The Vietnam War: The Cold War

The Cold War was a competition. The US and the Soviet Union raced to become the world’s number one superpower, building up their militaries, improving their arsenals, and developing more advanced weapons. However, weapons in the war were not limited to only nuclear warheads. The weapons used in the Cold War were nuclear warheads, and hope and terror caused by propaganda.

At the close of World War Two in 1945, the United States entered another kind of war, the Cold War, which did not involve two adversaries in open battle fields using bullets against the Soviet Union. Throughout the Cold War, incidents fueled feelings of anxiety, mistrust and pride.

Throughout history, humans have tried to perfect government. Many wars have been started by world powers trying to force their faulty government upon others. In the modern world, the Fascist government of Nazi Germany oppressed minorities in the name of advancement. The Soviet Union imprisoned millions in their immoral gulags, but justified it in the name fighting crime. Even looking as far back as Ancient Greece, we saw these conflicts. Some of the greatest victories can be attributed to a superior government. And yet, some of the worst acts of immorality have been done in the name of superior government.

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.

War. War is a tricky thing to understand. Throughout history, wars have come and gone, lives lost, battles won, and a story has been written, but a story always has to be written doesn’t it? How it is written though, is left to the people. The Cold War, which began in 1945, was a time in which the growing tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, caused the citizens of both countries to live in fear for over 50 years (until the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 26, 1991) . The countries battled for power and world influence for decades, from the race to the moon, to politics, to who had more nuclear weapons, but nothing seemed agreeable.

The Cold War got its name because there was no actual-armed conflict between the Soviets and the Americans. There was no "hot" war. During this period of history, the United States and the Soviet Union's armed forces never met on the battlefield. The two countries were constantly responding to each other's actions though. This included spying, a military arms competition, industrial and technological developments, and even a race to the moon. Both countries spent vast amounts of money on defense, nuclear arms, and support of third-party wars.

The Vietnam War started November 1, 1955 and ended April 30, 1975. This war began due to the United States wanting containment to stop the inevitable spread of communism. The Vietnam War arose because of what had unraveled throughout the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Vietnam was fought by North Vietnamese government and the Viet Cong. North Vietnam essentially wanted the country to be under communist rule but South Vietnam wanted the country to be allied closely with the West. North Vietnam wanted to replicate the Soviet Union and China.

The Cold War was a prolonged period of political and military tension between countries on the side of democracy and those on the side of communism, the major players being the United States belonging to the former and the Soviet Union belonging to the latter (Westad). While the Cold War was known as such because there were no direct wars between the two major powers, there was large scale fighting in Vietnam. The Vietnam War (1954-75) is thought of as a historical consequence of the Cold War and hence a proxy war between the socialist and capitalist blocs, although many historians provide a second perspective, which is that the war was simply a nationalist struggle for national independence and reunification. While the latter argument

The cold war was a very important time in our history. The mean two sides of this war are the United States and the Soviet Union, the cold was named as “Cold” because both of them were a fried of making war and fighting directly, as it mention in the text in chapter 27, “the United states had been primarily to blame for Cold war that Soviet Union had displayed…” (page760). Also, cold war determined much of the politics which are currently at the forefront of our consciousness and had many effects whose effect are still heard today. In addition, other reason of this was named cold and stared it because people starting wanting to have more land and many countries wanted to be more powerful than all other ones these are a couple of reasons why

Within the period of the Cold War ( DATE OF COLD WAR) a significant event was the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War started on 1st of November, 1955 and ended on the 30th of April, 1975. The war of Vietnam was a destructive experience which lasted for 20 years. The significance of this historical event was that is made a colossal global impact. The importance of the Vietnam War was defined by the hope of uniting the country under the government's rule of the communists.

Throughout history, war has been the most common resort for nations to solve problems or show off their strength. However it wasn’t until recently where mankind had just live and experience a war that not only did it have the potential destroy nations, but also had the potential to destroy the whole world and humanity itself. This was known as the Cold War where after WWII, citizens of the world witnessed the potential of the atomic bomb and feared the possibility of nuclear fallout or total annihilation of the Earth. The only two superpowers remaining at the time were the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic. These two nation competed against each other in a nuclear arms race. They fought to spread the ideals of either a free democratic, capitalistic society or a controlled socialist, communist society. After a 45 year struggle from 1945-1991, the Cold War came to an end due to the fall of the Soviet Union. It was inevitable due to the fact during the last few years of the war, the USSR face internal domestic problems such as their financial/economic situation, failed political reforms, and revolution throughout the Union itself. The causes to the collapse of the Union not only affected them but affected the world to present day.

History experiences many triumphs in the form of conflicts but in most circumstances are dominated by tragedy. This is exemplified by the Soviet – Afghan war 1979-89 which saw mass destruction of both sides and left the military ruined to no avail, destruction of life and disruption through politics. Tragedy can be observed in both the war itself the outcome and the issues that stem from the conflict.

Over the 20th century contention over capitalism and communism took a strong hold on foreign affairs. From the American experience in the Cold War, lessons regarding ideology and the inclination to dominate as a world power may be formed. Future American foreign relations between Russia and North Korea can be inferred when considering American actions throughout The Cold War and The Vietnam War, such as the Truman Doctrine and the U.S. aid to South Vietnamese soldiers.

The Cold War, basically a gigantic nuclear arms race, was built on suspicion and tension between the two major power brokers after World War II: The United States and the USSR. Speculation of what perpetuated it has many veins; however, three major ideologies contributed. Fear of communism become an international reality as the main governing polity, making an enemy out of the USSR. Second is the Russian response to invasion across their borders in the past wars, and thus fear drove them to it. The USA and the USSR have different political cultures and interests which intensified fear of dangerous conflict and confrontations a reality. As one can see, these ideologies have a very real threat in common, worse than any arms race… fear.

It is impossible to accurately describe the major events that occurred during the cold war without mentioning the war in Vietnam. From its start, this war has been very controversial concerning its purposes and effects on the countries involved. Both sides of this war lost a great number of soldiers and most of these men and women were not even sure why they were fighting. To this day, there is still a lot of uncertainty about the events that took place during this heated time in south Asia. One of the biggest questions raised is why the United States felt it was their responsibility to ever got involved and what were they trying to gain by sending in their troops. A look at the history of the cold war and