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The United States and the USSR had always generally disliked and distrusted each other, despite the fact that they were allies against Germany and Japan during the war. Americans had hated and feared Communism ever since it had appeared in the Bolshevik Revolution Of 1 917 and had refused to recognize the new Soviet government, especially after Bolshevik leaders promoted the destruction of capitalism. During World War II, Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill delayed their decision to open a second front, which would have distracted the Nazis and ken pressure off the Red Army entrenched at Straddling.
Stalin resented this delay, just as he resented the fact that the United States and Great Britain refused to share their nuclear weapons research with the Soviet Union. After the war, Trauma’s decision to give Great Britain relief loans while denying similar requests from the USSR only added to the resentment. Another major factor contributing to the Cold War was the fact that the United States and USSR were the only two powers to escape World War II relatively unharmed. Whereas other major world powers such as Great Britain, France, Italy, and
Germany lay in ruins, the Soviet Union and the United States still had manufacturing and military capabilities. The world had been a multipart one before the war but was bipolar afterward, and this new order implicitly pitted the already distrustful and ideologically opposed United States and Soviet Union against each other. Perhaps most important, both powers had conflicting security goals that neither wanted to concede. The USSR, which had already been invaded twice in the first half of the twentieth century, wanted to set up friendly governments throughout Eastern Europe to create a buffer bet. En Moscow and Germany. In addition to exacting enormous war reparations, Stalin wanted to dismantle German factories to keep Germany weak and dependent. Truman, conversely, believed that rebuilding, reinitializing, and demonstrating Europe was the key to preventing another world war. With neither side willing to compromise on these conflicting ideologies and postwar plans, tension between the united States and the USSR was inevitable. 2. Why has the Korean War often been called America’s “forgotten war”?
What purpose did the war serve, and what impact did it have? The Korean War has Often been called America’s “forgotten war” cause the United States made no significant territorial or political gains during the war. Despite the fact that tens of thousands of Americans died, the war both began and ended with the Korean Peninsula divided at the 38th parallel. Nevertheless, the Korean War helped define the Cold War, established a precedent for keeping peripheral wars limited, and boosted defense spending that contributed to the postwar economic boom in the United States.
Despite the loss of life, the Korean War faded from national memory, perhaps because the three-year conflict ended without any arterial or political gains. Although General Douglas MacArthur captured nearly the entire Korean Peninsula after his brilliant Inch landing, his tactical miscalculation at the Yale River brought China into the war and forced United Nations troops back down to 38th parallel, where they had started. Both sides became entrenched there, each preventing the other from making any headway. As a result, neither side could claim victory when cease-fire negotiations began in 1953.
The 38th parallel remained one of the “hottest’ Cold War borders in the world, almost as if the war had never really ended. The Korean War was an important conflict, however, because it set the tone for the entire Cold War. In expanding the draft and sending more than 3 million U. S. Troops to Korea, Truman demonstrated to the USSR his commitment to containing Communism at almost any cost. This demonstration of massive U. S. Military force in East Asia forced the Soviets to rethink postwar policy in Eastern Europe and the rest of Asia.
Truman also set a precedent during the war of avoiding the use of nuclear weapons, despite the fact that MacArthur advocated using them against North Koreans and the Chinese. Although the American public vilified Truman for this decision and for firing his insubordinate general, the decision proved to be prudent. The president knew that using nuclear weapons would only drag the Soviet Union and China fully into the conflict, which would destabilize Europe and initiate a third world war-??one that might even lead to all-out nuclear war.
By refusing to use nuclear weapons, Truman kept the war confined to the Korean Peninsula. The decision would later have an enormous impact on future presidents making similar decisions in Vietnam. Trauma’s actions in Korea Hereford demonstrated not only American resolve to contain Communism but also a desire to keep the Cold War from devolving into an open war. The Korean War also boosted American military spending, as a result of a memorandum issued by the National Security Council, known as NCSC-68.
The memo recommended that Congress quadruple military and defense spending in order to contain the Soviet Union. As a result, the percentage of Congress’s annual budget spent on defense soared throughout the following years, hovering at roughly 50 percent under the Eisenhower administration. Government investment in war factories kept employment high and money lowing into the economy between 950 and 1970, contributing significantly to the prosperous economic boom. 3. Was the United States, the USSR, or Cuba more to blame for the Cuban missile crisis? What impact did the crisis have on U. S. -Soviet relations?
