The Cold War: The Vietnam War

The cold war started in 1945 and ended in 1989. It was a war between the United States and the Soviet Union. This war took place right after WWII and it is called the cold war because there were no real battles such as with tanks and bombs.

The Cold War took place between the United States (US) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from the mid 1940’s to the early 1990s. It was a “cold war” in the sense that there was never any military engagement between the US and the USSR, but during the Cold War both superpowers invested in many different weapons. The Cold War finally started to wind down in the late 1980’s due to Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev’s cooperation.

The Cold War could be described as one of the most 'distant' wars in history because there was no direct military fighting involved, only threats and fights through other countries. Although, many lives and money was lost, it was not as fatal and severe as World War II. In 1947, or right after World War II, the Cold War began due to conflict between the United States and Soviet Union. It ended on December 26, 1991 and the United States endured most of the damage that was a result of the war while Russia became a larger territory through the countries they gained power over. The war took place in the U.S., USSR, Europe, Cuba, Vietnam, Greece, Korea, East Asia and South America and lasted for over forty years. Although both contributed to the war, the United States should be blamed for the increasing tensions of the Cold War because of the NATO, Marshall Plan and Truman Doctrine.

The Cold War started with the end of WWII 1945 and finally ended in 1991. It was against the Soviet Union and the United States. This “war” was fought through nuclears threats and actions. Soviets and US remain the two last superpowers. Tensions grew between the soviet union and the United States which led to world changing technologies like nuclear bombs on both sides of the war.

than  accepting a  diplomatic change. This  can be deduced as  an attempt to build on Soviet power whilst also

The Cold War was an over 40 year war between the former World War II alliances The United States and The Soviet Union. This was a war that begun by political disagreements, harsh anti-communist words from Winston Churchill, and a power imbalance between The Soviet Union and The United States. Though it was a war, a new, lethal weapon was used to emotionally harm the opposing country rather than causing physical damage.

The Cold War was a “war” between the United States and the Soviet Union. Nothing was ever fired, but tensions were very high in both countries. It started in 1947 and lasted all the way until 1991 when Gorbachev officially ended the Soviet Union. The Berlin Wall also fell in 1989. These things can all be attributed to President Ronald Reagan. At the Geneva Summit in 1985, he talked to Gorbachev and was able to come to a peaceful conclusion to the Cold War in only four meetings. He was able to diminish the Soviet Union and “win” the Cold War all because of his strategy that had three main parts.

The Cold War was just that cold. The Cold War was never a declared war. It was a war of ideologies between the capitalist West led by the United States of America and the communist East led by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The Soviet Union wanted to spread and support communism while the United States and its allies wanted to prevent the spread of communism and keep communism in the borders of the nations that are already communist. This idea caused the United States to adopt a policy of containment, and also support anyone against communism.

Since World War II, Conflicts in Asia have played a major role in the Cold War and American foreign policy. One conflict was the Vietnam War, the effects of this conflict were not only felt within the region of Southeast Asia, for example Norman Morrison was a Baltimore Quaker and performed the act of self-immolation at the age of 31 to protest the US’s involvement in Vietnam, this is an example of how it was felt even in the United States and not just in Vietnam. These repercussions had a great impact on American society and even our foreign policy.

The Vietnam War was a long, immoderate furnished clash that hollowed the socialist administration of North Vietnam and its southern partners, known as the Viet Cong, against South Vietnam and its chief associate, the United States. The war started in 1954 after the ascent to force of Ho Chi Minh and his socialist Viet Minh party in North Vietnam, and proceeded against the background of an exceptional Cold War between two worldwide superpowers: the United States and the Soviet Union. More than 3 million individuals (counting 58,000 Americans) were murdered in the Vietnam War; more than half were Vietnamese regular citizens. By 1969, at the top of U.S. association in the war, more than 500,000 U.S. military work forces were included in the Vietnam struggle. Developing restriction to the war in the United States prompted astringent divisions among Americans, both previously, then after the fact President Richard Nixon requested the withdrawal of U.S. strengths in 1973. In 1975, comrade strengths seized control of Saigon, consummation the Vietnam War, and the nation was bound together as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam the next year. Amid World War II, Japan attacked and possessed Vietnam, a country on the eastern edge of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia that had been under French organization since the late nineteenth century. Enlivened by Chinese and Soviet socialism, Ho Chi Minh framed the Viet Minh, or the League for the Independence of Vietnam, to battle both

When examining the Vietnam War you must first understand the involvement of the events surrounding the Cold War. The ‘Vietnam War’ as it is known is a product of the cold war era, by this I mean that events in the Cold War led to the US’s involvement and creation of issues causing the conflict. “The Vietnam War was a long, costly armed conflict that pitted the communist regime of North Vietnam and its southern allies, known as the Viet Cong, against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States.” The exact date in which the war started are debated about between historians because the period in which Vietnam had unrest and issues dates back to Japan’s invasion of Vietnam in 1940. The Vietnam wars origins are also described as deriving from earlier Indochina wars of the 40’s and 50’s. However post WWII the French regained control of former colonised Vietnam leading to unrest within the Vietnamese people heightening. The Vietnamese people wanted independence. Ralph Smith Describes “War and Communism have shaped the pattern of Vietnamese history since 1945. If the French had not decided after the Pacific War to recover control of their former colony by force, it is by no means certain the communists would have emerged as the strongest contender for power in an independent Vietnam.” It is not hard to decipher the reasons why the Vietnamese were unrested and wanted independence, to live in peace is not an unreasonable request.

The Cold War changed the world in several ways. It all started off as a war between two countries, the United States and the Soviet Union but it quickly ended up affecting practically every country in the world some how. The world split into two sides either countries went with the ideology of the U.S.’s or the Soviet Union’s.

The Cold War was a “war” between the United States and the Soviet Union. However, the Cold War wasn't necessarily a war but, instead, a forty-year “standoff”. It was called the Cold War because there was no direct fighting between the two countries, but there was a lot of tension. During this time, the two superpowers wanted to prevent the other from gaining any more supporters. Soviets tried to turn other countries into communist nations while the U.S. tried to contain communism and stop it from spreading.

The people in the Soviet side were restricting the liberties of its people and the financial circumstances were brutal and merciless.

Not only did Truman’s dislike for Stalin cause the Cold War but also Soviet Union expansion was a leading cause of the start of the Cold War. In the Second World War, Germans invaded the Soviets. During the Second World War, approximately 25.3 million people living in the USSR died from the German army. 3 All of these deaths, during the Second World War, concerned the USSR. The USSR wanted to expand westward because they wanted to create a buffer zone between Soviet Union as a way to protect themselves from future invasions. When the Second World War ended, the USSR still had troops in Eastern Europe this allowed the USSR to help the communist parties rise to power thus assimilating them into the Soviet Union Army.4 This buffer zone was later be known as the Iron Curtain (Soviet Army). Due to the Russians imperializing more countries and turning them into communist countries, it caused hostility and concern among the Western European powers. However, countries in Western Europe did not take any action to stop the Soviets because they were afraid of war until the US intervened in 1946.4 Roosevelt told his advisors, “The Russians only understand one language - how many armies have you got? I 'm tired of babying the Soviets”. 9 He wanted to halt communism from growing by stopping Soviets from taking over more countries. A major country, Truman was worried about the Soviet Union taking over was Iran. During the Second World War, the Iranian government enlisted