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The Cold War was a tense era between the Soviet Union and the United States. Both sides had amassed a large stockpile of nuclear weapons, but were reluctant to use them due to a dire fear of the resulting consequences. Meanwhile, the rest of the world waited on baited breath to see if it would erupt into a third world war, and an arms race ensued between the United States and Soviet Union.
The Cold War was caused by several different components. Severely differing ideologies and mistrust were two large factors in it. The Soviet Union supported capitalism and promoted the spread of communism. On the other hand, the United States backed socialism and professed a policy of containment-preventing the spread of communism.
Due to the way Europe had been divided after World War Two, there was an increased amount of tension and there was an escalated amount of distrust. Europe was divided into two sides. Eastern Europe was composed of the Soviet Union and their allies while Western Europe ad sided with the United States.
From there Germany was split into a West Germany and East Germany and it’s capital, Berlin, was tore into four separate parts. France occupied a small southeastern section of Berlin, Britain a larger northeastern part, and The Untied States took possession of a larger southeastern part of Berlin while the Soviet Union controlled the eastern side of Berlin.
The Soviet Union blockaded routes into western Germany from there in an attempt to rid Germany of the other three countries. In response to this, the Eastern powers sent planes that flew into Berlin with supplies. For roughly a year planes provided them with food, fuel and supplies before the Soviet Union was forced to end the blockade. This was known as the Berlin Airlift.
The Untied States, not wanting communism to spread further, started sending in help for Western Europe. On March 12, 1947 The United States began a policy labeled the Truman Doctrine. It stated that the Untied States would do anything to stop the spread of communism and sent military and economic aid along with advisors to countries in Europe such as Turkey and Greece to help them stand strong against communism. The Untied States also issued the Marshall Plan. In a move to reinforce the power democratic governments had, food and sent billions to help them economically to aid countries rebuild.
Canada, The United States and nine western European including Lithuania, Latvia and Turkey joined forces together and created NATO in 1949. NATO stood for North Atlantic Treaty Organization and was a military coalition. They all vowed that in the case of one being attacked, they would render each other aid.
The Warsaw Pact was then formed in retaliation to NATO by the Soviet Union. The Warsaw pact was similar to NATO as it was also a military alliance, but at the same time it was used too control western European states. It consisted of the USSR and seven Eastern European satellite states such as Bulgaria and Romania.
In 1962 it was discovered that the Soviet Union was assembling nuclear weapons in Cuba. The current U.S. president, John F. Kennedy, ordered that they were dismantled immediately. After several tense weeks, The Soviet Union finally backed down and removed them.
Gradually, the Soviet Union began to deteriorate. The arms race had greatly weakened them. Too much money had been poured into the military and the economy was in shambles. Gorbachev’s attempt at perestroika had further weakened the economy. Protests for independence emerged all over the place, and it was only a matter of time before the Soviet Union fell. In 1991 the Cold War had finally ended, and the Soviet Union ceased to exist.
For almost four decades the Soviet Union and United States were involved in the Cold War. An arms race began. While each side had managed to accumulate a large store of nuclear weapons, the consequences were greatly feared and neither side was willing to use them. The closest they came to using them was in the Cuba Missile Crisis, but thankfully the situation was resolved. The rest of the world could only watch until 1991 when the war finally ended.
 Dezcee · Thu May 07, 2009 @ 02:41am · 0 Comments |
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