Now the missile gap closed, Khrushchev applied similar pressure on the West. The first move of the USSR on the international stage, came in November 1956 during the Suez Crisis. The Kremlin under Khrushchev’s suggestion, begun nuclear rattling against aggressors of the conflict in defence of Egypt. Khrushchev believed it was the threats from the Soviet which resulted in the end of the war. The reality was the American pressure, on London and Paris that ended the war.
The Soviet decision to put up the Berlin Wall after the Second World War, was a compromise for both the East and the West of Berlin, with the impact on East Berliners one of cruelty and horror. The Cold War began with the tension between the two great superpowers, the Unites States and the Soviet Union. This tension was feared by many to cause another world war that was seen as lethal, due to the nuclear weapons newly created by the USA. The harsh and destructive realities of the wall lead to people’s desire to escape, bringing global attention to the cruelty that occurred. Despite this, it was a srelief o the United States, as the pain of one wall was minimal to that of a third world war.
The division of Germany after the war---The Soviets blockaded West Berlin, which was deep within Communist East Germany. The Soviets thought the blockade would allow them to take over all of Berlin. The US replied with the Berlin Airlift, to supply West Berlin. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed in 1949 by the US, Canada, and nine European nations, the first peacetime military alliance in US History. The NATO nations agreed that an attack on one would be an attack on all.
Fear of the other country laying influence of their ideology, as a means to gain power, tensions rose. These tensions were fueled by the truman doctrine, which requested 400 million from congress to help combat communism in greece and turkey. The purpose of the Truman doctrine was to provide American economic and military assistance to any nation threatened by communism. The US feared the encroaching soviet strength, which perpetually launched them into an arms race with the U.S.S.R. The Soviets broke the US nuclear monopoly, and that struck fear into all americans, there is now someone just as dangerous as you are.
For instance, when Mother Russia overthrew its tsar, made a revolution, became the Soviet Union, unified itself under Lenin and created an ideological structure called communism, the United States could only react with fear and trepidation. The government could not accept the simple fact that a country could exist with economic and political principles so critically opposed to democracy and industrial capitalism. The first factor is that during World War Two, the USA and the western powers had worked together with the Soviet Union to defeat Nazi Germany and its allies. However, the alliance was based solely on the fact that they had a common enemy- Germany. Once that enemy was near defeat, disagreements began to emerge.
It was a conflict of ‘the west’ which included the USA and their allies (NATO) the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, opposed with ‘the east’ which was comprised of the USSR and its allies with whom it signed the warsaw pact together in 19551. The tension created by growing competing political ambition, with the added conflict created by a nuclear arms race, left the balance of the world post second world war in danger once again. Who or what started the cold war are still very much contested today. However, there are three main arguments which I believe cover all angles of how the cold war started and was perpetuated. Firstly, is the orthodox approach, which primarily blames the USSR for starting the cold war.
The USSR wanted to control all the surrounding countries but many were resisting the domination. Those countries were protected by the US. The US created NATO which was a treaty that brought together the North Atlantic against the USSR. In response to the creation of NATO the USSR created the Warsaw Pact with its satellite countries. The USSR tested its first nuclear bomb and the US became worried about this so they began making more bombs and the countries started to one up each other.
Zinoviev’s Letter Munich agreement September 1938 Appeasement policy Conclusion v Regardless of the war, a Cold War scenario was inevitable due to Political, economic and ideological differences. v WW II only intensified a previously existing problem Word Count: 1974 Karan Agarwal 12 E The era post World War two saw great dominance by the USA and the USSR as they possessed greater economic and military might than any other countries in the world at the time. Britain, France and Germany, the pre-war powers lay in ruins at the end of 1945, therefore allowing their dominance and power to shift to the USA and USSR. Bernard Baruch coined the term ‘Cold War’ during a congressional debate in 1947 stating that the situation was just
From the down fall of World War II, a major mid-life crisis; you could call it, began with an eye opening development of a relationship between the Soviet Union and America. It was compressed as American citizens were in fear of communist attack and the fear of Russia’s fear of America’s atomic bomb. This began the Cold War. It then trailed off to many different minor military tension and uncertainty, leading to the Berlin Blockade, Berlin Wall, The Iron Curtain, Bay of Pigs and one of the most famous, ‘The Cuban Missile Crisis’. The following paragraphs summarizes up an essay relating and analyzing the events that took place between 1945 and 1962 period and how it affected the world’s views on Europe and the publics view.
This was also the motivation behind Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill’s cooperation during the Yalta conference of February 1945, as the war against Germany, although in its final stages, was still raging. This changed at the Potsdam conference of July, by which time Germany had already surrendered; the common enemy was no longer a binding force, the old allies were left to fall apart. This disintegration continued from 1945 until its climax at the Berlin Blockade of 1948. The orthodox reason for the change from allies to enemies, incessantly campaigned in IGCSE textbooks, is that, as the Wehrmacht retreated between the Yalta conference in February and the Potsdam conference in July 1945, the Red Army remained mobilised. Stalin, apparently defying decisions made at Yalta, did not liberate the countries in Eastern Europe, but instead occupied them with his troops, much to the vexation of the Western allies.