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Historiography of the origins of the cold war
President Reagan's role in the cold war
The historical context for the cold war
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The end of the Cold War was one of the most unexpected and important events in geopolitics in the 20th century. The end of the Cold War can be defined as the end of the bipolar power struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union, which had existed since the end of the World War II. The conclusion of the Cold War can be attributed to Gorbachev’s series of liberalizations in the 1980s, which exposed the underlying economic problems in the Soviet Union and Eastern bloc states that had developed in the 1960s and 70s and prevented the USSR from being able to compete with the US as a superpower. Nevertheless, Reagan’s policies of a renewed offensive against communism, Gorbachev’s rejection of the Brezhnev doctrine and the many nationalities …show more content…
These subsidies prevented the USSR from internal reforms or modernizing their economy and eventually the subsidies were not enough to hold the bloc together. Another lost lasting problem was agricultural stagnation, which had existed since Stalin collectivized. Little was accomplished to improve the agricultural situation, despite evidence from Hungary in 1970s that modern American technology could revive communist agriculture (Friedmann 225). Declining food production led the USSR to begin importing more and more food from the West. “In 1972 the USSR increased its grain and soy imports from 8.3 to 22.8 million tons” (Friedmann 225). This created an interesting relationship where the USSR was trying to compete with US as a superpower, yet was receiving food aid. Simultaneously, as USSR could afford less and less to subsidize the Eastern bloc, it had turned to the West for help. “It was difficult for the Soviets to insist on bloc loyalty […] when the USSR was making its own deals with the West” (Friedmann 220). This led to stronger economic ties between communism and capitalism, which underscored the failure of communist autarky. It …show more content…
In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan began pursuing what became known as the Reagan Doctrine: “Freedom is not the sole prerogative of a lucky few, but the inalienable and universal right of all human beings” (Smith 130). This renewed the US’s appeal to moral authority to fight Communism. Reagan backed up this doctrine with drastic increases in defense spending and massive projects like the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). This required the Soviet Union to also increase their defense spending in order to remain militarily competitive with the United States. However, the Soviet Union was in a much worse place to do so as they already had considerable debt and a much weaker economy. Paradoxically, the USSR’s push for new military spending ended up only weakening their power by destabilizing their economy further. SDI was particularly worrisome to the Soviets because it completely threatened the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) whose balance of power had prevented nuclear war for the past 40 years (Smith 133). The United States also used the CIA to funnel money and arms to rebels and dissenters in Communist countries (Smith 130). While in most cases only a minor cause of the end of Communism, this support was especially important in Poland where it helped keep Solidarity alive during its years underground and in Afghanistan where the United
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...
One of the biggest fears of the American people is that the concept of communism contrasts drastically from the concept of capitalism, which the United States was essentially founded upon. The United States, as the public believed, was not a land of perfect communal equality, but rather a land of equal opportunity. However, what made communism so dangerous can be succinctly described by Eisenhower who compared the spread of communism as the domino effect. As his secretary of state, Dulles, put it, the propagation of communism “would constitute a threat to the sovereignty and independence” of America (Doc B). In addition, the Cold War also planted the seeds of rational fear of a global nuclear war. As Russia caught up to the United States in terms of technological advancements, they successfully developed the atomic bomb as well as the hydrogen bomb, which caused Americans to believe that the USSR would use these weapons of mass destruction to forcefully extend their ideologies to the USA. In fact, Americans were so frantic about a potential nuclear disaster that it...
During the Cold War, the United States engaged in many aggressive policies both at home and abroad, in which to fight communism and the spread of communist ideas. Faced with a new challenge and new global responsibilities, the U.S. needed to retain what it had fought so strongly for in World War II. It needed to contain the communist ideas pouring from the Soviet Union while preventing communist influence at home, without triggering World War III. With the policies of containment, McCarthyism, and brinkmanship, the United States hoped to effectively stop the spread of communism and their newest threat, the Soviet Union. After the war, the United States and the Soviet Union had very different ideas on how to rebuild.
