The Cold war occurred around the end of the 19th century, it tightened the already strangling hold around the US and USSR (Russia) relationship. The two great nations came within seconds of launching an all out nuclear war on each other; the scene was observed by all and feared by all. The writer Joseph Masco says “It is important to recognize that this technical capacity to deliver overwhelming violence to any part of the world in mere minutes has relied on structures of the imagination as well as on machines”. In that time millions of citizens witnessed the tremendous power of a nuclear bomb going off in Japan; the simple thought of an all out war between the world’s two biggest countries put enough fear to stop time. Masco also argues “But if the bomb has been crucial to constituting US ‘superpower’ status, it has also produced a complex new domestic affective political domain”. After the US dropped the atom bomb on Japan, the nation was feared because of the massive power one bomb holds within itself. Now that two major countries harnessed the power of the bombs shook the very world to its core. If the US and USSR launched a full scale nuclear war everything would be leveled on the face of the earth. The cold war destroyed many people’s hold on sanity and reality because of the power of the nuclear bombs that were created; the shear strength just one holds can take a nation off the map. The Korean War pushed the bar on psychological warfare even further, for the whole
DBQ Outline Intro Paragraph · Background/Context: The Cold War was a state of political tension after World War II between the Eastern bloc countries and Western bloc countries. Cold War took a significant place in between 1947 to 1991 which the two most powerful countries, United States of America and Soviet Union, were competing with each other over spreading the rule and showing off their arms without killing people. After the World War II, people in different countries started to think about who bears more responsibility for starting the Cold War, United States or USSR. · Three-point thesis: The United States of America bears more responsibility for starting the Cold War because it built up military powers and prepared for
After World War II, only two world superpowers remained: the United States of America and the Soviet Union. The contradictory political regimes of the democratic United States and the communist Soviet Union were believed to be mutually exclusive which increased bitterness between them. Inevitably, the apparent tension between the two superpowers led to the Cold War which lasted about 45 years. It was war without bloodshed or battle, instead it was a metaphorical war where the U.S and the Soviet Union increased their weapons and fought for political influence, one always wanting to excel or maintain within the range of the other. The United States’ desperate need to contain the communist political ideology from spreading any further and meet the Soviet Union’s increased development of nuclear weapons led to the their involvement in the Cold War. The impact the Cold War had on life during the 1950’s and 1960’s can be measured through the creation of the House Un-American
From 1947-1991 there was the cold war amongst the US and Russia, As much as it’s said this war was about the continent with the biggest bomb where no shots were fired, okay time to close the text book that’s the end of the cold war chapter, Wrong. Yes it is true this war contained that but there is more to it then what’s said, This was also the war of Ideology, and this
The Cold War was a period from 1947 to 1991 that adhered erratic tension and constant threat of nuclear conflict between the two remaining superpowers that emerged from WWII, the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The 1964 film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, directed by Stanley Kubrick, depicts the overlying themes of the Cold War in a comedic fashion. This film’s full embodiment of the Cold War is seen through its representation of the time period, and the sheer competitiveness between the United States and Russia. Additionally, due to many of Kubrick’s movie decisions, the film has helped society
Despite the name being a “cold war”, the possibility and threat of a real war was always looming over the heads of Americans. The Russians had now built weapons that could wipe everything of the face of the earth. What affected Americans the most was The Cuban Missile crisis. The fact that the war could start with a single press of a button really frightened the Americans. People were trembling at the sound of war, they even began to build bomb shelters in their homes that they can run to, in case of a bombing. (Document 3) Moreover, these bomb shelters became very popular during these times, I believe this displays how much this war scarred the Americans; even though, it wasn’t technically a physical war they were scarred of what it could bring to them if it progressed to the next level.
The Cold War was a pivotal time in American history. To a greater degree than most other wars, the Cold War affected American society in unfathomable and profound ways. More specifically, American culture transformed immensely during this time. From a constant state of anxiety, to changes in media and the arts, to McCarthyism; the Cold War fervently affected the quality of life, personal expression, and American politics. Predominantly, the Cold War inflicted fear and apprehension within the American people that was so overpowering that it affected every aspect of their lives and overall American culture.
The Cold War, which was considered the “years of maximum danger,” lasted from 1949-1962. This period brought an increasing sense of danger to America because the Soviet Union came into possession of an atomic bomb in 1949; an idea many Americans thought to be impossible unless the Soviet Union had a spy in the United States, which they did. Because the Soviet Union had an atomic bomb, a nuclear war became a reality. In Kenneth Rose’s “One Nation Underground” he told of rising issues associated with the Cold War and the threat of nuclear bombings. The Cold War, in conjunction with the inventions of (total destructive) bombs, generated new dangers, fears, and morality issues among Americans, which led to further increased fears.
