A Multilateral Single Party System “What do you imagine, that we will make some kind of NATO here?” (Soviet Supreme Commander Ivan Konev to Polish politicians in 1957). Abstract: In modern history, especially contemporary western history, the Warsaw Pact is considered nothing more than a tool utilized by the Soviet Union to bolster itself in the face NATO. Nevertheless, recent historical research has proven that the treaty was in fact something much more complicated and involved, something that allowed the Non-Soviet Member States the ability to maneuver politically. In fact, many different nations under the traditional Soviet sphere-of-influence where able to express this new found right previously unthinkable under Stalin’s unilateral …show more content…
Another major product of the Warsaw Pact was the “New Course” system that replaced the old Stalin-influenced COMNIFORM and revolutionized the internal eastern bloc relations. For the remainder of the essay, multiple different situations are addressed in other Eastern non-Soviet European nations and the effects that Khrushchev’s “New Course” policy had are examined. With this scope of investigation, secondary sources were the primary means of information as they provided the most accurate overview of relations between the Non-Soviet Warsaw Pact members (NSWP) and the …show more content…
Established under Stalin in January of 1949, the COMECON helped direct the economy of the eastern communist nations under direct discretion from the Kremlin. However, under Khrushchev COMECON, which contained the same nations that were now members of the Warsaw Pact, was recreated as an economic tool of ten committees to accelerate the synthesis of Eastern Europe’s markets and economies. Undoubtedly, Khrushchev intended to act on his stated policies and use multilateral Eastern European support as opposed to Stalin’s position of a unilateral Soviet
Due to President Ronald Reagan’s development of this new program during the height of the Cold War, it can be seen how such an initiative could cause the Soviet Union to become intimidated and could cause the tensions of the Cold War to recede as a result of a Soviet collapse. Beginning in 1983, Reagan began his public announcements regarding the so-called Strategic Defense Initiative. In that same year he gave a speech in which he portrayed the Soviet Union as an “Evil Empire” , and consequently gained momentum for creating the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization in 1984. This response gave way for many years of continuous proposals and meeting between the two leaders of these global powers. Reagan and Gorbachev had met in 1986 at a summit in Reykjavik.
1. Identification and evaluation of sources This investigation, examining certain events of the Cold War, will answer the question: To what extent did President Ronald Reagan’s actions aid in the end of the Cold War? The Cold War was a war between the United States and the Soviet Union that took place from 1947 to 1991. During that time several United States presidents took office, one of the last being Ronald Reagan whose actions have been argued to have been more influential than the rest and impactful toward the downfall of the ongoing war with the Soviet Union.
Instantly following the end of the Second World War, the fears of the American people rapidly began accumulating as the mistrust between, the United States and the Soviet Union intensified. During World War II, tension between the two world powers began to emerge through ideological differences such as political beliefs and contrasting views regarding the future of Poland that took place at both the Yalta conference and Potsdam. This lasting skepticism only increased as the Soviets started to become more advanced through nuclear weapons and developments in space technology. Despite Eisenhower’s acknowledgment of these widespread fears, he was not particularly successful in addressing them. The American people lived in constant fear of the spread
American president: Eisenhower. USSR leader: Khrushchev. NATO, created in 1949 to stop the spread of communism - Belgium and United States. (Natufe 354) WTO, created in 1955, an alliance of Eastern European communist countries - USSR. (Natufe 355)
Also the way that USSR was trying to spread their ideology thought Europe and Asia such as; Vietnam, Thailand, Korea, Africa, Cuba, etcc. Making the U.S not a fan of the Soviets intention and becoming more against the Soviets. But after 45 years of the Cold War Soviet Union had come to an end making it a victory for the U.S. Countries that once before were in control by the Soviet Union had now gainde independence and were able to do as they want and follow their own believes. Countries that had become independent were; Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Albania, etc… This cause for free open market between the new countries forming by allowing for those countries to be able to take part in trading with the E.U and countries following the ideology of democracy rather than communism. And
After a year of Truman’s speech in 1948, the North Atlantic Treaty ‘NATO’ have been issued and this treaty was signed by the United States and ten nations of western Europe. They agree that if an armed attack against Europe or North America should be considered as an attack against them (Doc
Although the US’s action is seen to benefit them in most ways, their recognition of the crisis and effort to help should be gone unnoticed. The US seen as a great opposer of the communist regime and throughout history has helped many nation fight for their freedom. They had helped the non-communist Koreans free themselves from their brainwashed Koreans and Afghan people from culture stripping Soviet. At the end pro-democracy nation of the North Atlantic area joined forces as in treat known today as NATO, as mentioned document 4 The author's point of view of this article probably be pro-western; this is shown through the phrase used by the author. Notably________________________ and ______________________ In conclusion, the Soviet Union caused a political divide with the people of Eastern Europe; which lead to a physical division of the European
