The Three Stages Of The Cold War

The cold War is over but the influence of the Soviet Union is not and soviet union was a communist. The Soviet Union grew out of the Bolshevik revolution and civil war in 1917. Therefore it started after the Russian revolution in the early 1920s and lasted until 1991. However, three areas are most necessary to understand its cultural achievements. Its military strength and its political oppression.

The Cold War was a significant time for the United States and the Soviet Union, while the rest of the world watched intently. Although no actual war took place, both of these powerful countries did their best to promote their political and ideological ideas while trying to gain some ground in the seemingly never ending arms race. This war was driven by both fear and the strive to become the strongest and most powerful country. During the time of the Cold War, the United States proved to be a strong influence over Canada. Given its location, it was obvious as to which side Canada was on. While Canada believed in the same ideologies as the US, this nation was still reluctant to fully emerge themselves into the hysteria that had been emerging in the US. However, even though Canada had just received world recognition for its contribution during the Second World War, this large yet acutely populated country had much still to prove. During this time, Canada just recently became a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). But while Canada was making huge steps in their peacekeeping and military growth, there were still rumours of espionage circling the country.

The Cold War began at the resolution of WWII and continued into the 1990’s. The Cold War was fueled by many factors such as ideological differences, mutual mistrust, America’s fear of the spread of communism, and nuclear weapons. The war ultimately resulted in the collapse of communism. The war was supported by allied nations although the main instigators of the war were Russia and the United States.

John Gaddis is a professor at the University of Yale. Gaddis field of interest are the “U.S Cold War history; Historical methodology; Biography; Grand Strategy (Yale University." John Gaddis. http://history.yale.edu/people/john-gaddis). Since his field of interest is in the U.S Cold War history, he wrote a book about it by the name of The Cold War A New History. Gaddis’s book is written for his undergraduate Yale students that he lectures to every Monday and Wednesday afternoon. His real purpose in this book is to make his Yale undergraduates understand what the Cold War was since “hardly any of them remember any of the events I’m (he is) describing”(preface).

Skilt took a deep breath, pulled back the arrow in his bow, aimed, and prayed to the great spirit that he would hit his target as he released his breath, and the arrow.

One of the main things Reagan was known for his is stance on communist and his commitment to end the Cold War. Reagan was not afraid of the Soviet Union like his Carter or Ford who served as President before him. He told the Secretary of Defense to order whatever is needed and not to worry about the budget. He wanted to be in a position of strength, that way he believed he would be able to negotiate with them; he had a saying of “To build up to build down” http://millercenter.org/president/biography/reagan-domestic-affairs. Reagan did not want there to be an arms race, however if there were to be one he was determined not to loose. The CIA confirmed that the Soviet Union’s economy could not support an arms race against the US. In Reagan’s mind, winning the Cold War meant having the Soviet Union cease to exist.

The Cold War era was an infamous time in United States history. The stand-off between the USSR and the US lasted nearly forty-five years, and began shortly after World War II had ended. Even though the USSR and the US had been Allied Powers during the war, Stalin’s ruling of his country frightened the United States, and the US’s late entry in the war caused Russian resentment. The tension the Cold War caused terrified everyone and pressured the United States government to start preparing for desperate measures. The US began mass-producing nuclear bombs, increasing production four times over, and even started working to create the first fusion hydrogen bomb (History, 2009). It the stress of the Cold War that caused Rocky Flats to be constructed. Rocky Flats was a plutonium processing plant in Colorado, just 26km north-west of Denver (Coates, 2014). During its life it manufactured fission cores that were to be used to detonate hydrogen bombs. The science they used to construct the fission cores utilized the discoveries made during WWII. However after the FBI’s raid in 1989, it was quickly shut down for good. Although the site has received a massive cleanup from the government and community, its impact on Colorado can still be seen today.

This source, just like the last, shows how America was using the atomic bomb as much more than just a weapon of war. They were using it as a method of intimidation. They did not have to drop the bomb on Hiroshima or Nagasaki, they wanted to. What America really wanted to do was terrorize every political leader worldwide so they’d essentially have complete control over the whole world. If anyone was trying to take over the world, it would’ve been America and the atomic bomb was the perfect tool to help them accomplish this.

It wasn 't my fault, it was too late for him and there was nothing anyone could do to help him. It happened in the early hours of the morning, the sun slowly stretching and awakening from its own peaceful slumber but couldn 't get its bright rays past the army of clouds that stood guard over the land. Our broken bodies leaning against the trench wall, our soggy backs slowly sinking into the disgusting, dark and dingy mud. The sound of the raindrops smacking the floor of our trench and the smothered, repetitive blasts of a Vickers machine gun constantly invaded our ears. The murky sky cried with despair as the rain gradually began to hit the ground as hard as bullets connecting with bone. Crippled bullet shells soared overhead with so much acceleration, they camouflaged within the stormy scenery. I recall the power of the silence that would submerge us all once the commotion beyond the trench would cease, I felt I was tangled and drowning within its forceful and mighty waves. My heart pummeled the inside of my chest with built up momentum, my pulse was as repetitive as the constant firing of a machine gun.