The major factor that led to the true end of the Cold War was the ongoing personal and diplomatic relationship between Presidents George H. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev. This resulted in the reduction of the Russian military and favorable arms agreements. Key indicators of the substance behind this relationship were the Soviet troop withdrawals from Czechoslovakia, Afghanistan, and Hungary (lifting the Hungarian/Austrian “Iron Curtain” along the border). Subsequently the opening of the Berl...
Reagan rose into power after years of turmoil and the American pride was dipping. About a decade before he became president, the war in Viet-Nam was winding down and the troops were returning home to negative demonstrations towards their duty. Then, during the Carter years, America transitioned into a détente policy, which meant that the United States would try to ease the tensions with the Soviet Union by not expanding the military, but not doing anything to acting ease the tension. The idea behind this became known as MAD, mutually assured destruction, (Hannaford) which meant that both the United States and Soviet Union would maintain and even number of nuclear weapons so that if one would fire, the other would be able to fire back equally. Reagan completely disagreed with this philosophy and created a whole new policy when he became president. The foreign policy he established was to create the Reagan Doctrine. According to a speech by Peter Hannaford, the Reagan Doctrine was that America would support democratic movements in any Communist country until that country could enjoy the fruits of freedom (Hannaford). This meant that the United States would help any country who wanted to leave the influence of the Soviet Union and create their own democracy. Also, to counter the Soviet Union and end the Cold War, a race between the United State and Soviet Union to create the best technology and become the world powerhouse, Reagan increased military spending. Ronald Reagan knew that the Soviet Union was unable to keep up the United States in military spending and still having enough funds to fund their own economy to keep it stable. Reagan used this knowledge to convince Congress to increase military budget to build up technology, causing the Soviets decide on what to do. The United States had the funds to continue, but the Soviet Union could not keep up. The breaking point
The terms hawks and doves' were quick labels attached to politicians in order to categorize their views on war and foreign policies, as to make them understandable and accessible for the public. However, these labels were not always accurate and in some cases could be quite misleading; it would have been more accurate not to label individuals as either Hawks or Doves, but instead, what they stood for.
The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe became the East nations, and the United States, centered on NATO formed the West nations, dividing the world in two. Belonging to neither the East nor the West, developing countries were called Third World nations and became a stand-in for wars between the East and West (Gaddis, The Strategies of Containment 70-78). The end of WWII and the beginning of the C... ... middle of paper ... ... a, from containment to rollback in Korea; welcoming European integration because it portended the creation of an economic unit that encouraged technological innovation; building a configuration of power in the international system, nurturing free markets while safeguarding American interests, a constant in Washington for more than 35 years; and, free political economy at home were just a few of the strategic methods used to change, influence, and shape American domestic policy (Leffler, The Specter of Communism,100-129).
