A crisis during a The Cold War - Research Paper Example

The “cold” part of the nomenclature is a reference to the fact that there was no direct warfare between the two primary sides (the US and allies and the various segments of the Soviet Union) during the time period specified (Gaddis, 2005) The “war” part of the name comes from the conflicts expressed through arms races, sports rivalry, military coalitions, espionage and propaganda. The end date of The Cold War, 1991, refers to the end of the Soviet Union, rather than any particular end of this quasi-stalemate warfare (Maus, 2003).

This paper will illustrate the crisis during The Cold War by exploring the viewpoints of the United States (and allies) and the Soviet Union, and discussing some key events and powerful figures of The Cold War. There was no clear start to the situation - tensions began between the USA and the Soviet Union long before 1947. The Bolshevik revolution in the early part of the 20th century ensured that the Soviet Union found itself isolated from international diplomacy, and this was compounded by the rule of Stalin, who considered the union as a ‘socialist island’ (Gaddis, 2005) The Bolsheviks completely opposed capitalism which the United States was seen as exemplifying – this distress was only compounded by the Western support of the White movement (an anti-Bolshevik movement).

These tensions were exacerbated by several more actions on both sides, but a semi-permanent alliance was formed between Western powers and the Soviet Union during the Second World War. . The railway blockade was formed by the Soviets who believed that having complete economic control over the city by preventing any Allied forces delivering supplies to Berlin would result in Germany becoming part of the USSR. The crisis was solved with an airlift by British air forces (Miller, 2000). The Korean War occurred between 25th June 1950 and 27th July 1953, and was the first proxy war held as part of the Cold War.

The Korean War was another example of a communist/capitalist conflict, with the two sides being North Korea (backed by China) and a UN-supported Republic of Korea. President Truman was an influential figure in the war, stating that the Republic of Korea required US help via a police action. The Berlin Crisis occurred within a few months in 1961, and refers to another conflict about the status of Germany within Europe. Both Allied and Soviet forces were still present in the city, and in 1958 Khrushchev (the leader of the USSR at the time) gave an order that Berlin was to be a city free of military occupation and required that all Allied forces remove themselves from the city within a few months.

When this did not occur, several events led to the building of the Berlin Wall, splitting Berlin between a Soviet controlled East Germany and a Western controlled West Germany. The Vietnam War, another proxy war, took place between 1955 and 1975 and again was a conflict between a North and South controlled by two separate political ideologies, communism and capitalism. President Kennedy was a major player particularly during the initial part of the Vietnam War, having several disagreements with Khrushchev about the country.

Like Germany, Vietnam was a country split into halves by separate political ideologies (Murray, 2005). One of the later