The Cold War holds a very significant place in history; never before had there been such leaps and bounds in the fields of science and warfare. The computer, now a seemingly harmless invention was going to be used to launch and detonate nuclear missiles. Nuclear, chemical and biological weapons were at one time was nothing more than science fiction. The world has never been so close to ending than in the years which are labeled the Cold War. From the Truman Doctrine to the Cuban missile crisis to the LGM-30 Minuteman missile silos that still dot the American plains, many Americans did not know if they would wake up the next day to a nuclear winter. The geopolitical tensions between America and the Soviet Union put the world on edge and made …show more content…
history but, in the end, the two superpowers never fired a shot at each other. To fully understand the Cold War, look back to the end of World War Two. The war was over the Allies had just beat the Axis, but a new threat was brewing the Americans believed. The Soviet Union established The Iron Curtain, it was buffer states used to protect against western intrusion. Many in America assumed that Communism if left unchecked could spread and influence other countries. Britain had just stopped given aid to the Greek government in its civil war against the communist regime; the U.S.A believed that Russia was supporting the communists in Greek. Truman jumped on the opportunity to change the foreign policy that America had.
He argued that a chain reaction would supervene if Greek fell to Communism, therefore, this would led to the undermining of the Turkey government, therefore, allowing the Middle East to fall to Communism. In the words of the Truman Doctrine, it became “the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.” (Historian) Truman conferred with his cabinet that the best defense against Communism was containment; containment was the long term, vigilant containment of Russia expansive tendencies and influences. Isolationism would not be returned, The Truman Doctrine lead us into various conflicts in the hope to contain the spread of …show more content…
communism. The Truman Doctrine set forth the astronomical race for high tech weaponry as well.
This became known as the arms race. America had the advantage over the Soviet Union; on November 1, 1952 America dropped the first hydrogen bomb code named Castle Bravo. After Russia caught wind of the experiment they immediately began purist of their own weapon of mass destruction. In spite of the tests America and Russia had a limited arsenal to test. The nukes main job during the arms race was a deterrent toward the other nations. In the year 1962, a combined total of 178 nuclear tests were conducted by both Russia and the U.S. (CTBTO) The preceding year of the Cuban Missile Crises, Russia conducted the test of the largest nuclear weapon. To ensure a quick capable counter strike, the U.S. deployed the Defense and Early Warning, this placed Minute Men Missiles or ICBMs across a plethora of locations across the nation. The ICBMs insured that in a case of nuclear attack the U.S. could respond to the attack from any nuclear capable
nation. By 1963 nations from around the world, this led to the Partial Test Ban Treaty, testing for peaceful purposes, in the atmosphere, underwater, and in space. The exception was made for testing underground. Nuclear arsenals during the Cold War sky rocketed, by the late 1980s the United States had at least 23,000 and the Soviets had 39,000. (CTBTO) The heighted threats of nuclear annulation kept the race for military dominance a major objective of both sides. Military weaponry advancements in vehicles were made including the development of the world’s first nuclear powered ballistic submarine by the U.S.A. This was all so seen in development of new jet fighter and tanks. Not only did we see this major changes in vehicles used for combat, we also seen development of weapons like the RPG, AK-47, FN-FAL. Defense from the new weapons and nukes required the development of new strategic defense systems. The Regan administrative in the early 1980s expanded research and development of space and ground base defensive systems, thus creating the Star Wars program. The program was the response to the fear of a nuclear attack from afar meaning space. This program tested Homing Overlay, and saw the first successful demonstration of a hit-to-kill vehicle. The Star Wars program had no negative effects; producing grounds for research “Land based kinetic Weapons.” These weapons were guided ballistic weapons. Nevertheless, the Star Wars program was abandoned; it contained farfetched ideas of space lazars that required an absurd amount of nuclear energy to be obtained. Tensions were high due to the advancement of weapons, but they were never as high as during the Cuban Missile Crises. The Cuban Missile Crises occurred during John F. Kennedy’s Presidency in 1962. During JFK’s inauguration he was briefed on a plan drafted by the Eisenhower administration. This plan involved training Cuban exiles for an invasion of Cuba, and overthrow Castro, establishing of a non-communist government. 1959 Castro’s resistance movement deposed the pro-American military dictator ship of Flugencio Bastista. On April 17 the Bay of Pigs Invasion began ex members of Cuba were going home not as citizens, but as invaders. The invasion was a disaster, the Brigade 2056 fought ocean tide, coral reefs, and losing most of their equipment, including guns. Upon reaching the beach they were meant with a large number of Cuban troops. Nothing seemed to go as plan; within three days of fighting the Cuban army had successfully repelled the attack on Cuba and members of Brigade 2506 being killed or captured. President Kennedy took full responsible for the catastrophic events that took place those three days. The Soviet Union’s response to the Bay of Pigs was a secret agreement with Fidel Castro. This agreement allowed the placement of Soviet nuclear weapons to be placed in Cuba; this would deter any future invasions. Construction of missile sites began in the late summer; U.S. inelegance discovered this and applied public warnings against offensive weapons into Cuba. Despite these warnings the construction of the missile silos continued. On October 22, Kennedy ordered a navel “quarantine” of Cuba, if it was distinguished as a blockade this assumes a state of war existed. The United States refused to have missiles that close, ordering