ipl-logo

Did America Cause The Cold War?

1078 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Causes and effects of war essay

Essay: To what extent did America cause the Cold War?

The Cold War happened to be a period of time, stretching from around 1945-1991, characterized by Soviet-American tension. This tension was based off of a variety of conflicts; most of these conflicts being based off of economic clash and expansionism, along with territorial greed. Although it is argued by post-revisionists that the Cold War was inevitable due to the obvious economic differences and desire for ultimate power, the U.S. was mostly responsible for the Cold War because of its belligerent desire for the world to be without communism, and its overbearing attempts to spread its capitalism and vessels for trade across Europe. The U.S.’s belligerent desire for the world to be …show more content…

capitalism” was based off of greed and expansionism that favored its own enforcement of capitalism rather than the concept of social equality (Nye). The Marshall Aid, whilst it was deemed problematic by the Soviets, it was also deemed slightly problematic by level-two revisionists alike. The Marshall Aid may have been dubbed as a generous act to Americans, yet it was evident that there was another motive behind it. “According to level two revisionists, the Marshall Plan of aid to Europe was simply a way to expand the American economy. The Soviets were correct to reject it as a threat” (Nye). This basically connects what most already know about capitalism to the probable motivations of Truman: self-benefit. The reason why America had made alliances and broke bread with foreign countries was not only due to its fear of the spread of communism, but also because of desires to expand and create capital for itself. The interest of money was placed over the interests of people. “Charles E. Wilson, the president of General Electric Corporation, was so happy about the wartime situation that he suggested a continuing alliance between business and the military for "a permanent war economy" (Zinn). This statement by Wilson seems to express the secret desires of the American people. War is generally known to benefit the economy as more and more money goes to the production of weaponry. “The biggest gains were in corporate profits, which rose from $6.4 billion in 1940 to $10.8 billion in 1944. But enough went to workers and farmers to make them feel the system was doing well for them” (Zinn). This statement shows how capitalism and control go hand in hand. Other than the fact that it is blatantly shown that America had benefitted greatly from the mere start of the war, it was said that enough money went to blue-collar workers… in order to keep them

Show More
Related
1872 Words | 8 Pages

1. Identification and evaluation of sources This investigation, examining certain events of the Cold War, will answer the question: To what extent did President Ronald Reagan’s actions aid in the end of the Cold War? The Cold War was a war between the United States and the Soviet Union that took place from 1947 to 1991. During that time several United States presidents took office, one of the last being Ronald Reagan whose actions have been argued to have been more influential than the rest and impactful toward the downfall of the ongoing war with the Soviet Union.

Read More
932 Words | 4 Pages

When World War II ended, the world became chaotic in the struggle between democracy and communism. It is directly connected to the Cold War, in which the United States and the Soviet Union fought over what ideology was the best for the world. The Cold War era was marked by the most significant tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, with both sides competing with each other for global influence. From the world’s perspective, the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union left a great legacy including economic growth, technological advancement, and social stability during the Cold War. However, the Cold War certainly hurt other countries with proxy wars, such as the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

Read More
1267 Words | 6 Pages

The Carter administration called for “free exercise of human right” in particularly the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union attacked back stating that despite calling for the exercise of human right in the Soviet Union, the United States themselves were guilty of human rights violations such as inadequate health care and unsatisfactory social welfare(118). The Soviet and American relationship had downgraded during Carter’s administration. Although detente with the Soviet Union was not abandoned during Carter’s presidency, Carter focused more on the efforts at strategic arms control and made them central aspects of the United State- Soviet Union relations ( 114). Although in the beginning of his presidency, Carter’s

Read More
1351 Words | 6 Pages

In Dr. Seuss’s, The Butter Battle Book he uses seemingly harmless items to make connections to the cold war, a potentially deadly war. He does this by using symbolism and themes to bring attention to the matter. Seuss wrote the book to show how bad an arms race and specifically nuclear weapons are for the world. .He also uses more specific examples to add meaning to his story. Some of these include the “Big Boy Boomeroo” that symbolizes the atomic bombs, Grandpa and Van Itch representing the armies of the two countries in the cold war, and the fight of two different ideologies, the allies a more democratic ideology and the Soviets a communist regime.

Read More
482 Words | 2 Pages

Thomas McCormick’s essay titled The World-System, Hegemony, and Decline, presents some relevant questions that I am unable to answer by just reading his work. Firstly, alluding to economic freedom and freedom of the seas as main U.S. objectives with regards to foreign policy might not be entirely accurate. It is true that the United States have used and will continue to use its elements of national power to protect economic interests all around the world, but are these the only instances where the United States fight for other freedoms? Is Uncle Sam our capitalistic egomaniac above anything else? Additionally, McCormick seems to be disappointed when he writes about how labor compensation differs between core, semi periphery, and periphery countries (Merrill and Paterson, 2010, 4).

