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Communism in Russia in 1900 to1940
Positive impacts of the Cold War on international relations
Positive impacts of the Cold War on international relations
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Recommended: Communism in Russia in 1900 to1940
After Germany surrendered in World World II there was a need for punishment, reparations and new territorial boundary lines drawn for the struggling nations. Many Europeans believed that Germany would be punished for the war, although there was actually no official penalty instated upon them. The Potsdam Conference had conferred official punishment but was soon engulfed in the chaos that was the issue of national boundaries. Russia during the war had invaded parts of Poland and had begun an unwanted communistic government there. As the United States was one world superpowers left Truman tried to reason with Stalin. Despite this peaceful suggestion, Stalin had refused to cause tension between the U.S.S.R and the United States. In addition to
Following World War Two tensions was developing between the communist East represented by the Soviet Union and the capitalist West which was comprised of Britain, France and the United States. This tension, which was mostly between the United States and the Soviet Union, who had emerged as the two power states following the World War Two, was a result of both ideological differences as well as the decisions made at three key conferences during World War Two; The Tehran Conference of 1943, The Yalta Conference in the early months of 1945, and the Potsdam conference following the fall of Germany in July 1945. The Soviet Union disagreed with some of the decisions made at the conferences, most notably, the division of Germany and Berlin. The decisions made at these conferences, as well as the ideological differences between the two superpowers would further increase tensions between the East and West, as well as having a significant impact on the development of the Early Crisis and the Cold War.
The alliance formed between the US and USSR during the second world war was not strong enough to overcome the decades of uneasiness which existed between the two ideologically polar opposite countries. With their German enemy defeated, the two emerging nuclear superpowers no longer had any common ground on which to base a political, economical, or any other type of relationship. Tensions ran high as the USSR sought to expand Soviet influence throughout Europe while the US and other Western European nations made their opposition to such actions well known. The Eastern countries already under Soviet rule yearned for their independence, while the Western countries were willing to go to great lengths to limit Soviet expansion. "Containment of 'world revolution' became the watchword of American foreign policy throughout the 1950s a...
The foreign and domestic policies during the Cold War lead to both the separation of world powers and the fear of political and social systems throughout the world. After World War 2 had ended, tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union heighted. The agreements made at the Yalta Conference between Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt , were not being followed by the Soviets. The Soviet Union kept the land they reconquered in Eastern Europe and did not enforce a democratic government in those countries, as they promised. Instead, the Soviet Union decided to continue spreading communism in their reconquered lands. The United States’ feared the spread of communism and attempted to do anything in its power to stop it. Before the United
During the Peace Conference there was two themes that was very critical. The first is that each victorious European ally had betrayed the new diplomacy of President Woodrow Wilson and therefore deprived the postwar international order of its moral
In their opinion this was why the United States was building nuclear bombs. The Soviets did not think America had a good foreign policy as it just aggravated them and put them in a corner about building nuclear bombs. The vice president at the time, Henry Wallace agreed that the continual production of bombs was not portraying American in the right way to other countries. It was making us appear power hungry for world domination as well as preparing for a war that was inevitable. Wallace warns that the United States made seem like “unfriendly neighbors” who have the power to destroy their country. While the the United States was trying to protect themselves and other European nations from the spread of communism their building of nuclear bombs was portrayed as an act of aggression. The Truman Doctrine helped them at the time with Greece and Turkey it would come back to harm them later as they would be forced to defend the spread of communism in two harmful
President Harry Truman came into office right at the end of World War II, after the death of President Franklin Roosevelt. Almost immediately after becoming president, Truman learned of the Manhattan Project, and had to decide whether or not to use the atomic bomb. With the advice of James Byrnes, Secretary of State, Truman decided to drop two atomic bombs on Japan, in part to demonstrate America’s power to the world and gain a political advantage in Europe (Offner 294). After World War II ended, there were negotiations about Germany, and it was decided that Germany would be split into two halves; the western half would be controlled by the United States and its allies, while the eastern half would be controlled by the Soviet Union. This situation led to increased tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union because of the two nations’ different political and economic systems. The Soviet Union began to view the United States as a threat to communism, and the United States began to view the Soviet Union as a threat to democracy. On March 12, 1947, Truman gave a speech in which he argued that the United States should support nations trying to resist Soviet imperialism. Truman and his advisors created a foreign policy that consisted of giving reconstruction aid to Europe, and preventing Russian expansionism. These foreign policy decisions, as well as his involvement in the usage of the atomic bomb, raises the question of whether or not the Cold War can be blamed on Truman.
Following World War II, Soviet leader Stalin initially agreed to a democratic government in Poland and to free elections in other Soviet-occupied countries, but he ignored his own promises. This caused the United States and Britain to ignore Stalin’s wish of taking a hard line with Germany in settlement talks. The Soviets formed the Socialist Unity party in East Berlin and effectively gained control of East Germany. Though this had a lot to do with the fact that the European people were increasingly tired and lacked the energy to fight a growing Socialist party line, another major factor was that there were enough citizens in this area and in “other Soviet-dominated countries who believed communism was a better social system and that it could breed a new kind of humanity” (Stranges, 193).
