Jordin Dickerson To what extent did ideology serve as the primary catalyst to the Cold War? During WWII, tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union were definitely strained. They had to join together because they had one common enemy, Nazi Germany; but after that, they began to turn on each other. The Soviets seeing the United States as a capitalist nation that turns its back on its allies where as the United States sees the Soviets as “Communist Russians” that are spreading the awful idea of communism. That one, simple word caused perhaps one of the biggest controversies and rivalries in history.
Tyler James Emery Period 3/4 Block Due: May 31 Foreign Policies During the Cold War: Rough Draft As the aftermath of World War II began to unravel, the Soviet Union and the United States were the most dominant nations, with opposing viewpoints in many aspects, especially government. Due to their opposing viewpoints and natural desire for power, they began to compete by attempting to convert the newly unoccupied region's governments to either Democracy (U.S.), or Communism (Soviet Union). The Cold War, which began after World War II in 1945, was caused due to the constant power struggle as well as poor relations between the two nations, creating idealogical and economical conflicts. During the Cold War era, the United States had begun
They feared of a future German invasion. Also, they wanted control over the Baltic states (countries bordering Russia) because in both world wars Germany invaded Russia through those states because they were weak. They wanted their people in the governments of those countries so they could be relied upon. But U.S. and Britain wanted those countries to be independent, but really they did not want communism to expand. And the U.S. and Germany could not agree upon what to do with Germany, so it ended up being divided: West Germany to U.S. and Great Britain and West Germany to the Soviets.
The Red Scare was the second, and it focus on the national communists influence about the government. After the World War II the Red Scare, also known as, was the outbreak of threats that came from the communism. This is also a following about foreign policies because of the war that was going on. Threats came from many foreign countries and scared many American. The Cold War lead too many of today’s most spoke of history.
The West felt threatened by Communism too because it caused Russia to pull out of the war, thus losing them a good ally. It made them angry as it disadvantaged them significantly, and was a sudden event that
Russia opposed the others’ capitalism. The installment of the Soviet puppet government, Lublin Poles, brought about tension among the big three. The Truman administration’s anti-Soviet attitude deepened the tension, and Truman unofficially told Stalin about the atomic bomb in Potsdam Conference. Also, George Kennan, the US Ambassador in Moscow in 1946, warned his mother nation of USSR’s
Although however, this strained their relationship between the USSR from having conflicting national interests, this economic concept could be said to have been a huge tension between the USSR and America, as it excluded Russia, alienating them by spreading their capitalist ideologies and all the while ignoring their need for help in rebuilding themselves. Truman based his entire strategy of containment on George Kennan’s analysis of communism. Kennan implied the entire problem is the ideology, and the leaders who believe in it. The American hostility to communism therefore played a huge role in the shaping of the Cold War and showing the divide between the superpowers and highlighting the personalities and conflicting interests between
The rise of McCarthyism, a period in which Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy accused many Americans of being communists, directly reflected these fears. In any other emotional atmosphere, McCarthy's accusations would be dismissed as ridiculous, as they were supported by little or no hard evidence. In the hysterical times, however, the "witch hunt" continued for several years. The success of McCarthyism echoed the hysteria that Communists had infiltrated the American government, and communists were a danger to America's superior way of life. The fear of communists was compounded by the arms race, in which the United States and the Soviet Union competed with each other to become the more technologically advanced nation and to process the
Isabella Esposito Doctor Young H6SX 4/16/12 The Atomic Bomb: A True Necessity In 1945, President Truman decided to use the atomic bomb against Japan in an attempt to end World War II. It brought an almost immediate end to the war and hypothetically saved thousands of lives. Without the atomic bombs, the Japanese leaders might have dragged the war out, refusing to surrender. Moreover, the bombings could be seen as falling in line with the concept of “total war.” The decision by the United States to drop atomic bombs on Japan was justifiable based on three factors: the desire to save American and Japanese lives, to end World War II quickly, and to demonstrate the power of the US military. Harry Truman,
American strategy remained torn between simply containing Communism or rolling it back by actively supporting the Soviet Union’s opponents. For historians of the Cold War, the great debate has been between traditionalists who tend to see the United States as the defensive power in the Cold War (and the Soviet Union as the aggressor) and revisionist historians who tend to see the United States and the Soviet Union as equally aggressive and equally at fault. Revisionists (those critical of American foreign policy) are usually accused of forgetting the ‘lessons of Munich’. It is argued that World War Two arose partly because too many historians thought Germany was unjustly treated after World War One by the Treaty of