re-building continued and the USSR continued to keep their “totalitarian” hold on the East. As the Cold War continued the battle that was being fought soon became the battle between the two world super powers. This led to many conflicts and continued up until finally in 1989 the Berlin Wall was taken down reuniting Western and Eastern Germany and bringing down the “iron curtain“ that shaded the East from freedom.

The Cold War was the name given to the relationship between the U.S.S.R. and U.S.A. after the end of World War II. Germany was the representation of the war, and therefore, it became the most disputed country. The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 during the Cold War. During late 1950s and early 1960s, the socialist government decided to build a fence across the city border and restrict access to the Western area. Over time, this fence became a brick wall, completely cutting off access to the west, leaving family and friends separated for almost 30 years. The Berlin Wall marked the different ideologies between the different systems of governments, how they functioned, and the meaning to the people.

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era conflict that started in 1946 and ended in 1974, taking nearly 30 years to resolve. The war was fundamentally a conflict between North Vietnam and South Vietnam, where the North was communist and South was not. The United States, France, the United Kingdom and other non-communist allies supported the non-communist South Vietnam. China, Russia (USSR), Cuba, Cambodia and other Communist allies supported the regime in the north. North Vietnam saw the United States involvement in the North as foreign aggression, so they fought guerilla wars against the anti-communist forces in the region. Guerilla forces (the Viet Cong) and the regular North Vietnamese Army were responsible for fighting the anticommunist forces. The conflict mainly consisted of small battles until the onset of air attacks -- part of an overall strategy of massive bombing and search-and-destroy operations, which South Vietnam and the Americans hoped would win the war.

Fighting in Vietnam started well before the actual “Vietnam War”. The Vietnamese people had been under French rule for several decades until Japan invaded in 1940. In 1941, when Ho Chi Minh came back from his travels there were two foreign powers occupying the Vietnam territory, the French and Japanese. Ho Chi Minh established the Viet Minh in hopes to rid Vietnam of these two powers. On September 2, 1945 the Viet Minh established the Democratic Republic of China after getting support in northern Vietnam. This action spawned the French to fight back to keep control of their colony. Ho Chi Minh wanted support from the United States against the French; he went as far as to supply the United States with information about the Japanese during WWII. The United States kept with their Cold War foreign policy of containment as to prevent the spread of Communism, fearing the “Domino Theory” that said “if one country in Asia fell to Communism then surrounding countries would soon fall”.

This was a leading climatic event in towards the end of the 1980’s marking the end of communist regimes around the world, making it evident to even average citizens that change was coming. The Berlin Wall stood as a symbol for the two opposing sides of the Soviet Union and the United States. In 1949, Germany split into two different nations. Germany was a central hub for Cold War politics, with the West side allying with democratic states and the East side allying with the Soviet Union. The end of the Berlin Wall marked the end of the Soviet Union’s status as a reigning power in Eastern Europe, with the Soviet Union falling not long

The Iron Curtain - The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the West and non-Soviet-controlled

The Vietnam War was between North and South Vietnam. South Vietnam was allies with anti-communist countries such as the United States, South Korea, Australia, the Philippines, New Zealand, Thailand, Khmer Republic, Kingdom of Laos, and Taiwan. For North Vietnam, it had the support of communist allies such as People’s Republic of China, Soviet Union, Pathet Lao, Khmer Rouge, and North Korea. The United States aimed to prevent the spread of communism in the world, through its strategy of containment throughout the Cold War which led to the start of the Vietnam War. After World War II, the Soviet Union rose as a superpower due to strong influences in Eastern Europe, including China and Korea. The Soviet Union was viewed as the biggest rival in post-war threat to democracies and capitalism, as well as a form of communism to the United States and Western allies.

When the first atomic bomb was made it put fear into other countries, and it created distrust after America bombed Japan. The Yalta was a meeting of the” big three.” they made postwar world agreements. The iron curtain was a name for the boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas. There was also an iron curtain speech given by Winston Churchill, in his speech he condemns the Soviet Union’s policies in Europe and declares that an iron curtain has descended across the continent.

The Iron Curtain was the name of the European split amongst socialism and majority rules system. America and its associates tried to restore majority rules system to war-torn Europe, while Russia and its partners tried to extend its impact, making a few nations part of the Soviet Union. Both Americans and Russians hauled out of Austria to give it lack of bias, however in the meantime, Hungary, which had a socialist government, caved in, and Russia mediated with another comrade administration. Poland was additionally under Russian impact.

China became Communist and the Communist Party of China was formed in 1921. Mao Zedong was under control and China’s economy began to collapse(pg 538). During spring of 1949, the Red Forces received the fallen cities of China (pg 539). China had inward and outward problems that they had to face with, in the 1950’s. The presence of compromise that had made straight the Soviet Union and China, started to disappear and they were really struggling on becoming stable again(pg 540). Korea had also became a divided nation. Korea split into Communist and non-Communists nations(pg 542). North Korea marked a ceasefire accord. The line that separates the Koreas was located near the 38th parallel. Meanwhile, 4 million soldiers had been killed. At the end of the war, Korea was still divided. A subjugated area split the two countries(pg 543). Ho Chi Minh, went to the Communists for guidance during his issue, he led strikes against the French. In response the French jailed Vietnamese protesters. Vietnam was divided at 17° north latitude(pg 544). In the Vietnam War with the UN and the US, 58,220 vietnamese soldiers were killed. Vietnam remains a Communist country(pg 547). Faced with the possibility of a Communist victory, the United States decided to increase its involvement. Over half a million of US soldiers were on Vietnam soil, in combat(pg 546). United States didn't really know what was in store for them, they thought they did but they faced two major difficulties; First, US soldiers were fighting this war in unfamiliar jungle location. Second, the South Vietnamese government that they were defending, was becoming more unpopular. Vietcong also was getting much support from China, Ho Chi Minh, and The Soviet Union. People were displeased with this outcome and began to protest the tremendous loss of life in a conflict on the other side of the world. US began withdrawing troops in 1969 knowing more

Iron Curtain - the national barrier separating the former Soviet bloc and the West prior to the decline of communism that followed the political events in eastern Europe in 1989.

The Berlin Wall was what basically defined the Cold War. The main goal of the Berlin Wall was to keep western “ fascists” from entering East Germany. The Wall fell on November 9th,1889. Once the Berlin Wall fell a lot of people decided to switch from east to west Germany. However, the falling of the falling of the Berlin Wall wasn’t the only factor to the Cold War ending. There was also the Soviet Union splitting in countries.

Churchill meant that the term iron curtain was an area that cut Europe into two sections. This separated Europe into two zones, communist, and noncommunist. As shown here on the map by the black line, that like indicates the separation of the two zones. The area that Churchill referred to in his speech was Germany and Russia. This is when Germany invaded them twice, once in 1914, and again in 1941. After this invasion there were areas that separated around Berlin, they were Turkey and Iran.

Mikhail Gorbachev, in his four years in power to that point, had reduced the burden of oppression on the residents of the Soviet Bloc. Without his reforms, the Wall would not have fallen. Yet Gorbachev’s reforms alone were not enough to open the Wall, for they were in no way intended to end the occupation of divided Berlin.