This is an image that was taken as the captives from the East Bloc flowed into West Germany and reunited with their many friends and family members that they had not seen since the wall was constructed. The Berlin Wall was built starting on August 13, 1961, but an even more monumental event was when it was torn down on November 9, 1989. Throughout the entirety of the Cold War, residents of East Berlin, were trapped” in a sense they were kept as an entire country of political prisoners.
The Cold War influenced major advancements in science and medicine, stopped the spread of communism into the West, and united america for a single cause. The Cold War was fought verbally with threats from the United States and the Soviet Union alike. It brought on the Nuclear arms race and the Space Race,
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This brought on the invention of the nuclear bomb. Today it is the most feared weapon. The United States also began the race to the moon. While the Soviets officially won the space race in 1957, the united states out the first man on the moon - Neil Armstrong - which was a huge moral booster for the entirety of America.
As the Vietnam war is part of the Cold War, the Cold War is more important because so many different advances were made during it. The Vietnam war was a waste of time for America. It cost us 58,000 American lives, and many resources that could have been used elsewhere. When the Americans became involved in the war, it was obvious that we were at a disadvantage in guerilla fighting, but we still decided to fight anyways.
Vietnam had been a unified country. Should America not have involved, Vietnam should have been unified in the general election in 1956. Hence, American involvement in Vietnam could be considered highly politically motivated. Vietnam was just a “proxy” in the Cold War between the U.S. and Soviet
US goes to war, they show we are serious about stopping the spread of communism but if US doesn’t go to war the communism in Vietnam could spread just like Hitler did in WWII. The war wasn’t all about communism though, Vietnam was rich in resources and US wanted to keep South Vietnam’s way of life without communism. America may of killed civilians but think of how many civilians would of been killed if North Vietnam rampaged through South Vietnam. An overlook over the situation I believe America should of fought the war but planned it out better like choosing a better leader to rule South Vietnam. America was just waiting to lose a war and against a third world country America lost the war because of poor decisions.
The Vietnam war has been referred to by many names, one of the longer ones was 'the cornerstone of the free world southeast Asia'. It was called that by John F. Kennedy. He was talking about Vietnam being and essential country in a non-communist world. He believed that if Vietnam became a communist country, all of the surrounding countries would also become communists. This is the main reason America was involved in the Vietnam war. Another reason was that America wanted to spread their “political ideas around the globe”. They wanted to do this so that their anti-communism stance was clear. The public also wanted to keep communism from spreading. To soldiers, the war was like a crusade, a great journey to purge the communists from Vietnam.
America had a few reasons to be involved in the Vietnam War. The big reason was to fight communist power. Countries like North Korea, North Vietnam, Indochina, and parts of Asia were trying spread their communist aggression (Document 2a). In Document 2b, you can see that America wall out the communist aggression, but it just kept coming. The United States was involved in the Vietnam war because we had
The Vietnam War was, and continues to be, one of America's darkest moments, one that nearly tore the nation apart. In order to stop the spread of communism in Europe and Asia, the United States aided French imperialists and their reoccupation of Vietnam. At first, the U.S took a position of neutrality to both countries, but by early 1947, they began fighting in support of France. This war, lasting over 20 years, became the longest and most unpopular war in the 20th century. Overall, the Vietnam War was detrimental to the United States because it caused a massive debt from the 1960s to the 1990s, turned the American people against their government, and many troops were neglected and despised upon their return.
The war in Vietnam was a very contestable event for America and an overall major impact of the cold war. Fear of the spread of communism was on the rise again as Ho Chi Minh, the leader of North Vietnam wanted to unite the country under one communist leadership. The United States entered into the war to prevent this spread of communism to further their reputation of containing it as they have done in the past. While there are positives to the war in Vietnam, it seems as if there are more negatives in the situation which include massive casualties on both sides, chemical warfare, and a divided nation back home.
