...The cold war was caused because of different ideas that became a conflict amongst the United and Communism Democracys and the soviet Union. Its kind of Amazeing to me that in only 3 decades it was full steam ahead. And it made the 1940's a standoff everywhere. But the depression was over and the cold war did help to shape our culture in the 1950's with all home life being changed completely. President Eisenhower said that America is today the most stongest, and the most influential, and most productive nation in the world.(Eisenhower,1961) The President had policy of brinksmanship. We need to understand That the leadership of this country on our unmatched material progress and our military strength. And we have to use our power to help those who cannot help there selves. Truman was a president that wanted keep communism confined to a specific area. The difference between Eisenhower, Truman where different but they all want to keep communism out of the United States. Eisenhower believed on a policy of brinksmanship and Nixon believed one of détente Truman on the other hand wanted to contain communism, to contain the spread of communist influence in areas of strategic importance, strengthen European nations and contain communist influence in Asian countries. The Truman Doctrine fundamentally shaped the United States' approach to the Cold War because it provided a justification for America to exert its influence throughout the world, promoting the growth of democracy, and...
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...1 NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND THE ESCALATION OF THE COLD WAR, 1945-1962 David Holloway, Stanford University Nuclear weapons are so central to the history of the Cold War that it can be difficult to disentangle the two. Did nuclear weapons cause the Cold War? Did they contribute to its escalation? Did they help to keep the Cold War “cold?” We should ask also how the Cold War shaped the development of atomic energy. Was the nuclear arms race a product of Cold War tension rather than its cause? The Atomic Bomb and the Origins of the Cold War The nuclear age began before the Cold War. During World War II, three countries decided to build the atomic bomb: Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Britain put its own work aside and joined the Manhattan Project as a junior partner in 1943. The Soviet effort was small before August 1945. The British and American projects were driven by the fear of a German atomic bomb, but Germany decided in 1942 not to make a serious effort to build the bomb. In an extraordinary display of scientific and industrial might, the United States made two bombs ready for use by August 1945. Germany was defeated by then, but President Truman decided to use the bomb against Japan. The decision to use the atomic bomb has been a matter of intense controversy. Did Truman decide to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order, as he claimed, to end the war with Japan without further loss of American lives? Or did he drop the bombs in order to intimidate the Soviet...
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...The Cold War The Cold War, often dated from 1947 to 1991, was a sustained state of political and military tension between powers in the Western Bloc, dominated by the United States with NATO among its allies, and powers in the Eastern Bloc, dominated by the Soviet Union along with the Warsaw Pact. Role of USSR and USA to the conflicts in the Cold War The Cold War began after World War II. The main enemies were the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cold War got its name because both sides were afraid of fighting each other directly. In a "hot war," nuclear weapons might destroy everything. So, instead, both sides fought each other indirectly. They supported opposing sides in conflicts in different parts of the world. They also used words as weapons. They threatened and denounced each other. Or they tried to make each other look foolish. Over the years, leaders on both sides changed. Yet the Cold War continued. It was the major force in world politics for most of the second half of the twentieth century. The Cold War world was separated into three groups. The United States led the West, including countries with democratic political systems. The Soviet Union led the East. This including countries with communist political systems. The non-aligned group included countries that did not want to be tied to either the West or the East. Harry Truman was the first American president to fight the Cold War. He used several policies. One was the Truman Doctrine. This was a plan...
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...Alexandra Roach Dr. Fiddner PLSC World Politics 101 006 October 8, 2015 Cuban Missile Crisis Analysis Due to the Cold War, in October 1962, tensions were high between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cuban Missile Crisis began on October 14, 1962. This was by far the most significant event to happen in the Cold War. The Soviets had been using Cuba as a place to set their missiles from which they would be able to launch a nuclear attack at any time on almost anywhere in the Southeastern parts of the United States, this including places like Washington D.C., New York City, New Orleans, and other major cities in the United States. Photographers were able to capture pictures of these missiles with high-altitude U-2 spy planes giving evidence that the missiles were 90 miles off the American costal line. Although it seems as if the Cuban Missile Crisis happened at a blinding pace, this crisis actually was a culmination of a much longer process. In this essay I will be focusing on the events that led up to the terrifying 14 day event of the Cuban Missile Crisis as well as looking at the crisis from an individual level of analysis and from a realist point of view. In order to fully understand the Cuban Missile Crisis, we must first take a look at all of the events that had lead up to the crisis. Among many of the factors leading up to the nuclear standoff between the countries, one of the factors, of course, was the genuine concern of defense of each leader, John...
