Cold War Dbq

When people hear the word war, they automatically think of troops on the ground, bullets flying and unfortunately death. This is not the case when we are talking about the Cold War between the United States of America and Soviet Union. This war would last from 1945-1989 and would test both countries use of propaganda, beliefs, and political ambitions. We will explore how the war started, what policies were implemented, and the eventual end of the war.

The Cold War was between two countries, The United States of America and Soviet Union. During World War II, the United States of America and Russia were allies fighting a common enemy, Nazi Germany, and once the war had ended political ambitions and trust issues started to drive a wedge between

former allies. Once the war had ended there was a power void to be filled in Europe. Russia looked to fill that void as it tried to prove itself to the world as a superpower.
George Kenna was a diplomat. He sent a telegram infirming that the Soviet Union could not be trusted. The Policy of Containment them came into place. This meant that the United States would contain communism. (Lecture 2/8)
The United States feared Russia’s Leader, Joseph Stalin’s communist intentions for his country.

As Russia would continue its expansive tendencies, Truman would implement his Truman Doctrine or containment plan to slow the spread of communism to the rest of Europe. Truman told Congress that "it must be the policy of the United States to support free people who are resisting attempting subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures (History of the Cold War, 2017)." Harry Truman formed the National Security Console, they would advise Truman to use a show of force to handle the ongoing treat to democracy in free world. This policy was known as Massive Retaliation headed by Eisenhower which stated to use atomic weapons if attacked (History of the Cold War, 2017). This way of thinking would lead to an arms buildup and increase of military spending in the coming months in both countries. The United States stated that they would be building a bigger and more devastating bomb called the Hydrogen Bomb (BBC, 2014). Not to be out done Russia would play catch up and tests would go on between both countries. During these tests the world would see the raw power of these weapons. This would Strike fear in the United States and there was a panic of an Atomic War between both

countries.
The next phase of the cold war would be the space race war.

The United States and Russia wanted to prove they could frontier the next best thing space. Each eager to prove to the world they would be the first to engineer satellites into space (Britannica). Russia would be the first to accomplish this on October 4th, 1957 they launched the first satellite into earth’s atmosphere (History of the Cold War, 2017). Not to be out done the United State accomplished this feat as well a year later.

However, the Cold War had an affect on domestic policy socially and economically. “Socially, the intensive indoctrination of the American people led to a regression of social reforms. Economically, enormous growth spurred by industries related to war was aided by heavy government expansion. The New Deal felt the greatest impact of the cold War”(McCarthy).

Eisenhower wanted to keep the New Neal in place. He wanted to democrats to regain control of Congress. In 1956, the Interstate Highway Act was enacted. (Lecture 2/13) By this, our infer structure was inmoved and also business benefited from this. Social security benefits were expanded and minimum wage was increased. (Lecture

2/13)
Truman established the Loyalty Review Board. This was to investigate employees to make sure they were not communist. Truman wanted to extend the New Deal. He came about with the Fair Deal which increases minimum wage, provided federal money for education, and health insurance. (Lecture 1/30)
The war would eventually end during the Nixon Administration. Nixon did his best to help the relations with communist leaders around the world. Nixon would go to visit the Communist country of china and improve relationships with them. He also attempted to improve relations with Russia as well. This would result in the creation of the Salt I agreement, and effectively restraining the countries from using long range ballistic missiles armed with nuclear war heads.
This would be short lived as Ronald Regan would go on to tear down the little improvement between the countries. Regan would go on to rage a full on far with all Communist parties primarily located in the Central America’s. This would as raise military spending for the country and further go on as the Regan Doctrine (History, 2017). The purpose of this doctrine was to help Reagan’s administration use its global influence throughout the world to stop the Cold War with Russia. Russia’s economy and social status was suffering and in an attempt to improve its relationships with the rest of the world a new Premier was elected. Mikhal Gorbachev adapted new policies that changed the views of Russian under its new Premier. In June of 1987 Regan gave a speech in West Berlin he challenged Mr. Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. To most of the world this was a symbol of the Cold War and been diving East and West Berlin since 1961 (Downing, 2007). In 1989 the Berlin wall would come down and signal too many across the globe that the Cold War between the United States and Russia has come to an end.
In conclusion, the Cold War was never a conflict where two countries would send troops to battle until on side surrenders. This was a war that was about countries that was afraid of each other and used propaganda, Political Policies, and differences on what freedom meant to them. Throughout the war we saw countless number of polices there were put in place to combat communism Truman Doctrine, Massive Retaliation, and Regan Doctrine. We also saw good things from this war as well, NASA, National Security Council, and space travel that lead to men on the moon. The ugly would be the United States involvement in the Vietnam War, The HUAC committees, and the Nuclear War scare that had the country in fear of nuclear bombs being dropped. This end result the cold war changed the way politics are done from the fear of what could happen, to the way the US economy strengthened its self to prove its patriotism and its influence as the world’s strongest economy today.