Despite his popularity in the US as “The Man Who Beat Communism”, Reagan’s presidency during the 1980s was only a sidekick to Gorbachev in the efforts to end the Cold War. Reagan’s actions against the USSR did not scare the nation into reforms, but Gorbachev’s impact in the Cold War, reforming the Soviet Union and oversight of communism’s peaceful transition into democracy during the late 80s overshadows Reagan’s seemingly token actions, portraying clearly that the only man which can hold the title of the “Man Who Ended the Cold War” with any credibility is Mikhail Gorbachev. The claim that Reagan’s increasing actions against communism and the USSR directly led to the appointment of reformist Mikhail Gorbachev to the post of General Secretary
(Lowry 2005). Reagan was unapologetic when dealing with the USSR, calling it the ‘Evil Empire’, despite this, in his second term, he developed a diplomatic relationship with Gorbachev as circumstances changed, and Reagan’s foreign policy reacted to changes in the Soviet system with a pragmatic mirroring effect. This shows a disparity between “Reaganism as defined in theory, and that which became practice” (Halper and Clarke 2004). Following Reagan’s strategy of helping the Soviet Union stabilise its empire with not responding militarily to martial law instated in Poland, an action desired by neoconservatives, Podhoretz (1982) accused Reagan of ‘appeasement’ and falling into the trap of believing in
Tension existed between the Soviet Union and the West as far back as 1885 during the Panjdeh incident. At this time the competition between Britain and Russia in Afghanistan was great and war appeared imminent. Furthermore, after the First World War, the Allies immediately supported the anti-Bolshevik White movement during the Russian Civil War, laying the groundwork for high tensions between the Soviet Union and the West for the next one hundred years. When Joseph Stalin came into power, he enormously elevated these tensions through his take over of Eastern Europe, which the West saw as an attempt to spread Communism. Indeed, by 1949 all Eastern European governments, except that of Yugoslavia, were run by hard-line Stalinist regimes, causing a great amount of fear in the Capitalist world as they saw Communism as threatening every aspect of their society.
In the aftermath of World War II, growing tensions and rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union resulted in the Cold War. Having lasted for much of the second half of the 20th century, this state of economical, political and propaganda-based confront, with a lack of military conflict and open hostility, is considered a turning point in modern history. The root cause of the conflict was fundamentally the belief in completely opposing ideologies. The confrontation between capitalism and communism led to an international power struggle that left the world on the brink of disaster.
In this book, Gaddis claims that the Cold War was both certain and vital in light of the fact that the Soviet empire and its allies couldn 't be moved back however must be contained. Toward the end of the war, no country had physically or directly pushed an attack on the other. The central thesis of the book is that the Cold War brought an end to the usage of military strength and ability as the characteristics of power as perceived five years before the start of Cold War. For example, Gaddis says, "What never happened, despite universal fears that it might, was full-scale war involving the United States, the Soviet Union, and their allies. For the first time in history no one could make sure of winning, or despite surviving, a unimaginable
To examine the Cold War consensus, one must discuss the Cold War. The Cold war was the tension between the United States, standing for capitalism, and the USSR, standing for totalitarianism and socialism, following World War II. Although it was not a physical war between the two superpowers, many proxy wars had came out of it as way to spread or combat communism throughout the Free World. The Free World, as the U.S. came to define it, did not necessarily mean free as countries were being ruled by military regimes and dictatorships, but free from communism(70). During the Cold War, the spread of communism frighted the American People.
During the Cold War, the alignment of several nations to one side or another based on ideological differences or national interests has become an endemic feature of international relations. Unlike prior, shorter-term blocs, the Western and Soviet blocs sought to spread their national ideological differences to other nations. Leaders like U.S. President Harry S. Truman under the Truman Doctrine believed it was necessary to spread democracy, whereas the Warsaw pact under the Soviet policy sought to spread communism. After the Cold War, and the dissolution of the ideologically homogeneous Eastern bloc still gave rise to others, such as the South –South Cooperation
Introduction, Investigation and Conclusion To what extent was the Berlin Wall both a symbolic and physical division between the East and West? The Berlin Wall was, to a great extent, a symbolic and physical division between the East and West. This is evident in the way that after the Second World War, the USSR and the Western Powers cut all ties, and the Iron Curtain was formed; in the way that unhappiness was evident in communist countries throughout the world (not only in East Germany) and how the sense of injustice was felt before the wall was even built; in the way that the Western Powers and Soviet Union voiced their support for East and West Germany respectively and how propaganda was used to mock alternative ideologies; in the way that