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...Mark Dissen 4/15/2013 Nuclear Arms Race Term Paper The Nuclear Threat During the Berlin Crisis Introduction On November 10, 1958, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev gave a speech at a Soviet-Polish meeting in Moscow that would ultimately culminate into one of the most profound crises of the Cold War. The Soviet leader accused the Western Powers of violating the 1945 Potsdam Agreement and sabotaging the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and recommended that the Federal Republic abandon, “the hope that we shall cease to support the German Democratic Republic.” (Address by Premier, 1958). Soon after, Khrushchev delivered a speech giving an ultimatum to the allies and gave them six months to demilitarize West Berlin. The Allies' subsequent refusal and the resulting tension put both the U.S.S.R. and the United States in a particularly dangerous situation. Although it is unlikely that full-out thermonuclear war would have resulted from the Berlin Crisis, there was a very real threat of a limited nuclear strike or conventional warfare to both of the superpowers until the tension over Berlin was assuaged. Although November 1958 marked the official beginning of the crisis, Berlin had been a source of contention between the US and the Soviets from the initial division of Germany after WWII (Tine, 2005). The three territorial zones in Western Germany, controlled by France, Britain, and the US, contrasted greatly with the Soviet-controlled East, which upheld socialism. Berlin itself...
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...is widely considered to be one of a thaw in Cold War tensions between the two global superpowers of the USA and USSR. The death of Josef Stalin in 1953 and the election of Dwight Eisenhower – serving two terms in this period - brought a change in leadership in both nations and with that, an inevitable change in policies. Confrontation in this period did not necessarily only apply to direct military intervention, with both sides talking pugnaciously towards one another, making grand threats to the other’s safety. It could also be argued however that this was a period of co-existence with both nations respecting the other's sphere of influence, shown in both the US reaction to the Hungarian Uprising of 1956 and Khrushchev policy of 'Peaceful Co-existence'. Dwight Eisenhower's presidency played a role in the perception of confrontation. Eisenhower’s approach to foreign policy and the Soviet Union differed to that of Truman, who had been president before him. Eisenhower was believed to be more hard-line than Truman, being highly critical of Truman’s foreign policy as he did not take a strong enough stance against communism. Eisenhower’s ‘New Look’ policy suggested that the communists were pursuing expansionist policies and outlined the idea of ‘massive retaliation’, which threatened nuclear force in retaliation to any extent of attack, also outlined by his foreign secretary Dulles. To start, Eisenhower’s approach to foreign policy did not seem to provide a conciliatory approach...
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...Many of the capsules that I have read about before have had a brief glimpse of history and how things used to be during a certain time period. The first item found when opening the time capsule from the 1960’s is The Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was waged from 1961 until 1975 ("Battlefield: Vietnam,"). The Vietnam War cost over $150 Billion and lost over 58,000 American lives (Van Buren, 1991). The Vietnam War was such a big part of the 1960’s; it is almost impossible to no it include it in any time capsule representing the 1960’s. The second item found in the time capsule is the civil rights movement. The civil rights movement was a movement started to create equality between white people and black people. The fight for racial equality started in 1954 is still going on today (Brunner & Haney, 2007). The Third item removed from the time capsule is the band The Grateful Dead. The Grateful Dead provided the sound track for the psychedelic movement of the 1960’s, creating 23 albums over 24 years ("Grateful dead discography," 2013). The fourth object found in the time capsule is the Cold War. The cold war was waged from 1945 until the Warsaw Pact was signed in 1991. The last item found in the time capsule is the space race. The space race started in 1957 and was won by the United States of America in 1969 ("The timeline of," 2009). Upon further examination of the Vietnam War, we discover a time in human history that almost defined an...
