What was the defining concept of military conflict during the Cold War; nuclear weapons or proxy wars - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages Various US policies and some significant events were clear indication that the Cold War was unavoidable (Whitton 1951). The USA fought the war using ideologies like the containment policy that had been fuelled by domino theory, Potsdam, and Yalta conferences, Iron Curtain Speech of Winston Churchill, Marshal Plan, and the Truman Doctrine and Russia responded with communist ideas (Ball 1998). Soviet expansion, proxy wars, nuclear arms race, the Berlin airlift, and Cuban Missile Crisis were some of the moments that clearly defined the tension between the USA and the Soviet Union.
Therefore, there was no form of active military confrontation during the Cold wars as the nations were battling it out through political and economic ideologies. Whereas traditional wars had been defined through armed conflict, the Cold War was fought indirectly. Western and Eastern Europe countries created an atmosphere for advocating either for American or Russian processes of democracy and communism (Innes 2012). It is, therefore, important to discuss the defining concept of military conflict during the cold wars, whether it was based on proxy wars or Military conflict.
When mankind had developed weapons too terrible to use like the atomic and nuclear bombs, the presence of these deadly weapons deterred the superpowers of engaging in active or direct confrontation (Stein, 1980). History holds that wars are always eminent, but development in arms race would discourage direct military action. Therefore, the best way for the super powers was to engage in limited wars that are only devastating to the participating countries and other people involved but not destructive to the global levels or result in mass destruction (Innes 2012).
During the cold war, the world was divided into First, Second and Third Worlds (Ball 1998). The First Worlds comprised the western nations that had capitalist economies with ...Download file to see next pages Read More