Cold War Dbq

The Cold War was a high-tension conflict between two extremely powerful nations, leading to a great deal of fear and insecurity. The conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union was not a typical one. A conflict with direct fighting would be considered a hot war/shooting war, where soldiers engage in combat, but since there was no direct fighting, it is known as a cold war (“Beginnings” par. 3). Bernard Baruch, a presidential advisor, had come up with the term “cold war” in a speech he gave in April 1947. Baruch said, “Let us not be deceived- today we are in the midst of a cold war” (Fogarty par. 1). The Cold War was disagreement between the U.S. and the Soviet Union over economic and political differences. It was a clashing between

two ideological systems: the United States’ democratic capitalist nation, and the Soviet Union’s communist nation. The Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as the Soviet Union, was born from the Russian Revolution of 1917, which was based on the needs of the people to take control of the economy and government. After the revolution, communism soon began to rise, and the U.S. saw this as a serious threat to its ability to continue in its capitalist and democratic ways (“Beginnings” par. 1, 2). The relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union grew worse and worse throughout the next few years.
After President Franklin D. Roosevelt died in 1945, Harry Truman took over the presidency of the United States. At this time, America was the only nation to possess the atomic bomb. President Truman was a determined opponent of communism, and stressed the right of nations in Eastern Europe to make their own decisions. He thought that all nations in Eastern Europe had the right to choose their own form of government. Truman wanted a powerful and restored Europe. Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, opposed Truman’s thoughts (Fogarty par. 8, 9). At the Yalta conference that occurred in February 1945, Stalin had plans for Eastern Europe’s future. Stalin promised to allow self-determination in Europe. He would allow select nations like Poland and Hungary to vote on what kind of government they wanted. A second conference was held in Potsdam in July 1945. At this conference, The United States, Soviet Union, and Great Britain had agreed on dividing Germany into separate occupational zones. Due to this, tensions rose even higher between the U.S. and the Soviets, however, because the two nations had different views about how postwar Germany should be managed (“Beginnings” par. 3, 4, 5). Stalin insisted that Eastern Europe would come under Soviet leadership, and between 1945-1947, he installed pro-Soviet communist commanders in countries that were dependent on the Soviets. The installation of the leaderships rattled America and other Western governments that opposed communism (Fogarty par. 8-10). The President strongly opposed the Soviet Union’s theories and tactics, and did all that he could to prevent the Soviets from carrying out any actions that would affect the United States or other nations in Eastern Europe.
At the end of World War II in Europe, Germany and the German city of Berlin were divided up into four occupational zones. The United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and France occupied these areas. In 1948, Stalin chose to establish a separate communist state in the eastern Soviet zone due to hostility between the Soviet Union and the West (Fogarty par. 11). This separation was a blockade against West Berlin, the zone the United States, Great Britain, and France occupied. The blockade brought the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of conflict. In order to provide aid to the eastern side of Berlin, the United States responded with the Berlin Airlift. The airlift resupplied the city for the length of the blockade (“NATO” par. 2). In 1949, Stalin removed the blockade, however, Germany still remained divided into two discrete nations. The city of Berlin also remained separated (“Cold” par. 4). While Stalin’s Soviet Union tried to aggressively take matters into their own hands, Truman’s United States tried to restore peace in Berlin by supplying and aiding the city.
The relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union continued to worsen in 1948 when the two nations fought over Soviet control of the Dardanelles Strait in Turkey. The Dardanelles Strait was important to the Soviet Union because it offered access to the Mediterranean Sea from the Black Sea. The Soviets needed this access in order to gain a warm water port for connections to other European nations. The two opposing nations also fought over Soviet influence in Turkey. When a civil war in Greece broke out, it caused the United States leaders to embrace a more orderly plan to stop the spread of communism in Europe. In March 1947, President Truman gave a speech pledging financial support to monarchists fighting communism. This action clarified The President’s overall approach to the Cold War. The Truman Doctrine, which was the financial support, attempted to rally the American people to give resources necessary to support freedom against communist aggression. The doctrine was the presidents public commitment to the policy of containment-which would stop the spread of communism (Fogarty par. 13, 14). The United States continued to aid Eastern Europe while the Soviet Union persistently tried to seize nations.
The next U.S. initiative in this was the Marshall Plan. The U.S. Congress was worried that communism would spread to the weaker nations in Europe, so they took action and decided to help Europe. The Marshall Plan, proposed by Secretary of State George C. Marshall was the plan for $13 billion in economic aid to rebuild Western Europe. Marshall announced the plan in a commencement speech given at Harvard University on June 5, 1947. The Soviets saw aid as a challenge by the United States in stopping the spread of communism in Western Europe. The Soviet Union also saw the Marshall Plan as a demonstration to the world of both the generosity and superiority of the capitalist system (Fogarty par. 15). The beginning of the Cold War left many U.S. citizens in panic and fear because of the actions the Soviet Union was taking, causing the United States and Soviet Union to fall on the brink of another major conflict.
The creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was designed to give support to the United States and U.S. allies to counter any threatening Soviet attacks. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO for short, is a military security alliance. NATO, created by the twelve Western powers: the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Belgium, France, Denmark, Luxembourg, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and Iceland, is an association originally designed to dishearten the expansion of Eastern Europe by the Soviet Union (Chambers par. 1). The treaty was signed by the twelve nations on April 4th, 1949 in Washington, D.C. (“Treaty” par. 1; Chambers par. 2). For the United States, the organization was the first peacetime military alliance outside of the Western Hemisphere (“NATO” par. 2). In March 1948, the headquarters for NATO, which is located in Brussels, Belgium, was created. Representatives of the United Kingdom, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, and the Netherlands met to fashion a mutual assistance treaty to provide a common defense system (Chambers par. 2). The treaty provided collective defense, which meant if any one of the nations in NATO were attacked, the other nations in the organization would help defend the nation under attack (“NATO” par. 3). Realizing necessary action was needed, nations of Western Europe teamed up to defend themselves from the Soviet Union, and to counter any moves made by the Soviet Union in the future.
After losing a battle to isolationists in June 1948, the U.S.

