Cold War Dbq Essay

“Mankind must put an end to world war or war will put an end to mankind.” (John F. Kennedy). Before the Cold War, the world was in the second world war of the century, soldiers not only killing soldiers, but also civilians. After World War II countries tried to get freedom from the countries that colonized them. Before the Cold War only one country had and dropped a nuclear bomb, but that would not be the case during the Cold War. The Cold War had two sides, the United States, and the Soviet Union, both of these countries took measures, including giving money, fighting proxy wars, building a wall, or building missiles to fight for their ideals. Before talking about specific events of the Cold War, it must be understood that there were

fought against communism while the Soviets fought for communism by whatever means they deemed necessary. Whether it be scaring the U.S. with missiles, or building a wall in Berlin. The Berlin Wall was something the Soviets used to prevent those living in East Berlin from leaving for a better life in West Germany. The Berlin wall was not only just a wall made of stone, but around it there was barbed wire, and trip wires to kill anyone who tried to get over the wall, (Doc. 3). The Soviet Union did not want people to leave their part of Berlin that was communist because they believed that communism was that every country should be run, so they did not want people leaving their communist part of Berlin to live in the part of Berlin without communism. In his Iron Curtain speech, Winston Churchill talked about a metaphorical iron curtain that separated the Soviet Union from the rest of the world. One of the actions of the Soviet Union was to build the Berlin wall to separate the Soviet side and the U.S. and other countries side of the city. Similar to Winston Churchill's ideas about an iron curtain separating the Soviets from the world, the Soviets put up an actual wall to separate their side of the city from the other, and to make sure no one could cross sides of the city. The Soviet Union not only built the Berlin Wall, but they also were the cause of the Cuban Missile Crisis. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviet Union put missile sites in Cuba, which is very close to the United States, and could have easily shot missiles at the United States from there, (Doc. 7). The Soviets did this to scare the United States, during this time the U.S. and the Soviets came very close to starting another world war. Luckily the Soviet Union agreed to remove the missile sites in Cuba. The Soviet Union chose to fight for communism, in the hope of spreading the Soviet Union choose actions that would make an impact on others