StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Analysis of The Cold War - Literature review Example

Cite this document
Summary
This review discusses the Cold War between the United State America and the Soviet Union after World War II. Many major events took place during this time, the most important of which was the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Berlin Wall being some of the major events…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER98.1% of users find it useful
Analysis of The Cold War
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Analysis of The Cold War"

? Cold War The Cold War The Cold War developed between USA and the Soviet Union after the World War II. Many major events took place during this time, the most important of which were the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Berlin Wall being some of the major events. However, the most worrying issue was that of the nuclear weapons available to both countries which if used would have caused equal destruction to both countries. After the World War II it was seen that the United States and Russia underwent a competition in the field of economics, race and politics to gain superiority in the world. The Cold War for Soviet Union was to take control of the communist nations under their policy whereas the United States had the aim of removal of communism from the world. The relationship of the Soviet Union and America was never to the par as the communist nation was an ally of the Germans before it attacked them. Communism was prevalent in the Soviet Union since its birth under the leadership of Lenin (McMahon 2003). This was followed by the rule of Joseph Stalin who further enforced communism over the states that fell under the jurisdiction of the Union. It was then that anti communist policies started to escalate in the United States creating hate amongst the masses. Yalta Conference which took place in February 1945 was start of rough relations between the two superpowers of the world. The American President at that time was Truman who was strictly against the communists and this led to the worsening of bilateral relations between the two countries. The invention of atom bomb and the use of it in the World War II created fears for the Russian government which further led to the Cold War (McMahon 2003). After the victory in World War II events followed which led to the Cold War among the superpowers. The Iron Curtain Speech was delivered by Winston Churchill on March 5 1946. He urged the United States for a coalition against the union because of their policies against the democracy of the world. In 1946 it was found that Soviet spies were in America looking for information regarding the atomic bomb. Moreover an agreement was violated by the Soviet Union when they did not withdraw their troops from Iran because of its resources of oil. Instead a region of Iran was annexed by the Soviet Union which later came to be known as the Soviet Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan (Gaddis p. 30, 165-168). In the latter part of the 1950s it was seen that the Russian President got even more furious at the actions of the United States. After the World War II it was seen that several of the nations faced the problem of famine. It was here that the United States launched a plan known as the Marshall Plan to provide the famine struck places with food and other supplies. The foreign ministry of the Soviet Union replied to the Marshall plan in a negative manner stating it as an act sought to infiltrate the European countries. This aggravated the situation between the two countries leading to other problems. Another issue arose between the two states in 1948 when Stalin stopped supplies to reach the Soviet controlled area of Berlin. This led to the problem of starvation in the city and the Allied forces launched a campaign known as the Berlin Airlift which helped in supplied materials in the region. The blockade however stopped in 1949 due to the negotiations which took place between the two states. A proxy war was fought by the Soviet Union against US armed North Koreans. The Soviet Union and Republic of China helped the South Korean communists to fight against their counterparts so that they could weaken the stance of the United States (McMahon 2003 p. 30-35). After Stalin’s death the Soviet Union was ruled by Nikita Khrushchev who openly gave arguments against the Allied forces. The United States started to build upon their containment strategy which was implemented in order to contain the power that the communist forces had in the region. Nuclear Weapons were targeted by both the nations in the 1950s and presidents from both states threatened of using them against each other. In 1955 the communist nations signed a pact known as the Warsaw pact through which the assigned nations had to fight any external force that may try to harm them (Hobsbawm 1994; McMahon 2003). In 1959 a young leader known as Fidel Castro launched a movement against the Cuban government to take control. Diplomatic relations between Cuba and the Soviet Union developed and Castro signed a deal with them that they would buy oil from the soviet. The U.S. oil companies were taken possession of as they refused to provide oil to the country. The relations between the United States and Cuba became worse. In 1961 the people who had migrated from Cuba to U.S. because of their resentment of the policies of Fidel Castro hatched a conspiracy against his government in 1961. This was known as the invasion of the Bay of Pigs. This invasion was not successful and the forces of Castro won against the enemies. In the following year the U.S. imposed complete ban on trade with Cuba. Cuba and Soviet Union turned out to be allies and once again the Soviet Union was fighting a proxy war against the United States through Cuba (McMahon 2003). The issue of Berlin was a key issue in the cold war and it was further aggravated in 1961 when the United States did not respond to the proposal of withdrawing soldiers from Western Germany. It was because of this that the Soviet Union built a wall famously known as the Berlin wall in 1961 to stop the immigration of people from East Germany to the West (McMahon 2003; Gaddis 1997). Another major problem of the Cold war occurred in 1961 when the issue of Cuban missile crisis came on the frontlines. Ever since the independence of Cuba the Kennedy government was planning to kill Fidel Castro. Another attempt on his life was foiled by the Russian spies which gave a way to the Soviet Union to deploy its nuclear weapons for Cuba. The United States responded in a positive manner by giving an ultimatum to the Soviet Union which was accepted on the condition that Cuba would never be invaded again (McMahon 1997) One of the last major events of the cold war was the intervention of the Soviet Union in the Afghanistan war. This led to the worsening of the state in the USSR itself and thus its downfall in 1991. The major clash between the two superpowers mainly USA and the Soviet Union was due to the conflicting ideologies of USA and the Soviet Union, although both the countries were allies in World War I but because of the two major events that is the Berlin Blockade and the Cuban Missile Crisis caused conflict of ideas between the two countries and both the countries then started working for the benefit and welfare of their own particular state. References Hobsbawm, E. J. (1994). Age of extremes: The short twentieth century, 1914-1991. London: Michael Joseph. McMahon, R. J. (2003). The Cold War: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Gaddis, J. L. (1997). We now know: Rethinking Cold War history. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Cold War History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/history/1448356-how-far-do-you-agree-with-the-view-that-the
(Cold War History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words)
https://studentshare.org/history/1448356-how-far-do-you-agree-with-the-view-that-the.
“Cold War History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/history/1448356-how-far-do-you-agree-with-the-view-that-the.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Analysis of The Cold War

