Cold War Free Essays

COLD WAR VIDEO QUESTIONS 1. Stalin forced his people to give up food in order to fund the Cold War. He believed that giving up food; they can put all their necessities to promoting nuclear arms race. We will write a custom essay sample on Cold War or any similar topic only for you Order Now 2. Winston Churchill came up with the Iron Curtain. The Iron Curtain was the use of tanks to cut off soviet controlled Europe (East communist) from the Western Europe controlled by democratic countries. 3. The Fair Deal was the term given to an ambitious set of proposals put forward by United States President Harry S. Truman to the United States Congress in his January 1949 State of the Union address. The term, however, has also been used to describe the domestic reform agenda of the Truman Administration,[1] which governed the United States from 1945 to 1953. It marked a new stage in the history of Modern liberalism in the United States, but with the Conservative Coalition dominant in Congress, the major initiatives did not become law unless they had GOP support. As Neustadt concludes, the most important proposals were aid to education, universal health insurance, FEPC and repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act. They were all debated at length, then voted down. Could Cold War Have Been Avoided? iframe class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" style="position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);" src="https://phdessay.com/could-cold-war-have-been-avoided/embed/#?secret=0h4z3af3HF" data-secret="0h4z3af3HF" width="500" height="282" title="#8220;Could Cold War Have Been Avoided?#8221; #8212; Free Essays - PhDessay.com" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no"/iframe Nevertheless, enough smaller and less controversial (but still important) items passed that liberals could claim some success. 4. The year 1949 was a pivotal year in the Cold War because it was the year that the first bomb that soviets tested finally caused a fear in the world for nucleic warfare. 5. The fall of China was important because it made the United Sates set up to have worldwide associations to reinforce finances and trade with China. 6. The Korea War ended when there was an armistice signed by North Korea, China, and the U. N. but not South Korea. Korea was then split into two, the north and the south. The demilitarized zone became known as the 38th parallel. 7. The husband and wife (Rosenbergs) were accused to have passed A-bomb secrets to the soviet spies. They were eventually found guilty and were executed by electrical chair. 8. McCarthy claimed that he had a lift of people who were associated with the Soviet spies. He was constantly threatening the public by releasing the list. Eventually, a famous journalist called him out for his actions and McCarthy was put to shame and lost popularity in an instant. . Peaceful coexistence is competition without war, or a policy of peace between nations of widely differing political systems and ideologies, especially between Communist and non-Communist nations. In Hungary, Khrushchev reversed his policy of peaceful coexistence during the Hungarian revolt in 1956. The Soviet army crushed the Hungarian Revolution, which resulted in many casualties. 10. President Kennedy admitted to lack of missile gap unlike Eisenhower. He said that the US was way ahead of the Soviets in the developing missiles. The US had the Soviet Union surrounded with missile sites and the Soviets wanted at least one site near the US. If they could get Cuba they would have their â€Å"one place†. A U2 planes discovered installation sites being built in Cuba by the soviets. Kennedy called together the National Security Council, DOD, etc. to discuss what to do with this. We came up with three options. 1) Invade Cuba-Bay of pigs was a failure. 2) Air Strike- was afraid if we did do that they would shoot our planes 3) leave it alone. In 1963 the US and the Soviet Union signed a nuclear Test Ban Treaty which banned the testing of atomic weapons. A hotline was also set up between Moscow and Washington D. C. 11. The government of South Vietnam requested military advisors from the United States to help train the South Vietnamese army to fight against the North and the Viet Cong. Ho Chi Minh, leader of the North, was a communist and during the Cold War of the 1950s and 60s, the aim of the US government was containment of communist power and not to let it spread. The Eisenhower administration provided South Vietnam with money and advisors to help stop the threat of a North Vietnamese takeover. The United States also was pledged by treaty (SEATO) to aid the member nations in Southeast Asia, if they were attacked by a foreign (communist) power. Following the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, President Lyndon B. Johnson also believed in containment and the domino theory. If one nation falls to communism, the next nation will fall, and the next, etc. It became the aim of the Johnson administration to prevent a communist takeover in Southeast Asia. 2. Detente was practical politics and the easing of tensions or strained relations especially between nations. 13. South America: Without the fear of communism prevailing in Latin America, the governments of these countries began to shift to their more-natural left-of-US-center center. Many states in South America restored voting and free campaigning in their governments. This has resulted in cent er-left politics from Chile and Brazil and far left politics from Ecuador, Venezuela, and Bolivia. Africa: had lost all of its luxury and lush Middle East: had managed to impose, confronted the peoples of the Middle East, like those of other regions liberated from superpower control or interference, with an awful choice. They could move, however slowly and reluctantly, to settle their disputes and live peacefully side by side, as happened in some parts of the world; or they could give free rein to their conflicts and hatreds, and fall into a descending spiral of strife, bloodshed and torment, as happened in others. 