The Soviet Union At The End Of The Cold War

The Cold War was a state of economic, diplomatic, and ideological discord among nations without armed conflict. The Cold War was between the United States and the USSR because these were the two major powers after WWII. Basically, the Cold War was a series of proxy wars that had taken place back in time involving surrounding countries. One of the main causes for Cold War was that the Soviet Union was spreading communism and the United States didn’t like that so they were trying to contain communism. However, in the end they failed. Many events took place in other countries. In Korea, Vietnam, Latin America, and China, communism took over; however, before it did, major wars had taken place. The cold war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union worsened the condition of countries involved. The Cold War broke countries into two parts that turned against each other, the United States and the Soviet Union used these countries to fight their war and caused a big disturbance to daily life, and the Communist States fought the Non-Communist States; however, the end results of these wars only caused more damage in these countries.

Post World War II, both the United States and the Soviet Union were fearful of fighting each other directly from fear of nuclear weapons and mass destruction (D. Johnson, P. Murray). Instead, they fought each other by participating in wars on separate parts of the world. Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union constantly fluctuated due to both sides trying to influence political and economic developments around the world (D. Johnson, P. Murray).

The Cold War, in fact didn’t take place in the winter season, but was just as dangerously cold and unwelcoming, as it focused on two contrasting powers: the U.S. and the Soviet Union. After World War 2, the Cold War influenced capitalist U.S. and communist Soviet Union to engage in disagreements causing many disputes having to use military, economic and humanitarian aid. With different goals, the contrasting powers prove through the Marshall Plan, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and SALT that communism really can’t coexist with capitalism.

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 emergence of the Cold War with the Soviet Union had far reaching impacts on American society, including hindering the pace of social reform in the United States. While some aspects of the Cold War may have helped promote certain social reforms, the net impact, deterred inevitable social reforms. Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War induced a fear of communism in Americans that had numerous effects on American policies. McCarthyism, a period of controversial accusations on supposedly “communist” Americans, developed from the panic that communism would overcome the United States’ government, leading to loss of individual freedoms. In addition, social reform, especially the Civil Rights Movement, received inadequate attention as American leaders fixated on defeating communism and preventing it from contaminating the United States. Therefore, the United States’ preoccupation with containing communism throughout the Cold War Era hindered social reform domestically. As a result, social reform successes were limited primarily to those exhibiting visible political value by demonstrating the United States’ belief in equality and democracy to the rest of the world.

America’s foundation was constructed on the ideal of freedom, whether that be religious, political, or individual freedom. U.S. citizens have very strong feelings about their independence and will do almost anything to protect their rights from being taken away. During the 1950s Americans were afraid that their freedom was going to be threatened and taken away by the communist style of government. The Soviet Union and America were both trying to win control on a global scale, but with the USSR being communist the paranoia of a socialism takeover was heightened. Americans were so fearful of communism that it became known as the Red Scare. All over the country people were being accused of being communist spies and federal employees were being interrogated, the U.S. was in full panic mode. The United States was so fearful of the USSR being able to gather more communist allies and take over that the U.S. stepped in militarily to protect South Korea from North Korea’s communist invasion. This battle for dominance between the nations was named the Cold War. I believe that this war was justified because there were clear threats towards the United States and their capitalist ideals. In the very beginning of the Cold War the Soviet Union successfully tested an atomic bomb. This seemed like a clear indication that the USSR had plans to use that bomb in order to establish their dominance and embark on a communist takeover. America fought to keep their freedom and rights safe from the

The Zbigniew Brzezinski defined a Soviet victory as entailing “the submissive neutralization of both Western Europe (through the dismantling of NATO) and Japan, and the withdrawal of U.S. political military presence across the oceans. Moreover, victory was also defined as attaining the worldwide economic supremacy of communism over capitalism” . Part of this view is corroborated in the infamous Long Telegram by American diplomat George F. Kennan, which, among other things, claimed that the USSR wanted to further socialism at the cost of Western capitalism. . From both sources, one can assume the terms of victory for the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and, consequently, these can be compared with the actual events of the Cold War to determine how large a defeat the Soviet Union suffered. It is indeed true that the Western capitalism emerged victorious in the end. Western Europe wasn’t “neutralised”; in fact, it was Eastern Europe that submitted to Western politics as the USSR collapsed. Similarly, by the end of the Cold War it was the USSR’s political presence - rather than the US’ - that had collapsed, leaving the US seemingly unopposed as the leading global superpower. In each of these cases, it appears that the Soviet Union suffered a total defeat far removed from any conditions of victory. However, while this paper will begin by examining these areas of defeat, it will then go on to argue that the defeat was not necessarily total. Finally, it will argue that survival and

