In contrast the war took a toll on the Soviet Union, their lands were in ruin but they still had a formidable military (Davidson, 2005). The two super powers were rivals and enemies. America feared the Soviet Union would spread communism throughout Europe
Korea, China, and Vietnam all encountered conflict with Americans during the Cold War. The Cold War was a period of East-West competition, tension, and conflict short of full-scale war. It had many causes and was influenced by many events, including both the Yalta Conference and the spread of McCarthyism. Tensions between Democracy and Communism were so bad that in East Asia the U.S did not even recognize the People's Republic of China until Nixon became president. Because of the nuclear technology of the time, the Cold War could have drastically changed the face of the
Historians such as Hobsbawn argue this, and believe that the traditional great power rivalry was fundamental to the start of the Cold War. Many different historians argue different points as to why the war began, McMahon argues that the difference between the Capitalist West and the Communist East was the fundamental reason for the beginning of the Cold War, the difference in ideology has been rife for many years leading up to the Cold War. Oppositely, Gaddis believes that the personality of the leaders, in particular Stalin had a main role and where he is concerned, all other leaders could have been removed, leaving only Stalin and the Cold War still would of started. I believe that the difference in Ideologies played a key, dominant role in the development of the Cold War, however I do appreciate that power rivalry and also leader personalities had a role. Firstly, Hobsbawn immediately dismisses the fact that ideology played a role in the development of the Cold War, he says ‘Confrontation would probably have developed even without ideology.’ Hobsbawn then goes onto say that after Kennan came up with his policy of Containment, the USA saw themselves as the only ‘rival power to Russia’ and that they would have to ‘contain its pressure by uncompromising resistance, even If Russia had not been communist’.
Along with fears of the past came the difference of politics as the Soviet Union, also known as the USSR was a communist country and the United States was a capitalist society. These two nations became very dominant over each other and chose to start a nuclear arms race that would make both countries continue to fight in a form of competition. Unlike other countries, America made a decision to remain allies with the Soviet Union. This decision is one that haunted them for the next 46 years. David Halberstam, in “The Fifties” speaks strongly about the drastic changes that our society dealt with as a result of these hard times, and the ways in which the average individual worked with struggles in society.
After World War two, the world split into two distinct camps. Propaganda was use to justify or condemn about such as the United States and the Soviet Union became engaged in proxy wars against one another. As a result, propagandists ought to portray an enemy nation as harboring all the qualities that were adverse to their own conception of liberty and progress. The differences between American capitalist democracy and Soviet socialist totalitarianism came from their systems. The American government went out of its way to portray communists as scarier and more not the same as what Americans were.
Assess the reasons for the overthrow of Soviet Power in Eastern Europe. The Cold War (1945-91) was mainly between some of the most influential countries, USSR, USA and western European countries. Soviet power had dominated Eastern Europe for the majority of the Cold War, however, around the early 1980s this power began to falter. There were many reason for the overthrow of the Soviet power, some of which were, the economic decline in the USSR, the power of the people, the introduction of Gorbachev and Western prosperity. So which of these reasons was the most important?
In history, there is a disagreement between the historians that when the Cold War started. Some historians dated that it origins after the World War II others said against it that it began at the end of the World War, when tensions between the USSR, USA and European countries had already shown distrust between the western power and the Soviet Union due the result of 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. It is generally considered as the time period between 1945 and 1990 (McCauley, 2004). It was a diplomatic struggle and arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union, NATO and the Warsaw Pact (McCauley, 2004). The United States embarked on a famine relief program in the Soviet Union in the early 1920s and American businessmen established commercial
The Cold War is discussed widely around the world and as huge impact on the fight between Republicans and Democrats about communism and anticommunism. When describing the events that occur with anticommunism and McCarthyism. When it comes to discussing anticommunism they think about people who are against a government that ruled by an authority party group. Anticommunism think that what communism wants are false and damaging to the governments. Senator McCarty believed that communism had influenced Americans in a negative way when
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.
The deterioration of relations within the Grand Alliance led to the undeclared conflict known as the Cold War. From the Soviet perspective, the United