The relationships between United States and Soviet Union had embittered long before the beginning of the Cold War. In 1939, it seemed “highly improbable” (Garthoff, 29) that the two nations would form an alliance due to Stalin’s decision to forge a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany, to ensure security of his own country, in August of 1939 (Revelations from the Russian Archives). Stalin’s decision to form an alliance with Germany deeply affected the relationships between the two countries as Nazi Germany was one of U. S’s enemy during World War II. Additionally, the ways in which Stalin tried to establish security for his own country portrayed him as a potential threat amongst the Allies, especially the U.S and Great Britain. Furthermore,
Hitler, expressed his view on the Winter War (the attack launched against the Finish) and regarded it “entirely unnecessary”. In fact they made their opinions even more clear when they actually sympathized with the Finnish and ended up allying with them. Obviously Stalin was very displeased and kept adding pressure on Hitler to expand further
For many years, The Cold War was the issue of a fierce debate regarding who or what exactly was the reason that caused it. On this subject, there are three schools of thought: the traditionalists, the revisionists and the post-revisionists. The traditionalists blame Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union’s expansionist and violent diplomacy for being the starters of the war. “Besides violating the agreements made at the Yalta Conference in February 1945, Stalin completely disregarded the United Nations because he intended to expand and dominate his sphere of influence in Eastern Europe.” (Nye 118). The revisionists kept insisting on blaming the American expansionism rather than the Soviet Union’s wish to spread communism into Eastern Europe.
Arthur Schlesinger Jr, states that ‘the Cold War in its original form was a presumably mortal antagonism, in the wake of the Second World War, between two rigidly hostile blocs (1967, 22).’ The quote embodies the power struggle that was played out between America and the Soviets during the post war era. Historians and theorists have been drawing from ideologies and different international world orders to help gain an accurate understanding of the origins of the Cold War. In a bipolar world, as described by Waltz, neither major power seeks approval with one another; they just have to cope with one another, however within great-power politics who is threatening who can create feelings of uncertainty between them and then a Cold War is born (1988, 622). The orthodox argument makes the claim that the United States was responding to the threatening nature of the USSR, despite trying to integrate
A Violation The Treaty of Versailles was a violation of Wilson’s ideals. The Treaty is one of the most important agreements (or disagreements) that shaped 20th century Europe socially and physically. Woodrow Wilson on January 22, 1917 in an address to the United States Senate called for a peace without victors, but the Treaty signed by the participating nations was everything but that. The blame for the war was placed on Germany and justified the reparations that were outlined by the treaty for the war. The terms of the treaty were very harsh to the Germans and they took on great resentment.
A characteristic feature of the US postwar international policy was the practice of the economic diplomacy for achieving the political goals. The latter were declared in the Truman Doctrine which was publicly announced on March 12, 1947. The basis of this doctrine was the policy of containment of Soviet Union expansion in the whole world. It aimed to justify the US intervention in the internal affairs of other countries, unleash the cold war, and escalate the international tensions. The US former Vice President Henry Wallace characterized this doctrine as “crazy step toward the war, which caused the crisis in international relations” ().
The Cold War is often seen as a dark time in American history, not just because of the international conflict, but because of the strife it caused within the United States itself. During the Cold War, the general culture in America was fearful and paranoid about the rise and spread of Communism within their society. One example of how this hysteria manifested is illustrated in the movie, Trumbo, which tells the story of when the Hollywood industry blacklisted famous writer Dalton Trumbo, along with other workers in the industry, who were connected to Communism. Dalton Trumbo and his associates faced bigotry and were effectively attacked for standing by their ideals, which was a reflection of how American culture had changed at that time. By using this film, I will be examining this incident in American history, and how it affected American society and culture, by analyzing the themes of prejudice, freedom of expression, and patriotism.
Tralfamadorians believe that everyone is bound by fate and they have no control over their destination which is free will. The Tralfamadorians belief of fate aims to justify the irrationality of war by criticizing human's thoughtless decisions on initiating wars. The Tralfamadorians also mention that there will always be a war on earth since humans are designed to glorify war.This statement was intended by Vonnegut to dishonor war and label it in a negative way. Billy experiences post-traumatic stress disorder after the war tells the readers how his life has
The Cold War was the ideological, geopolitical and economic struggle between the two major superpowers at the time, the United States of America (USA) and the Soviet Union (USSR). The United States of America stood for capitalism whereas the Soviet Union stood for communism, each was regarded by the other as The Evil. The Cold War began in 1947 with the end of the Second World War and ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. These two superpowers never engaged directly in hot war as the both possessed nuclear weapons after 1949 and the concept of mutually assured destruction would become a reality if either side made any direct threats to the other. As a result, this war was fought in a series of proxy wars which is a war instigated by a major power which does not itself become involved, the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale is an prime example of this.
The Cold War soon begins after the end of WW2 when Truman, the successor of Roosevelt became president in 1945 due to ideological differences between the two superpowers, United States and the Soviet Union. The Cold War had a massive impact on US politics as could be seen through the creation of political consensus between the Republican and Democrats in relation to the policy of containment that includes the Marshall plan, the establishment of the NATO, the NSC-68 report and also the Truman Doctrine as the response of George Kennan’s containment theory, which caused US politics to be specifically targeted at the Soviet Union. While there are political consensus to contain Communism, the Cold War had primarily polarised politics when McCarthy