Along the course of American history, this nation has seen many conflicts in its brief timeline. However, as the alliance between America and the USSR dissolved after the second World War, the relationship between both superpowers began to fluctuate as they competed to spread their varying ideologies. This unique time period became known as the Cold War, a conflict unique as it was not fought with normal methods of warfare. In fact, it was not fought with weapons at all. To fully understand this unconventional war, it is important to understand the background to the hostile relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union. It is also important to study its methods of warfare and the conflicts that arose. The Cold War began as a

The Cold War lasted from 1947 to 1991. The Cold War was the wars of multiple threats and possible inflation of earth but ended with invasions and hostility from nations across the world. The Soviet Union and the United States and worked together to defeat their enemies in World War two, which ended with the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The atomic bombing had left the hundreds of thousands dead as well as a new fear of the United States power. Since the United States and the Soviet Union had worked together both now contained the atom bomb blue prints, creating hostility between the two great nations. Thus, the deadly “ arms race” had begun. No only was there fear of nuclear warfare but also fear of the development of

The collapse of the Soviet Union ended one era of American Security Concerns, but it gave rise to another more extensive era. This era would be marked by concern over the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction throughout former Soviet countries and other unstable nations. Every president from George H.W. Bush to Obama would mark this issue as a key threat to the nation’s security. The true question is what would each of these presidents do about the threat. Since World War II the United States has filled the role of the “global police” opposing injustices and neutralizing threats throughout the world, and the threat of devastatingly powerful weapons falling into unstable hands could be treated no differently. With this in mind

The United States and the Soviet Union, allies during the Second World War, became adversaries during the Cold War. The conflict between the communist and the capitalist ideologies was the main cause for starting the Cold War. The Soviet Union had a different idea on how they wanted to run their country. The Soviet Union want to run their country as a communist country, which a communist country is ruled by one dictator who is calling the shots and they put the needs of the country before the needs of personal human rights. The Western powers want to have worldwide run as a capitalist country. A capitalist country values their freedom before they value the country needs. The capitalist also fears a communist country.

The Soviet Union’s breakdown and the Cold 's War had a noteworthy effect on relations between Western entrepreneur states and the Third 's conditions World. Where examination of Western relations with Rwanda is concerned, the Cold 's death War had an earth shattering effect. This modest state was a center of critical Western enthusiasm in spite of the way that it was arranged in the focal point of the world 's slightest created landmass and was of no financial or vital centrality. Seen to be on the Right half of the Cold War ideological separation, autonomous Rwanda had delighted in unbalanced levels of help.

The Collapse of Soviet Union was inevitable in the Cold War which was probably the most serious change in the world politics after the two World Wars. An author named Fukuyama called the end of the Cold War as "The end of History". We can admit that the Collapse of Soviet Union was the "end" between two ideologies and super powers therefore, Communist eastern ideology had lost the war against the Western capitalist World. As a result, in 1991 the soviet union collapsed as a nation state. After a full retrospect of the war the results were because of years of economic stagnation, political corruption and the collapse of soviet communist regime which took place in the World.

The collapse of the Soviet Union had ended the communist hold on Eastern Europe and surrounding former communist states. The year 1990 had also marked the beginning of rapid economic and social transition from a communist state to a democratic market based economy. Milton Friedman coined the term shock policy, also referred to as economic liberalism, to describe the abrupt release of currency and price controls, the extraction of state subsidies, large scale privatization of former public owned assets, and immediate trade liberalization. Jeffrey Sachs further evolved Friedman’s notion to create his own coined concept, shock therapy. The first occurrence of the liberal economic concept of shock policy centred on the ideals of the University of Chicago, transpired in Chile in 1975, carried out by the military coup lead by Augusto Pinochet to initiate neoliberal pro-market reforms. Shock therapy, economic liberalism, grew in popularity in the 1970’s, becoming the common answer to battle economic crisis. This paper will examine the use of shock therapy in the transition of post- communist states, comparing and contrasting the benefits and consequences of initializing such a rapid reform. This paper will examine the state of Poland that has successfully transitioned through shock therapy to open market democracies and those who had failed to transition because of it, investigating the obstacles and drawbacks.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States has been viewed as the single hegemonic power, dominating the world economically, militarily and culturally. However, it is clear that power relations in the global system have been severely tested after the events of September 11, 2001. It was a crucial event, which significantly changed the trajectory of the global balance of power and has an immediate effect on the United States, its Western Allies and other regions around the world.. As a matter of national security strategy, the main priority of the U.S. becomes the demonstration of its global primacy to all challengers and overthrowing of the status quo of the powers in the hostile regions, while the terror emerges as a widespread power utilization method of the weak in asymmetrical power balance. Although, before the terrorist attacks the process of globalization has already challenged the notion of sovereignty, however, 9/11 attacks has become a game changer in terms of national security across the world. It also brought the need for the powerful states to cooperate more on intelligence, threat assessment and implementation of regulatory and management strategies. At the same time, the strong emphasis of the foreign policy of the United States on counter terrorism in the Islamic regions has challenged the status quo of some states in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. This paper represents an analysis of the impact of the sustained U.S.