When World War II ended, the last thing the countries imagined was another worldwide conflict. But that’s exactly was soon ensued when the Cold War erupted between the Eastern powers and the Western powers. The Eastern powers consisted of the Soviet Union and the Western powers consisted of America, Britain and France. During World War II, these allies had a common ground to work together in effort to fight against Hitler and the Nazi Party. The Cold War wasn’t an actual war where battles were fought; it was a time of political controversy and tension between these countries that were once allies. The thoughts of the Cold War in the Western countries for a while was that it was mainly all “aggressive Soviet attempts at worldwide …show more content…
Also, the Western powers intervened against the communist powers during the Civil War of Russia in 1918-1920. These two circumstances set the root for tension. Then origins of the actual Cold War instigated. “Stalin had sought a post WW2 reorganization of Europe to shield his country from the repetition of German invasions” while “Britain and American statesmen envisioned post war Europe where nations like Italy, Greece and others would fall within a sphere of influence controlled by Western Powers” (Discovering 255). But Germany was the main origin being that it was in the center of Europe, it was what each power wanted control over. In October 1943, the European Advisory Commission (EAC) was created between America, Britain and Soviet officials to work out what Germany’s post- World War II treatment would consist of. This was what resulted in the division of the country into zones of occupation down the line of the Elbe River. The Soviets zone was east of the line and Britain, America’s and eventually France’s zones were on the western side. The problem with this, though, was that the country’s capital of Berlin was located in the Soviets eastern zone of occupation, which gave the Soviets an advantage over the Western powers so there was agreement to divide the capital into eastern and western zones as
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.
As World War II came to a close, a new conflict arose among the two superpowers, Soviet Union and the United States. This conflict, known as the Cold War, affected nearly every country in the world, including Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Countries was divided between communist and non-communist countries, which caused tension, political unrest, and monetary difficulties. The Cold War was a war of words and thoughts and it was the timeframe after World War II that led to political and military tensions between democratic United States and communist Soviet Union.
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.
WWII and the Cold War were two very important wars in the history of the world. They both had a important role in the development of the world. The Cold War impacted society and politics more so than WWII by aiding countries in hopes of making them join their regime, the use of propaganda techniques to portray the other superpower as weak, the fear of annihilation due to nuclear weapons, and the war between communism and democracy.
During the World War II, the Soviet Union and Western Blocs were allies fighting against their enemies. As time went on, at the end of the World War II, they started to have disagreements and had many differences. The conflict between these two became huge and was known as the Cold War. The Soviet was the most responsible for the Cold War because they tried to expand the Sphere of Influence, won’t compromise with the Westerns, and they had new weapons that they kept as a secret.
In 1945 after WWII the United States and the Soviet Union became divided as far as how they felt Europe should be divided. This began the period of conflict called the Cold War. The Cold War was “a state of political hostility between countries characterized by threats, propaganda, and other measures short of open warfare”(dictionary.com).The USSR believed in communism, where the US believed in democracy. The US was between two potentially hostile nations, the US designed a Buffer Zone to prevent any overt acts of aggression.At the end of WWI,I almost all of the eastern European countries were occupied by Russia these countries were known as Satellite States. The distrust between the two nations began at the Yalta Conference which included the three big powers: Churchill (Great Britain),Stalin (Soviet Union), and Roosevelt (United States of America). Stalin wanted more control as far how Europe progressed after WWII, where Roosevelt believed Europe should hold free election and determine their political system and rivalry between the two superpowers and began the Cold War. Some might blame the Americans for the causing for the Cold War because of the American’s wanted to occupy the countries, but the Soviet Union bares the responsibility for the Cold War because of their actions in Eastern Europe, by the military expansionism of Stalin and his successors, and the principles presented in the Iron Curtain Speech .
When discussing WWII and The Cold War from an American perspective, the focus is likely to be centered on the wartime efforts of the country while debating strengths and shortcomings within those efforts. However, while the physical and psychological wars waged on, America’s homefront saw a continuation of fighting in the form of social movements aimed at attaining equality for all Americans. Minorities like African Americans and Mexican immigrants continued to face discrimination and racism during WWII but were shaped in different ways by the war. The Cold War era in America is a very complex subject marked by heightened tensions, fear, and paranoia among citizens. Much in the same way that WWII shaped the plight of minorities and immigrants on the homefront, the Cold War era also effected what it meant to be an American by shaping the conformist social class. Reaction to this conformity would also be shaped by the Cold War era, and Americans would eventually become critical to these effects.
