The Cold War was tense period for the world. The superpowers of the world, Russia and the United States were both capable of causing world destruction through nuclear weapons. The Americans were tired and just wanted to the tensions to ease. USSR and The United States competed over various things to show superiority, including the space race and especially the massive arms buildup. President John F. Kennedy and Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev both had promises that they had made to the nation. Khrushchev was close to losing popularity in Russia, the Russians believed that he was not doing enough for the country as a leader. Kennedy’s statements bragging about “U.S. nuclear superiority” (Donaldson 118), made Khrushchev and the Soviet look bad.
The cold war was an extremely important time in the world. It determined relationships for the United States with many other countries. The cold war is usually thought of as the war that was fought without weapons. The cold war was fought with passive-aggressiveness: The U.S and the Soviet Union were desperately trying to put one foot in front of the other’s. (Rocha)
The Cold War, which started sometime in the 1940’s, was a large quarrel between the United States and the Soviet Union. This dispute involved a lot of propaganda and threats of nuclear warfare. Despite all of the trouble though, after over forty years of fighting, the two leaders of these countries (Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev) would finally work out a solution. However, although they did reach an agreement, there were many differences between these two men.
During his presidential campaign, John F. Kennedy vowed to strengthen American military forces and promised a tough stance versus the Soviet Union and its communist satellites. In the 1960s, tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union was increasing and a nuclear arms race had already begun. When the Soviets placed missiles in Cuba, the two superpowers nearly went to war, but this was avoided thanks to Kennedy’s ability to negotiate out of major crisis. The president’s speech refers to the effects of Cold War and the nuclear arms race like in paragraph thirteen: “both sides...rightly alarmed by the steady spread of the deadly atom, yet both racing to alter that uncertain balance of terror”(Kennedy). Again, he addresses the tension between the Communists and the free world, requesting “that both sides begin anew quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction”(Kennedy). Here he is asking rival
In October of 1962, the United States and the Soviet Union came closer than at any previous point during The Cold War to direct and open hostilities. The Cuban Missile Crisis was the direct result of Soviet expansion initiatives in Cuba and America’s nuclear armament in Europe, while both of the “Super Powers” involved attempted to out maneuver each other politically.
As said by Chegg Study “The Cold War is the name given to the relationship that developed primarily between the USA and the USSR after World War Two. The Cold War was to dominate international affairs for decades and many major crises occurred – the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, Hungary and the Berlin Wall being just some. For many, the growth in weapons of mass destruction was the most worrying issue.”
The Cold War was viewed as a frightening time in American history. After the second World War, the major allied powers were splitting territory up to control and keep “safe”. The Soviet Union created the Berlin Wall and decided to attempt and spread Communism among European countries. The United States decided to combat this as an act of protecting democracy for all. When labeled as super powers of the world, the US and USSR had the most worldly influence in this time period. The decision was either you were helping fight Communism or help spread it, sort of like a competition. The Space Race had becoming the big concern along with nuclear warfare in this time. People of the country knew that Sputnik had been launched by the Soviet Union as a satellite, creating panic and distress among the western society. The government basically reassured the public that the skies above the Earth will not be used for weaponry and war but for science and learning. Within the speech, President Kennedy uses
The Cold War was one of the most intense times the world has ever gone through with the threat of both United States and Soviet Union on the brink of the use nuclear weapons against each other. The world watching these counties as they threaten one another with missile treats like the Cuba Missile Crises or the missiles that the US had in Turkey. There was also the Space Race where US and USSR tried to be the first to the moon. During the 1950’s the countries first raced to see who can develop the technology to send an artificial satellite into the earth orbit. Then they tried to go further and send a human into orbit and later on to have them land and actually be able to walk on the moon. With both countries getting close
As the Soviets had advanced much faster than the U.S. in this period of time, Kennedy pushed to excel past their advancements. The space race represented the promise of the New Frontier, inspiring the coming generations of Americans to pursue dreams that had once seemed unattainable. Citizens of the United States were revitalized by Kennedy’s goal, giving the U.S. a refreshing sense of motivation and unity to land a man on the moon before the decade was over. Later on in his presidency, the U.S. had also gone through the Cuban Missile Crisis. Many thought an all-out war was imminent, but Kennedy prevented any sequential conflicts: “…in October 1962, Kennedy imposed a quarantine on all offensive weapons bound for Cuba. While the world trembled on the brink of nuclear war, the Russians backed down and agreed to take the missiles away. The American response to the Cuban crisis evidently persuaded Moscow of the futility of nuclear blackmail” (Beschloss). Kennedy reasoned with Russia and Cuba during times of distress and anxiety, making conservative choices as to not provoke nuclear war. Learning from his mistakes made in the Bay of Pigs invasion, Kennedy did not wish to engage in war with military powerhouses Cuba and Russia. As a Senator,
