ipl-logo

Cold War Dbq Essay

965 Words4 Pages

Although the United States and the Soviet's relationship had been strained before the war. During World War II, they collectively became allies when Hitler broke the Non-Aggression Pact. This was unlikely for the two countries because (refer to the issues they had prior to WWII). Even though this occurred they stayed allies through WWII until Stalin wanted a Western Front. What were the leading causes and factors that caused the Cold War? The most significant factors that led to the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union were ideological differences, unequal war costs, and lack of trust. The United States and the Soviet Union went from being allies to being enemies through their ideological differences. Document A states," ...that capitalism …show more content…

Paragraph 3 states,” And so what we have at the moment is that the Germans on the Western Front have in fact ceased the war against Britain and America. At the same time they continue the war against Russia, the Ally of Britain, and the U.S.A” (document e). The U.S. and G.B. had a secret meeting with the Germans for after-war terms. This creates distrust between both countries because if you're an ally with said country, establishing trust with your ally would be difficult if they had a reason to not trust you. This is exactly how the Soviets perceived the information they acquired. According to Stalin,” … I have complete confidence in General Eisenhower and know that he would certainly inform me before entering into any agreement with the Germans. … [I]t is astonishing that a belief seems to have reached the Soviet Government that I have entered into an agreement with the enemy without first obtaining your full agreement” (document e). FDR feels betrayed that Stalin would accuse him of the negotiations. Here, then, is a second reason the US and the Soviets got involved in a Cold War. It was because of the false allegations that ultimately lead to a dispute between both countries establishing a lack of trust. FDR started to feel paranoia which made him question who was his allies in general. Further evidence states,” The Manhattan Project [American code name for the effort to develop the atomic bomb] had not been secret enough, though, to keep Soviet intelligence from discovering a lot about it through espionage” (document f). Keeping the bomb project secrete gave the S.U. skepticism to continue being alliances with the United States. The level of equality that was established, was severed when the U.S. was making threats because the S.U. didn’t have the faith to believe that the U.S. wasn’t going to use blackmail

Show More
Related
295 Words | 2 Pages

This meant that Stalin was unaware of any type of atomic weapon research. The conversation was kept breif and genial, which was also good since they wouldn’t have to answer any questions and go into depth about. The US-Soviet relations could still be ruined though since Truman never told him the full truth about what type of weapon they had. A disadvantage of Truman’s approach was the Soviets

Read More
493 Words | 2 Pages

After World War Two the U.S. and Soviet Union had a long-lasting rivalry since the Soviets were communists and the U.S. was not. This period is known as the Cold War because it was a major conflict where the U.S. and Soviet Union fought indirectly. The Cold War impacted the U.S. domestic policy and American society because it created American fear of communism. This fear later led to losing rights and the government switching where their money was being spent in certain areas such as general education.

Read More
1018 Words | 5 Pages

In a press conference in March 1954, Dwight Eisenhower acknowledged the abundance of fears and noted that they impacted people's behavior in a hysterical manner. He said, "We fear the men in the Kremlin, we fear what they will do to our friends around them; we are fearing what unwise investigators will do to us here at home" (Document A). Eisenhower's statement highlights the concern that the American people had regarding Soviet expansionism and the potential for communist infiltration in the United States. John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State, echoed these sentiments in June 1954, stressing that the capture of any American state by communism, no matter how small, would pose a significant threat to the entire free world. Dulles argued that the situation in Guatemala was a case in point, and the American States could not ignore it.

Read More
935 Words | 4 Pages

The Cold War was a war full of politics and beliefs along with brutal fighting. Communism was seen as a major threat to the United States. The Soviet Union was trying to, at the time, influence other countries of its communist beliefs in hopes of gaining allies and resources. The Soviets expanded after WWII and the Americans feared this, adding tense to their “alliance.” The Soviet Union’s main targets were Europe but also to gain global exposure and power as well.

Read More
445 Words | 2 Pages

If one would argue that the origins of the Cold War should be traced to World War II and the breakdown of the wartime alliance between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. This all started by one act of betrayal. For example in Document C where Soviet Ambassador Nikolai Novikov states that “ The foreign policy of the United States ,which reflects the imperialist tendencies of American monopolistic capital, is characterized in the postwar period by striving for world supremacy.” The belief that freedom and democracy would die under the communist rule caused the United States to start a problem or feud that would last for a long time. The decisions made by the United States in W.W.II caused tensions to start between the U. S. and the Soviet Union.