During the Vietnam War, United States involvement was for personal reasons and fear of communism. Neither the United States or the Soviet Union should have been involved. The War was just used as a cover up for the actual silent, passive aggressive war between the United States and the Soviet. The Vietnam war was started by the North “Viet Cong” and their desire to unify Vietnam under communist rule. The South was against communism, making tensions grow until eventually, a war broke out on November 1, 1955. Five years later in the 1960s, the war was escalated with the involvement of foreign countries. While the North was supported by its communist allies such as China and the Soviet Union. The South was supported by the United States of America. The Americans wanted to halt or prolong the spread of communism. The “domino theory” compelled the U.S. to get involved as soon as possible because if not, the rest of Asia would fall to communism like “dominoes”. The U.S. involvement only started with Eisenhower administration when Vietnam split in half. This action of the United States was only for their own well being and their main goal was not for the good of Vietnam. During this time period the Vietnamese had just united and established the state of Vietnam. The war ended up lasting 9 years with long periods of bitter guerrilla warfare in the rugged jungles of Vietnam which would eventually result in the victory of the North and longed unification of Vietnam
The Vietnam War was the first major war American’s had suffered defeat. The Vietnam war was a war of confusion, competition and biasness. The outcome of the war was far greater than an upset American nation, but a severe breakdown of the Vietnamese culture, economy, environment and government. It also had a tremendous impact on American society even up to present day. It was unclear from the beginning of the war if the American’s should even be involved. It was a war between Northern and Southern Vietnam but the U.S saw it as an indirect way to challenge the USSR’s sphere of influence in Southern Asia and to prevent the domino effect and the further spread of communism. The Vietnam War completely changed the way the United States
The Vietnam War was a conflict, which the United States involved itself in unnecessarily and ultimately lost. The basis of the conflict was simple enough: Communism vs. Capitalism, yet the conduct of the Vietnam War was complex and strategic, and brought repercussions which had never been seen before. The struggle between North and South had an almost inevitable outcome, yet the Americans entered the War optimistic that they could aid the falling South and sustain democracy. The American intentions for entering the Vietnam conflict were good, yet when the conflict went horribly wrong, and the resilient North Vietnamese forces, or Viet Cong' as they were known, refused to yield, the United States saw they were fighting a losing battle.
The first thing that one must do when discussing Vietnam is remember the historical context in which the conflict took place. The United States and it's Free World allies were attempting to confine the Communist Bloc, which by this time included both the Soviet Union and China, and keep it from expanding into surrounding nations. The U.S. felt that if the Communists were not allowed to expand, they would eventually collapse under the weight of their centralized economy. So in order to accomplish the policy of containment, the U.S. need to ally itself with nations bordering Communist ones. However, one of the most important aspects of political alliances is the trust each must have in the
Vietnam was so significant to the United States partly as it would be the first war they would lose. It also had a tremendous financial impact on the country and the casualties were also more in the public eye than ever before due to the media. They learnt that: "a long war for limited objectives, with its steady stream of body bags, will not be supported by the American people" (Martino, 1996, p37). Some suggest that the US should have avoided any involvement in the war.
The American involvement in the Vietnam War was a very controversial decision, with many people being for the war, however many people in the United States were also against the war. The Vietnam War was the longest lasting war in the United States history, before the Afghanistan War, in which most people felt strongly about, be them United States citizens, Vietnamese citizens, or just the global population. In order to better understand the ideas of those American citizens that are either for or against the war, one would have to look at the reasons that the United States was involved in the war, the impact of the Vietnam war on the American society, and the impact on the United States foreign policy.
Although there is disagreement on the precise date that the Space Race began, the moment that it became an important competition that was in the forefront of the minds of everyday Americans is on April 12, 1961 when Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbited the earth in Vostok 1. (citation). This event created a feeling amongst the American public that the Russians were further ahead in science and technology than the United States, as well as the fear that the Soviets could use their superior technology to be better able to attack the USA from a distance. Shortly after Gagarin’s flight, the United States launched astronaut Alan Sheppard into
The Space Race was two global powers, the United States and Soviet Union, going against each other to see who had the better technology. America technically won the Space Race by landing the first man to the moon and returning him safely. A lot of people thought that landing on the moon was the greatest moment of all time, but some think otherwise. Since America went to the moon there was a lot of thing that we gained. Technology nowadays, a single smartphone can probably power up a whole lunar module.
The Cold War was one of the most influential wars of time. It affected areas all over the world. One of the places where its impact was the strongest was in the United States. The Cold War affected America in many ways. Their culture overall took a turn. Movies, music, education, fashion, etc. all changed over the course of the Cold War.
To begin with, the Space Race began all because of the Soviet Union and they kept pushing on to create and carry out with their objectives, meanwhile the United States was doing nothing. In an article, “United States-Soviet Cooperation during the Cold War” nasa.gov. Erika Vick, May 28, 2008. Web. , it says, “History changed on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I.” In the late 1950’s they launched Sputnik I, which created the Space Race and it continued into the 1960’s, where the Soviet Union and the United States tried beating each other. If the Soviet Union started it, they should earn a little credit for giving the space science a tremendous advancement. For example, in an article by Global Security website, it says, “When communists were pressing for joint action in 1963, what it had meant was Soviet commitment to the policy of