Lessons Learned of the Vietnam War

Started during the climax of cold war (Arora 2002) between the then two strategic Super Powers i.... The present paper aims to explore the lessons the USA has learnt from its invasion on Vietnam during mid 1950s to 1970s, as well as discovering the neglected aspects of the mistakes the US leadership should have learnt from history before making an invasion plan on some other weaker and smaller countries… The paper will also elucidate the causes and consequences of the Vietnam war in order to specify the extent of the responsibility each of the warring-parties shares in order to take the circumstances to the point of no return in such a manner that the war had eventually become inevitable in the region The Vietnam war serves as one of the most dominant and influential international conflicts appeared after the Second Great war (Mahajan, 2003) on the horizons of the world, encompassing the Far East in its fold, and leaving an indelible impact of its horrible consequences in the entire region as well as on the rest of the world at large....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

'Stalin blundered into the Cold War.' Discuss

hellip; The sheer volume of historiography covering the origins and course of the cold war offers multiple and often opposing angles through which this dilemma can be viewed.... Indeed, there are facets of the cold war debate over which many of the contemporary scholars are in agreement, particularly with reference to Stalin's paranoid personality.... Taking into account and critiquing the work of prominent Cold War historians, this essay will serve to evaluate the origins of the cold war with particular reference to Stalin....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

The End of Cold War

Criticism is said to have risen in regard to the neo-realism theory which was not in a position to predict the end of the cold war.... Many different ideologies have come up in a bid to contemplate why the cold war ended unpredicted.... Many different ideologies have come up in a bid to contemplate why the cold war ended unpredicted.... From the third world across the countries of Eastern Europe and in reference to the once divided German to the American Midwest the cold war made its presence felt after it inserted itself into the economies of the two protagonists, and shaped political choices of people, as well as, determined the outcomes of the elections....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

The Main Participants of the Cold War

The paper "cold war" tells us about Soviet Union and United States.... nbsp;They played havoc with conflicts in different regions of the world as in case of Hot war, there would be much danger due to use of nuclear weapons.... hellip; Over the years the leaders of both side of countries changed but this war continued for a long period of time.... A major problem for the historians analyzing the impact of military expenditure on the usual working of the economy of a country just after the war is the fact ignored by the liberal economic theory....
10 Pages (2500 words) Essay

Lessons of the Cold War

This essay “Lessons of the cold war” seeks to evaluate provisions of cold war of a vivid platform of a framework that helped the America on its modern international relations.... The end of the cold war spurred uncertainty and unrest among different nations and industries.... The use of words as the weapon of the cold war aimed at making each side look foolish.... The end of the cold war spurred uncertainty and unrest among different nations and industries; however, it allowed people an opportunity to build their futures form the disenfranchised people (Carafano, Cox, and Rosenzweig 153)....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Nuclear Arms Race during the Cold War

hellip; Nuclear weapons form an integral part of the history of the cold war.... This work called 'Nuclear Arms Race during the cold war" demonstrates a tension brewing between two states and sparked a nuclear arms race.... It is quite unavoidable to talk about nuclear weapons in a discussion about the cold war.... the cold war was a period of suspicion and rivalry after the Second World War.... the cold war did not make it into the 21st century....
10 Pages (2500 words) Research Paper

Marketing Communication Strategies and Marketing Mix for Cola Drinks

o study the cola-war, the best sources are the Newspapers and advertisements visible in all types of media.... he Cola war is indeed a copybook depiction of one of the most interesting and stiff competitive environment in the soft drinks industry.... The competition or Cola-war dates back to the early 20th century....
12 Pages (3000 words) Case Study

How Likely Is a Future Hegemonic War Between the U.S. and China

With a deeply indebted stagnating US economy, the Chinese aggressive expansionist intents in East Asia and beyond with a view of taking the influence challenge to the very doorsteps of the united states is a real possibility with a consequential effect of hegemonic war between the two (Mearsheimer 382); at least from an ambitious scholarly perspective.... Bluntly put a possible attempt (war) to replace a US-led global order with a China global hegemonic power is a red taped, costly and anarchic exercise whose materialization is just but infeasible....
12 Pages (3000 words) Research Paper
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us