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Cold War Dbq

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Throughout the middle of the twenty-first century, a series of tension and disagreement erupted between the United States of America and the Soviet Union of Russia. Because it was not a violent time of any major skirmishes or death, it was given the name The Cold War. This period lasted for roughly fifty years, from the end of World War II until the end of the century. Though there is much debate regarding when the Cold War officially began, there is strong evidence for all the events that contributed to the build up towards the war Perhaps the earliest spark of disagreement between the US and Russia was during the Potsdam conference during World War II. At the time, Harry Truman had just taken over the US presidency after the death of President …show more content…

Their goals after the war was over were to rebuild after the devastations of war and redefine their borders to prepare for another attack just as that of Germany. From the Russian point of view, they were devastated that America did not open the second front of the war early enough, causing a great deal of Russian casualties. America also did not help the USSR financially after the war when they did help England, causing more anger to develop. Thirdly, Russia was eager for more land to act as a buffer zone to protect them from future invasions. To compensate for this, they went after the German land that was divided equally between the four main Allied powers. Russian forces blocked all roads that led to the American, British, and French sections of the capital, Berlin. This caused the Berlin Airlift, where these countries were forced to airdrop supplies into Berlin because of the Soviet …show more content…

The Soviet’s growing power was finally addressed in 1946 by former British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. His “Iron Curtain” speech warned Americans about the danger of Soviet expansion, causing all citizens to truly realize that Russia was a major threat. It was now clear that America had to assist any country that was threatened by Soviet Communism. In 1947, the Truman Doctrine was established to do just this. Substantial funds were used for the soul purpose of preventing the expansion of communism, which was further utilized in 1948 to assist Turkey and Greece in this fight. This has been said to be the beginning of the Cold War. However, the tension kept building between the United States and Soviet Union. Soon after the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan was created to aid England in rebuilding their war damages. In addition to this, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, was conceived. This organization consisted of twelve countries that allied together to vow that an attack on one of them would be an attack on all of them. In response to this, Russia developed their own organization under the Warsaw Pact. In 1949, the Cold War was in full swing when Russia exploded their own atomic bomb, no longer giving the US the upper

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