The Cold War was a state of political hostility between the U.S and the Soviet bloc, the most powerful nations in the world. The two countries fought together as allies in World War II but toward the end of the War the two nations competing ideologies and visions of the post War prevented them from working together. The Cold War was by far the biggest threat to human existence the world has ever seen, although their was never any declaration of War between the two competing nations, the Soviet Union and the United States both had weapons of mass destruction, that was capable of destroying human life as we know today. From the end of World War II up until the collapse of the Soviet Union the two nations competed in expanding their spheres of influence throughout the world. By 1960 Communism had maintained a high degree of focus, coordination, discipline, and strategic coherence in spreading its ideologies throughout the world,the West seemed to be quite the opposite. In discussing the Cold War throughout this period, you will catch a glimpse of the various events that put the united states and the West on the defensive against communism.

The scene was set for a nation to change. Fresh off of the economic and political victory that was World War II for the United States, The Soviet Union sent a challenge to the U.S that set up one of the biggest, and potentially apocalyptic stand-offs in history. The Cold War, the great stand off between the Americans and the Soviets lasted from 1947 to about 1991 according to Major Problems in American History Since 1945. This Cold War would change the culture in the United States forever, stamping it’s air of alertness and terror not only on the citizens of the U.S but on the politicians that ran the country as well. After the second world war, there was a brief sense of ultimate security within the country. The United States was the lone wolf, the top dog in the terms of defense and especially, in regards to the A-Bomb which the Soviets first tested successfully in 1949 (Brands, H.W). That all changed with the Cold War, the Soviet Union stepped into the arena, thus sending shockwaves throughout the country. These two countries also shared differences ideologically especially in the years immediately following WW II. The American government, specifically foreign policy officials, took it their mission to successfully spread capitalism and democracy across the globe, this was a very drastic difference to the Soviet’s desire to overthrow capitalism. The Cold War shaped 1950s American society and culture by creating the containment mentality that would follow the United

Boos echoed throughout the streets of Harlem, New York in great waves of disapproval. Hippies holding up signs supporting peace, and posters opposing the Vietnam War, otherwise known as the Cold War, greeted the tired and injured soldiers. The familiarity of their hometown created a sense of peace and warmth, despite the angry cries of protest from the enraged nonconformists. As loved ones embraced their fighters, chants of outrage broke out from the hippies, and the soldiers, relieved to be home, wondered why they were being jeered at. In their eyes, they were fighting for what was right, just like the hippies and everybody else in the world. Many of the soldiers thought back to the times when they fought for their lives and surrendered themselves to the harsh world of mother nature, a profuse amount of them wondering, “Was this all worth it?”

The U.S. learned greatly after having been declared the victor of the Cold War. Retired four-star U.S. Army general Colin Powell said, “The long bitter years of the Cold War are over. America and her allies have won; totally, decisively, and overwhelmingly” (Reed 343). The Cold War started after World War II in 1947 and ended in 1991. The U.S. underwent a political war with the Soviet Union in hopes of advancing more rapidly in certain fields, such as nuclear weapons and space crafts. Avoiding nuclear conflicts and managing the economy in order to successfully fund research in order to out-advance the Soviet Union were just two conflicts the U.S. faced during the Cold War. The U.S. consistently stayed ahead of the Soviet Union during the arms race, and had adequate funding to do so, so therefore they were victorious in that area of the war. After the Cold War, the Soviet Union essentially collapsed due to its bad economy and all of its states gradually declared independence from the USSR. Lastly, the U.S. emerged as a superpower because its economy ended up being stronger in the end than in the beginning, as well as being in possession of a stockpile of nuclear weapons, which gave the U.S. a strong strategic position. The United States won the Cold War due to its stable economy, allowing it to stay ahead of the Soviet Union financially, competitively and politically, thus resulting in the U.S. emerging as the victor at the end of war.

September 2nd, 1945. This was the day gunshots would stop firing, screaming and shouts would no longer be heard, and bodies would lay dead on the front line. World war two, the most devastating war in history, was over. Countries were in pieces, torn completely apart by each other, and nearly had nothing left of themselves. After the battle, the globe had divided into sections, such as the communist and capitalist bloc. This stated rivalry between two of the largest nations in the world: The Soviet Union, and the United States. The rivalry was known as the cold war. The cold war was a time of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was communist which is an economic system in which the government owns all property

The term “Cold War” refers to the second half of the 20th century, usually from the end of the World War II until 1990, when the Soviet Union collapsed. Since the 1940s and 1950s the scholars have disagreed on the topic of the origins of the Cold War. There are several groups of historians and their interpretations are very different, sometimes even contradictory. The three main schools are the orthodox, the revisionist and the realist. The classification is not completely accurate because we can find several differences in theories of scholars within the same group and often the authors reevaluated their ideas over time.