Read More
228 Words | 1 Pages

1950s Rock The tension from the Soviet Union and USA caused the Cold war. USA and Russia fought as allies in World War ll to help defeat Germany (Nazi) but USA was always wary of the leader at the time. The Cold The Cold War was an 45 year conflict between US and Soviet Union. Though an actual “war” never happened the two nations acted as if they were at war.

Read More
173 Words | 1 Pages

For sure, the tensions and conflicts of the United States and the Soviet Union being a communist country led to the Cold War. When Truman became president, he inherited the responsibilities of the depleting alliance with the Sovier Union and the making of the atomic bomb. Stalin who was prime minister of the Soviet Union, his ambitions of how to invade Poland was not to Trumans liking. This was another factor to why the Cold War occured. Other than want you mentioned in your post, what were other reasons for why Truman and the American people opposed communist expansion?

Read More
841 Words | 4 Pages

A big fear of the people during the Cold War was that Russia could launch an atomic bomb at us at any time. We had just witnessed what happened to Japan and we did not want that to happen to us. According to “The Fifties AP US History Study Guide from The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History” it says, “Then, in 1950, only a week after Hiss’s conviction for perjury, a British atomic scientist named Klaus Fuchs, who had worked on the Manhattan Project during the war, turned himself in to Scotland Yard in London and admitted that he had been passing to the Soviets all the atomic secrets to which he had access.” People already had so much anxiety about an atomic bomb and now someone in our own government went and told Russia all of our secrets. Knowing that information was in their hands was terrifying.

Read More
759 Words | 4 Pages

The Soviet Union began expanding and at the same time, the U.S. became increasingly worried about Russian rule over the world. This tense and hostile environment sparked the Cold War

Read More
761 Words | 4 Pages

Because of the United States' hostile measures against the Soviet Union, revisionist historians contend, the Cold War began. The conventional wisdom, however, is that the Soviet Union's aspirations for expansion were the primary driver of the Cold

Read More
516 Words | 3 Pages

There are three competing theories of the causes of the Cold War; the traditional theory, the liberal theory, and the ideological theory. In all three theories lie causes that could have equally contributed to the conflict, but only one is more convincing than the others. The traditional theory says that communists were at fault for the conflict. Communists, specifically Stalin, wanted more control and thus used his political ideology as a means to achieve his desires. Expansionism is a commonly mentioned aspect related the idea of the traditional theory.

Read More
469 Words | 2 Pages

If anything, it kept tensions high between the US and the Soviet Union and it questioned who would make the first

Read More
969 Words | 4 Pages

Some historians believe the Cold War was inevitable because of the hostilities from both America and the Soviet Union after World War II. America believed that the USSR was an expansionist country trying to spread an evil, communistic idea throughout the world. Although the countries never directly fought against each other, as they only fought in proxy wars, there was still extreme conflict. The United States responded to the Soviets actions in Germany, Europe, and their national actions. These responses were justifiable, or so many Americans at the time believed.

Read More
496 Words | 2 Pages

"But it is hard to imagine how the U.S. government could have prevented a Communist victory short of getting involved in a massive military intervention, which would have been risky, unpopular, and expensive"(Tindall 964). "The discovery of the Soviet bomb in 1949 triggered an intense reappraisal of the strategic balance of power in the world, causing Truman in 1950 to order the construction of a hydrogen bomb, a weapon far more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, lest the Soviets make one first"(Tindall 964). The onset of the cold war the ideology drove more of the Soviet behavior. "American 's traditional commitment to democtatic capitalism, political self determination, and religious freedom conflicted with the Soviet Union 's preference for spheres of influence on its periphery, totalitarianism at home, and state mandated atheism"(Tindall 970). Kennan stressed that U.S. needed to be responses to the Soviet adventurism.

Read More
868 Words | 4 Pages

The Cold war began because two sides had different views on communism. The Soviet Union wanted it to spread to other countries, while America wanted it to stop and have it disappear. Three main reasons why the war started was one, two sides of communism were being fought over, two, fear of one another, whether it is from being hurt or beaten, and finally, competition. Without any of these happening or being a part of the war, the Cold War would not have been the same. Without the Cold War, mistakes would not have been learned until much later, for the Cold War is a highly important event that happened.

Read More

More about Cold War Dbq Essay

Open Document