Lynlee Kennedy
History-4
Coach Conway
March 27, 2023
Cold War and Decolonization Essay
Before the Cold War, the Soviet Union and the United States were allies in World War II starting September 1, 1939. After the war, the Soviet Union began to resent the United States due to their lack of urgency to assist the USSR in WWII causing millions of Russian deaths. The United States was also scared and suspicious of Russia's communist leader Joseph Stalin. Due to these factors, a wave of distrust hit both the U.S. and the USSR after WWII ended on September 2, 1945. 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
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and the USSR. The Cold War is a war not fought by actual battles but by threats, propaganda, and politics. At the beginning of the Cold War, “Senator John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard M. Nixon both pledged to strengthen American military forces and promised a tough stance against the Soviet Union and international communism” (The Cold War, JFK Library) due to the Soviet’s rapidly growing arsenal as well. Each country was increasingly trying to one-up the other in terms of weapons. JFK increased the U.S. army in all branches. This change in military and weaponry instilled fear in many Americans that a nuclear war could start at any moment and many began to prepare to survive an atomic bomb. Another way the Cold War was fought was by something called a Proxy War. A Proxy War was a war in which countries expressed their …show more content…
Decolonization is the undoing of colonialism. In broad terms, it is the creation and independence of new countries from their higher power and the fall of global empires. After the Cold War, the U.S. and the Soviet Union had a hard time keeping their influence on their colonial territories. This caused many countries to begin to gain independence through violent and non-violent means. Decolonization had been in motion ever since the first World War but didn't begin to surface until after the Cold War. “The process of decolonization coincided with the new Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, and with the early development of the new United Nations. Decolonization was often affected by superpower competition, and had a definite impact on the evolution of that competition” (U.S. State Government). Some of the new countries created in the process include Indonesia from the Netherlands, Vietnam from France, the Philippines from the U.S., and many African countries. Decolonization greatly impacted the world in numerous ways. The UN (United Nations) was created as well as the independence of many new nations and countries to form the world we have