Cold War Essay Text

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Because the cold war doubles as a conflict between two countries the usa and the ussr and between two ideologies capitalism and communism several different causes can be suggested: 1. Because capitalism and communism are usually seen as antithetical, it can be argued that the cold war began when communism began, in 1917 with the russian revolution. Or, if not quite in 1917, then in early 1920s, when lenin and his bolsheviks consolidated their power in russia and tried to spread communism to the west, to europe on the blade of their swordsalthough they were rather quickly unsuccessful, being defeated by the poles in the polish soviet war 1919 1921. Another commonly argued cause of the cold war is, fittingly enough, the beginning of world war ii in europe: 1939. The soviet union, now under stalin, had signed a secret pact with germany's hitler, and both countries attacked poland in september of that year. However, the most popular cause of the cold war was not the beginning, but the end of world war ii: 1945.

Stalin, after being betrayed by hitler in 1941, finished the war on the allied side, but the tensions between the victorious western powers and the ussr were already in evidence. The ussr was gobbling up the countries east of germany, and part of germany itself, which made the americans and british somewhat hesitant. The british feared too strong a soviet presence in europe and the americans wanted a free and open germany which would become a large market for its products. In fact, american general george patton once famously remarked that when the americans had gotten to berlin, they should have kept going on to moscow! 4. Finally, probably the latest starting date and cause for the cold war that's been argued is 1947, the year in which the soviets acquired the knowledge to make nuclear weapons. Because the cold war is so heavily wrapped up into nuclear technologyand technology in generalsome will argue that it was caused by the soviet challenge to american nuclear power, which had been demonstrated at hiroshima and nagasaki at the end of world war ii. The most important thing to keep in mind when looking at the cause of the cold war is that there is no one, definite cause.

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The cold war was a conflict that was ideological, that grew out of world war iiwhich, itself, grew out of world war i and its aftermathand that was fought in various ways. Hence, the key when deciding on the cause of the cold war is not which cause you choose, but how well you argue the one you do. Wrting an essay about the cold war has its own set of unique challenges, beyond those associated with writing a history essay on any topic. There are pitfalls to avoid, as well as things that you should take into account. The most important are: hindsight is a wonderful tool, but sometimes it can skew your perspective.

Specifically, don't write a history paper from the perspective that the way events turned out is the only way that they could have turned out. Always put yourselves in the shoes of the people of the timeat least as best as you can. With regard to the cold war, it's vital that you don't write your essay as if the outcome was a foregone conclusion. Yes, communism as a political movement is largely discredited while western capitalism is alive and well. However, cold war policymakers, journalists, and generals didn't know, in 1963, that within the next thirty the soviet union and its ideology would collapse.

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Heck, political scientists in the 1980s were flabbergasted when 1989 rolled along! therefore, when you're trying to understand and later explain cold war decisions, you can't explain them from your own, hindsight deluded, perspective. For example, the soviet crushing of the hungarian revolution in 1956 is nowadays often seen as one of the first steps in the eventual dissolution of the soviet empire. But, in 1956, it may have seemed like exactly the opposite: a soviet show of strength that proved just how powerful the ussr still was! 2. This is especially true in the humanities and social sciences this is especially true in history and political science. By the time you get to college and university, getting a good grade usually meansto a greater or lesser extentappealing to your professor's political point of view. Those days are being left behind, however, and the political spectrum at institutes of higher learning is beginning to level out. While this may be a good development in many ways, it makes writing papers a bit trickier, too.

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Now, you can't just assume your prof's a hardcore liberal and write a love letter to khrushchev. Instead, you have to read your prof ask him or her pointed questions about current events, for example and find out what he or she is like. Incidentally, since the bush administration has done a fine job of raising the level of anti americanism beyond the us as well as within its own borders, you also have to factor that in. Writing papers critical of us cold war era involvement in latin america, for example, will get you better grades in this type of environment than an equally well researched and well written paper on why, for example, staging a coup in chile and putting pinochet into power wasn't so bad. Cold war historians are infamous for filling their books with moral judgmentssometimes well hidden, so look carefullyof not only their subjects but also of other historians. Their works may still be useful, but filter them by finding out a bit about who their authors are.