The battle of Stalingrad may have very well been the most important battle over the course of World War II. Not necessarily remembered for its course of fighting, the battle is more known for its outcome. Not only did the battle turn out to be a major turning point in the war, it may have saved most of Eastern Europe from incomparable destruction. The battle included two of the biggest political and military icons of their time, Stalin and Hitler.
Josef Stalin, a politician from the earliest beginnings of his life, strove to achieve a national sense of power during his reign over the citizens of Russia. Adolf Hitler, however, a born high school dropout somewhat longed for a place in life. He rather fell into his role as a politician, after his brief shortcomings in arts and sciences. These two individuals developed varying ideas to put their controlling minds to work to lead their political parties in the direction of total domination of the state.
During the early stages of World War II, Germany won a series of swift victories over Poland, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, and France. Then attempted to bomb Great Britain into surrendering, but to no avail. After Hitler took over Czechoslovakia he began to demand land from Poland. Britain and France pledged to help Poland if Germany was to attack. Unfortunately helping Poland would include the invasion of Germany, which neither country was willing to do. Great Britain and France had hoped the Soviet Union would help protect Poland. But Hitler and Stalin shocked the world when they became allies. On August 23, 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed a nonaggression pact; in which both agreed not to attack each other. They secretly decided to divide Poland between them. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and began Wo...
The Second World War began in September of 1939 and was between the Allies and the Axis. It began with Germany’s unprovoked attack and conquest of Poland, and involved Britain and France from the beginning. Its origins lay in German resentment at the terms of the Treaty of Versailles (1919), the economic crisis of 1929-30, which favored the rise to power of Fascist dictators, the failure of the League of Nations to gain international acceptance for disarmament, and the policy of imperialism adopted by Germany, Italy and Japan as a means of acquiring raw materials and markets. As a part of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany had to accept full responsibility for the First World War, which then led up to the outbreak of the Second. The reparations chapter of the Treaty of Versailles was universally condemned in Germany. Article 231, a proclamation of German guilt, had been inserted to establish Germany’s moral responsibility for the war and, therefore, her legal responsibility for all damage to property and persons and was disliked because of the War Guilt clause it contained. Germany, prepared for military conquest by Hitler, remilitarized the Rhineland in violation of the Locarno Pact. The League of Nations failed to react firmly either to this or to the conquest of Ethiopia by Italy under Mussolini. The Second World War was indeed one of the greatest conflicts in history. What started out as a European struggle, soon emerged to the level of worldwide warfare. The Prime Minister of England, Winston Churchill, American President, Franklin Roosevelt and Russian leader, Joseph Stalin were just a few of the leaderships that tried to bring their nations to victory. Although they all could not have “won” the war, these particular three men worked together to form an outstanding alliance system.
Again Germany had been thwarted in its plans of total domination. It had been a combined effort by all the Western powers and a few Eastern powers too. England was devastated, France had been literally burnt to the ground, and many small nation had suffered economic failure. To the East Russia had suffered many losses from the vain siege of the Nazi’s. But they were in better shape then Europe. They still had a military and a running, somewhat , economy. In the late 40’s through early 50’s the Soviet Union started to spread the Lenin ideological as it started moving in the Westward position. In 47 the US started funding the rebuilding of European infrastructure in a system called the Marshall Plan. Russia in turn brought forth its own funding called the Molotov Plan. Because of that, they were able to spread communism through many countries. Some of these nations were: Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Eastern Germany, and numerous countries in Southeastern Asia. But on the US side we had the support from almost the entire Western Europe. So the tension started, between Western Europe or a republic society and Eastern Europe and communism.
"When a power vacuum separates great powers, as one did the United States and the Soviet Union at the end of World War II, they are unlikely to fill it without bumping up against and bruising each other" (Gaddis). This 'bumping' and 'bruising' caused the tensions and hostilities that surfaced in the years following WWII.
The publics opinion of this was of a great Anglo-American- Soviet friendship. The agreement that as achieved at the conference was that a Coalition government would be set up in Poland. This guaranteed free election in Poland. It also gave eastern Poland to the Soviet Union and in return, Poland would receive land from Germany. Germany on the other hand was divided into four zones which were Great Britain, United States, France, and the Soviet Union. Germany had to pay all reparations of the war but not to the extent of World War I. One other major decision made in the conference was the creation of the United Nations. This was a new world organization which worked for world peace as did the League of Nations. Along with the Soviet Union, Byelorussia and the Ukraine were admitted into the United Nations. Since Russia had influence on there voting, the United States was given 3 votes to be equal with the Soviet Union. After the conference, American public opinion was very high and all of the Allied nations responded favorably.
In the United Stares, a President compromises a Presidential doctrine with key goals, attitudes, and/or stances for the United States foreign affairs outlines. A lot of the Presidential doctrines came after the cold war and a lot of the doctrines are passed upon the Soviet Union, which was trying to become an independent super power country. The global events of the Cold War started for the Soviet Union right after World War II, in which the Soviets quickly began breaking the agreements made at the 1945 Yalta conference. Instead of holding a free, democratic election in East Europe, the Soviet Union installed a Communist regime in Moscow. The global events during the Cold War which helped and lead to the formation of the Truman Doctrine were,