Causes Of The Cold War

The cold war was an intense 45 year struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union after their wartime alliance broke. Each nation tried to increase their own worldwide influence and spread its own economic and political systems. At times the two nations were at an extreme edge of starting a war. This conflict started because of the U.S. beliefs of capitalism and the Soviets belief of communism. It was never fought by actual weapons, however it was fought with NATO and the Warsaw Pact and also, the race for nuclear arms.

After World War II, the Soviet Union developed the Iron Curtain that blocked off Eastern and Central Europe from the other parts of the world that were not communists. This became important in Winston Churchill’s

Berlin, the capital of Germany, was divided into two sides, East Berlin which was communist and West Berlin which was capitalist. In 1948, Joseph Stalin tried to block all roads and railways into Berlin, forcing the allies out. However, Truman responded with the Berlin Airlift which flew planes into Berlin to supply to the needs of the people. Because of the Berlin blockade and fears of Eastern bloc military power, Western European countries joined the U.S. to form a military alliance called NATO. Their alliance states, “The parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or in North America shall be considered as an attack against them all.They agree that if such an armed attack occurs, each of them will assist the party or parties so attacked. Each will immediately take whatever action it considers necessary to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area” (Doc. 4). This proposes that if any attack against any of them, they will all assist each other and take whatever action is necessary. If need be, they would use armed forces. The Soviet responded with the Warsaw Pact which Poland, Hungary, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Romania and the Soviet Union was all apart of (Doc 5). The Warsaw pact was a military treaty which made each country

and Soviet Union never fought each other directly however, they used proxies or substitutes to fight the superpower death-struggle between communism and capitalism. Both superpowers then had a race for nuclear arms. The competition of the Cold war turned into a race to see who could build the most deadly weapons of mass destruction. Between 1966 and 1974, the U.S. increased from 400 to 650 Submarine-launched ICBMs, decreased from 700 to 575 Long-range bombers, and remained around 1,000 Land-launched ICBMs. On the other hand, the Soviet Union increased from 100 to 700 Submarine-launched ICBMs, decreased slightly from 200 to 175 Long-range bombers, and increased dramatically from 300 to 1,600 Land-launched ICBMs (Doc 7). This showed how the U.S. and the Soviet Union developed the ability to destroy each other many times. Some viewed this balance of terror as restraint to war, while others feared the use of these weapons.Using some of the missiles, the U.S. placed some in Turkey near the border of the Soviet Union. The Soviets then placed missiles in Cuba which led to the Cuban Missile Crisis. President Truman spoke about the Cuban Missile Crisis saying, “This is an open threat to the peace and security of all Americans. I call upon chairman Khrushchev to halt and eliminate this secret and reckless threat to world peace” (Doc. 8). Truman was afraid of the threat and the protection of the Americans, therefore he called upon Khrushchev to remove the missiles from Cuba.