The Cold War : The Causes Of The Cold War

The Cold War, which took place from 1947 to 1991 had eventually altered the Latin America's relationship with the United States profoundly, as the region became a battleground between two different competing ideological systems which was capitalism and communism. Prior to the Cold War, both economic and geopolitical concerns had motivated United States policy toward Latin America. But, after the lowering of the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe, George Kennan, the chief architect of American foreign policy towards the Soviet Union, advocated containment to stop the spreading of communism, not just in Europe, but including the countries all around the world. The result was a bipolar world featuring proxy wars fought throughout the Third World by alternates and clients of the two superpowers. Latin American nations are historically considered to be part of "our backyard," who were not permitted to remain neutral as Washington expected the Latin American countries to ally with the United States, while the Soviet Union sought to gain access to what had been an American sphere of influence and after world war II many Latin American countries such as Cuba faced political, economic and social challenges.

The Cold War was a time when the U.S had many conflicts with the USSR that could have caused multiple problems worldwide. World War II had just ended in 1945. The Cold War Started almost immediately after WWII. The Soviet Union had finished the war with a bad economy and wanted to spread Communism to the world. Due to the Soviet Union wanting the spread of communism it also caused the Korean war had separated Korea into two sides from 1950-1953. (Millett, Allan R.) Then the Space Race that happened made both the U.S and USSR competitive for achievements in space. (Trustees of the Royal Air Force Museum) and the Cuban Missile Crisis that almost caused a nuclear war.(The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica) In 1947 after WWII that involved whole the world, a conflict arose between the U.S and the Soviet Union about world leadership. Many conflicts and compromises have happened in the war for example The Space Race, the Korean War, and the Cuban Missile Crisis, and SALT.

Following World War II disputes between soviet and the Western democracies kicked up, particularly dealing with the fate of Eastern European states and the Soviets influential takeover. The communist takeover of Eastern Europe clashed with the democratic rebuilding of Western Europe forming what Winston Churchill described as a “Iron Curtain” a political, military and ideological barrier set by the Soviet Union served to set a metaphorical boundary between the Soviet expansion and the Western democracies. With the fall of the “Iron Curtain” “The Cold War was a period of East-West competition, tension, and conflict short of full-scale war, characterized by mutual perceptions of hostile intention between military-political alliances or blocs.”

The Cold War began with Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Britain, giving a speech of imposing an, “iron curtain,” separating East and West Germany. The Soviet Union having control over East Germany, and the United States controlling West Germany. Berlin, the capital of Germany, was also separated, the Soviet Union took over East Berlin and Germany took over West Berlin. The countries had different government systems, the U.S. was Democratic and the Soviet Union was Communist. Tension started to build around the two world powers. Soon enough, a cold war broke out, the countries fought economically, politically and competed in an arms race against one another.

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 .

1947 through 1991 was the time period of the Cold War; the Cold War was a result caused by the tension of the after math of what had happened with world war 2 .The tension that was there wasn 't just any kind of tension it was military tension between the power of the eastern bloc and the power of the western bloc. The Cold War wasn 't only one war but it was decades of "little"wars and intimidation. Germany was busy after the war, there where so much tension between the Soviet Union and the western allies because they had feared each other because they had thought a new war could arise. Minister Churchill then decided that he would put what would be an iron curtain across Europe. The Cold War had so many little conflicts within it like the Chinese revolution, the Palestine liberation organisation, and so many more hundreds if you would that happened in the Cold War time.

War. Humans have thrived from war for as long as we can remember. The United States has been fighting wars ever since we found the new country in North America that we now call the United States. We fought against our selves for the freedom of others. We fought in several world wars. We have always fought. But in the late 1940's “war” changed forever. This was well known as the Cold War. Why was this so different? “ The world had never experienced anything like it. The Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States was a half century of military build-up, political maneuvering for international support (Hanes, Sharon M., and Richard C. Hanes).” This means that the world has always seen war as either hand to hand combat or gun to

The Cold War tension began when Germany and Berlin were divided into 4 sections between the United States, Brittan, France and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union had

The Cold War started when issues began to fray between the allied powers. The issues stemmed from power and influence in Central and Eastern Europe. After the Second World War, their issues went from mistrust to open conflict. The Soviet Union and the United States quickly formed the centers of two imperial blocs. The Cold War divided Europe. Eastern Europe occupied by the soviets and Western Europe dominated by the military and economic presence integration. This resulted in the European Common Market in the West and a socialist bloc dominated by the Soviet Union in the East. The Cold War changed life in the West and had many effects on society both today, and in the past.

-Iron Curtain- the dividing line between the communist countries of eastern Europe (Winston Churchill called it Iron curtain)

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.

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.

When the first atomic bomb was made it put fear into other countries, and it created distrust after America bombed Japan. The Yalta was a meeting of the” big three.” they made postwar world agreements. The iron curtain was a name for the boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas. There was also an iron curtain speech given by Winston Churchill, in his speech he condemns the Soviet Union’s policies in Europe and declares that an iron curtain has descended across the continent.

The defeat of the Nazis in 1945 helped bring an end to the deadliest conflict in history, but also began the era of political tension known as the cold war. Although present in all forms of life, the iron curtain of Europe placed after the division of German territorial gains split the continent to East and West, Communism and Democracy. In the nations of Eastern Europe liberated from Germany by advancing Soviets, communist influence did not leave. In nations largely split in political opinion, communist rule was put in place as the way of life. Discontent against communist rule was present throughout all affected territories placed within the Soviet sphere of influence after the fall of the Third Reich, but the authority of the government

In my opinion ,the US should bear a bigger responsibility for causing the cold war .After the second world war , the ideological difference ,mutual distrust and the disappearance of the common enemy (germany ) , these all are the causes of the cold war .However ,these comflicts were all brought by the US . Many historians believe that the Cold War was inevitable once the common enemy, Germany, was defeated after the end of World War II. Other historians such as John Gaddis stress that neither superpower can be held solely responsible for the ideological war that lasted half a century. These historians believe that the US and the USSR followed a pattern of action and reaction; and that neither nation had a definitive plan of action (Todd,