¶ … Cold War
What were the important events and factors that led to the end of the Cold War? There are several theories and explanations, and this paper reviews those theories and explanations.
First of all, it should be noted that not all scholars accept that the Cold War began after WWII. Professor Jack Matlock of Princeton University -- who served as ambassador to the U.S.S.R. -- writes in the peer-reviewed Harvard International Review that if the Cold War began in 1945 or 1946, it "…must have ended around 1990" because that was when the "Iron Curtain" in Eastern Europe came down and the military confrontation between the East (Soviets) and West (U.S.) slowed to a standstill (Matlock, 2001, p. 1). But, on the other hand, if the Cold War began in 1917, when the Bolsheviks won control of Russia, then it ended at a different time than 1990, Matlock asserts.
Matlock cites several scholars that believe the Cold War actually began in 1917 and ended in 1960, including D.J. Fleming, a Vanderbilt University professor, whose two-volume scholarship (The Cold War and Its Origins: 1917-1960) placed the responsibility for the start of the Cold War on the U.S. because America...
Nuclear confrontation between the two superpowers was profoundly frightening, not just for those who would have borne the full brunt of any nuclear exchange... But for the international community as a whole. Quite literally, the prospect of nuclear war constituted a threat of truly global dimensions. (O'Neil A. 2004) There are many other important aspects that mark the beginning of the Cold War Era. One was the formation of the
Cold War Prior to World War II, American foreign policy had been predicted upon isolationism. Afterward, determined to avoid the mistakes of the pre-war period, American leaders embarked upon an unprecedented era of worldwide commitments. This included entry into a number of alliances with foreign nations, interventions in foreign conflicts (either covertly or overtly) and an unlimited commitment to maintain the nation's military readiness. In doing so, they irrevocably changed this
Cold War and Globalization The Cold War, and the U.S. And Asia and Globalization What was meant by the Cold War? Before defining the cold war, authors Bentley and Ziegler go into great depth to lay the foundation for the origins of the Cold War. More than sixty million people perished during WWII (965), including twenty million Soviets, fifteen million Chinese, six million Poles, four million Germans, two million Japanese, three hundred
During the period of transition, defense spending needed to be maintained in order to avoid returning to depression. The Cold War provided a means for this. The intense rhetoric provided justification to the American people, but the combination of high defense spending and the rhetoric only further inflamed the U.S.S.R. Inflammation also stemmed from several short-term incidents that occurred in the post-war years. The Soviet Union, for example, attempted a
Cold War Analyzing Different Perspectives The term "cold war" refers to a type of conflict that does not utilize any direct military action, in the modern lexicon another way to refer to this would be no military interventions and "no boots" on the ground. However, though the military does not engage the enemy directly, they are often engaged in many indirect pursuits against their target including tasks such as gathering intelligence, building
Cold War Q’s: The Soviet Long Game and the Policy of Containment 1 The origins of the Cold War were in the uneasy alliance between the US and the Soviet Union during WW2. The aim of both nations was to destroy Germany, which alone stood in all of Europe to confront the wave of Marxist-Communism washing over the continent. Spain’s Civil War was a prelude to WW2, and there Franco was victorious. Germany
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