History of the Cold War - Research Paper Example

The Soviet power was never able to expand much under the influence of the U.S agenda. It was under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev that Russia began to undergo a political change which could not be handled and thus led to a political turmoil. The United States itself did not play a direct role in the collapse of Soviet Union but it did play an indirect role in the collapse. This essay would further analyze different events which led to the occurrence of cold war (Leffle & Westad, 2010). After the World War II it was seen that the United States and Russia underwent a competition in the field of economics, race and politics to gain superiority in the world.

The Cold War for Soviet Union was to take control of the communist nations under their policy whereas the United States had the aim of removal of communism from the world. The relationship of the Soviet Union and America was never to the par as the communist nation was an ally of the Germans before it attacked them. Communism was prevalent in the Soviet Union since its birth under the leadership of Lenin. This was followed by the rule of Joseph Stalin who further enforced communism over the states that fell under the jurisdiction of the Union.

It was then that anti communist policies started to escalate in the United States creating hate amongst the masses. Yalta Conference which took place in February 1945 was start of rough relations between the two superpowers of the world. The American President at that time was Truman who was strictly against the communists and this led to the worsening of bilateral relations between the two countries. The invention of atom bomb and the use of it in the World War II created fears for the Russian government which further led to the Cold War (Painter 2002).

After the victory in World War II events followed which led to the Cold War among the superpowers. The Iron Curtain Speech was delivered by Winston Churchill on March 5 1946. He urged the United States for a coalition against the union because of their policies against the democracy of the world. He stated that “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the States.. and all are subject in form or another, not only to Soviet influence, but to a very high and increasing measure of control from Moscow” (4 Gottfried).

In 1946 it was found that Soviet spies were in America looking for information regarding the atomic bomb. Moreover an agreement was violated by the Soviet Union when they did not withdraw their troops from Iran because of its resources of oil. Instead a region of Iran was annexed by the Soviet Union which later came to be known as the Soviet Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan (Leffle & Westad, 2010). In the latter part of the 1950s it was seen that the Russian President got even more furious at the actions of the United States.

After the World War II it was seen that several of the nations faced the problem of famine. It was here that the United States launched a plan known as the Marshall Plan to provide the famine struck places with food and other supplies. The foreign ministry of the Soviet Union replied to the Marshall plan in a negative manner stating it as an act sought to infiltrate the