Congress adopted a resolution recommending that the United States join the North Atlantic Treaty. Starting in May 1948, Republican Senator Arthur H. Vandenburg proposed a resolution suggesting that Truman search for a security alliance with Western Europe that would bond to the United Nations charter, but occur outside of the Security Council where the Soviet Union help veto power. The Vandenburg Resolution passed and negotiations soon began to join the North Atlantic Treaty. However, it took several months to work out the exact terms before the treaty was officially signed (“NATO” par. 3-4). President Truman advocated national participation in NATO as a very important part of his policy of containment of Soviet growth (Chambers par. 2). The United States saw Eastern Europe as economically strong, rearmed, and integrated. In forming an alliance with Eastern European nations opposing the Soviet Union, it would greatly slow the expansion of communism in Europe. The U.S. Congress had accepted the dream of international alliance, but remained worried about the wording of the treaty. The nations of Western Europe wanted to make sure that the United States would help defend any allied nation under attack. However, the problem was that under the U.S. Constitution, the power to declare is under Congress authority. Finally, after a considerable amount of negotiations, the United States finally signed the treaty, thus joining the organization (“NATO” par. 2, 4, and 5). In October 1949, the U.S. Congress authorized $1.3 billion in military aid for NATO. This fund was the Mutual Defense Assistance Act (Chambers par. 2). U.S. Congress, recognizing that the United States could use some allies, joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in order to hinder the spread of

communism.
In August 1949, the Soviet Union successfully launched and tested their first nuclear device, ending American control of nuclear weapons. Towards the end of 1949, communists in China had defeated their rivals and formed a new government for the Chinese nation. The following year, China entered into an alliance with the Soviet Union. These events caused a feeling of nervousness in the United States and a fear of a looming nuclear war (Fogarty par. 16). However, to bring up U.S. spirits and to strengthen NATO, Greece and Turkey entered the organization in 1952. The Federal Republic of Germany also joined the organization in 1955. The rearmed Germany was a major component of NATO and would play a major role in shutting down the Soviet Union (“Treaty” par. 2). Towards the end of 1949, life became scary. The nation Americans feared and hated now had nuclear weapons and a strong alliance with a very powerful nation.