American and the Cold War - Coursework Example

American and the Cold War United s of America has been involved in many international problems among them wars and aggression from other countries. It has faced these threats for many years and it continues to encounter situations that make it tighten its security within and beyond its boarders. According to McMahon, America was involved in the II World War (1939-1945) as well as the Cold War which ran for 45 years i.e. from 1945 to 1989 (16-56). In this war America was at the limelight together with the Soviet Union. It is a type of war that never culminated into actual warfare but the events usually almost led the countries involved to engage in it. As it is evident from the above brief, Cold War begun after the II World War and it is the USA and the USSR that formed the centre of the conflict and disagreements that run for many years. Cold War as a term attributed to the war was developed out of the tendencies of the two parties’ fear of engaging in actual warfare against the other. The basic reason for this was that the USSR feared the might that USA had in weaponry as well as the USA having the same fear over USSR’s weaponry might. At the outset of Cold War America had atomic bombs that it used to hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan; a move that saw the World War Two come to an abrupt end (McMahon 16-56). At the early stage of Cold War, America was at the top of their game on weapons and this made an automatic world power which did not go well with the Soviet Union. As time progressed the Soviet Union caught up with USA and they both found themselves having made nuclear bombs that by a huge extent are more disastrous than the atomic ones. This sort of balanced the equation on weaponry to a significant degree. Instead of the actual warfare the two countries engaged in war of words during this time and relaying of threats on each other and trying to make fools of each other in the parts of the world they had conflicts over. It is surprising how the war still continued with the same momentum for years while the administrations kept changing in the two countries. In fact, it is the issues surrounding the Cold War that dominated headlines and internationals debates worldwide for the better half of the 20th century. There is however some disagreement from some quarters especially the historians on the time that this war actually took as some say that it ended in the 1970s; a time when relations between the two countries improved at considerable levels as compared to the 1940s and 1950s (McMahon 16-56). The other group of historians and other critics stipulate that it ended with the fall of the Berlin wall in Germany which was in 1989. The last lot believe that it actually ended with the disintegration of the Soviet Union into the many countries that stand today in 1991. Irrespective of all these opinions, it is a fact that the war was a reality and that it took a long time although in general terms. This war had divided the rest of the world into three subgroups and this was based on the affiliations that each had with the warring nations. The first category was that which the USA led and it was comprised of the western countries those which predominantly had democratic systems of governance while those that allied with the Soviet Union were the eastern nations which practiced communism. The third group was the one of those that did not to associate themselves with either of the two groups and were therefore termed as the neutral category or the non-aligned group. It is ironic how the tables turned after the 2nd World War. The Soviet Union in the war was so much together with the United States but immediately after the war the scuffles begun whereby the Soviet Union claimed to have made an agreement with the camp headed by the United States that it shall take Eastern Europe under its control. This is a claim that was vehemently denied by the then president of the United States, Harry Truman in 1945 (Hanhimäki & Westad 36-242). It is Winston Churchill in 1946 who said that there is an iron curtain running across Europe; a remark together with that of Stalin marked the beginning of the Cold War in order to try and influence the states in Eastern Europe to take up either systems i.e. democracy from the west or communism from the Soviet Union. It was unfortunate for America that in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Poland the governments running were communist. America had to do something in order to impede the spread of communism to the rest of the Eastern Europe and maybe the western part like in France and Italy. It therefore had to seek help in doing so from Britain. In doing this America had to lure these other countries in adopting democratic governance and this was mostly to be through financial aid. Some of the countries to be approached under this initiative were Greece and Turkey (Hanhimäki & Westad 36-242). America tried China but George Marshall, the then president representative to China, after a three year stay in China advised the US government that the money it was to poor there could not have helped the situation thereby making America to leave China alone and take its focus to Europe. America developed an intense policy whereby it found itself pumping a great deal of funding to western European countries improving their economies significantly while gradually reducing the popularity of the communist parties. This aid included the joint effort of the USA, France and Britain to supply West Berlin by air with the necessary amenities after surface transport to this region was curtailed by the Soviet Union. To increase Americas influence in Europe NATO was formed by itself and the allied nations in 1949 so as to keep check of the military advancements of the Soviet Union in Europe. There was a meeting that was held in 1955 by the then soviet union leader, Nikolai Bulganin and Eisenhower (the then American president) and those of France and Britain were in attendance to discuss inspections of the other’s military actions. This proposal was rejected by the soviet leader but all in all the leaders had for the first time in years met and shook hands. Phillips (32-184) says that after this the tensions between America and the soviet union kept on rising and decreasing with time but it is the Americas help in formation of SATO (the NATO replica of Asia) that caused the eyebrows once again. This organisation helped the defeat of communist regimes in Asia. In particular was the Vietnam case where America assisted the south in fighting its communist North Vietnamese side. John Kennedy after coming to office in 1961 had deep intension of curtailing the communist influence particularly in Cuba whereby his first mission failed to bear fruits. It is after a few years after this mission that a discovery of soviet missiles in Cuba was made by the US intelligence (Richelson 327). This incident saw the two countries come at the verge of warfare but after negotiations the Soviet Union agreed to destroy their weaponry in Cuba. In 1985 the soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to destroy their short range missiles as well as the immediate range nuclear force. It is at the same time that he also withdrew from Afghanistan the soviet troops. Even in 1989 when Europe was full of tension he failed to interfere and this showed the Soviet Union’s commitment to the treaties it has signed with the United States over time. It is in this same year on 9th November that the Berlin wall came down and Germany became one country under democratic governance. Since the division between West and East Germany was the main point in the Cold War, it is at this time that the Cold War came to a close (Phillips 32-184). Cold War is a historic occurrence that depicts the importance of negotiations in achieving peace and harmony among the nations and people of the world. Through all these struggles America kept on pushing for measures that were to curtail the Soviet Union’s influence both in Asia and Europe. This is in no doubt a daunting task for America as it pushed for more and more states to adopt democratic system of governance. After the long struggle and the resources spent on fulfilling this mission, success was achieved through the various agreements that the Soviet Union entered into with America. The epitome of the war was the fall of the Berlin wall and the adoption of a democratic system of governance by the united Germany. Works cited Hanhimäki, Jussi M. & Westad, Odd A. The Cold War: A History in Documents and Eyewitness Accounts. Oxford University Press, 2004. 36-242. McMahon, Robert J. The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2003. 16-56. Phillips, Steve. The Cold War: Conflict in Europe and Asia. Heinemann, 2001. 32-184. Richelson, Jeffrey. A Century of Spies: Intelligence in the Twentieth Century. Oxford University Press: New York, 1994. 327. Read More