The occurrence of the Cuban missile crisis remains the closest the world has ever come to nuclear war. The placement of Soviet nuclear weaponry on the island of Cuba in October 1962, sparked thirteen days in which the Cold war grew increasingly hotter as tensions between the two superpowers escalated. However, despite marking a turning point in US-Soviet relations it could be argued that Operation Anadyr cannot wholly account for the disharmony between the United States and the Soviet Union. This can be seen as despite reaching a visible climax in 1962 -with the Cuban missile crisis- the Cold war remained largely a political stalemate between the two superpowers. The incompatible ideologies of the United States and Soviet Union served as the primary cause for the disharmony between the two nations, as the competing systems subsequently meant the US and USSR were unable to coexist harmoniously. However, a decline in the political influence and military capabilities of the Soviet Union, accompanied by increasingly an aggressive US foreign policy following the election of Kennedy served to exacerbate the long standing ideological divide between the two superpowers.
Khrushchev fervently believed in communism and the prospects of the Soviet Union as a world power. He was much older and more experienced than Kennedy, but in global relations, the United States held the upper hand. Khrushchev was well aware of the Soviet Union as the weaker power and used intimidation to create a sense of apprehension within the United States. The threat of nuclear war for Khrushchev was not to reach a boiling point with Kennedy, but to give “the Americans a taste of their own medicine” (Dobbs 37). Therefore, the American and Soviet people felt unremitting trepidation because of possible nuclear war.
Throughout the Cold War, the US and the Soviet Union, the USSR, tried to outspend and outdo each other. They looked for any advantage they could get to achieve more attainments than the
The most important events that brought about the end of the Cold War were the economic pressures applied to the USSR by the arms race with the United States under the Reagan Administration, and the political pressure applied to the USSR by its satellite countries discontent with Soviet Communism. From the start of the Cold War in 1947, the US and the USSR raced to stockpile nuclear weapons under the military policy known as Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). MAD described a conflict in which both parties could destroy each other as soon as one launched a nuclear attack. Reagan used this policy and the superior manufacturing ability of the US to weaken the USSR’s economy, which could not sustain the financial stress of constantly producing
The Cold War was not a war but the state of affairs of the relationship between the United States and Soviet Union after the defeat of Hitler and the end of World War Two. At the end of World War two superpowers were left standing with opposing ideologies. In 1960 when Senator Kennedy began his run for the President he position himself as a Cold War Warrior, he like most politicians, played on the fears of the American people building his campaign on miss information stating that we were losing the arms race against the Soviet Union, when the fact was clear the United States was the leader in building missiles.
The Cold War was a different type of war that the world has never seen before. Instead of deploying troops, there was the threat of the deployment of nuclear bombs. This development in technology was an invisible threat which had the potential to wipe out an entire population in mere moments. If the U.S. was unable to harness the power of nuclear weapons first, then they feared that they would be annihilated and life as they knew it would forever change. The United States saw this nuclear arms race as a ticking time bomb. If it were to explode, then not only would the U.S. be wiped off from the face of the Earth, but liberty and freedom would vanish along with it. This fear would sweep across the nation to the point that the word
President Kennedy came to office with warnings of a missile gap. The Soviets had achieved or were achieving a significant advantage in strategic nuclear weapons. Though tensions ran even higher, "Eisenhower’s strategy of massive retaliation made little sense and did not account for the rapidly growing Soviet nuclear arsenal4. Kennedy's nuclear strategy became known as flexible response. The idea was to acquire the military forces that could deal flexibility with varying levels of Soviet Aggression3. The most serious confrontation between Russia and the US was the Cuban Missile Crisis. (Link to Stephanie's page) Soviet leader Khrushchev attempted to place intermediate range missiles in Cuba. Kennedy responded by imposing a quarantine on Cuba. This resulted in the removal of the Soviet missiles and led to Kennedy making the decision to dismantle U.S. missiles based in Turkey. Some analysts argue that the successful outcome was due to the United States’ nuclear superiority, which proved that strategic superiority offered important political advantages5.