The Cold War And The Soviet Union

The Cold War was the name given to the political economic, military and ideological contention that occurred between the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union and their allies after World War II. The two forces never directly engaged in military activity in light of the fact that both had atomic weapons that if utilized, might have had crushing outcomes for both sides. Instead, proxy wars were battled. A proxy war results when contradicting forces utilize outsiders as substitutes for battling each one other and is ordinarily launched by a power that does not itself partake. The Korean and Vietnam wars are two examples of proxy wars on the grounds that the U.S. and the Soviet Union did not directly engage one another however, Soviet endeavors to spread and bring together both Korea and Vietnam under communist rule provoked mediation either by the United States and/or by their allies. These two occasions were simply a few of the impacts of the Cold War in Asia. This paper will examine each war individually and in more detail and endeavor to persuade that the Korean and Vietnam Wars were the immediate aftereffects of Soviet endeavors to expand communist influence in Asia and the United States and their allies' approach of forestalling and holding such endeavors.

In 1945, one major war ended and another began. After World War II, the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union were involved in what became known as the Cold War, which was a period of mutual fear and distrust. The war was given the name "cold" because the two sides never actually came into direct armed conflict; it was a war of words and ideologies rather than a shooting war (Crawford, 2009, p. 6). The Soviet Union and the United States came out from World War II as the new world superpowers, and despite their common victory with the defeat of their enemies, their primary bond was broken. There were deep-rooted ideological, economic, and political differences between the United States and the Soviet Union prior to the Second World War. Their differences, most notably their political systems and their visions of a postwar Europe, were intensified as a result of their mutual suspicions and during and after the Second World War drove the allied nations into an ideological conflict that lasted for 45 years.

Regarded as one of the most controversial and polarizing military conflicts in U.S. history, the Vietnam War has left a deep and lasting impact on American culture, politics, and foreign policy. From 1964 to the present day, the Vietnam War redefined the scope of U.S. influence both at home and abroad, and caused a fundamental shift in American society that dramatically changed the way in which Americans viewed their government and the role of the United States as a world power. For an entire generation of Americans, who watched as the horrors of the war in Vietnam unfold before the spotlight of the national media, the Vietnam War directly challenged the superiority of the American way and the infallibility of U.S military dominance. In truth, the U.S government, U.S. military, and the American people as a whole struggled to accept the lessons of America’s greatest military failure and the sobering reality of the war’s consequences. To this day, the legacy of this so-called “American War” continues to resonate throughout the fabric of American society as a cautionary tale of U.S foreign intervention and blind acceptance of open-ended conflict.

The twentieth-century clash between the Soviet Union and the United States would come to split much of the world between those allied with the U.S and those with the U.S.S.R. These two powerful nations vied against each other not through traditional means but rather through a series of proxy wars to gain spheres of influence. America fought these proxy wars under the guise of containment, which was a strategy to stop the spread of communism. This led America into arguably one the most contentious wars abroad, the Vietnam war. Which was an inevitable consequence of the policy of containment. However, the greater global conflict known as the Cold war did not suddenly come to fruition out of nowhere. It was rather the inevitable consequence

Both Robert Buzzano and Randall Woods present excellent interpretations of American foreign policy in Vietnam. What we need to look at closely is the goals that are set by the U.S., as well as their expected goals. When starting our comparison we are forced to realize that John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson had two very different approaches to Vietnam. Many attribute LBJ as the reason we even went into Vietnam. However what remains is another instance of America trying to protect the world from communism. Woods tells us that, “Johnson was an unbelievably intelligent person. His capacity to absorb information and analyze it was amazing. He was a very earthy and profane man, but he also was very much a liberal Christian.” This becomes a more popular argument however that Wood expands on.

During the 1950s through the present time, great debate has divided American society regarding the Vietnam War. The research paper examines whether or not the United States had achieved its foreign policy goal in regard to Vietnam. In order for one to understand why the Tet Offensive had a profound impact on United States’ doctrine, this particular key event must be put in the context of American policy and the ensuing conflict in Vietnam up to 1968. The paper will provide an overview of the Cold War policy of containment, the reasoning for America involving itself in Vietnam, and the impact of the Tet Offensive on both the United States and the Johnson administration.

During the era of the Cold War, starting in 1947 and definitively ending in 1991, the United States and the Soviet Union faced off in conflicts with each other through smaller states.

