Beginning and the End of the Cold War - Research Paper Example

The United States and the Soviet Union had profound differences in their political and economic ideologies, and this led to the beginning of the Cold War. The Second World War had a profound effect on global politics, with the early efforts of leaders in the US and the USSR attempting to shape the international system that was emerging after the war.

In my opinion, the beginning of the Cold War can be traced to the encouragement made by the Europeans, especially the British. Their encouragement of the United States to make their policy tougher towards the USSR was vital in the beginning. From my reading of the article, The Origins of Post-War America, I believe that former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill reinforced this policy during his iron curtain speech. As Americans, we decided to pursue this policy because it would advance our interests, which resulted in the French, British, and other Western European countries joining us in the sphere of influence.

Free elections in these European countries worked towards ratifying the support of Western Europe governments for us. However, the CIA, through its support for anti-communist intellectual organizations and labor unions, did manipulate the outcomes somewhat. From being egged on by the Europeans, we as a country took over the resistance to the communist Eastern Bloc to head it and influence the European powers. For those European countries that immediately were not up to standard such as Turkey, Greece, and Spain, we used economic leverage. As a country, we projected an image of minimal constraint, economic robustness, and civility that highly contrasted with that of the imperial USSR, and so began the Cold War in earnest.

Following the devastation that was meted on Europe and large parts of the Soviet Union by the war, our country’s promise of democracy reverberated across the world. The United States emerged from the war as the only major country that had escaped massive damage. While we faced a period of reconversion, our European allies faced a period of reconstruction. The war had completely overturned the old order and two countries arose from the rubble, the US and USSR. Together, we were eager to seize the opportunity to extend our influence, and we clashed over policies of occupation in Korea, Austria, Japan, Italy, and Germany. This led to a new bipolar structure, which ensured that the decisions we made determined how other countries made their decisions. However, the bipolar nature of the world was more of an asymmetry than a balance, as we held predominant power that enabled us to build up even more. Our economy was also much stronger than all the rest and our power as a country arose because all other nations were weakened.

The atomic bomb, which effectively ended the Second World War, ensured that the nuclear race continued to destabilize the world during the Cold War as we and the USSR looked for, ways to deal with it as atomic development programs spurred on. The bomb throughout the Cold War period was uncontrolled, copied, and envied, making it a major obstacle to getting peace in the postwar international system. The issue of how to control to use, spread and development of the atomic bomb dogged the entire period. Our government was worried that our monopoly would end with an increase in nuclear proliferation. These fears were further intensified with the successful trial of an atom bomb by the USSR in 1949. The weapon turned out to be a way for various countries to pry concessions or deter adversaries and keep them at bay. As one of the countries that created the Cold War, we had to grapple with new and immense problems as we sought to reduce systemic instability.

However, our actions, as well as those of the USSR, tended to exacerbate the conflict and the reasons for this were clear as our government and theirs realized that the volatile international system was dangerous for our domestic systems. For this reason, we sought to enhance our power to increase our respective spheres of influence. As the world made a painful transition from a devastating war to peace, the inherent conflict that characterized this period with nuclear proliferation as more fuel hardened to become a forty-year Cold War .

The end of the Cold War saw vanquished Russia cut its military spending to dramatic levels, which left over a million people in the former USSR without employment and saw a recession in the country. The end of the Cold War saw the emergence of a uni-polar world that had us, as the United States, as the only existing superpower. The war resulted in major loss of life in Korea, Vietnam, and other proxy wars across the world. Read More