Cold War History Essay

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Friday, November 6, 2009

THE COLD WAR Research Paper

THE COLD WAR

The Cold War was the elongated tension between the Soviet Union and the United States of America. It started in the mid 40's after WWII had left Europe in shambles and Russia and the USA in superpower positions. The Cold War was a clash of these super giants in political, ideological, military, and economic values and ideas. Though military build up was great on both sides neither one ever directly fought each other. In this essay I'm going to bring forth the following points: Rise of the Cold War, events in and because of the Cold War, and the fall of Russia.

Again Germany had been thwarted in its plans of total domination. It had been a combined effort by all the Western powers and a few Eastern powers too. England was devastated, France had been literally burnt to the ground, and many small nation had suffered economic failure. To the East Russia had suffered many losses from the vain siege of the Nazi's. But they were in better shape then Europe. They still had a military and a running, somewhat, economy. In the late 40's through early 50's the Soviet Union started to spread the Lenin ideological as it started moving in the Westward position. In 47 the US started funding the rebuilding of European infrastructure in a system called the Marshall Plan. Russia in turn brought forth its own funding called the Molotov Plan. Because of that, they were able to spread communism through many countries. Some of these nations were: Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Eastern Germany, and numerous countries in Southeastern Asia. But on the US side we had the support from almost the entire Western Europe. So the tension started, between Western Europe or a republic society and Eastern Europe and communism.

There are many key events that happened throughout the entire duration of the Cold War. The fist main events that led up to the tension were the foreign aid policies. These policies were able to divide up Europe between the superpowers. After Europe was divided up treaty organizations and alliances stated forming up again. One of these alliances was the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). This allied the western portion of Europe. Next came the Warsaw Pact, it was the communistic version of NATO.

Throughout the Cold War, relations between the Soviet Union and the west alternated between times of tension and crises and periods of reduced tension and limited cooperation. Though the two superpowers never engaged each other militarily, they were periodically caught up in major political crises that had the potential to become warfare. One example was the Soviet blockade on Western Berlin. The Russians threatened, and did, block of supply routs to Western Berlin. The people in the city were staving and dying from the lack of supplies. Because of this the US had to make periodic supply drops into the city. Some other examples are the Cuban missile crises, where the Russian funded Cuban military had secretly made or smuggled nuclear missiles onto the island and pointed them at the USA. Also there were the crises in the middle east and the U.S. bombardment on Hanoi and Haiphong.

The U.S. did go to battle though. We fought two major battles against the communists. The fist was over Korea. North Korea a communistic satellite tried to spread there ideas through hostile takeover. The US funded and aided South Korea until they were able to fend of their attackers. The second time it was in Vietnam. Like the first battle north Vietnam was trying to concur south Vietnam and make it a communistic nation. The US sent massive man power into it and lost lots of solders, but we were unsuccessful in stopping the north Vietnamese. Soon tension grew so high that the US knew that they had to do something about all the nuclear missiles that Russia possessed.

During almost the entire time that Russia and the USA had been fighting for power they had also stored up a large cache of nuclear weapons. This in fact would put the whole world in jeopardy for their lives. It was Regain who brought forth the ideas of a Star Wars anti-ballistic weaponry. But the idea of putting thousands of little 5 pound bombs up in orbit that would through sheer kinetic energy destroy a missile on its upward trajectory had been around science Khushchev. This put him at worry. He concluded that the only way for him to reach the US with his missiles was to launch them in such sheer numbers. To do this he would have to change the governments funding of 30% to the military to 60%. This surge in funding left the citizens in financial ruin. People were laterally starving to death by the tens of thousands. Countries started to revolt. A few of these countries were Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. The revolts in the first two show me why we have our second amendment. The Checks and the Hungarians staged revolts, but because of the laws that forbade to possession of a firearm the rebels were quickly and systematically slaughtered by the Soviet military. Poland was a different story. After the fall of Khushchev, Mikhail Gorbachev came into power. He instituted many reforms such as military cuts, reconstruction of agriculture, openness to the government, and democratization. Because of some of these reforms, the revolts of Poland were not a bloody massacre as the first two, but effective displays of rejectment of the government. It was a union setup by a boat dock worker, which union were forbidden, to start strikes on the factories and industrialized areas. They smartly got the world media on them. This put the Soviet Union on the spotlight. The revolt was considered one of the greatest individual feats on the fall of communistic Russia. This in turn brought forth new policies and rights.

