Essay Portion Option #2: After World War II ended, there was an immense tension all over the world; United States and the USSR emerged as the two principal potencies. A new era was coming, the beginning of the Cold War, a clash between the two most powerful countries in the world in almost every possible ambit, such as social, political, military, economical, among others. Also, the influence of these two countries with different systems; United States with capitalism and the USSR with communism, started to blossom over the smaller nations, in a race to prove who is the best. Consequently, these external relationships had to be regularized in a way that could maintain the bond strong and both sides could benefit from it, like the military-industrial …show more content…
In the context of the Cold War, the fight for power and the establishment of the strongest nation were reflected over several ambits, one of them being the capacity of armament or military power of the nation. Therefore, the military-industrial complex is not only exhibited on the foreign relationships among nations, but the growth of the military power itself. For instance, after World War II ended, the United States, as the strongest nation in military power due to the drop of the two nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended the war, decided to keep short the Soviet Union and stop the spreading of the communist ideas, not only in their own nation, but to keep it from spreading in Europe and Asia. And by doing so, the United States needed to create military alliances with smaller nations, offer them protection from external threats, and secure them with an increase in weaponry. So, the United States needed to expand their own military and weaponry industry, thus applying the concept of military-industry complex, where the government increased the investment for national defense and arms production. Therefore, during the Cold War, both nations started to expand their armies, experiment new military technology, and invest more and more over the foreign
After World War two had ended both the United States and the Soviet Union, also known as the USSR, had become reigning countries in the world. While both held great power it also caused chaos leading to extreme rivalry and the Cold War. Since this rivalry between these two nations was foreign is caused a great deal of effect on the United States foreign policy however it also deeply damaged the United States domestic policy through the fear of potential attacks of atomic bombs, the changes in the U.S defense budget, and the constant fear of the spread of communism within the nation. For example in Document number 5, an image shows a man building a bomb shelter near his home during 1951.
In the late 1940’s, the cold war began. The war was a long period of stiffness between democratic countries (Western World) and communist countries (Eastern Europe). The United States (U.S.) led the West and the Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.) led the East. The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. were known as the superpowers. Even though they did not officially declare war on one another; they fought each other in proxy wars, the arms race, and the space race.
Some researchers believe that this is particularly true for the industrialized countries with their powerful military machine. At one time, to refer to the integration of military and economic development in the conditions of modern warfare, President Eisenhower used the term military-industrial complex. Originally, the term originated in connection with attempts to ensure the systematic application of science and technology in military production. Later, however, Eisenhower began to perceive the development of the military-industrial ties as something rather disturbing, fearing that the power of the military-industrial complex has acquired such proportions that the most important decisions in the field of social and political life were out of the activities of politicians (Hunt, Colander, 2010). Many subsequent authors have argued that as a result of the Cold War (the period of hostile relations between the US and the USSR in 1950-60-ies, which led to the arms build-up by both parties) reached a particular span the United States and the Soviet Union's military-industrial complex.
In this book, Robert identified the impact of cold war to the United States and the Soviet Union. The book elucidates key events, trends, and themes, drawing in so doing from some of the most important recent scholarship on the Cold War. This book also provides a clear and stimulating interpretive overview of the Cold War that encouraged deeper
“How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” or as it’s known as “Dr. Strangelove” is considered one of the greatest American movies from the 1900s. It was published in 1964 and was categorized a comedy film. It was mainly about the Cold War fears of a nuclear conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. The story of the movie was about a crazy United States Air Force General, who wanted to start a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. This nuclear attack was not ordered by the president of the United States and his advisors.
The Cold War was a fight mainly between the United States and the USSR that would determine whether Communism or Capitalism would dominate the world’s governments’ following World War II. While Soviet Russia did not attempt to spread its ideological beliefs around the world as the U.S. did, it rather was trying to create a stable Communist bloc that was confined to the borders of Asia and Eastern Europe. At the same time, the United States anxiously feared Communism, because our political leaders saw it as a threat to Capitalisms’ open market and free trade policies. Furthermore, the US wrongly viewed independence movements as being motivated by Moscow as a part of Communist expansion conspiracy, so our foreign policy was altered in order
Before all, one must understand that although Stalin and Roosevelt were wartime allies, WWII was won “by a coalition whose principal members were already at war—ideologically and geopolitically if not militarily—with one another. ”(Gaddis 6). The United States and the Soviet Union had completely different ideologies: one was a capitalist nation while the other was a communist one. Although they were allied during the war against Germany, Stalin never trusted Roosevelt. The American president failed to realize that “in Stalin’s eyes, he was not all that different from Hitler, both of them being heads of powerful capitalist states whose long-term ambitions clashed with those of the Kremlin.