The Cold War was an intellectual battle between communists and anti communists to have their own dominance over the modern world. The Cold War started as most wars do, two sides disagreeing with each other. In this case one side wanted to stop the spread of communism and the other side wanted them to butt out. What happens when both sides have strong opinions and potentially dangerous ideas? It just adds more fuel to the fire. The two sides specifically were the USA and the USSR. Needless to say the USA was against communism and the USSR wasn’t.
The Cold War Era that followed the end of World War II was unlike any Americans had seen before. After defeating Germany and its allies in the war, the United States faced a change on the home front: young Americans rushed into marriage and parenthood in unprecedented numbers. In Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era, Elaine Tyler May describes these changes from the end of the war through the early 1960s. The author makes a compelling range of arguments about the changes that affected Americans during this period. Mainly, May argues that the “domestic containment” that arose after World War II promoted the new dynamic of a suburban lifestyle, in part because of the increasing fright of looming communism during the Cold War Era.
For nearly fifty years, the world lived in fear as two super-power nations quietly battled for power, respect and popularity of their respective political views. The Cold War arose out of the ashes of the failed alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union in World War II. Many different factors could be linked to the actual cause of the Cold War, however many agree that the political future of Eastern Europe was the major spark that ignited the battle between Communist Russia and Capitalist America1. The American fear of the spread of communism and their ambition to penetrate the "Iron Curtain" only added fuel to the fire that had been burning for some time already. Although the
Soon after the end of the World War Two (WW II), a new period of tensions began in the world with once again Europe at the very heart of the tensions. It was the Cold War. It “was a state of political and military tension between powers in the Western Bloc (the United States, its NATO allies and others) and powers in the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union and its allies in the Warsaw Pact). It “split the temporary wartime alliance against Nazi Germany, leaving the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the United States as two superpowers with profound economic and political differences: the former being a single-party Marxist–Leninist state, and the latter being a capitalist state with generally free elections.” Although it was not the same scale as the WWII in terms of destructions and casualties, the Cold War did however bring the world to the brink of total nuclear war. While both superpowers avoided confronting each other directly on the military field, they had an open and intensive competition in the area of culture and consumerism.
The Cold War was a clash of culture, ideologies, and a standoff between the world 's two greatest nuclear powers. The argument of the American side was based around Capitalism and a hunger for ever growing business while the Soviet Union’s was structured around Communism and it’s powerful theocracy that stated it must be spread to every country on the planet. As a result, there has been much debate about whether the U.S. initiated the Cold War through their usage of the atomic bomb in World War II, or the Soviet Union did with their extreme cultural and military expansion. However, the phrasing of the original question makes this clear from a schoolyard fight perspective. It comes down to who threw the first punch? Without a doubt, it was the United States, using the most powerful weapon known to mankind in an attempt to put Japan down for good and flex their muscles as a new world power.
The allies did liberated large parts of Western Europe and recreated democratic nations. This divide Europe into two blocks and each occupied by armies America and the Allies and in the east Russia. The United States wanted a democratic Europe and Russia wanting a communist Europe. The difference was added fear of the Soviet invasion in the West and Russians fear of the atomic bomb. There was also fear of economic collapse in the west versus fear of economic domination by the west. This lead to the clash of ideologies; capitalism versus communist. The Soviet feared a rearmed Germany hostile to Russia. Churchill described the dividing the lines between East and West Germany as an Iron Curtain.
Despite its name, the Cold War did not actually involve military fighting between the United States and the Soviet Union. However, the Cold War is still an excellent example as to why war can be a result of bargaining failures and explains reasons as to why war occurs. A single person’s rationality can tip the scale between war and peace. The Cold War was essentially a deadlock between the two super powers of that time, the United States and the Soviet Union. Both states expressed desire to maintain and widen their respective spheres of influence around the world. Both states also wanted to prove that their political system is superior; whereas the United States was pro-democracy, the Soviet Union was pro-communism. Although the Cold War was a result of many factor, war can definitely occur due to information problems between two states. Nonetheless, I do believe there is always a range of agreements that is possible between states, as is evidenced by the resolution of the Cuban missile crisis.
WWII consisted of many events that increased tensions between the East and the West. The two main countries were the United States and the Soviet Union. The allies (the western powers) and the Soviet Union had an alliance during the second war. When the war ended the alliance began to get frayed at the edges. At the end of the war most of Europe was occupied by four countries. The United States and the Soviet Union had the most powerful military forces. The Cold War got its name because neither the United States nor the Soviet Union wanted to openly fight each other and they were afraid of each other’s power.