14. Perestroika: was a political movement for reformation within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during the 1980s (1986), widely associated with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his glasnost (meaning â€Å"openness†) policy reform. The literal meaning of perestroika is â€Å"restructuring†, referring to the restructuring of the Soviet political and economic system. Glasnost: was a policy that called for increased openness and transparency in government institutions and activities in the Soviet Union. The Soviet economy was slowly becoming stagnant, whilst military spending went through the roof. Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative was seen as a threat to be countered, and the Soviets threw more money at the military. To counter this stagnation Gorbachev introduced the policies of Glasnost’ and Perestroika (Openness and Re-Structuring) hoping that people would be open about how to rebuild the communist system, and make it work better. All it did was allowed people to openly criticize the system – soon they were calling for it to be replaced. Communism was also simply not delivering the promised â€Å"workers aradise†, wages were stagnant, housing shoddy, cars a rarity, and, from the 1970s they could see the differences between their lifestyle and the West on TV – especially when the (uncensored) Olympics were on. 15. The United States and the Soviet Union engaged in talks from 1969 to 1972, during which they negotiated the first agreements to place limits and restraints on some of their central and most important armaments, such as the Ant i-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and the Interim Agreement on strategic offensive arms. Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty II (SALT II) – 1979. The second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty increased limits on intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and heavy bombers. Other limits were placed on multiple re-entry vehicles and bombers with intermediate-range missiles. SALT II was to remain in effect through 1985, but it was never ratified, and was then supplanted by the START negotiations. Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I) SALT I, the first series of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, extended from November 1969 to May 1972. During that period the United States and the Soviet Union negotiated the first agreements to place limits and restraints on some of their central and most important armaments. In a Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems, they moved to end an emerging competition in defensive systems that threatened to spur offensive competition to still greater heights. In an Interim Agreement on Certain Measures With Respect to the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, the two nations took the first steps to check the rivalry in their most powerful land- and submarine-based offensive nuclear weapons. How to cite Cold War, Papers Cold War Free Essays The cold war was a tense relationship between the Soviet Union and the Americans. The reason why they were fighting was because of the way their countries ran. The Soviet Union communism is a political way of thinking and an idea of how society should work and be organized. We will write a custom essay sample on Cold War or any similar topic only for you Order Now Communism is a kind of extreme socialism that says that there should not be social classes or states. Communism says that the people of any and every place in the world should all own the tools, factories, and farms that are used to produce goods and food. This social process is known as common ownership. In a communist society, there is no private property. The main differences between Socialism and Communism are that, in a Communist society, the state ceases to exist along with money, so that the people work in exchange for the things they need to live.. In America they have something called capitalism. Capitalism is an economic system in which capital and assets in the economy are controlled by the private sector(private enterprise or ownership) and in which the eans of production are on the bases of making profit. In capitalism you make your own economic decisions with risks and you can either fail or succeed, but in socialism you stay at only one economic status, in which their is always a social safety net but at the same time you cant strive to achieve more. Both America and the Soviet Union said they were both Democratic, but they didn’t believe each other so they started to argue and threats were thrown around about nuclear ware fare. NORAD is the North American Aerospace Defence Command. It’s a Joint USA – Canada organization that was set up in 1958 as the North American Air Defence Command as a response to the Cold War threat from the Soviet Union. It provides for aerospace warning (for example, if enemy missiles or aircraft are headed towards North America) , protection of North American airspace. How to cite Cold War, Papers Cold War Free Essays Cold War Free Essays The Cold War was a period of time in which there was a rise in political and economic tension between the USA and the Soviet Union post World War 2. The purpose was to prevent the spread of communism and the domino theory. This event lasted from 1945 to 1985. We will write a custom essay sample on Cold War or any similar topic only for you Order Now The Cold war had a large effect on the United States domestic policy and American society. Things, people and events all played an effect on generations rapidly. One example of that had a large effect on the United States domestic policy and American society can be found in document 3. The document shows the gallup poll from 1953-1962. Could Cold War Have Been Avoided? iframe class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" style="position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);" src="https://phdessay.com/could-cold-war-have-been-avoided/embed/#?secret=82olHLyY2J" data-secret="82olHLyY2J" width="500" height="282" title="#8220;Could Cold War Have Been Avoided?