Did they work in the state department, did they stage small pro mao rallies in their spare time? this is good historical practice anyway. But even more so when dealing with modern history, and subjects like the cold war. Because there are historians who'll tell you, with a straight face, that america is the greatest thing to hit the world since sliced bread hello, niall ferguson! and, god knows, marxist historians still persist the age of hobsbawm ain't over yet.

There weren't any fighter planes flying over countries dropping bombs, no tanks no ground troops, no actually deployment of missile, and no ground troops. However there were a stockpile of nuclear weapons, money was being spent like an actually war was being fought, propaganda, and there were two superpower enemies but no actually fighting occurred. The cold war was a big arms race that was started after world war ii between the united states and the soviet union ussr or modern day russia. This war causes a bipolar system in the world where there were two dominant powers fighting to become the dominant power. The cold war was a real complicated war because it was more a fight about ideology, democracy and communism. The united states, after world war ii was trying to promote it democratic ideology to the entire world.

The other superpower that benefited from world war ii, the soviet union, tried to also spread their communist idea throughout europe and the rest of the world. The two clashes of ideologist cause a war of competition between the two countries. The cold war caused a split between east and west and the united states and russia competed with each other in every single aspect of life from space exploration to sports.

The cold war almost became a nuclear war at one point when in 1962 the soviets had begun building nuclear missile in cuba, which is 90 miles away from the coast of florida and president kennedy send ships down to block the soviets. The cold war also led america into adapting a doctrine called the containment doctrine where the foreign policy transformed into trying to oppose the soviets militarily and diplomatically all around the world. The us wanted to prevent vietnam from turning into a communist nation so in 1964 they interven by. Posted by admin as example papers the cold war was a contest between the usa and the soviet union. It led to the existence of thousands of nuclear weapons, two universal ideologies in conflict, and two different self images, the united states championing a world made safe for democracy. The united states prides itself on its heritage of freedom, a refuge for persecuted religious groups, a land of liberty that successfully rebelled against the imperial power of britain in 1776. Its guiding principles were the protection of the individuals life, liberty and pursuit of happiness and the establishment of a constitution that embodied the best political idea of modern times, a system of checks and balances so that the president, congress or parliament and judiciary or supreme court shared power, checking each others work to guard against dictatorship.

While the united states did not always live up to its ideals, nonetheless, on paper at least, it looked good compared to its cold war rival, the soviet union. Led by a murderous dictator, joseph stalin 1928 to 1953 , the soviet government was brutal, outlawing all opposition, banned political parties opposed to the communist party, murdered millions and set up a vast prison camp system known as the gulag. In the years 1937 38 alone, stalin ordered the execution of one million citizens of the soviet union. In the fifty years of the cold war, the united states only executed two of its own citizens, the husband and wife rosenberg spy team. Even though the rosenbergs should not have been executed because their crimes were tiny in the context of the civil war, the difference between the united states and the soviet union in terms of political mass murder of its own citizens is obvious. Despite this fact, one third of the world went the communist way and other countries were tempted by the promises of communism.

How could this be? in theory, communism promised a more equal world and at its greatest extent in the 1970s, communist governments ruled one third of the world’s people. These countries looked upon the united states as a champion of the rich and powerful, an exploitative superpower that exported its economic system of capitalism only because it suited its interests to do so. Since the collapse of the soviet union in 1991, the united states strides the world as the sole superpower. The united states maintains its grip on this unipolar world without having to make too much effort. The united states spends only about 5 6% of its economy its gross national product on defense.

The soviet union spent somewhere between 20% and 33% of its economy to try to keep up with the united states during the cold war. The position of the united states has declined only slightly in the twentieth century. In 1928, its economy was four times the size of its nearest rival france and in 1950 its economy was three times the size of its nearest rival the soviet union. American films and popular music dominated the mass culture of the world from world war one to the present day.

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