the Soviets to remove all hostile weapons and deconstruct the missile silos. As the navel began implementation of the quarantine, DEFCON 3 was announced by The Joint Chiefs of Staff. Khurschev responded to the quarantine as an act of aggression, ships in route to Cuba were to remain course. Although, some of the ships where stopped by U.S. naval forces no offensive weapons were found. Meanwhile, U.S. reconnaissance revealed that the missile silos were nearing operational function. DEFCON 3 dropped to DEFCON 2 as the situation entered a stalemate. Khrushchev agreed to remove the missile from Cuba if the United States promised not to invade the island, also for this to be a valid agreement the U.S. would have to remove their Jupitar missiles from Turkey. Kennedy and Khrushchev finally reached an agreement and the Soviets began to deconstruct the missile silos in Cuba. Even though technology was used for weapons, and nukes it also had played another significant role in the Cold War. The space race utilized the advancement in technology that occurred. Sputnik-1 was launched by the Soviet Union in 1957; this was Earth’s first artificial satellite, this also heighted the fear that the U.S. was falling beyond in controlling advance technology. (Sputnik 1957) The Soviet Union continued to dominate space with two more satellites; the United States did not effectively launch one until January 31, 1958. They successful sent Explorer deep into space. (Sputnik 1957) Then in 1961 Soviet cosmonaut Yuri became the first human to reach Earth’s orbit. The U.S. quickly responded by sending the first American in space one month later. Later that month President Kennedy made a bold, public clam that we would have a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Kennedy did not fall short of his promise; on July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong became the first human to step on the moon. Although, beating the Soviet Union to the moon was accomplished, this did not hinder their quest to advance in space. Even though there was tension between U.S.S.R and U.S. as a group we accomplished many technology feats, Apollo-Soyuz Test Project docking mission of 1975, this lead to the development of compatible rendezvous and docking systems, which are still in use today. The U.S.S.R not even knowing would make two of the biggest contributions to the International Space Station partnership. They improved safety of its manned flight hardware and developing a solid base in space medicine. Years after the space race the technology developed can still be seen today, joysticks that are used today in drone control and video games, longer lasting food, and satellite TV. In conclusion,
America and the USSR both had different opinions on communism and how a country should be run. The USSR believed communism was the perfect way to run its country and people. Communism consisted of a one party state which owned the whole of the industry business and the agricultural business too. There would be no individual profit making and everyone was equal and received an equal amount of money. America, however was a capitalist state which meant that there was freedom of speech, free elections and more than one political party.
The Cold War was a period of dark and melancholic times when the entire world lived in fear that the boiling pot may spill. The protectionist measures taken by Eisenhower kept the communists in check to suspend the progression of USSR’s radical ambitions and programs. From the suspenseful delirium from the Cold War, the United States often engaged in a dangerous policy of brinksmanship through the mid-1950s. Fortunately, these actions did not lead to a global nuclear disaster as both the US and USSR fully understood what the weapons of mass destruction were capable of.
After the war, the United States and the Soviet Union had very different ideas on how to rebuild. The United States, led by President Truman, wanted to form democracies in Europe and create a capitalistic society to build economically strong nations that would compliment the American economy through trade. In contrast, the Soviet Union, led by Joseph Stalin, wanted to rebuild itself and spread communism through Europe and Asia. In a desperate attempt to rebuild, many countries devastated by war fell under soviet influence and resorted to communism. The Soviet Union called these nations Satellite nations and hoped that they would serve as ?buffer? nations, preventing invasion from the west .In its efforts to defend democracy, the U.S. created the policy of containment. In this new policy, the United States would try to block Soviet influence by making alliances and supporting weaker nations. Winston Churchill described this strategy as an ?iron curtain?, which became and invisible line separating the communist from the capitalist countries in Europe. To help enforce the ideas of containment, President Truman create...
The Cold War in 1945 to 1953 brought about a period of tension and hostility due to the feud between the United States and the Soviet Union. The period began with the end of the Second World War. The situation acquired the title for there was no physical active war between the two rivals. The probability of the tension got to be the fear of the then rise in nuclear ammunition. Things began to roll when a US based U2 sky plane got to take photos of some USSR intermediate ballistic missiles with the capability of transporting nuclear heads.
“When the people fear the government, there is tyranny;when the government fears the people,there is liberty” -Thomas Jefferson. The reason why I chose this quote is that the Northern Korean and South Korean civilians were afraid of the government so there was tyranny. Tyranny is cruel and oppressive government or rule.
the downfall of communism, as it were, took so long was the veto power of
The Cold War was the most important historic event in the 20th century after the Second World War, from 1945 till 1991 between two most powerful countries in that period – Soviet Union and USA. The Cold War invested a lot in world politics. What is the Cold War? This was a war for dominance in the world. In 1945 the USA was the only one country in the world that had the nuclear weapons. But in the 1949 USSR started to learn their nuclear weapons. In further developments forced the USSR was soon created by nuclear, and then thermonuclear weapons. (Isaacs J, 2008) Fight has become very dangerous for all.