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...them and ensuring you have a firm awareness of major events, individuals and ideas. 1. The seeds of conflict 2. Emergence of Cold War, 1944-53 3. The ‘Thaw’ & ‘Peaceful Co-existence’ 4. The arms impact of the arms race 5. Sin-Soviet relations 6. Détente 7. End of Cold War Reminder of the structure of Unit 3 • Unit 3 = 25% of total marks • Written exam: 2 hours • Answer ONE question from Section A (30 marks), and ONE from Section B (40 marks) - choice of 2 questions in both sections • Section A – discuss an historical issue • Section B – use source material & knowledge to discuss an historical event Section A – themes to explore in your revision: 1. The post-Stalin thaw and the bid for peaceful coexistence in 1950s: a) USSR: Khrushchev b) USA: the responses of Dulles, Eisenhower and Kennedy. • the continuation of the Cold War in the 1950s following the retirement of Truman & death of Stalin, despite the bid for improved relations on the part of the USSR in the form of unilateral cuts in the size of the Red Army and withdrawal from Austria and Finland. • the concept of peaceful coexistence & what motivated Khrushchev & the Soviet leadership, & why the USA under Eisenhower & his Secretary of State, Dulles, and later Kennedy and his staff, responded in the way they did. • the role of personality, particularly that of Khrushchev, in shaping relations in these years should be addressed & students should...
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...A Relationship on the Rocks: The United States and Israel Since 1948 Adrienne Jacobs American Foreign Policy Dr. Dua May 2012 The relationship between the United States is one of the most turbulent and debated relationships in world history. Throughout the ages, since its establishment in 1948, Israel has been confronted with eight different American presidents, and eight varying attitudes toward Israel as a state, how the US-Israeli relationship should be dealt with, and the question of Palestine and its people. In this piece, we will review the history of the US-Israeli relationship in six episodes of history, and how US foreign policy on Israel has shifted over the decades to what it is today, and we will then discuss the prospect for Israel, Israel-Palestine, and US-Israel relations in the coming presidential term. Professor Robert Lieber of Georgetown University, and expert on US-Israeli relations asserts that the relationship between the United States and Israel in the past six decades can be separated into two schools of thought: the “special relationship paradigm,” and “national interest orientation.” The United States chose to be the first to recognize the State of Israel because at the time in 1948, and until today, the US Government believed that it shares certain common values and political aims. Under the special relationship paradigm, which still serves today as the basis of US support of Israel, the Truman Administration felt that Israel, like the US...
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...The Vietnam War “Involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War” Aram Mebashar 1202122 January 24, 2015 International History of 20th Century and Beyond Instructor: Andrew Shaben 0 Involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War After the Second World War, fights, clashes, and conflicts had not finished around the world. The Soviet Union was communist and supporting other communist states. In the other hand, the United States was anti-communist and always supported countries, regions, and political parties fighting against communism. In Vietnam as other places a long war happened nearly a decade after the World War Two in 1954 between the North Vietnam communist regime with the support of China, Soviet Union, and other communist allies, against South Vietnam and its essential partner, the United States, also supported by other anti-communist allies. The war was long and costly for both sides, and it left many problems and disadvantages on the United States economy. This essay will argue the following three points, how the United States involved in the Vietnam War, the impact of the war especially on the United States with focus on economics, politics, and culture in both negative and positive aspects, and the US withdrawal of the war. Beginning with the involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War. Firstly, there were many different reasons of the American involvement in the war, but the main reason was prevention of communism spread and expansion...
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...1963), commonly known by his initials JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from January 1961 until he was assassinated in November 1963. After military service as commander of Motor Torpedo Boats PT-109 and PT-59 during World War II in the South Pacific, Kennedy represented Massachusetts's 11th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953 as a Democrat. Thereafter, he served in the U.S. Senate from 1953 until 1960. Kennedy defeated vice president and Republican candidate Richard Nixon in the 1960 U.S. presidential election. At age 43, he was the youngest to have been elected to the office,[2][a] the second-youngest president (after Theodore Roosevelt), and the first person born in the 20th century to serve as president.[3] To date, Kennedy has been the only Roman Catholic president and the only president to have won a Pulitzer Prize.[4] Events during his presidency included the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Space Race—by initiating Project Apollo (which would culminate in the moon landing), the building of the Berlin Wall, the African-American Civil Rights Movement, and increased U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested that afternoon and charged with the crime that night. Jack Ruby shot and killed Oswald two days later, before a trial could take place. The FBI and the Warren Commission...
