America's Rivalry: The Rise Of The Cold War

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The Cold War was a time after World War II when the USA and the Soviet Union became rivals seeking world influence. Right after the fall of Germany under the power of Hitler, the Soviet Union was attempting to control Eastern Europe while most of the west was determined to keep that from happening. This rivalry grew to form two major Factors, NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization versus the Warsaw Pact. NATO was made up of the United States, England, France, and West Germany while the Warsaw Pact was made up of pro-Soviet countries,such as the USSR, and all the countries controlled by the USSR. In a lot of ways, the Cold War was just a battle between capitalism and communism. By the 1950s, the worlds power was comprised of two superpowers, …show more content…

The US won this namely by actively stopping Soviet military initiatives whenever they came up. The States realized that the USSR ever increasing military strength would be a problem so they worked on renewing efforts with the US new missiles, command structures and control systems (Powers, p2). Additionally they took it a step further by seeking threatening military technology such as the Strategic Defence Initiative or ‘Star Wars' (Tirman, para2). These efforts ensured the credibility and strength of the US threat to use nuclear weapons in the event of war. Additionally, the extreme expansion of US military spending also nearly bankrupted Moscow, Increased spending on strategic forces along with a willingness to challenge Soviet allies around the globe in Afghanistan, Central America and Africa together increased political and financial pressure on the Soviet Union who was already was facing growing defense expenses (Powers, …show more content…

For example during the Cold War, the U.S. national security system got over many challenges from the Soviet Union this is why they were able to triumph. This was very important to America's future security. Another important lesson the US learned from the Cold War was the significance of leadership. For many decision makers today what was learned from the Cold War have encouraged them to allow more attention to peace making and maintaining efforts such being more involved in the United Nations. The US has also realized importance of investing greatly in military technology so that U.S. military actions, when when they have to can be done precisely with little need to mobilize the American society to any extreme extent.
The US is still an isolationist nation. We Have committed so much to personal freedom that has shown through our democracy and free market which can’t even begin to be matched by any other nation. However the US strives to make other nations follow the same path. This along with with little care of the role of nationalism with some countries makes it hard for American foreign policy to be very helpful in the Middle

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