Why Did the Cold War End - Essay Example

The Soviet Union was very fearful of the American acquisition of atomic weapons, this led to its rush of building up its own arsenal, causing a nuclear arms race between these two states.

In addition, these two states feared an attack from the other, which would lead to mutual mass destruction due to their possession of nuclear weapons. The United States became very suspicious of the Soviet Union and its intentions when this state took over most of Eastern Europe leading to a rise of the tensions between them (McConnell 54). One of the factors, which determined the future relationship of these two states and the eventual policies towards one another, was the personal dislike, which the American president, Harry Truman had for the Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin. There was also the constant fear by the Soviets that the United States would use Western Europe as a base for an attack against it, hence, the creation of the Iron Wall to separate completely the west of Europe from the Soviet-occupied east.

The Cold Car had some major effects on the United States and this was on the economic and political scene. The capitalist system, which was greatly depended upon by the United States, came to be greatly strengthened because it was used as a tool by the government as a counter to the Soviet ideal of communism. Furthermore, on the political scene, the United States invested heavily in the support of allied regimes all over the world and in some cases intervened militarily. While its involvement in Korea was largely considered a success, its military intervention in Vietnam was a disaster because thousands of American soldiers were killed in this war, and America was forced to withdraw from Vietnam without achieving any of the goals it had set out to achieve.

However, not all turned out badly for the United States because it managed, along with its allies, to form a defense pact (NATO) which came to ensure its security as well as its influence. The Cold War displayed the economic strength of the United States because it not only managed to outlive the Soviet Union, its economic system came to be adopted by almost all the countries in the world, in one form or another (Rosenberg). After the Cold War, the United States remained the sole world superpower and it has continued to hold this position unchallenged to the present day.