From the 1940’s through 1991, America and the Soviet Union were in the middle of a constant stalemate pitted against the ideologies of the Untied States idea of capitalism and the Soviet Union’s idea of Communism. Although most of the conflict was based around political viewpoints rather than military action, in between the 1945 to 1948, by 1950 the Soviet Union lead the communist takeover of China. According to the Teaching Elenaor Roosevelt Glossary study on the Cold War, by 1960, both sides had invested in a large amounts of money and effort towards nuclear weapons. From the perspective of both sides, this was seen as an attempt to maintain parity with each other's stockpiles, but also the idea of deterring conflict through "mutually assured destruction". This had come to be regarded as vital and dire to the national interest of both governing bodies. …show more content…
One of the ways that the Soviet Union was able to get close to American borders was through undercover espionage. From the post Secret files reveal techniques of Cold War Soviet spies posted in The Telegraph¸ Dr. Klaus Fuchs, a nuclear scientist and an undercover agent ,who was responsible for immeasurable damage to the American and British interests by giving away top secret information about the Manhattan Project and Britain’s atomic research. According to prison interviews with MI5 officers, Dr. Fuchs explained how his Soviet Spymasters had properly instructed Fuchs to throw a copy of a men’s magazine over a garden fence in Kew, south-west London, if he wanted his spymasters to contact him. This connects the correlation between Nash looking for hidden messages within newspapers and magazines, to how the Soviet’s would communicate with their
In a press conference in March 1954, Dwight Eisenhower acknowledged the abundance of fears and noted that they impacted people's behavior in a hysterical manner. He said, "We fear the men in the Kremlin, we fear what they will do to our friends around them; we are fearing what unwise investigators will do to us here at home" (Document A). Eisenhower's statement highlights the concern that the American people had regarding Soviet expansionism and the potential for communist infiltration in the United States. John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State, echoed these sentiments in June 1954, stressing that the capture of any American state by communism, no matter how small, would pose a significant threat to the entire free world. Dulles argued that the situation in Guatemala was a case in point, and the American States could not ignore it.
Mao faced a belligerent US after defeating the nationalists in the Chinese Civil War and pushing them back to Taiwan. Khrushchev, on the other hand, was involved in tensions relating to the question of nuclear arms. "... Mao Tse-Tung... said that during his meetings with Comrade N.S. Khrushchev in Moscow in November 1957 and in Peking in July-August 1958 he had exchanged views on the questions of turning the Cold War into a factor which would be unfavorable for the Americans..." (Antonov) This quote shows that perhaps the two leaders were continuing with the war because of possible damage to the United States, which states a
In the secret service, trust between an agent and their agency is a necessity for success, but double agents and the emphasis on secrecy can make trust a difficult condition. In John Le Carré’s, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, the aftermath of World War II emphasizes the idea of conflict and secrecy between East Germany, West Germany, and Britain. Leamas is an agent for the Circus and he is set up by his boss, Control, to kill Fidler, a member of the Abteilung. Control tells Leamas that the goal of the mission is to kill Mundt, a member of the Abteilung, but, Leamas is unaware that Mundt is actually a double agent for the Abteilung and the Circus. During the book, Leamas almost hits another car with a father and his kids.
Spalding suggests that he once believed maintaining nuclear weapons is unnecessary as the Cold War ceased. Recently, he realized the relevance of nuclear weapons. Spalding argues that US nuclear weapons helped defeat the Soviet Union and protect Europe in the Cold War. Furthermore, he explains the use of nuclear weapons to control the limit of conflict, which is exemplified by the fact that although there were proxy wars, there wasn’t any head-on conflict between the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and that there was no World War III.
Soviet Intelligence was interested in incorporating American journalists into their espionage network because they offered various talents that could aid the Soviets in gathering information such as, their access to resources not available to the Soviets, their ability to gather new recruits, and their skill to not draw attention to their work. Haynes, Klehr, and Vassiliev created Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America (2009) to exemplify the history of the KGB in America and the USSR’s reasons for needing American agents. Because the Americans offered so many outlets to gather information, the Soviets sought them out in order to gain a competitive advantage over a world that wanted to prevent the spread of communism. The journalists had access to information that was unattainable to
John Le Carre’s novel “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold,” tells the tale of Alec Leamas, a spy who is working for the British in their attempts to bring down the Communist Soviet party occupying East Berlin. Leamas is depicted as a hard man who has little time for emotions or feelings, until he meets Liz Gold, a colleague at the library Leamas finds himself working at after being dismissed from his espionage service. Although Leamas proves to initially be reluctant to engage in any sort of relationship with Liz, he agrees to have dinner with her after working at the library for three weeks. They eventually become lovers, but Leamas hides most of his personality from her, only occasionally showing any part of his identity to her. When she asks him personal and philosophical questions, he states that he does not like “conversations about life” (Le Carre 31).