Reagan’s ethos was created throughout his two terms but solidified in his second and final one. Reagan presents his ethos throughout his rhetoric by stating facts with authority and also in a way that made him credible to the audience. One of the parts in his speech is headlined with a cold and awakening fact directed at the Soviet Union. In a 1956 speech given by Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev, the statement “We will bury you,” was aimed at Western ambassadors who stood for freedom. In Reagan’s speech at the Brandenburg Gate, he specifically calls out the previously stated notion that the Soviets would essentially, “bury the free world.” Reagan profoundly proclaims this: “In the 1950s, Khrushchev predicted: "We will bury you." But in the West today, we see a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and well-being unprecedented in all human history. In the Communist world, we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards of health, even want of the most basic kind--too little food. Even today, the Soviet Union still cannot feed itself. After these four decades, then, there stands before the entire world one great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to prosperity. Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among the nations with comity and peace. Freedom is the victor.” The great appeal this presented to the
Reagan’s foreign policy intention was to eliminate the efforts of the Soviet Union to prolong its domination and from this time, he opted for the formulation of his doctrine to aid the rebels who in various countries of the world who were attempting to overthrown the Soviet regimes (Carpenter, 1986). Relative to this point, it must be mentioned that in distinction to the earlier Cold War doctrine of “inclosing”, Reagan’s Doctrine projected “American moral and material backing for rebellious actions trying to oust Soviet-backed regimes in various Third World nations” (Carpenter, 1986). Additionally, it must be stated that the Reagan Doctrine came into being as the outcome of the thwarting of the U.S. administration over the Soviet progresses in Africa, Central America, and Central Asia. “Just as the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and Chinese leader Mao reinforced armed revolutions against colonial or U.S.-aligned states, American power would now reassure and upkeep rebels against communist states” (“The Reagan Doctrine”,
In the minds of many Americans Ronald Reagan is the president that ended the Cold War, but is this view accurate? They claim Reagan's unprecedented military spending forced the Soviets to crumble. However, many critics of the president's outspending theory claim that the Russian economy would have imploded without such spending, and a military buildup of that kind did nothing but delay peace. Although, Reagan's willingness to negotiate was a clear factor in ending the Cold War, his aggressive arms race may have done more to forestall peace than abet it. The ascendance of Mikhail Gorbachev to power, the stagnating economy of Russia, and the personal friendship forged between Gorbachev and Reagan were the clear factors that contributed to the war's end.
When World War II ended in 1945, the world was wrought with distrust and paranoia. During the war, United States had successfully detonated two atomic bombs in Japan. The introduction of nuclear power into warfare, proved to be the most lethal weapon in the history of combat. In addition to a claim on such technology, a country had the power and the means to spread its political and social ideals. After the detonation of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Soviet Union was eager to catch up with the Americans. This “need” would lead to the concept of brinkmanship, a nuclear arms race, and the expansion of Soviet ideals. The Soviets were successful during World War II, which resulted in the growth of the economy, nationalism, communist movement, as well as the need for nuclear power. Although the Soviet Union culminated great economic prosperity and power during World War II, the Soviet Union collapsed after the Cold War erupted in 1947. The struggles of nuclear power and revolts against communism led to this dissolution.
Also, the Soviet Union’s quest to remain a world superpower cost it dearly, as they were hard pressed to keep up with US defense spending under Ronald Reagan. The “Soviet Union was spending a large percentage of its GNP on the military because of the expansion of US spending” (p.3.fsmitha.com). Th...
When the WWII was at its beginning the USSR relations with the US were not exactly good, this was attribute mainly by the fact that USSR signed the non-aggression pact with Germany called Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, which apart from the friendly foreign policy also included an economic agreement, which committed the Soviet Union to provide raw materials, oil, gas and food products to Germany in exchange...
During the cold war the Soviet Union played a big part. When Stalin was still president and Stalin’s ‘legacy’ which were to remain Soviet Union an authoritarian, one-party state and economically it was focused on producing military hardware rather than housing, transport, food, consumers goods and health care. Mikhail Gorbachev reported to have said ‘We can’t go on living like this,’ on his behalf of being the youngest first university-educated General Secretary leader to the Politburo. Gorbachev was responsible for the collapse of the soviet system, because of Gorbachev introduction of two key ideas, Gorbachev and Reagan’s relationship during the cold war, and Gorbachev keeping the Soviet Union relations with the United States.
James was losing hope. His vision had gone blurry from the throbbing in his knee. He did not have the time to check his leg before, but the pain reminded him to. James looked down to see blood pooling on the floor coming from a barbed arrow in his thigh. One of the minions must have landed a lucky shot on him. James couldn’t give up not with his livelihood at stake. Screams and the clash of weaponry echoed around him, but they seemed distant and he couldn’t make out any of the words. James used his sword as a crutch and began to lift himself as to lean against the nearest wall. As his head peeked over the top of the parapet walls he saw the battlefield splayed before him, but it couldn’t possibly be the same battlefield he commanded moments