Reflection I chose this topic for my historical investigation as I believe the topic of the Cold War is still significant and relevant today. It still has relevance to today’s society because it has drastically shaped civilization. The Cold War can explain the current instability in many of the world’s hotspots and is the origin of major institutions such as NATO which are still influential. North Korea is proof that segregation between communism and capitalism is not over and shows that the tension still remains prominent even though the Cold War ended almost 3 decades ago.
Proxy wars, such as the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the War in Afghanistan, became an alternative way to gain more power in the global sphere. Militarism was another major part of the conflict, in which both the Soviet Union and the United States competed to develop advanced weapons especially nuclear weapons. For instance, one of the main incidents that enflamed the Cold War was the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the Soviet Union attempted to place nuclear missiles in Cuba. After that, the Soviet Union collapsed, and equilibrium took place. A synthesis of capitalism and communism produced a less extreme capitalist system in the United States with many social security programs, and social democratic systems in many European countries.
After World War II ended, the soviet union requested materials for postwar reconstruction, but The US ignored this since the program canceled, afterwards. Russia disliked The US's deciton because he really needed material support to help the economic reconstruction. The Cold War was a totally different war from the previous wars, a lot of disputes on the system of ideas and ideals, especially one that forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy (dictionary), which is basically ideologies, and even religious thoughts, all of this put into a war were two of the most powerful countries had moments of tension, on who was the one, making the first move to fight with firearms or bombs. In conclusion the Cold War was a political war where the United States and the Soviet Union had differences on their choice of government, the Soviet Union was a communist and gathered all its nations around him to help him on its economy and also to influence communism, then the United States was democratic and the US did not liked the idea of the Soviet Union trying to make all nations communists so the US declared the war to the Soviet
Arthur Schlesinger Jr, states that ‘the Cold War in its original form was a presumably mortal antagonism, in the wake of the Second World War, between two rigidly hostile blocs (1967, 22).’ The quote embodies the power struggle that was played out between America and the Soviets during the post war era. Historians and theorists have been drawing from ideologies and different international world orders to help gain an accurate understanding of the origins of the Cold War. In a bipolar world, as described by Waltz, neither major power seeks approval with one another; they just have to cope with one another, however within great-power politics who is threatening who can create feelings of uncertainty between them and then a Cold War is born (1988, 622). The orthodox argument makes the claim that the United States was responding to the threatening nature of the USSR, despite trying to integrate
The spread of communist ideals was the main cause of The Cold War; the political and economical differences between the Soviet Union and the United States of America created high tension between such countries. As a capitalist country, United States wanted to promote democracy and free markets, while communist USSR wanted to make sure that the communist ideals spread all over the world. After World War II ended, the Soviets created a sphere of influence in which they established communist governments in several other countries. This angered and worried a lot the United States so they created the Containment policy and formed NATO to try to stop the spread of Communism. In return, the USSR formed the Warsaw Pact to formalize military relations
The United States and the Soviet union had wished for a friendship between their two countries. However, due to having incompatible economic and political systems, they had many problems building toward each other over events that happened in the past. This resentment and tension increased to become the “ Cold War”. Three events that happened during the Cold War were: the Korean War, the Berlin Airlift and the Cuban Missile Crisis.
‘’Truman was to blame for the outbreak of the cold war. How far do you agree with this statement?’’ The Cold War was a period of great tension between the United States of America and the Soviet Union, which were the two ‘superpowers’ that resulted from World War II. Although many believe that the ‘ideology clash’ between these two countries was the cause of the outbreak of the Cold War, many factors were involved.
Decades had passed, the two nations and their allies still continued to protect their nations and interests. Spying, espionage, and distrust became a trend during the Cold War. Spies were everywhere, torture, turn coating. Tension in the hearts of the people never