Castro was forced to look to the USSR for help. America sent 1,300 Cuban exiles to overthrow him. And the USSR had promised Castro to defend Cuba by sending nuclear weapons. However the USA discover it. The Cuban Missile Crisis had begun at October 1962.
The Soviets packed ships that appear “normal” with nuclear missiles to Cuba where they would be in closer range to America. Nikita Khrushchev, the dictator of the Soviet Union in the mid 1950s, wanted to have missiles aimed to the US as the US had in Turkey towards Russia. “The neat symmetry – we Russians will do in Cuba what you Americans are doing in Turkey – made the idea especially appealing” (P. 8). Khrushchev became more upset because of the hypocritical standards of the United States since we had bases in Turkey and we would not allow bases in the Western hemisphere. He felt the Monroe Doctrine only benefited America and thought the Doctrine should work both ways or not at all.
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.
Revisionism is one of the three main approaches to the Cold War and its origins and significance of events. It originated in mid-sixties, while USA was involved in the Vietnam War. The revisionist approach puts blame for the cold War on the USA and its policies towards USSR. It also proposes the view that it was President Truman’s actions that caused the conflict. Revisionism contradicts the proposals of the traditionalism and its blame of the Soviet Union.
For this reason, many Americans thought it appropriate to enact the Monroe Doctrine, which stated efforts by European nations to colonize land or interfere with states in North or South America would be viewed as acts of aggression requiring U.S. intervention. To ensure the US didn’t take control over Cuba, the Teller Amendment was passed which promised that America wouldn’t invade Cuba, which put the Cubans at ease.However the real reasons why the US declared war were in fact to allow America to gain power and protect itself financially. The US in fact had more selfish thoughts, and worried more over the affect Cuban interdependence would have financially on America and its trade, as $50 million were invested in Cuba and 86% of all Cuban exports were sent to the US, and Cuban independence may have
They planned to assassinate Castro, but they failed. Castro grew very alarmed and believed that the U.S. was about to invade Cuba. He asked Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev for help. The Soviet Union sent nuclear missiles to Cuba, weapons that could strike the United States. “The building of missile sites triggered the Cuban Missile Crises in October of 1962.” (Harper pg.
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.
How far do you agree with the view that the origins of the cold war in 1945 and 1946 owed much to ideological differences and little to personalities and conflicting national interests? Source 7 shows an ‘ideological crusade’ suggesting the west looked upon the USSR as expanding communism. Despite the agreement at Yalta, allowing Stalin a sphere of influence, the west’s view ‘changed’ to seeing them ‘dominating Eastern Europe’. There are many differences which caused tensions in the cold war however it cannot be denied that personalities of the leaders running these countries were a contributing reason for the uncertainty between them. The personalities influenced the cold war, despite not being as significant as the other factors.
To go to war in Vietnam was a risk the US felt it had to take in order to contain Communism, thus securing its economic prosperity and worldwide dominance. Though US casualties were large and its psychological effects profound, the Vietnam War was an absolute necessity in order to maintain the greater interests of America for generations to come. Hoffman et al. Major Problems in American History Volume 2: Since 1865. Houghton Mifflin Company,
A fear that the Soviets might become technologically superior is seen in Document E. Americans feared that the Soviets would dominate modern warfare, putting the United States in the weaker position. A prime example of the technological race was the Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1957. Although Sputnik was not a war vessel, Americans believed that the Soviets now could, and would, wage warfare on them from orbit. Thus the United States desperately began to try to establish a spaceship of there own. When their first attempts failed, Congress passed the National Defense and Education Act, to "assist in greater efforts in specific areas of national concern."