#8221; #8212; Free Essays - PhDessay.com" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no"/iframe This showed society that war was a major conflict in the United States that occurred numerous times. People didn’t trust the government because it always resulted in a war, this caused people to feel more threatened and frightened. Society was being torn apart. In document 4 it shows people taking action and protesting against the rosenberg trial. Both pictures relate to julius and Ethyl Rosenberg who were arrested for being communist spies. The picture on the left shows people standing up for the rosenbergs meanwhile the picture the right were against them. This document proves how society rapidly became divided. This was the first time someone had was given the death sentence for espionage. Because of this one incident Americans lived in paranoia, they were lead to believe, mistakenly, that the country was full of communists trying to overthrow the government. After living in such fear americans began building bomb shelters shown in document 5. Although the United States was taking safety precautions for a nuclear bomb attack, like showing drills like duck and cover this document also shows that in result of the rosenberg trial american society had lost all trust and depended on themselves. Society wasn’t the only thing affected by the cold war so was education in document 6 it shows a man pushing aside the general subjects (english, science ect. ) to reach exceed in science. A cause of this was the launching of sputnik. When the United states realized the the soviets were advancing in math and science they spend most of their time,energy and money on these subjects and threw the rest aside How to cite Cold War, Papers Cold war Free Essays Americans became increasingly suspicious of anyone with communist ties or interests, past or present, and the government Egan to take further involvement in the affairs in other nations that seemed at risk to leftist revolts. This compromised the rights and privacy of many innocent Americans, and crossed into the sovereignty of other nations. During the Cold War, America compromised it’s fundamental values and at the expense of it’s own citizens and in the affairs of other nations to increase tension In this era. We will write a custom essay sample on Cold war or any similar topic only for you Order Now Domestically, the United States abandoned Its value of privacy and freedom to political beliefs due to growing concern of communism at home, and Seen. Joseph McCarthy speeches as well the Interrogations through HUGH contributed to this fear. McCarthy, a Republican from Wisconsin, denounced communism and publicly accused members of the State Department and other government positions of being communists. He is quoted in his book, McCarthy: The Fight For America (1952), â€Å"A government Job is a privilege, not a right. There is no reason why men who chum with communists†¦ Who are consistently found at the time and place where disaster strikes America and success comes to international Communism, should be given positions of power.. † (Doc 5). However, McCarthy claims were false, and they were part of a publicity stunt for him to gain attention. As a Republican, he faced no communist skepticism, whereas the Democrats did, and he used this tactic to further gain support from the working class republicans. He was Impressionable upon many blue collar workers who associated liberals and communists together, and made democrats a bigger target, Although the superficial Intentions of McCarthy beliefs of keeping communists out of the government were good, they were form of hiding his true goal of ruining the reputations of other politicians. McCarthy later admitted the truth about the fraudulent claims, but damage had been done in rousing unrest and putting other innocent politicians in negative spotlights, against integrity McCarthy was supposed to stand for as a senator. Additionally, the House Committee on Un- American Activities (HIJACK) held hearings for numerous Americans who were suspected of communist interests. Average middle class Americans to Hollywood writers in the entertainment business were interrogated about their own political beliefs and past experiences as well as those of others. Lillian Hellman, who was ailed for falling to comply with Yucca’s requests, wrote this to the committee, â€Å"If I answer the committee’s questions about myself†¦ L will [also] have waived my rights under the fifth amendment and could be forced legally to answer questions about others†¦ Answering about others] to save myself is, to me, inhuman and indecent to refrain from asking me to name other people† (Doc Three). Hijack’s hearing policy made it difficult for Americans to withhold information, and even more, they were put in a situation that made them expose private information of others. Helmsman’s espouse to HUGH also included a portion on how she believed that speaking about other people’s involvement would be against Christian ideals as well as American tradition. Many people interrogated by HUGH felt pressured to â€Å"bear false witness† and Juxtaposing other Americans as leftist supporters to avoid contempt. HUGH led to many Americans being blacklisted, out of Jobs, or losing support as being falsely marked a communist. The basis on which HUGH was founded on, to expose communists for the protection of the American government and people and prevent uprising, resulted in something similar to a modern day witch hunt. HUGH was a mistake, as it led to unrest over a non-existent