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
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’. Hobsbawn has the clear idea that power rivalry played a key role and
Until the Czech coup, the emphasis in Washington had been on economic containment of Communism, primarily through the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan and a heavy reliance on atomic power as a shield to support it. Truman did not intervene with the coup as they saw it as internal affairs and the west may have of resented it because they could not of done too much with containment. Another reason why the USA may not have of been involved was to avoid war with Russia. Truman responded to the crisis
The Cold War was a result of the failed alliance between the US and Soviet Union. For forty years, the two nations were at odds. Each tried to become better than the other, spread their political systems, and achieve world domination. During this time period, the rivals were always on the verge of a war. The Cold War was fought with thinly veiled threats and began due to the iron curtain.
Collective security had a better response towards aggression rather than appeasement. This is because a lot more European countries didn’t approve of the decision made during the Munich Conference. Winston Churchill was one person who strong didn’t approve with this decision. He was a British politician who thought, “keeping peace depends on holding back the aggressor” (Document 6). Churchill believed that in order to guarantee the security of Czechoslovakia, Europe should have held Germany back and Britain and France should have worked together as an alliance.
Détente was a permanent relaxation in international affairs during the Cold War rather than just a temporary relaxation. It is evident to say that little substantive evidence to support this view or argue that it was simply a means to an end for the Soviet Union to establish greater influence. However, the Soviet Union was aggressively expansionist and that such an approach was consistent with any form of Détente. Detente was cause by needs of the USSR – 'peaceful coexistence'. In order to improve economic conditions, provide access to western technology and supplies and recognition from the West for the sphere of influence.
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.
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
In the Afghan-Soviet war, the Soviets sent in troops, and the Americans only sent in supplies to aid the Afghans. While the Cuban Missile Crisis was one of the most dangerous events in the cold war, there wasn’t any fighting. The only thing that happened was that the Soviets tried to land nuclear missiles in Cuba, and as Cuba is 90 miles away from America, the Americans threatened nuclear war if the Soviets landed in Cuba. Consequently, there was no actual fighting in any of these wars between America and the Soviet Union. Had there been any direct military conflict between the Soviets and the Americans, the Cold War would not have been cold.
This period ends with the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan in 1979, considered the worst mistake that Moscow made a foreign policy during the entire Soviet period. During the fourth was an acceleration of the arms race, this period is known as the Cold War. This process was stopped due to Gorbachev's original vision, who wanted a fundamental reassessment of Russian foreign policy and negotiate a new relationship with America. In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev became president of the USSR, with decisive consequences of the Cold War. Concentrate on internal reform Gorbachev realized that the Soviet Union could no longer cope burdening arms race.