Because the United States attempted repeatedly to assassinate or overthrow Fidel Castro in the early asses, the blame for the resulting Cuban missile crisis falls squarely on American shoulders. Had it not been for Khrushchev ultimate willingness to back down and end the crisis, the United States and the USSR might actually have ended up in the nuclear war that the world eared. The United States tried repeatedly to topple Castro after he seized power in a popularly supported revolution in Cuba in 1959. Americans disliked the Castro regime because it threatened U. S. Economic interests in the county.
When the United States withdrew its financial support from Castor’s government, Castro turned to the Soviet Union for assistance. In order to prevent Scuba’s Communist influence from spreading throughout Latin America, Kennedy launched the Alliance for Progress, a program that awarded Latin American countries millions of dollars in U. S. Aid to tackle poverty. Kennedy took more direct action when he authorized the arming and training of 1 , 200 anti-Castro Cuban exiles to invade the island, in the hopes that the invasion would cause a massive public uprising that would ultimately depose Castro.
The plan for this Bay of Pigs invasion failed, however, when Kennedy decided not to involve American military forces and withheld the air support he had previously promised the exiles. As a result, the Cuban army killed or captured all of the exiles, and the invasion attempt was an embarrassment for the U. S. Government. Although Kennedy accepted full accessibility for the Bay of Pigs failure, he continued to authorize unsuccessful CIA-led assassination attempts against Castro. Not surprisingly, Castro turned to the Soviet Union for support, and in 1962, U.
S. Intelligence officials discovered that the Soviet Join had placed nuclear missiles in Cuba. Kennedy sent a naval blockade to circle the island, despite Cuban and Soviet protests, and refused to back down, even at the risk of nuclear war. The crisis ended only when Khrushchev himself agreed to remove the missiles in exchange for an end to the blockade. This sacrifice cost him his position as dead of the Soviet Communist Party but saved the world from the prospect of nuclear war between the superpowers. The crisis had a significant impact on U. S. Soviet relations, as both sides worked to improve their relationship in order to prevent another potentially catastrophic situation from arising. A Moscow-Washington “hotlist,” for example, was installed so that the Soviet premier and American president could speak to each other personally should another crisis occur. Kennedy also changed his rhetoric by asking Americans to think more kindly of the Russians rather than see them as enemies. He also pushed the USSR into signing the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, a symbolic but nonetheless significant step that helped pave the Way for dtenet in the asses.
Cold War Origins Rivalry between the united States and the Soviet Union for control over the postwar world emerged before World War II had even ended. U. S. Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S Truman and Soviet premier Joseph Stalin never really trusted one another, even while working together to defeat the Nazis. This mutual mistrust actually began as far back as 191 7, when the United States refused to recognize the new Bolshevik government after the Russian Revolution.
Stalin also resented the fact that the United States and Great Britain had not shared nuclear weapons research with the Soviet Union during the war and was unhappy with the countries’ initial unwillingness to engage the Germans on a second front in order to take pressure off of the Soviets. Additionally, Stalin was irked by the fact that Truman had offered postwar relief loans to Great Britain but not to the USSR. Important ideological differences separated the two countries as well, especially during the postwar years, when American foreign policy officials took it upon homeless to spread democracy across the globe.
This goal conflicted drastically with the Russian revolutionaries’ original desire to overthrow capitalism. Having been invaded by Germany twice in the last fifty years, Soviet leaders also wanted to restructure Europe so that a buffer existed between the Germans and the Soviet border. Both the United States and the USSR believed that their respective survival was at stake, and each Was therefore prepared to take any steps to win. As a result, both countries found themselves succumbing to the classic prisoners’ dilemma: working together old produce the best result, but with everything to lose, neither side could risk trusting the other.
At the same time, however, both the United States and the USSR did much to prevent the Cold War from escalating, as both countries knew how devastating a nuclear war would be. Truman, for example, kept the Korean War limited by refusing to use nuclear weapons against North Korea and China, aware that doing so would force the USSR to retaliate. President Dwight D. Eisenhower kept his distance from the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, knowing full well that the USSR would not alert interference in Eastern Europe. Likewise, the Soviet Union made sacrifices to keep the war “cold” by backing down from the Cuban missile crisis.
