The End of the Cold War - Research Paper Example

Introduction Cold war is the relationship that persisted between the United s of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics after the Second World War. The two superpowers had been very close allies during the World War II which contributed a lot to the defeat of the Nazi Germany. The mutual concerns of the two former allies ended and the two started two engage in war though it was not seen in the open. This was in form of supporting the enemies of one another instead of collaborating like they had done before. After the war the two nations had several differences which strained their relationship and consequently ruined it. One of the causes was the fact that they differed a lot in ideologies in that the United Nations was capitalist while the Soviet Union’s was socialist. The United Nations was ruled by democracy and they valued freedom, while the Soviet Union was under dictatorial rule where the interests of the state were put first as opposed to those for individuals. This led to the two nations having too many differences as each was antagonistic to the other. In the communist they were ruled majority being oppressed by the minority. On the other hand the capitalist had freedom of liberty, expression and speech, and they were free from political oppression. The other factor that contributed to the fallout between the two former allies was the resentments of the history whereby United States had joined with Britain in 1918 and tried to tear down the Russian revolution and so the Soviet Union feared the same to happen again. On the other had the United States did not forget the Nazi-soviet pact that Stalin had signed with Germany in 1939. This led to a lot of strain to their relationship which led the two becoming rivals (Harper, 46). The other cause of the cold war was differing aims. This was attributed in the fact that the USSR wanted huge compensations from Germany to create other more friendly nations to protect itself from being hit once again. On the contrary the United Nations wanted to protect democracy and also wanted to help Germany to recover from the effects of the world war. Having too many differing ideologies between the two they never trusted one another and viewed everything in a different way thus making it inevitable for the cold war. The other cause of the cold war was the remarks made by Churchill Winston who was a British leader and also an anti-communist. Given the political climate his speech tensions rose which further worsened the relationship between the two. He said “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 ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow” (Harper, 54). The two nations had never been involved in any conflicts but with all those challenges in their relationships made them develop enmity. It was evident in that the two were no longer friends and they eventually started developing bombs which were meant for each other though it was indirectly. In 1949 the first atomic bomb was developed by the soviet unions and that showed that the enmity had escalated to another level. Another cause why the United States of America was involved in the war was due to the undisclosed telegram sent by German ambassador then in Mexico by Germany ambassador, asking Mexico to assail America from the north. Germany promised Mexico that they could retrieve their lost provinces, including Arizona and Texas. Afterwards, Wilson urged the Congress to employ the rule of armed neutrality. They sent merchant ships to secure their boundaries in opposition to their opponents. They also connected the war due to terror of economic despair if the allied power lost. United States had role to enhance free trade, democracy and peaceful coexistence. America finally became part of the cold war due to the falling of five American vessels by German submarines. The ship was ferrying American passengers which consequently resulted to the killing of 66 Americans. The effects of the cold world war were evident as it spread all over the world as their competition between the communist and the capitalist spread throughout their respective associates. The cold world war lasted for almost five decades. This had adverse effects to the respective economies as the resources were misused in buying weapons for fighting and manufacturing bombs. In the process of testing nuclear bombs by the soviets and the American ended in exposing people to the ever present nuclear inhalation which worsened the lives of the individuals from both nations. The cold war had also adverse effects to other nations abroad as when the soviets backed Korean army in 1950, the Americans started viewing it as step in communist conquering the whole world. The effects of the cold war in America were classified as economic, social and political. It led to great losses as many Americans died; this led to poor labor supply in the said nation. This mostly affected industries due to the inadequate labor. Therefore, their productivity went down that was not sufficient for Americans. The performance changed drastically in the society as Americans roles after the war. Most of the Americans, who had participated fully in the war, became inevitable for for many had to lose their lives in the war as soldiers. This left women with no choice but to perform men’s roles in the families. This led to reversal in the roles of performance which impacted negatively in the Americas economy. Starvation also hit