This is an interview project with the goal of discovering how people understand the Cold War. In this essay, I will analyze how people understand the Cold War today. I will explain to what extent their definition or understanding of the Cold War differs from the definition provided. I will explain why the respondents’ understanding of the Cold War is different from the way the Cold War is defined in this course or explain why the respondents’ definition is similar to the way the Cold War is defined in this course. This course defines the Cold War as the geopolitical tensions, and proxy wars fought between the United States and the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union and the United States repeatedly annoyed each other through political scheming, military alliances, spying, publicity, arms accumulation, financial aid, and proxy wars between other nations, but did not fight directly during the Cold War (John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, n.d.). The Cold War is a title that was given to the communication that established for the most part between the United States and the Soviet Union after World War II (Trueman, 2013). The Cold War began in 1945 and ended in 1991 (History Rocket, 2012). The Cold War began because the communist nations did not permit fundamental human freedom, so the United States had hostility against the communists (History Rocket, 2012). The increase in weapons of mass destruction had many worried. The Cold War defined American political view and molded foreign policy (Naranjo, 2014).
Mary Wheatly a registered nurse born in 1968 was the first person interviewed. The first words that come to mind when Mary think of the term Cold War is “the United States and Russia having a disagreem...
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...finition provided in the Overview section of this unit’s reading. I have explained why the respondents’ understanding of the Cold War is different form the way the Cold War is defined in this course.
Works Cited
History Rocket. (2012). Why was the Cold War important? Retrieved February 10, 2014, from http://www.historyrocket.com/World-War/cold-war/Why-Was-The-Cold-War-Important.html
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. (n.d.). The Cold War. Retrieved February 10, 2014, from http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/The-Cold-War.aspx
Naranjo, R. (2014). Historical analysis of the Cold War. Retrieved February 10, 2014, from http://ehistory.osu.edu/world/articles/ArticleView.cfm?AID=66
Trueman, C. (2013). What was the Cold War? Retrieved February 10, 2014, from http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/what%20was%20the%20cold%20war.htm
Within this controversial topic, two authors provide their sides of the story to whom is to blame and/or responsible for the “Cold War.” Authors Arnold A. Offner and John Lewis Gaddis duck it out in this controversial situation as each individual lead the readers to believe a certain aspect by divulging certain persuading information. However, although both sides have given historical data as substance for their claim, it is nothing more than a single sided personal perception of that particular piece of information; thus, leaving much room for interpretations by the reader/s. Finding the ...
Isaacs J (2008). ‘Cold War: For Forty-five Years the World Held its Breath’. Published by Abacus, 2008.
The political ideologies of the USA and of the Soviet Union were of profound significance in the development of the Cold War. Problems between the two power nations arose when America refused to accept the Soviet Union in the international community. The relationship between the USA and the Soviet Union was filled with mutual distrust and hostility. Many historians believe the cold war was “inevitable” between a democratic, capitalist nation and a communist Union. Winston Churchill called the cold war “The balance of terror” (1). Cold war anxieties began to build up with America and the Soviet Union advancing in the arms race for world dominance and supremacy. America feared the spread of Communism
Odd Arne Westad, Director of the Cold War Studies Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science, explains how the Cold War “shaped the world we live in today — its politics, economics, and military affairs“ (Westad, The Global Cold War, 1). Furthermore, Westad continues, “ the globalization of the Cold War during the last century created foundations” for most of the historic conflicts we see today. The Cold War, asserts Westad, centers on how the Third World policies of the two twentieth-century superpowers — the United States and the Soviet Union — escalates to antipathy and conflict that in the end helped oust one world power while challenging the other. This supplies a universal understanding on the Cold War (Westad, The Global Cold War, 1).
Gaddis, John Lewis. “We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History.” Taking Sides: Clashing Views On Controversial Issues in United States History. Ed. Larry Madaras and James M. SoRelle. 14th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 302-308.
The ‘Cold War’ is one of the most interesting ‘wars’ fought in world history. The sheer number of countries both directly and indirectly involved is enough to pose the question – To what extent was the Cold War a truly Global War? This essay will examine this idea. It will identify two main areas of argument, focusing on the earlier part of the conflict (1945-1963). Firstly it will examine the growing US and Soviet influence in the world post 1945. Secondly it will examine three main conflicts, the Berlin Blockade, the Korean War and the Cuban Missile Crisis that these two super powers were involved in. Overall this essay will argue that the Cold War was no doubt a truly global war.
Hanes, Sharon M., and Richard C. Hanes. "Cold War."Enotes.com. 2009. Web. 22 Nov. 2009. .
With this book, a major element of American history was analyzed. The Cold War is rampant with American foreign policy and influential in shaping the modern world. Strategies of Containment outlines American policy from the end of World War II until present day. Gaddis outlines the policies of presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, including policies influenced by others such as George Kennan, John Dulles, and Henry Kissinger. The author, John Lewis Gaddis has written many books on the Cold War and is an avid researcher in the field. Some of his other works include: The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1941-1947, The Long Peace: Inquiries into the History of the Cold War, We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History, The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past, Surprise, Security, and the American Experience, and The Cold War: A New History. Dr. Gaddis received his PhD from the University of Texas in 1968; he currently is on a leave of absence, but he is a professor at Yale . At the University, his focus is Cold War history. Gaddis is one of the few men who have actually done a complete biography of George Kennan, and Gaddis even won a Pulitzer Prize in 2012.
Kallen, Stuart A. Primary Sources: The Cold War. San Diego, CA: Lucent, 2003. Print. American War Library.
The beginning of the Cold War poses some controversy among historians, because tensions between the US and Russia date back into the 19th century. Most...
Lafeber, W. (2002), America, Russia, and the Cold War, 1945-2000. 9th edn. New-York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Tomkinson, John L. (2008) The Cold War: Themes in Twentieth Century World History for the International Baccalaureate. 3rd edition. Athens: Anagnosis.
Gregory, Ross. Cold War America: 1946 to 1990. New York, NY: Facts on File, 2003.
There have been many attempts to explain the origins of the Cold War that developed between the capitalist West and the communist East after the Second World War. Indeed, there is great disagreement in explaining the source for the Cold War; some explanations draw on events pre-1945; some draw only on issues of ideology; others look to economics; security concerns dominate some arguments; personalities are seen as the root cause for some historians. So wide is the range of the historiography of the origins of the Cold War that is has been said "the Cold War has also spawned a war among historians, a controversy over how the Cold War got started, whether or not it was inevitable, and (above all) who bears the main responsibility for starting it" (Hammond 4). There are three main schools of thought in the historiography: the traditional view, known alternatively as the orthodox or liberal view, which finds fault lying mostly with the Russians and deems security concerns to be the root cause of the Cold War; the revisionist view, which argues that it is, in fact, the United States and the West to blame for the Cold War and not the Russians, and cites economic open-door interests for spawning the Cold War; finally, the post-revisionist view which finds fault with both sides in the conflict and points to issues raised both by the traditionalists as well as the revisionists for combining to cause the Cold War. While strong arguments are made by historians writing from the traditionalist school, as well as those writing from the revisionist school, I claim that the viewpoint of the post-revisionists is the most accurate in describing the origins of the Cold War.
...E. The Cold War: The United States and the Soviet Union, 1917-1991. New York: Oxford UP, 1998. Print.