The by-products of these policies brought forth the collapse of the communistic countries(around 89 -90 ). This lead to the establishment of non-communist political parties, free elections, and the development of a new democratic state.

In October of 1990 the communistic government fell in Berlin, and the divided city was re-united. This was the final symbol of the fall of communism in Europe. A little bit lathttp://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=15435819829481014er the Warsaw pact was abolished, and the last of the nuclear weapons were dispersed in the sea. Presidents George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev officially ended the Cold War in 1991, I think. Basically the end of the Cold War ended because the Soviet Union ceased to be a superpower.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28 Review

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Reviews say the 10.1-megapixel Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28 is the best choice among ultra-zoom digital cameras, given its features, image quality, shutter speed, price and portability (13 ounces). While stronger lenses are available, reviews say the 18x is plenty, and unlike some cameras in this class, you can shoot in RAW format. You also can find slightly larger LCD displays on the market, but 2.7 inches will be large enough for most users. Some say the joystick control is balky, but a real plus is a manual switch for the video recording function. This is an upgrade of the widely praised, 8.1-megapixel DMC-FZ18, which is still available for about $300. Reviews say the top budget ultra-zoom is the 10x Canon PowerShot SX110 IS (*est. $215).
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Free Essay American Cold War History

Free Essay American Cold War History: "American Cold War History
Uploaded by thestudent on Nov 16, 2006
American Cold War History

Harry S. Truman was the most influential figure in early Cold War politics. His policies on Soviet expansion and cooperation with western bloc countries set the stage for how other Cold War era presidents would act. It is through his handling of the Korean conflict and the issue of communism, both domestic and abroad, he can be considered the father of Cold War politics.

The beginnings of communist distrust in America may be found in the Red Scare of 1919. The Red Scare of 1919 began out of a growing distrust of Bolshevism and strong desire by many groups to preserve America’s status quo and throw out the foreign influences that might subvert it (1). People only became more outraged by such frivolous comments by Bolshevik leaders like Vladimir Lenis that “it is necessary to break eggs to make an omelet”(2). Under mounting public pressure the attorney general, Mitchell A. Palmer, conducted anti-alien raids across America. It was not until the arrest and deportation of hundreds of aliens that the national hysteria began to die down as a result of growing public disapproval. Despite the end of the first Red Scare a feeling of Bolshevik distrust continued to pervade America throughout the 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s.

At the end of the Second World War America had emerged as the world’s most powerful nation. While most of the world lay in shambles, America served as a sort of economic crutch, providing trade and industry to war stricken nations that could no long do so themselves. With programs such as the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), European Recovery Program (ERP), and the Truman Doctrine the United States was clearly making a concerted effort to re-establish trade with and re-stabilize the countries of Europe. The Marshal Plan, which later evolved into the European Recovery Act, was especially important not only from an American economic standpoint but from a political one as well. By raising living standards and increasing productivity in Western Europe, the Marshall Plan curbed Communism, stimulated trade and economic growth, helped preserve political stability, and made possible a vigorous and enduring North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Given its objectives, it was the most successful foreign aid program in American history (3).

With the dissolution of the Russian, British, and American alliance, Americans once again resumed their suspicion of the Soviet Union. The Reds were gobbling up many of the Eastern European countries and to Westerners it seemed that it seemed that there was very little to stop them for taking over the rest of Europe as well. To make the Red Menace even more of a threat, cases of Soviet espionage in the United States were becoming more common. Amid the false accusations there were actually several genuine spy-rings delivering American secrets to the Soviet Union. Rings such as the Gurgess, Maclean, and Philby who got away with their crimes represented a real nation security threat. Also the Rosenburgs whose ordinary appearance seemed to confirm in many Americans that Russian spies could be anyone (4).

