Early Cold War Essay

The term glacial contend was low gear introduced by Bernard Baruch, an the Statesn businessman and political adviser to every hot seat from Woodrow Wilson to sewer F. Kennedy (Bernard Baruch). It was a time of mutual mistrust between the linked States and the Soviet coupling and their respective allies which begun subsequently human race state of turn on II. From Democracy in the Statess author, Alexis de Tocqueville, There are at present two great nations in the man, which first from different points, seem to be advancing towarfared the same goal the Russians and the Anglo-Americans. . .. Each seems called by some secret design of prudence one day to hold in its hands the destinies of half the world (Kreis, The Origins of the dusty warfare). The primary concern of the united States during the early eld of the shivery fight was the political threat of the spread of communistic political theory from the Soviet junction (Zinn, 1980). make head air back in its history, Russia exhibited radical tendencies by all overthro make headwayg Tsar Nicholas, followed by the Bolshevik Revolution, the matrimony under Lenin where Communisms origin began to sprout and continued by Stalin (Kreis, The Origins of the shabby contend).A history of soldiery intervention in Eastern atomic number 63 climaxing in 1948 in the overthrow of the elective government in Czechoslovakia by a communist coup were thrown as examples of Soviet expanding uponism. This reminded the American public of the atrocities of Hitler (Zinn, 1980). And with him in mind the get together States and its western European allies began to see Stalin as a threat (Kreis, The Origins of the frigid war). The much fearful concern was the Soviet Unions revitalizing industry after badly scathed by the aftermath of human beings war II and its increasing host strength (Zinn, 1980).The United States slowly exercised its stinting might by refusing to aid each post-war reconstruction in Russia as pass by the U. S. Congress in 1945, a major about face in polity under the Lend-Lease actuate of 1941 wherein the U. S. shipped huge amounts of war equipments to Russia (Kreis, The Origins of the gelid fight). Coming from the huge gains of World fight II, the United States was overly wary of regimes irrelevant to its capitalist structure.That fear was best exhibited by the emergence of Soviet Union as a global power with an political orientation opposed to democratic and industrial capitalist principles of the United States (Kreis, The Origins of the insensate warfare). Americans broadly speaking fear revolution. They fear change real, central social, economic and political change (Kreis, The Origins of the cold War). Fro all its democratic talk, America has a history of surmounting true liberalism and radicalism. The Soviets too had their share of fears in the early geezerhood of the Cold War.After World War II, Stalin feared that democratic principl es would be forced upon the communist tenets of the Soviet Union. He believed the two principles cannot co-exist. As he warned in his speech, capitalism and imperialism do future wars inevitable (Episode 2 Iron Curtain 1945-1947). Stalin also was aware of the United States expanding influence all over the world. He was wary of this move and pressured joker, a country located strategically on the southern borders of Soviet Union, for a Soviet armed services presence in the Darnanelles and the Bosporus.Turkey was then influenced by Great Britain and finally aided by the United States. The atomic bomb that was dropped in Japan started the ideal of the nuclear arms race which the Soviet Union was interested to join. But Stalin original intelligence reports that the Americans would not share atomic secrets with the Soviet Union (Zubok, Cold War Chat). The mutual distrust and fears of two the United States and the Soviet Union resulted in actions that further shaped the history of the Cold War.The United Statess fear of the contingent spread of Soviet Communist political theory led to their indemnity of containment. What is now cognise as the Truman Doctrine paved the way to the formal declaration of cold war against the Soviet Union. This was the famous speech of death chair Truman to the U. S. Congress asking for $400 zillion to aid Greece and Turkeys fight against communism (Kreis, The Origins of the Cold War). The containment policy of the United States involves multitude interventions to countries where Communism was viewed to thrive.The most(prenominal) famous display of the containment policy was the Vietnam War which started in 1950 under President Trumans administration. Armed with the U. S. Congress resolution named disconnectedness of Tonkin Resolution, President Johnson further escalated the war by bombing North Vietnam and continuing to localise as many as 540,000 armament by the end of 1968. As much Americans left and died in Vietnam , the anti-war sentiments back alkali put pressure on the government. The Nixon years saw the continuance of the Vietnam War with the expansion of hostilities in Laos and Cambodia.Nixons Vietnamization policy of providing military aid but not troop proved to be a terminable success. A 1972 preliminary peace potation in Paris was initially rejected. By 1973, Nixon convinced Hanoi and Saigons President Nguyen van Thieu to sign the Paris pacification Agreement which ended the hostilities between the United States and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The containment policy also played a role in the creation on April 4, 1949 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), currently an coalescency of 26 countries from North America and Europe.This was the take of Europes fears of an early(a) Soviet aggression in the guise of Stalin when they were skilful about to rebuild after Hitlers dictatorship. Western Europe also needful the assurance of the United Statess security whi le they started to rebuild from the ruins of World War II. NATO members common grounds are say to include the same democratic ideology and capitalist structure of economy (Kreis, The Origins of the Cold War). In the late mid-forties to 1950s both the United States and Soviet Union sought to build their military arsenal.For the United States, this gave way to military integration, the passing(a) by Congress of the internal guarantor Act in 1947 which created the Department of Defence, the National Security Council, and the Central Intelligence result (Kreis, The Origins of the Cold War). On the Soviet side, they detonated an atomic bomb of their own in 1949. The first H-bomb was also detonated by the United States in 1952. Not to be outdone, the Soviets detonated a fusion bomb in 1953 (Kreis, The Origins of the Cold War).NSC-68, a policy the United States adopted in 1950 raise defense spending to staggering amounts, up to $60 billion dollars, a symbolic representation of Americ as determination to win the cold war regardless of toll (Kreis, The Origins of the Cold War). Although the Cold War has now officially ended, the United States, the exactly legitimate index left, continues to establish a world order that caters to its capitalist structure. troops interventions have been part of its policy if it serves U.S. interests. During the Cold War, the goal was the containment of Communism. At the present, terrorism is the sweet battle cry. It is said the United States owns a very large percentage of the worlds wealth while it tries to suppress those who oppose to its capitalistic tenets. Currently, we are sightedness the emergence of a possible superpower like China. It has been known as the quiescence giant and could be a competitor to displace the United States from its current status.Whether there will be another Cold War by any other name, only time will tell. References Bernard Baruch. Answers. com. Retrieved 10 December 2006 from the blade htt p//www. answers. com/topic/bernard-baruch Cold War (1998). CNN. com. Retrieved December 10, 2006 from the World ample Web http//www. cnn. com/SPECIALS/cold. war/episodes/02/ The Origins of the Cold War (2006). TheHistory Guide Website. Retrieved December 10, 2006 from the World unspecific Web http//www. historyguide.org/europe/lecture14. html Zinn, Howard. (1980). A Peoples History of the United States. Retrieved December 10, 2006 from the World Wide Web http//www. writing. upenn. edu/afilreis/50s/zinn-chap16. html Zubok, Vladislav Dr. (1998, October 4). COLD WAR chat moderated by COLD WAR reporter Bruce Kennedy for CNNs COLD WAR series. COLD War Chat Dr. Vladislav Zubok, Historian. Retrieved December 10, 2006 from the Web http//www. cnn. com/SPECIALS/cold. war/guides/debate/chats/zubok/