Many Cold War historians believe that both countries worked hard to keep conflicts limited and used tacit signaling techniques to communicate goals, fears, concerns, intentions, and counteractions. The Cold War had an enormous impact on the United States politically, socially, and economically. In addition to spawning fear-induced Red hunts and McCarthy in the late asses and early asses, the Cold War also shaped U. S. Presidents’ political agendas. Eisenhower, for example, sought to reduce government spending at home in order to halt what he called “creeping socialism” and to save money for more urgent needs such as defense.
Kennedy’s New Frontier inspired patriotic fervor and visions of new hope in American youth. Even Eisenhower farewell warning of a growing military-industrial complex within the United States, which would come to dominate American political thinking, proved to be eerily accurate during the Vietnam War era the following decade. At the same time, federal dollars feeding this complex helped produce one of the greatest economic booms in world history. The question as to whether the United States or the USSR was more to blame for starting the Cold War has produced heated debate among twentieth-century historians.
For years, most historians placed blame squarely on Soviet shoulders and helped perpetuate the notion that Americans wanted merely to expand freedom and democracy. More recent historians, however, have accused President Truman of inciting the Cold War with his acerbic language and public characterization of the Soviet Union as the greatest threat to the free world. Although conflict between the two powers was arguably inevitable, the escalation into a full “hot” war and the attendant threat of nuclear annihilation might have been avoidable. How far do you agree that neither the U. S. Or the USSR intended to cause the Cold War? Historians have many different viewpoints of who is responsible for the Cold War. The post revisionist group is integrated by the ones who support the fact that neither the U. S nor the USSR was responsible. Meanwhile, countering this argument there are two more groups, the first one is called the Orthodox view who blame the USSR and the second one is the Revisionist view who blame the U. S. The historical position known as the Orthodox places the responsibility for the Cold War on the Soviet Union and its expansion into Eastern Europe.
Their main argument is based on Soviet expansionism; they said Stalin had an aggressive policy towards Eastern Europe. For example, the Salami tactics were a way of expanding and securing communist control over Easter Europe by initially establishing a broad alliance of anti-fascists with Moscow as the Central government. Moreover, the most important event which confirmed this aggressive policy of the Soviet Union towards expanding and securing control over East Europe s the Berlin Blockade, were Stalin ordered the cut of railways, roads and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Allied control.
His aim was to force the western powers to allow the Soviet zone to supply Berlin, thereby giving the Soviets practical control over the entire city. Furthermore, the Keenan telegram warned the U. S of the Soviet expansionists ideas and that they fed communism by controlling poor countries who were willing to be controlled by a big power in exchange of economic aid. Finally, Orthodox historians say it was because of these factors that led the USA to the creation of the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall plan and the NATO.
In contrast, the Revisionists, place the responsibility for the Cold War on the LISA. This historical point of view emerged in the Vietnam War, when historians were thinking about the role of the U. S in international affairs. William Appleton William, a revisionist view historian, states that behind every economic aid the USA provided, there was an idea of Dollar Imperialism. They say that the Soviet Union’s occupation of Eastern Europe had a defensive reason, and that Soviet leaders saw themselves as attempting to avoid encirclement by the United States and its lies.
Moreover, they say USA wanted to expand all over Europe to get access to new markets and raw resources which brings up the idea of capitalism. The clear examples behind this theory are the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall plan created by the US. By the creation of the Truman Doctrine the USA offered help to free people who were under pressure mainly by Soviets, In this way they tried to manipulate weak countries politically with the excuse of containing Soviet expansionism.
The Marshall plan was the second stage of the Truman doctrine, but based on the economy, were the USA would economically aid countries with the excuse of reviving the working economy of the world. Revisionist historians agree USA had a background purpose within all these plans, based on expanding its empire by economic control (Dollar imperialism). The most balanced view, the Post-Revisionists, states that both sides, the U. S. And USSR, should take some blame for the Cold War. Both, Caddis and Labeler, agreed that misconceptions played an important role in creating tension between the two powers.
Caddis states that the begging of the Cold War was due to several external factors within the two rowers; the world was divided (Iron Curtain) into two pieces: Soviet controlled and the west capitalist countries, and due to internal factors, in the case of USSR: security; Stalin looked forward to expand its territory to gain strength and secure its empire from west danger, post-war reconstructions; the Soviet union became weak after the WWW and therefore it looked to expand and recover all its territory lost, personality of Stalin; Stalin was crude, cruel and inexperienced.