Cold War Dbq Essay

The Cold War began around the time the wartime confederation between the United States and the Soviet Union broke down, during the years 1945 - 1950. The battle between the two dominions, communism and capitalism, battle for more than 40 years. The Cold War essentially began with empty threats about bombing each other with weapons including nuclear bombs and ballistic missiles resulting in nothing but a game of I guess you can say “one on one basketball”. There were two sides to this war the entire time but the main countries that were battling was the United States and the Soviet Union. The United States, along with Canada and ten other nations of Western Europe, signed a treaty known as the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO) in 1948. The Treaty

felt they needed to aid other countries in danger. In Document 2, President Harry Truman gave a speech to Congress, on March 12, 1947, stating that it should be “the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation [domination] by armed minorities or by outside pressure.”. He proposed to give Greece and Turkey $400 million in aid (Document 2). He felt that if they didn’t aid them in their troubles, the consequences would greatly affect the West. Another situation in which we aided another country was in June 5 of 1947. Secretary of State George Marshall gave a speech explaining a plan for European recovery which known today as The Marshall Plan. It states that if the United States does not do whatever it takes to help restore normal economic health to the world, “there can be no political stability or peace.” (Document

was leading the race in all 8 years in the building of submarine-launched ICBMs and Long-range bombers. In the building of Land-launched ICBMs though, the U.S.S.R. took a lead starting in the year 1968 and stayed there for the rest of the 6 years. The fear of weapons being used spread panic across the world and caused countries like Cuba to as kids today say “flip out”. This “flip out” led to President John F. Kennedy giving a speech about the Cuban Missile Crisis to the American People, explaining the U.S. position. He clearly stated that the missiles that were present in Cuba were “an open threat to the peace and security of all of the Americas.” (Document 8). Their job, he said, was to prevent any use of those missiles against any country. He then declared the protection for the Western Hemisphere and called out to Chairman Khrushchev to terminate the “secret and reckless threat to world peace.” (Document 8). Premier Khrushchev responded shortly after with an explanation to why they equipped themselves with weapons. “These weapons were only meant for defensive purposes.”(Document 9). He then accepted the statement from Kennedy saying he would protect them. Khrushchev “[gave the order to discontinue building the installations.” (Document 9). The weapons were dismantled and sent to the Soviet