Perhaps the most spectacular and politically charged spy case of this time was the trial of Alger Hiss. A former State Department official, Hiss, was charged by Whitaker Chambers an editor at Time magazine with being a fellow Communist. Although being a communist wa not a crime itself, its implications were enough to ruin the careers of anyone smeared with such an accusation at that time. Eventually the charge moved to espionage, but since the statute of limitations on espionage had run out he was only charged with perjury. Truman, a Democrat, felt that the affair was an excuse for the Republican party to keep from doing what it ought to do, which was deal with serious foreign and domestic problems rather than attacking innocent people. As Hiss was later convicted of perjury the administration looked foolish for its support of an apparent traitor (5). Not soon afterwards the conviction of Hiss, some republicans like McCarthy, Jenner, Mundt, Nixon, and Taft saw pay dirt in the communist issue and proceeded to ride it to power (6).

As Truman’s policy on domestic communism was uncertain, he definitely knew what America’s policy regarding the spread of Communism across its existing borders was. The United States was not going to allow Communism to spread beyond its existing borders, even if it meant military conflict. In Truman’s address to a joint session of congress on March 12, 1947, President Truman laid out what was to become the “Truman Doctrine”. The Truman Doctrine was no abrupt departure in US policy, but for the first time explicitly stated that communist gains were a threat to a world peace and pledged the United State’s power to check such developments (7). In his speech Truman asked congress not to send GI’s to Greece and Turkey to help combat the communist threat but money and weapons. Truman believed in a sort of domino theory, that “if Greece should fall …disorder might well spread throughout the entire Middle East”(8). Along with the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan containment plans, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed in 1949 in response to Soviet aggression in throughout Europe, namely the blockade of Germany and the communist coup in Czechoslovakia.

By excluding Korea as one of the nations which the United States would make a unilateral commitment to the Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, had appeared to open the door for a communist invasion of South Korea. When Communist North Koreans crossed the 38th parallel into South Korea President Truman, holding to his policy on communist containment, took his decision to take military action to the United Nations’ Security Council. With the approval of NATO and the UN, but oddly enough not Congress,President Truman assigned General Douglas MacArthur to command the United Nations’ military forces in Korea. Among the reasons America had entered the conflict was that the Soviet Union had put pressure on communist China to support the North Koreans in their attack on South Korea. The Truman administration believed that the Russians had allowed the North Koreans to attack in order to draw American attention away from Western Europe so that a more powerful and organized Russian attack on NATO would be possible (9).

During the Korean conflict General Douglas MacArthur began to disagree with some of the policies in Washington. MacArthur felt that he knew how to fight a war in Korea better than did the bureaucrats in Washington. MacArthur and other Republicans felt “if we are not in Korea to win, then the Truman administration should be indicted for the murder of thousands of American boys” as stated by House Leader Joseph W. Martin (10). Ideas like this coupled with MacArthur’s repeated rejection of Truman’s policies such as openly threatening to attack Manchuria which would readily draw the United States into a war with both the Soviet Union and Maoist China led Truman to “remove” MacArthur from command in North Korea. MacArthur’s removal was meet with great disapproval:

There were bushel baskets of telegrams, overwhelmingly against the President. I remember picking up a bunch of those telegrams and just holding them up, not saying what was in them, and the President said, “see that fireplace over there, Roger? Go put them in there and set a match to them. The American people will come to understand that what I did had to be done. Now, what’s next on the agenda? (11)

Despite this initial disapproval of Truman’s actions a month after of MacArthur’s recall the number of letters entering the White House eventually dwindles to a trickle, and the percentage of letters opposing MacArthur’s removal was down to fifty-five percent (12).

