Was The Cold War Inevitable Essay

Tear Down This Wall: This book source is a recount of the events of the Cold War, focused on the question of President Reagan’s role in eliminating the conflict between Russia and the United States. It was written by Romesh Ratnesar, the deputy managing editor of Time magazine, and published in 2009. Its purpose was to follow Reagan’s presidency and the events leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, emphasizing the ability of one person’s words to change the world. It is somewhat valuable due to its

Their motives were to keep the Western fascists out of East Berlin. This division caused a panic to boths sides of Berlin as it would if any other country split into two because of their political views: communism vs. capitalism. As said in “Document B”, the US, being capitalists, wanted to support their allies and stop any trace of communism and soon became involved in the Berlin division. West Berlin received help from the U.S. and succeeded in their fight against communism when the wall between the two societies was torn

alliance with Western Europe. Now West Germany could not get things like food and were under the threat of communism. The U.S. and Allies step in to airlift food, supplies, and sweets by cargo planes (Document 3). This follows the policies of containment because the United States is giving aid in the form of supplies and food to West Berlin who is under the threat of communism. This also demonstrates rivalry because instead of leaving to avoid conflict, the U.S. finds another way to enter West Berlin and aid those in need.

Cold War liberalism was an important way of thought and political belief that began at the end of WWII. This term was used to describe liberal politicians who believed in achieving civil rights and inclusion for all non-whites, but they did not want to take political risks to achieve this. Though Cold War Liberalism helped America in certain ways, it did not satisfy all the demands of inclusion. Cold War Liberalism specifically encountered problems with race, class, and gender. In terms of race, Cold War Liberalism only supported the Civil Rights Movement to a certain extent and it most certainly did not support the Black Panther Movement.

Ronald Reagan and the Berlin Wall After World War 2 Germany was split into four parts controlled by Britain, France, the Unites States, and the Soviet Union (Russia). During this time the United States and the Soviet Union went into the Cold War, where the U.S. tried eliminating Communism and the Soviet Union's supply of nuclear weapons. The capital of Germany, Berlin, was divided between the West which belonged to France, Britain, and the United States, and East which was controlled by the Communist Soviet Union. Many people didn't like Communism and wanted to escape. In response, the Soviet Union built the Berlin Wall to keep their citizens from escaping into the West.

It was soon decided that Germany were to be broken up into four zones, the Allied powers making up the Western portion while the East would be controlled by the Soviet Union. The Berlin Airlift, also known as the Berlin Blockade, was an operation orchestrated by the U.S. aiding those in Berlin with supplies needed to keep the city running. Berlin was completely surrounded by Soviet zones; Russia closed all highways, railroads, and canals that led west Germany to west Berlin. This move was put into place in order to make food and other such supplies entirely feasible to those who lived in Berlin. Their hopes were to eventually take capitalist influences (Britain, France, and the U.S.) out of the city in order for it to be overrun by communist control.

Reagan’s statement, “To be sure, we in the West must resist Soviet expansion” (American Rhetoric 4), by using “we” and “must”, creates a connection with the people of Berlin and makes the conflict with the Soviet Union appear to be a shared struggle between America with its allies and Berlin and creates an obligation for Berliners, and most of Eastern Europe when he acknowledges them by saying “To those listening throughout Eastern Europe, I extend my warmest greetings and the good will of the American people”(American Rhetoric 1), which is a crucial part of starting a strong resistance to Soviet expansion. By offering the support of America through saying “I pledge to you my country’s efforts to help overcome these burdens”(American Rhetoric 4), he further fosters a strong

After the Yalta Conference, Winston Churchill stated that, “this is certainly not the liberated Europe we fought to build up. Nor is it one which contains the essentials of permanent peace” (Document A). The US knew that the, “Soviet policy... [would] be directed toward weakening of power and influence and contacts of advanced Western nations” (Document B) and that something had to be done to stop the spread of communism. The US felt that communism could be a threat to the peace of the world and capitalism so they needed to show that they would take any measure to stop the spread of communism. This led to efforts such as the Berlin Airlfit where the US sent supplies to thousands of East Berliners who were suffering to drum up support for the US in a communist state.

As president Truman described in his Truman doctrine, “at the present moment in world history nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life” this in an extremely reliable viewpoint as it comes directly from the president. The president of the United States, as leader of a major superpower would have very strong and extensive knowledge of the global climate at this time as he would have had a whole team monitoring the situation and feeding him the findings and key information, meaning he would be very well informed. The Berlin blockade was the first of major international crises of the Cold War period. The Berlin blockade refers to the period of time, 24th June 1948 to 12th may 1949, in which the soviet leader, Joseph Stalin cut off all land and river transit routes between West Berlin and West

“Our position as the center of power in the free world places a heavy responsibility on the United States for leadership.” This symbolizes how the U.S. has become one of the leading nations and is responsible for resisting the expansion of the Soviet Union. The conflict between the Soviet Union and the

There are three competing theories of the causes of the Cold War; the traditional theory, the liberal theory, and the ideological theory. In all three theories lie causes that could have equally contributed to the conflict, but only one is more convincing than the others. The traditional theory says that communists were at fault for the conflict. Communists, specifically Stalin, wanted more control and thus used his political ideology as a means to achieve his desires. Expansionism is a commonly mentioned aspect related the idea of the traditional theory.

Daniella Gat GlobalA 1 U.S actions during the Cold War were not justified. It has probably happened many times in life when you take actions and someone gets mad or doesn 't agree. Then you must come up with any reason possible to make it justified, but sometimes not everything can be justified. For example, a person murdering a random person they have never met before and do not know, can’t be justified. The actions that the U.S took during the Cold War are similar to this, as they weren’t always justified.

In document A it states, “The Berlin Blockade of June 24th 1948 to May 11th 1949 was one of the first major international Cold War crises.” (Document A). The Soviets had a strong hold beginning the war showing their communist and authoritarian side to the West. Stalin, still leader of the Soviets, had an idea that would weaken and potentially give the Soviet control. As for Stalin's idea, “Stalin’s goal was to force the western powers to rely upon the Soviet section of Germany to supply Berlin with food and fuel, thereby giving the Soviets eventual control over the entire city.”

One of Stalin’s main goals for building the blockade was to drive democracy out of the city. But of course that didn’t go as planned. In fact Berlin possibly became even more democratic after the blockade. Soviet authorities finally realized that the allies were determined to stay in Berlin and that the blockade was useless and on May 12, 1949, the blockade was taken down. The airlift continued until September 30, 1949.

The Berlin Blockade The Soviets were dissatisfied with this arrangement because they had no interest