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...Past Papers, Marks Scheme indicative content and examiners Report comments June 2010 A) How far did ‘peaceful coexistence’ ease Cold War tensions between the Soviet Union and the USA in the years 1953–61? Mark Scheme: Candidates should have knowledge about the main features of ‘peaceful coexistence’ in the period 1953-61. Developments which helped to ease Cold War tensions might include: the end of the Korean War (1953); Soviet settlement of border disputes with Turkey and Iran (1953) and recognition of Israel (1953); Austrian independence and improved Soviet-Yugoslav relations (1955); the ‘Geneva spirit’ based on east-west summit diplomacy and Khrushchev’s visit to the USA in 1959. Developments which sustained Cold War tensions during the period might include: US attitudes towards communism in the 1950s (domino theory, ‘roll back’, Eisenhower doctrine); Soviet concept of peaceful coexistence based on long-term victory of communism; the impact of the Hungarian Rising (1956) and the launch of Sputnik (1957); the U2 spy plane incident (1960) and the issue of Germany (1958-1961). At Levels 1 and 2 simple or more developed statements will provide either only simple or more developed statements about peaceful coexistence with either only implicit reference to the extent tensions were eased or argument based on insufficient evidence. At Level 3, students should provide some sustained...
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...The Black Panthers vs. The Black Panthers The sixties was a time in American society where the youth from the post-war baby boom era became teenagers and the young adults. The movement from the conservative fifties continued and eventually resulted in the revolutionary ways of thinking and change in the cultural of the American way of life. With an extreme admiration of no longer being an image of their predeceasing generation, young Americans wanted and demanded change. These changes affected education, values, laws, entertainment, and the way of life for several citizens around the country. As society, it is extremely important to understand that although the valiant efforts and impact that African American’s had, particularly in the 1950’s and 1960’s, in helping restructure American culture, many of the racist views of the past still play apart in American society. The 1950’s is often described as the calm before the storm of the 1960’s. During this time period, society was very much conformed to the views of conservative living. The desire for security during this era, reinforced by McCarthyism at home and the Korean War, created was known as the cold war culture. During the post WWII period in America, the face of the nation changed greatly under President Truman and Eisenhower. Because of extreme paranoia caused by Communism following WWII, conformity in the United States became an ideal way to distinguish American culture from the rest of the world. Conformity...
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...contested between individuals of this party. The tensions that existed between the USSR and the USA in the 1920s and 30s Communism was viewed as an unstable force that threatened social and political order and Lenin, leader of the Bolshevik Revolution, was to represent this. Allied countries Britain, France, USA and Japan had sent help to Bolshevik enemies during the Civil War therefore there were some hostile feelings towards them even after the war. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March 1918) was a result of Russia withdrawing from the war, leading to a feeling of betrayal amongst the allies who were left to fight Germany alone. Communist groups in Spain and France grew in strength in the 1930s in response to the hardships of the Great Depression which placed strains on the USA. Britain’s appeasement policy towards Germany under Hitler’s leadership led to Stalin seeing it as an attempt to placate Hitler and a sign of Britain’s lack of enthusiasm for halting Nazi foreign policy. This meant mutual mistrust and hostility remained between the countries. The strains that existed in the Grand Alliance during World War 2 Despite the meeting at Tehran in November 1943 there were divisions amongst the Big Three. The opening of...
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...East policy has been its relationship with Israel. The combination of unwavering U.S. support for Israel and the related effort to spread democracy throughout the region has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardized U.S. security.” (Mearsheimer and Walt, 1) The United States did not take an overly "sympathetic" position on the Zionist movement until the second decade of the 1900s. One main reason for their new support was the establishment in 1914 of the Provisional Executive Committee for General Zionist Affairs. On September 21, 1922, the United States Congress passed the Lodge-Fish resolution, which lent the support of the United States for Zionists to establish a homeland in Palestine. In May of 1942 at the Biltimore Conference, the Zionists made the declaration that Palestine needed to be recognized as a "Jewish Commonwealth." (Oren, 442) The end of the Second World War brought about two changes in the Middle East. The first of these changes was the decolonization of the Middle Eastern states; Britain and France withdrew from some of their colonies early on, but remained in others for more years to come. The second of these changes was the involvement of the Middle East in the Cold War. “The most controversial of all withdrawals, Brown 2 however, was that from Palestine: the British tried initially to continue the...
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