The Cold War Us Role

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

The Cold War that is usually dated from 1947 to 1991 was considered as a sustained state of military and political tension between the western Bloc powers that were dominated by the U.S. with the NATO among its allies, and the Eastern Bloc powers that were dominated by the Soviet Union alongside the Warsaw Pact. This started after the success of their improvised wartime alliance against the Nazi Germany hence leaving the U. S. and USSR as the two superpowers with profound political and economic differences. [1] 

Dating the end of the Cold War also requires dating the beginning of the Cold War that requires defining what it was all about. By just one reckoning, the Cold War started in the 1947 and it ended in around 1989, having been a dispute over the division of Europe. In another account, the Cold War started in 1917 with the Bolshevik Revolution, and it ended in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed after it had been a clash between Democracy and Bolshevism.

The Cold War was considered the most significant diplomatic and political issue of the latter half of the 20th Century. The major Cold War enemies were the Soviet Union and the U.S. The Cold War got its actual name because both nations were afraid of battling each other directly. In such like a "hot war," nuclear weapons can destroy everything. So, they fought each other indirectly, instead. They played havoc with disputes in various parts of the world. They also used several words as weapons. They denounced and threatened each other. And they tried various ways possible to make each other look foolish. The term "Cold War" was for the first time used in 1947 by Bernard Baruch who was a senior advisor to Harry Truman, the 33rd U.S. president of in reference to the frequently exacerbating and occurring crises between the former Soviet Union and the U.S. despite having battled side-by-side against the Nazi Germany in the World War II.

The Cold War was a decades-long battle for the global supremacy which pitted the capitalist U.S. against the Soviet Union who were communist. Although there are few disagreements as to when the Cold War started, it is generally conceded that in the mid- to late-1945 marks the duration of time when relations between Washington and Moscow started deteriorating. It is this deterioration that ignited the early Cold War, and it set the stage for a dynamic battle that assumed mythological overtones of evil versus good. [2] 

The U.S. and the Soviet Union were considered the only two superpower nations following the World War II. The fact that, by 1950s, each of them possessed several nuclear weapons and had the ways of delivery of such like weapons on their enemies, added an extremely dangerous aspect to the Cold War. The world of the Cold War was separated into different three groups. The U.S. led the West. It was a group that included countries having democratic systems that were political. The Soviets were the leader in the East. It was the group that included countries having communist political systems. The non-aligned group then included countries that wanted not to be tied to either side. [3] 

After the World War II, the U.S. had efficiently become the most influential and powerful country in the whole world both politically and militarily. During the rise to power of America, however, hostilities had mounted between the Soviet Union and U.S. resulting in a violent conflict. The Cold War that never involved the direct military dispute between the two countries involved their struggle to contain the high rate of spread of extreme anti-communist attitudes in U.S., a reemergence of communism.

During the war against Germany, America had a tendency of neglecting the Soviet Union military desires. Roosevelt hesitated to come up with a second front against the Nazis and through this hesitation; many American lives were saved at the expense of also more Russian lives. In addition to the known strategic differences, the two nations later ended up competing each other so as to "liberate" much of Western Europe as much as possible; Soviet Russia very much eager to expand communism and the U.S. committed to hindering a potential enemy from getting a footing in the international affairs. [4] 

The Cold War started as soon as America acquired intelligence that the Soviet Union had exploded a hydrogen bomb. Soon after that, the National Security Council then issued a report supporting the issue of the construction of an American hydrogen bomb and an increase in taxes so as to fund a large defense budget. To hinder the Soviet expansion, President Truman had an adoption of a doctrine of containment- if Communism tried to threaten the governments of the allied nations, then the U.S. had the authority to come in and intervene with military action. [5] 

Moreover, America still maintained their economic dominance by the establishment of the Marshal Plan that meant that the U.S. would give financial aid to the European countries so as to make them buy most American products. Although the Soviet Union prohibits its satellite states participate in such an arrangement, the Marshal Plan became successful in putting America nation in the center of international economics.

Meanwhile, Communists in Asia won control of North Korea and China. When North Korea attacked South Korea, the U.S. tried and pushed them back and started a counteroffensive act. Involvement of Chinese in the war that lasted for another two years led to a stalemate. After President Truman, President Eisenhower then devised his own foreign policy. President Eisenhower "New Look" made use of a massive nuclear arsenal for the military leverage, hence manipulating Third World nations with the CIA, and then doing all things possible so as to contain the spread of Communism. [6] 

After the World War II, President Truman raised the controls on prices hence leading to a drastic inflation and prompting workers to have higher wages demand. He put many railroad and mining companies under federal control, sparking harshness from the Democratic Party. To start up an economic growth, President Truman started enacting what he termed the Fair Deal. The New Deal expansion addressed civil rights and the economic concerns. Due to the strong opposition from Congress, only few parts of President Truman's Fair Deal were then passed: a rise in the minimum wage, a rise in the social security scope and the enactment of the National Housing Act in the year 1949 that called for the building of thousands of housing units of low budgets.

In the center of the economic and political discord, tensions were increasingly rising in America at home over the spread of communism. This resulted into the creation of the House of Un-American Activities Committee that had a main duty of doing the investigation of the influence of communist in New Deal organizations and labor unions. During the time of "Great Fear," all different types of persons-particularly those persons on the government payroll were put under investigation for the communist activity and then they were put at a great risk of having all their lives destroyed.

The Cold War had various impacts in several aspects of American life, from its way of expanding the executive branch power to leading to the nuclear weapons proliferation. During the arms race, the U.S. extended and even improved its nuclear arsenal where doing so required remarkably extensive testing on the American land. The overall emphasis on nuclear arms and this type of testing caused several Americans to experience the effect of radiation poisoning and then created a general fear to people that a nuclear bomb or weapon could be dropped on their homes, at any given point in time. [7] Throughout this duration of time, millions of bomb shelters were built at a high rate and the public service announcements detailing the safety measures during any attack were also broadcasted.