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.
The Truman Doctrine’s Influence on the Cold War Harry Truman was the 33rd President of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. The U.S. and Russia were allies during World War II. They had undividedly diverse government systems, the authority- craving Stalin (Russia’s leader) and the anti- isolationist Truman, which caused hostility between Russian and the United States. The disparity in patriotic concepts revealed by Stalin and the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill would instigate the route to the Cold War. The tactics exercised by the U.S. and Great Britain were created to impede the Soviet Union’s endeavor to explicate pushover communist governments over subverted nations, with this approach Truman exposed his doctrine which pursued a responsibility in determining U.S. relevance’s.
Mao was seen as an instrument of the Soviet Union’s bid to spread worldwide revolution. However, by 1958 relationships between the USSR and China began to deteriorate. One of the most dangerous points of tension during the whole of the cold war was the Taiwan Strait Crisis which occurred in both 1954-55 and 1958 between the USSR and China. The first Taiwan Strait Crisis ended when the Guomindang abandoned the Taschen Islands to the communists but held onto Quemoy and Matsu and at the same time the CCP took a more moderate line and negotiations was started. However, tension came to the
The responsibility of the origins of the Cold War often triggers questions among historians yet both powers should be blamed for taking part in it and how the fear from unpaid reparations from Russia, Stalin’s fear of the nuclear weapon and Stalin’s fear of the Truman Doctrine. Through most analyses, the fault was often given to Stalin’s ambitions to expand communism in Europe, a conventional idea of the Orthodox school. Other historians revised this idea therefore blame the United States’ actions for the origins of the Cold War, which were analyses of the Revisionists. Though Later, the Post-Revisionist school was adopted; its goal was not to blame any side but focused on examining “what” caused the start of it. Even though, both sides have claimed responsibility for their actions, Stalin’s intentions should be seen as defense actions from the West therefore, the United States is mostly responsible for the start of the Cold War.
During the 1950’s and 1960’s the Soviet Unions satellite states established the Brezhnev doctrine. The Brezhnev Doctrine was established because of the Soviet Union’s ability to maintain such governmental control over Eastern Europe. An intervention of such domestic affairs with military power provided the Soviet Union a unique Political power. Surprisingly by the 1970’s the Soviet Union and the United States of Americas formed a treaty agreement to reduce the nuclear missiles both possessed. Nuclear missiles were the reasons such turmoil was established between the Soviet Union and other nations.
Prior to the war, the tension between the United States and the Soviet Union was extremely volatile despite having been allies in World War II. The Cold War, if thought about too closely, was actually in a comical sense in that it was the United States and the Soviet Union fighting each other without ever actually fighting each other. Instead, each nation used other “client” nations to fight for their beliefs on their “behalf”. In the Korean War this was very evident. The Soviet Union, a communistic nation, supplied the weapons to the North while anti-communist United States supplied the
Although considered allies in WWI, USA and USSR turned against each other by the end of the ‘War to end all wars.’ Tensions increased between the two massive countries as both went through an arms race, created the Atomic bombs, and competed against each other through many other political issues. This time, between 1945 – 1949 is considered the Cold War, where Russia and USA indirectly fought. The WWI alliance between the Soviet Union and the United States was only temporary. After the end of the war USA started the tensions by aiding the whites (The Tsarists) providing military assistance. The whites attempted to overthrow the new communist government and USA was helping them.
The iron curtain was a dividing line between Eastern Europe and Western Europe. Eastern Europe fell under control of the Soviet Union and took on a communist system. Document 2 states, “I believe it must be the policy of the United States to support free people who are resisting subjugation [domination] by armed minorities or by outside pressure. Should we fail..the effect will be far reaching to the West.” President Truman delivered a speech to Congress proposing $400 million to
To what extent was the Soviet Union responsible for the division of Germany from 1945 to 1949? Post-war Germany found itself in the middle of international tensions after its division – between the Allied powers of Britain, France and the USA and the Soviet Union under Stalin. However, the German nation that hoped for a new beginning could not do so due to the distribution of her land between the victors of the Second World War, and historians have since debated over who was to blame for this occurring. It is clear that the Cold War climate that started to arise played a large part on the policies that both the Allied Powers and the USSR made, with both eventually pushing the divisions deeper into Germany’s culture, economy and politics. This idea is strengthened by the fact that the USSR brought in visions such as Cominform and Comencon, while the United States introduced ideas like the Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine.
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.