position on communism. I was a believer that the Cold War was a stalemate between the two superpowers Russia and the U.S. in nuclear arms. The book is well written and help fills some gap in my American history. The book explains how the conflict between U.S. and Russia affected other nations. The strength of the book is how it goes in details about communism showing how it influenced America’s decision in the past, present, and the future.
Ronald E. Powaski, Cold War: The United States and the Soviet Union, 1917-1991, goes in depth with origins of the Cold war and the relations between American-Soviet rivalry. Powaski challenges the reader to think of the war in new ways and provides an innovative perspective on the conflicts of the two countries. He shows that both America and Soviet were expansionist nations with developments that influenced history. He also emphasis on the new development that have added on to the countries rivalry relationship and highlights what ties them together in conflict. Powaski argues that “That the Cold War was inevitable.
Stalin wanted to protect the USSR from future conflicts with Germany, as this was a big issue that wasn’t properly addressed in 1919 at the Paris Peace Conference, and definitely was not dealt with in the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty merely wounded Germany and left
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
The World War II affected the Soviet Union. There were many influential factors, which were formed from the World War II’s aftermath. World War II took place near the Pacific Ocean within Asia and mostly Eastern Europe. After World War II, many communists’ governments were established because of World War II, but the Soviet Union was against communists’ governments. The Soviet Union was initiated the satellite states as a response to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which were against the communism.
The United States and the Soviet Union fought together as allies during World War II against the Axis powers, specifically Nazi Germany. However, the relationship between the two nations was problematic and full of tension; the United States felt uneasy and wary of Soviet communism, and incredibly concerned with Joseph Stalin, a Russian leader, who conveyed tyrannical traits. On the other hand, Soviets were angered and impatient with the United States for the lack of recognition and realization for the acknowledgment of the USSR. Therefore once Nazi Germany was defeated, the alliance was no more. The following fifty years of constant conflict without direct armed confrontation between these two nations became known as the Cold War.
The Cold War was fought with thinly veiled threats and began due to the iron curtain. The Cold War began for numerous reasons. One being the iron curtain. In Document 1it states,“All these famous cities and the populations...are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and increasing measure of control from Moscow”. The iron curtain was a dividing line between Eastern Europe and Western Europe.
NSC-68 largely shaped U.S. foreign policy in the Cold War and involved a decision to make containment against Communist expansion the highest priority. It pledged the US not only to contain communism, but to take a further step to drive back Communist influence wherever it appeared. The Cold War dated from 1947 to 1991 and it was a struggle of tension between the Western Bloc and Eastern Bloc which Soviet Union was trying to control. The Cold War was an idealistic struggle for control. We have conflicting values protecting our country and the rise of communism.
After WW2 tensions between the United State and the Soviet Union tightened resulting in what is known as the Cold War. Although the seeds of this rivalry were planted nearly a quarter of a century before its actual commencement with the Revolution of 1918 in Russia, the tension was also driven through occasions such as the Yalta Conference and resulted in proxy wars throughout the world and a Second Red scare in America. This period was full of tension and fear that the United States and the USSR would destroy each other and the world with their arsenals of atomic weapons. During the Yalta conference the US, Russia, Britain and France agreed on the splitting of central Europe. This Split ultimately divided Europe into two spheres of influence.
command. The Soviet Union had placed a land and water blockade in the city in the hope that the Allies would be forced to abandon West Berlin and its inhabitants. The US government decided to include Western Germany in its plans for a new non-communist Western Europe. News of the new currency for the west of Germany alarmed Stalin (head of the Soviet Union). Stalin was worried by the idea of a successful anti-communist government in the west of Germany.