America soon after the cold war because they concentrated on war and were not keen on producing food to feed the economy and there was enormous food destruction during the war. The hunger affected the labor supply, and this in return affected America’s economy. The American government had to put pressure in the creation of consumer goods as an alternative for commercial goods. Consequently, this induced inflation in the America’s economy. There was destruction of American wealth. In line with this, it was mentioned earlier in that the sinking of the five American vessels caused America a huge economic loss. During the cold war, there was wastage of materials, which caused poor availability of raw materials for use in industries immediately after the war. Therefore, American government had to incur additional cost of importing more materials to be used in industries. America would be able to plan its strategies to enhance technology in order to sustain superpower until today. The cold war was caused by the changes that occurred in America despite the fact that most of them are not positive. The end of the war was made possible by the president Nixon Richard who used a new approach of international relations of using diplomacy instead of military action. He therefore encouraged the Americans to have a positive attitude towards the government of china where he began having diplomatic relations with Beijing. He also had another treaty whereby he adopted a policy with the Soviet Union whereby he signed a treaty called the strategic Arms Limitation Treaty [SALT] that prohibited manufacturing of nuclear weapons. This served the purpose of reducing the nuclear war. The effort to reduce nuclear weapon manufacture had several setbacks under president Ronald Reagan who was an anticommunist and believed that communism anywhere was a threat to everywhere (Todd. 105).. As Reagan worked to provide financial aid and other insurgencies to the anticommunist government in Central America. However the Soviet Union was disintegrating following the economic problems. My thoughts concerning the cold war are that instead of engaging in military war , the two nations would engage in dialogue and many of the effects would be avoided (Todd. 102). The two nations would have engaged in debates whereby they would defend their ideologies. This would have led to diversification of ideologies. This would instead strengthen the bonds between them and thereby know the benefits of the others. The soviets would therefore know the importance of appreciating the benefits of giving the citizen rights to choose their leadership. This gives the people motivation and satisfaction in that they feel that they are served by the people of their choice. The soviets would also feel the importance of having freedom of ownership of property as it motivates people to work hard in order to accumulate more wealth. This enables the economy to grow at a faster rate as compared to the communist where the property is controlled by the government and thus having more free riders. This also enables the government to be able to get more revenue from the taxation that is levied from the property owned by the individuals. This also gives the individuals an opportunity to work without limiting themselves since they take the work as theirs. This leads to more innovations as people are able to invent new ways of doing things (Prados. 73). The freedom of expression also allows people to be able to let out what they feel that is oppressing them. This would help in relieving the much tension that was building up in the two states. By getting rid of the tension that was building up leading to the fallout and also by the two nations having freedom to liberty would enable them to be able to express themselves without being victimized. The capitalist would also have a chance of incorporating other vityes in their system such as having equitable resource distribution as it is in the socialist. This is because in capitalist there are big margins in resources and a big gap exists between the poor and the rich. By government controlling the resources it is able to provide goods and services that cannot be done efficiently by the private sector are also some resources ion the capitalist are supposed to be provided for by the government. For example when such as education is provided by the private sector it is likely to be very expensive as opposed to when it I s provided by the central government (Prados. 73). Conclusion When also security of the citizens is provided by the citizens themselves it is likely to be of very high cost since they don’t enjoy the economies of scale in their production. Also I think that this should serve as a lesson to the economies so as to be embracing dialogue to solve their differences as using other means of solving problems leads to a mutual loss mainly to the warring parties. It should also serve as lesson to people to be able to conserve the environment as some of the nuclear effects are evident in the current generations. These effects would be avoided if they had meetings whereby they would send their representatives to air their grievances in order for peace to prevail. Work Cited Harper John Lamberton. The Cold War. London. Oxford University Press, 2011. Print Prados John. How the Cold War Ended: Debating and Doing History. New York. Potomac Books, Inc. 2011. Print Todd Allan. History for the IB Diploma: The Cold War. London. Cambridge University Press. 201. Print Read More