Khrushchev's Effect On America

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 person I choose for this topic is Ronald Reagan, he is a big part on how the Cold War ended. Russia, as everyone knows, has always been competitive with the U.S.A, the two countries always go back and forth with each other to be the first at everything. Now the Berlin Wall had been there for some time, ever since 1961. The communist government of Eastern Germany created the wall because they wanted to prevent disaffected people who were trying to fleeing to the West. But with this little did they know the trouble it would cause for the future. There were four powers during the time, Russia, France, Britain, and the United States. Berlin was in the Russian sector, but because the powers were only split amongst four countries it became a

Post World War II, Russia and the US were the two superpowers in the world and had major territorial disputes in Eastern Europe. In 1946, tensions between the US and Russia heightened with the start of the cold war. Both nations were the main driving forces on opposing ends. Both had claims to Eastern Europe after World War II, and a standoff would occur for the next 50 years. The US and the West thought that communism was inherently wrong, that it stripped citizens from basic human freedoms and that it prohibited economic growth and power. The Soviets believed that both world wars were a direct result of Capitalist Imperialism, and that capitalism promoted inequality especially financially. The apparent financial divide would further the rift between the rich and the poor, and promote social classes, which the Soviets completely opposed. Both the US and Russia had extensively used propaganda against each other and their political beliefs. The two superpowers vilified one another, while maintaining that each of their own ideas were superior and without flaw.

Of the factors which shaped American society in the Cold War era, the fear of communism and its potential to spread imposed the greatest effect upon the United States. From the worldwide devastation of World War II arose two powers: United States of America, fueled by a capitalist economy, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or USSR, whose economy embodied the communist ideals of Karl Marx. Marx himself stated, “Communism is already acknowledged by all...powers to be in itself a power”. Marx predicted the power of a communistic society well before the first World War began. In the wake of the devastation

As one of the leaders of the Soviet Union, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was a canny and careful Communist Party functionary who sought to make his country the military equal of the United States and promote its political influence around the world through the policy of detente. While Nikita Khrushchev another leader of the Soviet Union during the climax of the cold, largely pursued a policy of peaceful coexistence with the West, he instigated the Cuban Missile Crisis by placing nuclear weapons 90 miles from Florida. At home, he initiated a process of “de-Stalinization” that made Soviet society less repressive. I think it would have been a good idea to keep Khrushchev in power. Because, although he played major roles in things that could of lead to a global tragedies like the Cuban missile crisis or the berlin wall. Khrushchev was the first of the Soviet leaders who begin the trend of liberalization that ultimately peaked with Gorbachev. He also ended the "socialist primitive accumulation" that spanned all of Stalin 's rule. He also abandoned the concept of class struggle. In actual fact, while “revisionistically" breaking from the industrialization-and-purge era of 1929-1941, he ensured continuity with the immediate post-war era of 1946-1953. In 1966, China’s Communist leader Mao Zedong launched what became known as the Cultural Revolution, in order to reassert his authority over the Chinese government. Believing that current Communist leaders were taking the party, and China

Reagan attended Eureka College where he studied economics and acted in school plays. When he graduated from college, he became a sports radio announcer. Eventually he earned a contract from Hollywood with his 1937 screen test, appearing in 53 films. As president of the the Screen Actors Guild, he became aware of the issue of Communism in the film industry and he shifted to a more conservative outlook. In 1966 he became governed of California by a landslide of a million votes.

The major changes in what was then the Soviet Union led to inflation, which created economic problems, and in the end, many social changes because of that. Decisions made by consumers were now turning practical. “Careful not to purchase other countries’ cast-offs, the goods foreign producers considered unfit for at least some of their own compatriots… these suspicions served as guidelines in a market where unaccustomed variety could be overwhelming, miscalculation could threaten health, and reliable information was scarce.” (122-123) The social change was thanks to variety. While there was only one source for items before the move from communism to capitalism, the variety created distrust among the Russian population. This rings true throughout the world, and you begin to see Patico tie this back into the rest of the world. Where Russians are skeptical of imported goods, Americans are commonly skeptical of second hand items, which as explained by Veronika is what imported food

