The Soviet Union During The Cold War

The USSR had a crashing economy right after WWII and wanted to spread communism where everybody was equal in money. Communism is an economic system that involves making everybody equal money wise. With Communism the Soviets thought it was a form of protection for them. “The Soviets, on the other hand, were determined to maintain control of eastern Europe in order to safeguard against any possible renewed threat from Germany, and they were intent on spreading communism worldwide, largely for ideological

The Cold War, a period of sustained political and military tension between the USA and the USSR, resulted in various viewpoints concerning the cause of the tension emerging. Until today the question remains unresolved, even after the 1991 release of Soviet archives. The main point of disagreement relates to the roles that ideology played in the events between 1945 and 1949. Was it the strongly opposing ideologies, capitalism and communism, or power and material interest that drove both superpowers to the decades of struggle for global supremacy.

Consisting of 44 years of violence and civil unrest from 1947 to 1991, the Cold War was a huge turning-point in history. The Cold War however was a war of avoidance, not combat. Defence systems were heavily funded as deterrence to actual war, the belief being a risk of mutual annihilation would be too great to be the side to make the first move. However, the Cold War caused a large variety of conflict and civil unrest around the world, such as the Korean War, Vietnam War and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The War split the world into supporting either the United States, or the USSR (Soviet Union). Both superpowers were associated with two very different political systems; Capitalism and Communism. The Soviets were very concerned about the spread

The Cold War was marked by a seemingly ever continuous rivalry between WWII allies in a geopolitical and ideological war, each nation focused on their own agenda in a clash of political and economic structure and views for the future of the world. For much of the second half of the 20th century the Cold War became a dominant influence on many aspects of American society. Cultural battles ensued between the superpowers had as much if not more

The Cold War was an international power struggle between the capitalist United States and its allies and the communist Soviet Union and its allies.

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).

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.

“We promised the Europeans freedom. It would be worse than dishonorable not to see they have it.” General George S. Patton believed this and was right to a certain degree. America didn’t declare war on the Soviets but they did play a major role in the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Americans didn’t fire a shot on Russian soil but they pressured them into doing acts that the Russian economy wasn’t capable of doing. Although the Soviet Union was a super power after World War 2, their power was cut short because of the involvement in the space race and arms race.

During World War II women in the Soviet Union played a major role in helping the

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.

For decades, the United States and Russia, formerly The Soviet Union, have held tensions with each other over different political stances and military actions and intelligence. Starting from the late years of World War II - when the Soviet Union had aggressively spread communism throughout Eastern Europe - up to a couple years ago when Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine out of nowhere; their relationship has been a rollercoaster of a ride for these two countries. Even though the United States and Russia are no longer in a Cold War, there has been and continues to be tension between the two countries as exemplified by many events of conflict including the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Russian military’s current presence in Syria.

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.

The differences in ideology of the United States of America (USA) and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) were undeniably a contributing factor to the onset of the Cold War, as each nation seeked to spread their influence and consequently divided the world. World War Two had kept the two nations at peace through mutual resentment of the Nazis, but their “incongruous friendship” (as Thomas A. Bailey described it) ceased to exist when World War Two ended, which is why 1945 is often considered the start of the Cold War. What kept the conflict from being declared a war of military conflict between the two nations themselves, rather than the series of proxy wars that were fought during the Cold War time period, was a combination of factors.