threat to the nation, at the expense of the livelihood and Jobs, privacy and sense of security, because of how it, much like McCarthy betrayed American fundamental values in this time period. Outside of the States, the United States stepped into the political affairs of foreign nations, such as Greece and Guatemala, and betrayed it’s previous values of not interfering into issues abroad. The Greek Civil War was being fought between democratic and communist party supporters, and America agreed to give aid to to get against the communists. In the interest of containment, preventing the spread of communism, America believed that this was a necessary step to protect its interests to keep the Soviet Union from gaining further power. However, the Soviet Union believed that this conflict was not appropriate for the States to put their efforts towards, and that it wrongly crossed a boundary into another nation’s sovereignty. The Soviet News once wrote, â€Å"Truman, indeed, failed to reckon either with the international organization or with the sovereignty of Greece†¦ We are now witnessing fresh intrusion of the U. S. A. Into the affairs of other states. American claims to leadership in international affairs grow parallel with the growing appetite of the American quarters concerned† (Doc Two). From the Soviet point of view, the United States’ actions were unwarranted, and are a direct result of their need for security in areas where they have no right to govern. The Soviets did not take involvement, and their point of view is a criticism of United States that can even be drawn to it’s previous ideals. Washington preaching to avoid entanglement in foreign affairs, the Monroe Doctrine, and the Roosevelt corollary, all were statements that made it clear that foreign conflicts were not of their concern. But in the Cold War, this ideal changed into the containment policy and the Truman doctrine. An even more severe breach of American values during the Cold War occurred in Guatemala, where a new issue had begun. Jacob Urbane Gunman had been elected by the Guatemalan people by a large majority. Urbane was associated with Marxism, and one of the major platforms he campaigned and was elected on was land redistribution in effort to aid the poor and hungry. The land largely to be redistributed would come from the United Fruit Company (AFC), a wealthy corporation that was based in the states. There was a great amount of uncultivated land that Urbane thought could be put to better use by being given to those in dire need of it. The New York Times discussed Arbiter’s power in Guatemala and plans for the redistribution, â€Å"Urbane noted that the assemble and belong in terms of ideas with which they sympathize†¦ Urbane said no one could doubt that [redistribution] of about 400,000 acres of uncultivated JIFF land meant better prospects for thousands of Guatemalan† (Doc Seven). The United States began to worry about the political and economic implications of this decision in Guatemala, and what it could mean for the economy at home and the future of communism in the Western Hemisphere. The company was worth over half a billion dollars, and many worried that if Guatemala fell, other Central American nations could fall to communism in a domino effect. Senator William Longer of North Dakota commented on American involvement in the situation in Guatemala describing it the situation as, â€Å"a sensitive and very grave threat to world peace, [the U. S. Acting]with such elephantine delicacy. I do not believe that the†¦ Senate [has] been adequately informed†¦ The malevolent influence of the $548 million U. F. C. N Guatemala, which some have charged is bigger than the government itself†¦ We ought to be, committed to the principle that every sovereign nation has a right to determine for itself its own form of government† (Doc Six). Lancer’s belief was ignored in this situation, as America organized a intrusive coup d’ ©tat that took Urbane out of power, hoping to prevent the spread of communism and keeping peace within the West. Lancerà ¢â‚¬â„¢s statement held another likely reason to the American involvement, to protect the economic interest. He would have pointed a finger of blame at America for interfering with Guatemala, who defended the rights of any political practice, what the United States claimed to protect prior to the Cold War, and to alter the course of their political rule and decisions, disrespecting their sovereignty and right to self- determination. It was apparent that the United States knowingly crossed boundaries of other nations’ freedoms to protect it’s own self interests, and sent aid where it was inappropriate, and in both situations abroad, was contrary to the values the nation as once built on. Overall, the United States overstepped the boundaries of private domestic lives and in the political issues of other nations, and abused it’s power to act in interests of the Truman Doctrine and anti-communism, at the expense of straying from its fundamental values. Although the reasoning behind the government’s actions was to prevent the spread of another government, that threat was not imminent, and their attempts to eradicate potential Marxist uprisings resulted in more damaging effects to the nation’s innocent people. Our values were even more abandoned in Guatemala, where we did acted against a government, albeit influenced by Marxism, was much like our own in the way it gave political freedom and expression to it’s people. The United States sacrificed it’s own traditional ideals of protecting these rights and not interfering in the issues of other nations, for our own benefit, which was not as successful as the government hope. Even today, the question on what motivates the government to act abroad, and whether economic self-interest or desire to change the politics of other nations for our own benefit, play a part and remains a relevant question. How to cite Cold war, Papers