Read More
194 Words | 1 Pages

Jimmy Carter emphasized five specific points that supported his position that America’s prosperity could not be the only condition to base foreign policy decisions on. The first point being made was about setting foreign policy and that America had to put human rights in the forefront of policy decisions. Carter then continued to explain that it was imperative that the democratic countries of the world unite for economic strength by improving the worldwide monetary system, and to examine ways to increase free trade. The third point that he made targeted the arms race with the Soviet Union. He believed that it was a dangerous situation abd wrong on a moral level.

Read More
479 Words | 2 Pages

The Cold War was a time in history when there was a great political and military turmoil between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cold War shaped the world in these three ways, women’s rights, society,Cultural. These three changed people in positive and negative ways. Once again, women were called upon to fulfill a role in the defense of America on one hand to perpetuate the American population and on the other to promote American ideals abroad. Women had a chance to be equal to men.

Read More
2176 Words | 9 Pages

The Trilateral Commission wanted to create a complex interdependency by working with other nations to establish human rights. Carter took steps to reduce arms and the sale of armaments so that the threat of nuclear warfare would be reduced. Thus creating freedom from the fear of communism. During the Cold War Cater called for a new Foreign policy , one based on the idea the United States could help shape a new world rooted in good values, morals and optimism. This can be seen in his commencement speech on human rights and foreign policy at Notre Dame University when he states “t is a new world, but America should not fear it.

Read More
1121 Words | 5 Pages

In a capitalist environment, at least where corporations have been concerned, the government should neither intervene or regulate the open market. In fact, the essence of the capitalist economic system is to create an environment where the free market would be able to dictate itself. Regardless of the system’s original intentions, there have been cases globally and throughout time where government intervention has been necessary — cases where the general public itself has been affected negatively by corporate abuse of the market. For instance, the United States’ public-corporate relationship throughout the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Throughout this period, which was known as the Progressive Era, industrial America

Read More
285 Words | 2 Pages

Dionysius’s book discusses strategies which US foreign policy conceived during the early part of the twentieth century. It provided the ideological basis to classify its adversaries in forms of imperialism, communism, and fascism. Throughout the amalgamation of civil rights and capitalism played a significant role in the defeat of Communism. As a result, The emergence of the United States as the sole superpower progressed this path of targeting democratic values into other diverse regions, such as Philippines, Chile, and Poland. However, the United State perceived Middle Eastern countries within a distinct political agenda; as a means for its interests, the United States engaged authoritarians governments in power.

Read More
806 Words | 4 Pages

America believed that if there was a country that was communist it shouldn’t be and that the American people should introduce them to Capitalism. This was an issue, because some countries were happy doing things the way they were, but they’ll “good” United States needed to swoop in and change that because they didn’t like it. This is how some of the third-world countries were forced into battles against their brothers. Nonetheless, the American people thought that what they believed in was right and that every other country should believe it and practice it as

Read More
499 Words | 2 Pages

The U.S. also displayed strong ties with capitalist Western Europe, Latin America, British Commonwealth, and several East Asian countries. During this period, many countries around the world began to adopt the economic policies similar to that of the Washington Consensus. With the United States having the largest economy in the world at this time, the economic force our country had was very powerful. In addition, the U.S. had a wide variety of minerals and energy resources, along with a large, modern farming industry and industrial base. The United States military was naval-based and had the highest military expenditure compared to any other country.

Read More
985 Words | 4 Pages

United States of America, or the self proclaimed “land of the free” has ironically a long history of interfering with the sovereignity of other countries. It has since its fairly recent start as a nation sent troops, financed dictatorships, and generally intervened in other countries affairs more than a dozen times. The reasons for this are deeply rooted in the nation’s founding ideology that has transformed through the years but maintained it’s principles. The objective of this essay is to analyze the core values of the american ideology and stablish a relationship with the advent of capitalism and the foreign policy of the United States. Among the most important values freedom and democracy will be analyzed in relation to capitalism and military intervention.

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
969 Words | 4 Pages

Many realized that the Soviet Union was a terrible foe to face, as George Kennan, a respected American diplomat, noticed. He said in “The Sources of Soviet Conduct,” “This means

Read More

More about Did America Cause The Cold War?

Related Topics

Open Document