"But it is hard to imagine how the U.S. government could have prevented a Communist victory short of getting involved in a massive military intervention, which would have been risky, unpopular, and expensive"(Tindall 964). "The discovery of the Soviet bomb in 1949 triggered an intense reappraisal of the strategic balance of power in the world, causing Truman in 1950 to order the construction of a hydrogen bomb, a weapon far more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, lest the Soviets make one first"(Tindall 964). The onset of the cold war the ideology drove more of the Soviet behavior. "American 's traditional commitment to democtatic capitalism, political self determination, and religious freedom conflicted with the Soviet Union 's preference for spheres of influence on its periphery, totalitarianism at home, and state mandated atheism"(Tindall 970). Kennan stressed that U.S. needed to be responses to the Soviet adventurism.
Many historians, such as Judson Knight, call their cracking of the code “the single greatest cryptanalysis success of the war (Knight).” Considering the U.S. and Britain
The “loss of China” to communism led the American leaders to perceive the cold war as even more threatening and demanding an American response. To prevent further communist expansion elsewhere in Asia, the Truman administration Truman sent troops to North Korea in 1950 when communist forces crossed the thirty-eighth parallel. All of these events in Asia, along with the Soviet expansion in eastern Europe after world war II, fueled the American belief that the Soviet Union was trying to expand communism on a global
The boats carrying men and equipment were packed in such a way as to camouflage the contents. Ship captains did not know where they were going until they were at specific coordinates at sea. Additionally, if they were boarded, the captains were to "’destroy all documents with state and military secrets’, take measures to protect the personnel, and sink the ships” (Hansen 2002). Once in Cuba, Soviet soldiers built a large cinder-block wall around the unloading area for privacy and soldiers dressed as civilians. The deception went on and
A) The conflict was between two superpowers: The Communist Empire of the Soviet Union and the United States. The Cold War dominated international relations from the late 1940s to the collapse of the Soviet Union 1991. Among historians there is a debate over how and why the cold war began. Some historians state that the Americans didn't tell Soviets, especially Stalin, about the Manhattan Project and the building of the A- bomb, and even after using A-bombs against Japan, United States refused to share the technology with the USSR.
When one thinks of espionage between the United States and the Soviet Union, the first time period that usually comes to mind is the Cold War. The Cold War is perhaps the point when Soviet Intelligence was at its peak performance in obtaining large quantities of intelligence at an exceptionally expedient pace against the United States. This superb performance, however, did not materialize overnight; it took vast networks of agents and procedures for recruiting and handling assets that required trial and error. The establishment of Soviet espionage in the U.S. required years of construction, dating back to the New Deal era. Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev’s
This lead to tensions between the East and West and more specifically between the United States and the Soviet Union. The 1950’s marked the beginning of the Cold War, with the build-up of arms and nuclear capabilities in the United States and the Soviet Union, putting a strain on the United States’ policies in Europe and towards the Soviet Union itself. The United States National Security Council (NSC) stated America’s policy was “to recognize the right of all people to independence and to
The Cold War is a time period from around 1945-1990’s, when the United States of America and the Soviet Union rose up to be the world’s superpower. The origin of the Cold War can be argued by historians and scientists alike, some say the tension between the U.S. and the Soviet Union goes back to the beginning of the Twentieth Century. Others say that the Cold War did not begin until the end of WWII. Whenever the Cold War began, many crucial factors involved, including political, ideological, economic and strategic factors. The most crucial ideological factor included conflict that arose between socialism and capitalism in the governments of the time.
Many nations that had much power on the world stage such as the UK were heavily depleted by the effects of war and the USA and Russia found themselves as the two global superpowers. After initial hopes of harmony it became evident that both nations had contrasting views upon the best way of achieving this ‘good life’, the USA and other western nations believed in liberal democracy and of free markets , Russia of communism based upon ideas from Marxism whereby the state would intervene in an attempt to level the playing field . These opposing ideologies divided the world and provided the backdrop to what became known as the cold war, a war that was not fought directly but rather through proxy wars, propaganda and technological superiority to achieve power. (Open University,