The Cold War was a competition. The US and the Soviet Union raced to become the world’s number one superpower, building up their militaries, improving their arsenals, and developing more advanced weapons. However, weapons in the war were not limited to only nuclear warheads. The weapons used in the Cold War were nuclear warheads, and hope and terror caused by propaganda.
The forty-five years from the dropping of the atom bombs to the end of the Soviet Union, can be seen as the era of the new conflict between two major states: United States of America (USA) and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). According to Hobsbawm, ‘cold war’ was the constant confrontation of the two super powers which emerged from the Second World War. At that time the entire generation was under constant fear of global nuclear battles. It was widely believed that it could break out at any moment. (Hobsbawm, 1994) The consequences of the ‘power vacuum’ in central Europe, created by the defeat of Germany, gave rise to these two super powers (Dunbabin, 1994). The world was divided into
After world war one peace looked inevitable. Everyone was wrong about this because a few years later world war two erupted. This great war was supposed to be the war to end all wars. In this war it was crystal clear who was the good side and who was the bad side. Almost everyone figured that if the bad side was defeated then peace couldn’t possibly escape us again. We defeated the evil Axis powers, but of course another serpent would rear its ugly head from behind the curtains. This period of a “cold war” after world war two has become one of the most complex and studied eras since America’s birth. This state of paradoxes, paranoia, and public disorientation has only ended a few years ago, but its
The “Cold War” was a unique time period were paranoia ran high and the world was at a stalemate as it watch the competition between the two world superpowers,(U.S. and the U.S.S.R.).
Throughout history, war has been the most common resort for nations to solve problems or show off their strength. However it wasn’t until recently where mankind had just live and experience a war that not only did it have the potential destroy nations, but also had the potential to destroy the whole world and humanity itself. This was known as the Cold War where after WWII, citizens of the world witnessed the potential of the atomic bomb and feared the possibility of nuclear fallout or total annihilation of the Earth. The only two superpowers remaining at the time were the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic. These two nation competed against each other in a nuclear arms race. They fought to spread the ideals of either a free democratic, capitalistic society or a controlled socialist, communist society. After a 45 year struggle from 1945-1991, the Cold War came to an end due to the fall of the Soviet Union. It was inevitable due to the fact during the last few years of the war, the USSR face internal domestic problems such as their financial/economic situation, failed political reforms, and revolution throughout the Union itself. The causes to the collapse of the Union not only affected them but affected the world to present day.
The Cold War was the most important historic event in the 20th century after the Second World War, from 1945 till 1991 between two most powerful countries in that period – Soviet Union and USA. The Cold War invested a lot in world politics. What is the Cold War? This was a war for dominance in the world. In 1945 the USA was the only one country in the world that had the nuclear weapons. But in the 1949 USSR started to learn their nuclear weapons. In further developments forced the USSR was soon created by nuclear, and then thermonuclear weapons. (Isaacs J, 2008) Fight has become very dangerous for all.
The vast majority of the American public know the Cold War as a period of political and state tension between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. This era is often associated with the advancement of scientific research and arms build up as a result of the competition between these world superpowers, especially through the development of the nuclear bomb. Aside from the actual politics of the Cold War, Joseph Masco, professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago, argues in his novel, The Theater of Operations, that the Cold War provided a psychological platform for the U.S. security state to transform everyday American’s perceptions of mass death. Through multiple government operations during the Cold War, the idea of nuclear disaster was presented as an undeniable threat to the American people, and instilled to a certain extent a sense of nuclear fear. Masco believes that the current state of mind in the counterterror state is merely just a continuation of the effects of the Cold War’s psychological conditioning. Additionally, Masco argues that the nuclear projects during the Cold War helped initiate the advancement of earth science research. He feels that through the increased knowledge in these fields, the Cold War nuclear projects were linked to environmental concerns. Through these examples, Masco demonstrates his view on how the Cold War has influenced the U.S. cultural understanding of nuclear threats.
The Cold War was a political, ideological and sometimes indirect military confrontation that took place after the Second World War between the two largest powers in the world: The United States and the Soviet Union. The conflict between these two great powers intensified without a real war on the ground. It was a silent war characterized by both powers in an arms race with the most lethal weapons without actually using these weapons. That is why that war was known as the Cold War. In this paper, I will analyze the causes of the Cold War from two theoretical perspectives, namely the realist and the constructivist perspectives.