The Cold War (USA V.S. USSR)
Background |
The Cold War started when tensions between the USA and the USSR were high. This was because of the nightmare that was World War II. Americans were concerned with the spread of Communism in East Europe while the USSR was afraid of western capitalism taking over Europe. The Russians were also furious about the late entry of the US in WWII, resulting in millions of Russian soldiers. Although their was speculation that the Russians started the Cold War, both sides are to blame because of the grievances between the two sides.
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Nuclear Arms Race: |
NSC–68 had echoed Truman’s recommendation that the country use military force to “contain” communist expansionism anywhere it seemed to be occurring. This started the production of atomic weaponry made for "the defense of the nation". Thus began a deadly “arms race.” In 1949, the Soviets tested an atom bomb of their own. United States would build an even more destructive atomic weapon: the hydrogen bomb, or “super-bomb.” The first American H-bomb test, in the Eniwetok atoll in the Marshall Islands, showed just how fearsome the nuclear age could be. It created a 25-square-mile fireball that vaporized an island, blew a huge hole in the ocean floor and had the power to destroy half of Manhattan. Threat of nuclear annihilation had a great impact on American domestic life as well.
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Space Race |
Space exploration served as another dramatic arena for Cold War competition. On October 4, 1957, a Soviet R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile launched Sputnik (Russian for “traveler”), the world’s first artificial satellite and the first man-made object to be placed into the Earth’s orbit. This was a scary front because it was a flex of Russia's muscles in missile game. But In 1958, the U.S. launched its own satellite, Explorer I, designed by the U.S. Army under the direction of rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, and what came to be known as the Space Race was underway. America then created NASA which ultimately landed a man on the moon.
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End of COLD WAR |
President Richard Nixon (1913-1994) suggested,"why not use diplomacy instead of military action to create more poles?" Nixon encouraged the United Nations to recognize the communist Chinese government and, after a trip there in 1972, began to establish diplomatic relations with Beijing. Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev (1906-1982) signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I), which prohibited the manufacture of nuclear missiles by both sides and took a step toward reducing the decades-old threat of nuclear war.
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RussiAn POint of view |
As said in the Cold War: Soviet Perspectives section from the publisher the Library of Congress, "Joseph Stalin saw the world divided into two camps: imperialist and capitalist regimes on the one hand, and Communist and progressive world on the other." This meant that Stalin truly believed that Communism was the future of the world. He thought that capitalism would end in revolution. America was the polar opposite. Nuclear deals like the Geneva Summit were meant to to solve the tensions between America and the USSR. When America moved forces into Turkey after the became partners, the soviet union thought this to be an act of defiance because of the ability to fire missiles at Russia closer so they wouldn't be detected before its too late. Russia took this opportunity to ally with Cuba, another communist nation. America thought that this was also breaking their treaties because of the same reasons. This became a cycle of peace and fear that resulted in the tension that made the Cold War so famous.
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WHY DID this Matter |
You may be wondering, "why has he told us all these facts? How am I going to benefit from this?" Well the Cold War the biggest nuclear arms race in history and basically helped us set up the rules and regulations for nuclear armaments. This event also shows how atomic weaponry impacted the lives of everyone within a nation-- such as America & the USSR-- and worldwide. If there is one thing you can conclude from this info about the Cold War is that it impacted nuclear history forever.
The Cold War also relates to how conflict never ends. As said before, the Cold War began because of the relations between America and the Soviet Union after their alliance in World War II; American Capitalism v.s. Soviet Communism. This led to a nuclear arms like no other that affected the entire world. We are also show that conflict never ends by how the Cold War concluded. For many years, communist and capitalist nations battle head to head for greater economic prosperity. Rivals and allies were formed creating bad relations between some nations of the world. Every conflict has an impact that seems smaller than it really is. Nuclear weapons have created so many problems that still impact us today. Conflict will never even have a chance of halting if nuclear weapons remain at large. |