After World War Two, Germany was war ravaged and destroyed. The Allies, Britain, France, United States and the Soviet Union occupied the war-torn and defeated Germany. Germany was split into two sections. The Western part controlled by the U.S., France, and Great Britain. The Eastern part of Germany was controlled by the Soviet Union. Tensions between the West and East emerged during what became known as the Cold War period (1945-1989). The difference in ideologies and ideas led to close calls to war between the west and east. Within the Eastern part of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), society was being controlled ruthlessly by the government. In Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall, Anna Funder discussed the struggles East Germans

Eastern Europe was considered a weak area with problems of economics and political instability. This was most true in the interwar period as western counties had divided along the ‘lines ' they believed, and with the powerful Germany and Russia on either side wanting the land back to their ‘empire '. "They [Russia and Germany] also capitalized on the abdication of the other Great powers and on the profound polticodemrgraphic and socioeconomic weakness and conflicts within the area."

The Cold War had a huge impact on America and it eventually caused Americans to live in complete fear or danger of war due to the arms race. For example, the Cuban missile crisis caused tension within the United States because the missiles were able to reach Americans at any given time. Unfortunately, the Cuban missiles threatened the United States' security, which caused several Americans to live in fear that the war would begin. Additionally, the Cold War instigated strong anti-Communism within the United States and eventually led to McCarthyis. Americans wanted to remove all Communists from American society after identifying the Communists. Overall, the entire situation was created by the Cold War and had a lasting impact on the

Entering into the 1980s, the Soviet system was already in deep trouble. In order to match the US arms arsenal, it had put itself in a position, whereby the Soviet economy was finding it difficult whether to first put bread on the table of a common Russian or to match US in a tit for tat response. Though Gorbachev’s intentions were to strike a deal with the United States in order to put a halt to the arms race, which was straining the Soviet economy at the seams; however, Reagan kept the pressure of the SDI or the Star Wars programme on the Russians. He also encouraged Gorbachev to introduce more reforms, which resulted into Glasnost and Perestroika. Reagan’s famous speech at the

America’s tension with the Soviet Union grew stronger during World War II, but it was clear that this alliance would be short lived and following it would be the race between Democracy and communism. The countries represented the extremes in social ideology; American Capitalism with monetary pursuit and rugged individualism, and the USSR’s Communist preaching redistribution of wealth under temporary totalitarian rule (that never left power). The tension had been building up since the Russian Revolution with America not recognizing the Bolshevik Government until 1933, and was brought to its tipping point during WWII as the USSR had been denied its, proper second front, its development of atomic weapons, and ultimately the denial of reconstruction loan while Britain’s was approved. Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill met at the Yalta Conference in February 1945. They made strategic plans to defeat Germany and began discussing crucial postwar issues. All this build up caused Stalin to pursue his own goals instead, as was demonstrated when the war was over when Soviets refused to recognize Poland’s conservative in exile and instead instituted a communist government as it had been continuously doing in Eastern Europe. With the European Allies exhausted of their resources. It fell upon America and F.D.R’s successor, Harry Truman, to engage the USSR and its spreading communism, beginning the Cold War. However as America for the majority of its existence had remained an isolationist

After Joseph Stalin’s death in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev emerged as Communist Party leader and later premier of the Soviet Union. Khrushchev denounced Stalin and his policies, and he instituted a program of “de-Stalinization” that restored legal procedures, reduced the threat of the secret police and closed labor camps. Soviet relations with the rest of the world also changed under the leadership of Khrushchev also. Even though Khrushchev believed that communism would ultimately triumph over capitalism, he advocated peaceful coexistence with the West, and called for a reduction of military spending. However, the discontent by the new soviet regime has been increasing in several eastern European countries.

Negotiations between US and USSR were tense with either side trying to gain the upper hand, Kennedy later confessed that Khrushchev ‘beat the hell out of me’)

The concept of free-market played an essential role in making American people in the 1960s believe that it is important for them to fight communism through any means possible. Consumerism had reached a point where it had become indispensable and the benefits that it brought along made it difficult and virtually impossible for the community to express interest in economic systems other than capitalism. One of the principal reasons why the Cold War occurred relates to the West's obsession with materialism and with the fact that this precious concept could be destroyed as a result of communist ideas pervading the Western society.