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The Cold War A New History Sparknotes

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he first chapter of The Cold War: A New History begins by comparing the United States to the U.S.S.R. and talking about the similarities between the two. It also talks about Communism and how Marx deemed it necessary in order to build up the economy. Lenin tried to implement Communism in Russia. They were not quite ready for that kind of system, so Stalin tried to modernize the economy. The U.S.S.R. had more casualties in World War II, but things were not necessarily looking great in America either. U.S. citizens were afraid that the Great Depression could return. Many Americans were tired of helping out other nations and just wanted the war to be over completely. John Lewis Gaddis, the author of The Cold War: A New History, is talking about the fact that just because the war was over, Americans were not necessarily at peace. There were many different economic and social factors that the United States had to deal with in the post World War II years. April 25, 1945 …show more content…

The Soviet Union began demanding adjustments to its relations and control over Turkey, as well as Iran. Though Stalin backed down at the threat of U.S. Naval forces, his actions led to the containment policy. This policy is used to prevent the spread of communism. Later, in 1947, the United States took over the responsibility of providing economic aid to Turkey and Greece and announced that they would be helping the nations affected by Communism. The Marshall Plan was put into effect later that year and it offered reconstruction aid to much of Europe. The United States did not get everything their way in the post war era though. The effectiveness of the Marshall plan was dependent on whether or not the Soviets were deterred by the United States’s threats. In 1949 the Soviet Union detonated a fission bomb and threatened America’s status as the leaders of the arms race. Also, there were cases of Communist espionage that came to light in

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