An Introduction to the Cold War - Assignment Example

An Introduction to the Cold War 1939 to 1945 unprecedented damage took place; the Second World War was fought during this time. Arms race was at its very peak back then, Soviet Nation had weapons which were capable of causing mass damage and the United States also had some amazing weapons. Each country was recovering after the Second World War and the possibility of another war caused havoc, Soviet Union and the United States were not at ease because each country wanted to be superior and the only way to be superior was to possess superior weapons. A lot of money was spent by Soviet Union and the United States on making superior weapons and the whole world saw what those weapons were capable of doing in the Second World War. Countries in the Western Europe also had some really dangerous weapons, these weapons included long range missiles, bombs, guns so on and so forth. The countries did not want to take any risk as they were all recovering from the damage caused by the Second World War and another war at that time would have literary wiped them off the map. To conclude it is very fair to say that the countries were afraid of each other because they had some really dangerous weapons which were already used in the Second World War, United States for instance had Atom Bombs which caused damage beyond repair in Japan. The world got divided into several different parts after the World Wars; these World Wars caused damage beyond repair. Cold war began after the end of the Second World War, the Second World War ended in the year 1945, The US and the Soviet Union were the ones directly involved in the cold war. Cold war was a situation in which countries did not fight directly; instead they choose to fight indirectly with each other. “Do note that USSR in 1945 was Russia post-1917 and included all the various countries that now exist individually (Ukraine, Georgia etc) but after the war they were part of this huge country up until the collapse of the Soviet Union (the other name for the USSR).” (What was the Cold War?) The US and the Soviet Union were the strongest countries once the Second World War ended and both wanted to dominate each other. To match each other stride for stride they started fighting indirectly. This indirect war had several repercussions upon the other countries and it also affected the US and the Soviet Union. Weapons weren’t used in this cold war, words were used as weapons and the main enemies involved in this war consistently tried to make each other look foolish. The leaders involved in the cold war consistently kept changing but the war still continued, this goes to show the desire to dominate each other and most of the wars occur because of this domination of one country over another. It is quite difficult to say when the cold war began and ended, some historians believe that the cold war ended when the Soviet Union dissolved in the year 1991 while others feel that the war ended when Berlin Wall was torn down in the year 1989. “Cold War is the conflict between the Communist nations led by the Soviet Union and the democratic nations led by the United States.” (Cold War) It is also very difficult to say when the war escalated and when it cooled down. The two countries who were actively involved in this Cold war were the US and the Soviet Union. This war became quite dangerous because each of the country involved directly in this cold war had nuclear weapons and this is exactly why they did not fight directly with each other. The cold war separated the world into groups. The US led the western part of the world, the Soviet Union led the eastern part of the world and the third part included countries that were neither a part of east nor west. In the mid 1970s the whole world was involved in arms race, each country strived hard to attain the best weapons that were available back then. Countries believed that these weapons would provide them with security and they can defend themselves well against all the intruders who tried to dominate them. The Cold war certainly escalated during this time, during this period the US and the Soviet Union were at parity. Even these countries tried really hard to become better than the other. They test fired several missiles that were capable of causing damage beyond repair. SS-4 and SS-5 missiles were replaced by the Soviet Union by better missiles namely SS-20. SS-20 was capable of being concealed and it was also capable of reaching an unprecedented distance. This Missile also had the capability of hitting any area in Western Europe. These new inventions made the relationship of countries very bitter, countries became in secured of each other. Each thought that the other would attack and this precarious situation escalated the cold war. Upon knowing the recent developments the US started test firing Pershing II missile and this agitated people all across Europe. They wanted the US not to test fire this missile and to end this arms race. At this point the relationship of the US and the Soviet Union was at its worst. The SALT II treaty was introduced to cool things between these two countries. According to this treaty each country was allowed to have a certain no of weapons, all the missiles were counted as weapons in this treaty. This treaty was introduced to make the relationship of the US and the Soviet Union better and to put an end to this ever continuing Cold war. “The SALT II treaty was signed by President Carter and Premier Brezhnev in Vienna on June 18, 1979, and was submitted to the U.S. Senate for ratification shortly thereafter. But renewed tensions between the superpowers prompted Carter to remove the treaty from consideration in January 1980, after the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. The era of détente was over.” (The Arms Race) References Cold War (2011). An Introduction to Cold War. Web. Retrieved From: The Arms Race (2011). Atomic Archive. Web. Retrieved From: What was the Cold War? (2011). History Learning Site. Web. Retrieved From: Read More