In the early 1950’s a report was drafted to persuade the Truman Administration that the 'fundamental design of those who control the Soviet Union and the international communist movement is . . . the complete subversion or forcible destruction of the . . . countries of the non-Soviet world.'(13). This report recommended to the President that military spending should be increased and that less money should be spent on social programs. These funds were to pay for the expenses of the hydrogen bomb research, expansion of conventional forces, and intensification of covert operations. “The whole success of the proposed program” NSC says, “hangs ultimately on the recognition by this Government, the American people, and all people that the cold war is in fact a real war in which the survival of the free world is at stake”(14). Upon the implementation of NSC-68 the military spending in the United States grew exponentially.

Many of Truman’s policies shaped the Cold War for years to come. The Truman containment policy was one of the most influential doctrines of the Cold War. It dominated Soviet-US relations until the end of the Cold War in 1989. From US involvement in Korea and Vietnam to Reagan’s involvement in Latin America, the American policy of containing the spread of communism was an important issue in deciding America involvement in other country’s affairs. A result of Truman’s handling of the Korean War was the beginnings of “limited engagement”, the limitation of targets and areas designated by politicians for use by the military, often associated with the war in Vietnam. NSC-68 also made its mark on the Cold War, diverting money from social programs to defense programs. NSC-68 created the increased military funds that were common throughout the Cold War, especially with President Ronald Reagan.

By taking a hardliner’s approach to Soviet interests at the start of the Cold War Harry S. Truman had forever severed relations between the Soviet Union and the United States. His inflexibility to communist pressures kept the United States on a course straight for Soviet opposition. Whether the policies of President Truman were for the betterment of America remains open to discussion but it is for these same crucial policies that Truman is the architect of Cold War politics.




Works Cited

1.David M. Oshinsky A Conspiracy so Immense (New York, New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1983) p. 85-89

2. Robert H. Ferrell, Harry S. Truman and the Modern American Presidency (Boston Little Brown and Company, 1983) p.134

3. Friends of George C Marshall. The Plan. <http://www.lcsys.net/fayette/history/plan.htm>

4. Robert H. Ferrell, Harry S. Truman and the Modern American Presidency (Boston Little Brown and Company, 1983) p.138

5. Robert H. Ferrell, Harry S. Truman and the Modern American Presidency (Boston Little Brown and Company, 1983) p.136-137

6. Ken Hechler Working with Truman (Toronto, Canada: General Publishing Co., 1982) p184

7. Mike Reese. The Cold War and Washington Red Scare. University of Washington <http://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/curcan/main.html>

8. Barton J. Bersnstien, Policies and Politics of the Truman Administration (Quadrale Books Inc., 1970) p. 53-56

9. David M. Oshinsky A Conspiracy so Immense (New York, New York: Macmillan, 1983) p. 109-132

10. Ken Hechler Working with Truman (Toronto, Canada: General Publishing Co.,
1982) p175

11. Ken Hechler Working with Truman (Toronto, Canada: General Publishing Co., 1982) p181

12.Ken Hechler Working with Truman (Toronto, Canada: General Publishing Co., 1982) p181

13. Mike Reese. The Cold War and Washington Red Scare. University of Washington <http://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/curcan/main.html>

14. Robert J. Donovan Tumultuous Years (New York, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1982)



Bibliography

1. Bernstein, Barton J. Politics & Policies of the Truman Administration. Quadrale Books Inc, 1970

2. Donovan, Robert J. The Presidency of Harry S Truman, 1945-1948: Conflict and Crisis. W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 1977

3. Donovan, Robert J. The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1949-1953: Tumultuous Years. W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 1982

4. Ferrell, Robert H. Harry S Truman and the Modern American Presidency. Little Brown and Company, 1983

5. Friends of George C Marshall. The Plan. <http://www.lcsys.net/fayette/history/plan.htm>

6. Hartmann, Susan M. Truman and the 80th Congress. University of Missouri Press, 1971"

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