Hydrogen Bomb: The Hydrogen Bomb was developed in America and was more powerful than an atomic bomb and was able to detonate and effect a larger area and have more of an impact. The Hydrogen Bomb had a positive impact of the American effort to contain communism as it provided the American forces with an edge the not many others had.
Moreover, it served as a precedent for future U.S. policy of interventionism. According to Stephen Ambrose, an important quote from Truman’s speech, "I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures," stands as "all encompassing" and would "define American policy for the next generation and beyond." "1 Faced with strong opposition, Truman was still able to achieve a consensus in Congress aimed at quelling the communist threat through active foreign policy and involvement. The Truman Doctrine not only demonstrates the new foreign policy of the U.S., but also helps explain American foreign policy since the Doctrine’s inception. At the end of World War II, the military and foreign policies of the White House were moving in opposite directions.
The USA’s new weapon, the Hydrogen bomb, or H-bomb, was one of the most powerful weapons of the time. In 1950, the H-bomb was tested in the Eniwetok Atoll, Marshall Islands (Cold War History). The reaction was so fierce, the explosion wiped the island off the face of the earth leaving a crater on the ocean floor. The explosion reached a range of 25 square miles and had a mushroom cloud which dropped radioactive fallout on the surrounding areas (The Cold War Museum). This new weapon scared the Soviet Union into creating their own bombs. This buildup of weapons by the two countries started The Cuban Missile Crisis (The Cuban).
Communism was the ideology followed by the Soviet Union. Originally founded by Karl Marx, it said that everything should be owned by the government and then divided up equally among the people who would then all work for it. For the communist party in Russia, their political system was always in danger. From the start of the Russian Revolution there have been dangers to communism. Before World War II most of the western nations ignored Russia simply because it was a communist state and the western nations actually supported Hitler because they believed that Germany would provided a buffer against Communism. The permanent threat against Russia gave the incentive to expand and spread communist influence as much as possible to keep their way of life intact, it was very much Russia against the world. However not only was the Soviet Union communist, they were totalitarian, meaning all the power was with the rulers. While this was effective for keeping the standard average of living the same for everyone and preventing poverty, it also led to a poor work ethic among the working population...
The Cold War is the closest the world has ever come to complete destruction. In this period of time, two world super powers were in a stalemate economically and militarily and were constantly competing to be the superior. The Cold War started as result of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union had some differences on their perspectives of the world. United States being the richest country in the world promoted democracy and capitalism in the world. The newly formed Soviet Union thought that communism was a better political system because it transformed their economy and status in the world from nothing but a declining empire to a super power once again. The Cold War was a long series of events in which the communist tried to spread their ideas of government and socialist economy, known as expansionism, and the United States and some of the other Western powers such as Great Britain tried to contain it. Containment, a term introduced by George F. Kennan, was the foreign policy the United States practiced from 1946 to 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed. The United States saw the Soviet Union to be a direct threat to the free world. During president Truman and Eisenhower’s administration the policy of containment evolved so drastically that American presidents would put anything on the line, including world peace.
What does this nation’s people remember most about the Cold War? Is it the fear, terror, and the absolute uncertainty of not knowing if tomorrow you might not wake up or worse, wake up to all out nuclear hell? “The most terrifying moment in my life was October 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I did not know all the facts - we have learned only recently how close we were to war - but I knew enough to make me tremble”-Joseph Rotblat. During those October days of 1962, John F. Kennedy and the United States braced for a nuclear attack that nobody was sure was coming. On the other side Nikita Khrushchev was hungry for power after being dominated by the U.S. for years during the long years of the Cold War. Khrushchev wanted to have the nuclear upper hand in the western hemisphere. With the help of Fidel Castro, Khrushchev could put nuclear weapons in Cuba.
There were many events that lead up to the Bolshevik Revolution. First off, in 1848, Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels published a thought-provoking book. The Communist Manifesto expressed their support of a world in which there was no difference in class. A world in which the workers and commoners ran the show and there was no high and supreme ruler. Many intellectual Russians began to become aware of this pamphlet as well as the advanced state of the world compared to Russia. Other countries were going through an industrial revolution, while the Czars had made it clear that no industrial surge was about to happen in Russia. The popularity of the Czars further went down hill as Nicolas II’s poor military and political decisions caused mass losses in World War I. Eventually, the citizens could take no more and began a riot in St. Petersburg that led to the first Russian Revolution of 1917.
The Fall of Communism The fall of communism can be linked to several reasons. Some of these reasons were internal, while others were the results of outside influence. For a form of any type of government to work, the people must support it, true a government can use force to make their populace submit to the will of the government as with China in Tiananmem Square. In that case, the government used armed military force to put down student demonstrators demanding democracy reform.