In studying International Relations, I have realized that, the nature of International politics can be likened to anarchy. This is because in International relations there seems to be no supreme or overriding authority which establishes and maintains rules or laws in international affairs. All States appear to behave in their own interests.

The Vietnam War was the most controversial war in American history. Costing more than 47,000 U.S. lives and $140,000,000, the war had momentous impact on the country, politically, economically, and socially. More significantly, the United States failed to achieve its stated war aims, for the first time in history. The goal was to preserve an independent, noncommunist government in South Vietnam, but by the war’s end in 1975, all of Vietnam was under the communist rule of Ho Chi Minh’s Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The U.S. emerged from the war disgraced: a global superpower had been bested by the nearly third-world nation of North Vietnam. But how? Antiwar sentiment among the civilian population contributed to the American defeat, but

One of the main things Reagan was known for his is stance on communist and his commitment to end the Cold War. Reagan was not afraid of the Soviet Union like his Carter or Ford who served as President before him. He told the Secretary of Defense to order whatever is needed and not to worry about the budget. He wanted to be in a position of strength, that way he believed he would be able to negotiate with them; he had a saying of “To build up to build down” http://millercenter.org/president/biography/reagan-domestic-affairs. Reagan did not want there to be an arms race, however if there were to be one he was determined not to loose. The CIA confirmed that the Soviet Union’s economy could not support an arms race against the US. In Reagan’s mind, winning the Cold War meant having the Soviet Union cease to exist.

The Cold War grew out of post-World War II tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. Although the war did not bring about large scale fighting, there remained a constant threat of a catastrophic nuclear war. During the war, the US sought to strictly limit the spread of communism through containment, an idea formulated by US diplomat George Kennan, which became the basis of Harry Truman’s foreign policy. The containment policy was a response to a series of moves by the Soviet Union to enlarge communist influence in Eastern Europe, China, Korea, Africa, and Vietnam. The president’s initial step toward containment came in response to a British request to support both Turkey and Greece against the spread of communism. By requesting Congress for $400 million in military and economic assistance for Greece and Turkey, Truman established the Truman Doctrine. This policy, marking an “informal declaration of Cold War against the Soviets”, established that the United States would provide military and economic assistance to all nations threatened by Communism. The United States further devised the Marshall plan, which provided massive financial aid to western European countries in order to strengthen their economy, which indirectly prevented the spread of communism. Eisenhower and Nixon’s containment policies, while sharing Truman’s idea that communism should be contained, implemented different policies regarding containment. Eisenhower’s “New Look” policy was fiscally

After World War II, there was peace and prosperity in America and many other parts of the world. However, for the Koreans, it was the beginning of a never ending split. When Japan fell, Korea was suddenly free, and hoped to finally become a unified state. However, the United States and the Soviet Union had different ideas. The Soviets wanted to have Korea under communist control and the United States wanted to establish a democracy. Additionally, the United States believed that containment, a foreign policy used to prevent the spread of communism, was extremely important. The Cold War is a term used to describe the relationship between America and the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1980. Neither side actually ever fought the other, as the end result would have been catastrophic. However, they did fight for their beliefs by using others who fought for their beliefs on their behalf.

World history is an extremely important subject that all students around the world should learn about. World history is simply a branch of knowledge that welcomes all humanity. It is essential to learn because it symbolizes the question of who we are, prepares us to live in the alluring world and ensures cultural literacy. One of the most fascinating events known in history includes the Cold War. This essay will explore the fierce, overpowering, and chaotic Cold War describing its purpose, summary and analysis of events, and how it came to a complete end.

President Richard Nixon once famously remarked, “The Cold War isn’t thawing; it is burning with a deadly heat. Communism isn’t sleeping; it is, as always, plotting, scheming, working, fighting.” If there is only one statement that captures the raw tension and scale of the Cold War, it is this. In fact, the real heat of the Cold War was often felt in Asia, rather than Europe or America itself. Real conflict broke out in Asia during this tense period of American history, such as in the correlated but separate spheres of Korea and Vietnam, but there was also diplomacy that took place, such as in China.

Vietnam War provided support that the Cold War affected not only the two major superpowers, but also many third world countries. Countries far from the national borders and vital markets become points of intense superpower conflict. Historian, Michael Latham, discussed that polices