Taking a Look at the Cold War

“The way we choose to see the world we see”(Barry Neil Kaufman). Different perspective lead humans to make decisions that lead to conflicts, such as the Cold War. The Cold War was a rivalry between the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) and the USA(United States of America).Cold War had no direct military actions between the countries. Competing perspectives and human decisions led to violent conflicts throughout the 20th century. By analyzing different perspectives for the countries that are blamed for starting Cold War and the ideologies that were imposed in the other countries.

While the United States would flip between isolationist and interventionist, the Cold War not only solidified America's interventionism, but helped change the economy to a more government controlled military-industrial complex capable of assisting the U.S. in times of war and being able to assist foreign intervention in an

After the end of World War II communism became wide-ranging. In hope of making new allies, the Soviet Union wanted to spread communism all across Europe. After the fall of Germany in 1945, moods changed when the United States started getting suspicious of the action led by the Soviet Union. This was thought of as a power move by the Soviet Union to have world domination. The United States formed a new policy calling it Containment in return.

The 46 year struggle known as the Cold War all started over a disagreement at Potsdam. Stalin refused to allow what the Allies wanted. They wanted to give free election to countries in easter Europe like Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. All these countries became satellite rates controlled by the Soviet Union. This made Truman believe that Stalin was planning to conquer the world and that the former alliance was falling apart. This turned into a battle between Communism and Democracy. Throughout almost all of the Cold War the United States adopted a foreign policy called “containment”.The United States contained Communism in Berlin, Korea, and Cuba by not allowing the Soviet Union to gain anymore land or power.

Following World War II the alliance between the U.S., Britain and The Soviet Union began to unravel as the USSR pushed for the spread of communism which threatened America and the free world. For the next few decades, America’s leaders would need to strategically combat the expansion of the iron curtain and communism. Issues broke out all over the world but the most significant “battles” were that of Berlin, Korea and Cuba. The U.S. contained communism in Berlin by remaining persistent, in Korea by battling, and in Cuba by taking caution.

In 1981 the CIA trained and armed the counter revolutionaries, which was known as Contra’s to help Nicaragua fight against the communist regime being funded by the Soviets. When Congress failed to continue funding the program, the Reagan administration imposed an embargo against the country.

Following World War Two, the two legitimate world powers were the United States and the Soviet Union. With the Soviet Union under a communistic government and the United States being a nation founded in Capitalism, tensions between the two nations rose, resulting in the Cold War. Against the wishes of the United States, small countries in East Asia began to turn communist. Fear that one country turning would have a chain reaction turning many more, the United States turned to a policy of ‘containment’. This policy was tested in the Korean War and would be again tested in the Vietnam War. Starting as a War with the communist North Vietnam against South Vietnam and the French,

While the Cold War does not mark a significant distinction from US involvement in Latin America pre-Cold War, the inclusion of ideology in US foreign policy decisions did mark a change in attitudes and focus. While US policy can be described as rational to a certain point, the Cuban dilemma caused an irrational fear in US foreign policy makers to avoid a second-Cuba. The fear of a “second Cuba” can be seen in the various interventions by the US in Latin America during this period.

The Cold War was a period of time that set the entire world on edge. Throughout the mid- to late-1900s, communist and democratic forces tensely competed for a greater modicum of power. In the United States, anti-communist sentiments ran high, and suspicions naturally turned to the changing governments of the nations closest to them. Justified or not, the impact of the actions the US took in Latin American nations in light of these communist fears were varied and lasting, seen prominently in one of the first nations in which the United States intervened, Guatemala. Shifting politics in the Latin American country proved too left-leaning for comfort in the world of the Cold-War-Era-United States, leading to a coup d'état that proved disastrous

Central Americans in 1980s, including Nicaraguans, Salvadorians and Guatemalans tries to migrate to the United States for several reasons. Some of the main reason including revolution such as the Sandinista Revolution and civil war which could be also be defined as the cold war. The idea of communism is what caused all these violence, where Central America military wants to eliminate all revolutionaries such as the communist. Because of this conflict and idea to stop communist movement, the three countries in Central America, Nigcralgua, El Salvador and Guatemala used different methods where El Salvador and Guatemala shared very similar methods. President of the United States, Ronald Reagan believed that the cold war needs to be fought in Central

during the Cold War can be found in two of the countries in which the U.S. attempted to intervene: Chile and Iran. Overcome by their complete fear of communism, the U.S. sent the C.I.A. to Chile to encourage military officials to overthrow their Marxist president, Salvador Allende. This coup allowed the new leader, Augusto Pinochet, to rule over Chile for two decades as an extremely oppressive dictator (Lecture). Another occasion of the U.S. undermining the very democratic ideals that they claimed to want to share with the rest of the world, they may have prevented an eventual communist society, but it was at the cost of the freedoms of the Chilean people. This assertation of Western dominance throughout the world eventually culminated in an uprising in Iran, a country that was considered modern and fairly developed both socially and economically. Iranian dissenters fought against the invasive attempts to spread the American ideal of anti-communism, and while they critiqued both capitalism and communism, the victorious regime was far more oppressive than the previous government (lecture). So, while they may not have ended up with a communist country, the actions of the U.S. led to the reversal of American-styled development, thus furthering the unfulfilled American goals of the Cold

“The United States adopted a policy called, containment, according to which the U.S. committed itself to preventing any further expansion of the Soviet powers” (Tradshad, par. 5). This was the cause of thousands of American soldiers deaths because it required the United States military to be sent out all over the world to help other countries keep their own types of governmental systems. Many people also payed the United States to keep communism out of the country so that they could remain under the same powers as before the Cold War had ever began. Even though the fear of communism was taken care of, the feelings toward the Soviet Union remained the same in the thoughts that they were trying to ruin everyone’s lives. Except for the fact that the Cuban Missile Crisis was somewhat compromised when the Soviets agreed to remove the missiles in Cuba, which were pointed at the United States, in return that the U.S. would pledge to never try to spy or invade in or around their countries again. 6 but not

after being given autonomy and therefore struggled in the global economy. The United States went to war against communist Soviet Union and other communist supporters for the sake of spreading democracy to the rest of the world. Communism was a terrifying thing for the rich, superpower of America because it meant redistribution, most likely through armed revolution. The Cold War also sparked international competition between the US and Soviet Union through the arms

During the Cold War Era, anti-communist countries like the United States took drastic measures to eliminate communism. Tension spread worldwide and a lot of violence sprung from the feud between communist and anti-communist parties. Many Latin American countries in this time were under a communistic rule and the United States did

During the Cold War, it is safe to say that that U.S. Foreign policy shifted towards a new direction. There were many changes referred to the cultural and economic reconstruction that were addressed at this time; and, obviously, the whole idea was to fight communism. It all started with the Marshall Plan, which was the initiative to help the economic development of European countries, and it was actually successful. It developed the cultural aspect and reinforced the new concept of Totalitarianism, along with the rise of human rights.