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John Lamberton Harper's The Cold War

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THE COLD WAR: THE REASONS AND EVENTS CAUSED THE USSR’S ABRUPT DOWN FALL, AND ITS EFFECTS ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS The Cold War period is extremely important to explain historical facts starting from the end of the World War II to 1989. During this period many events had taken place between the superpowers: the United States of America and the USSR. The main question is why the Cold War occurred between the United States and the USSR? This paper is going to depict the reasons that caused the Cold War and the events during that period and the search for the abrupt downfall of the Soviets. Besides, will seek to find the real reasons behind the downfall of the Soviet Union. In his book “The Cold War” John Lamberton Harper dwells upon especially the foreign policy and security policies of the United States and Europe that many scholars discussed to explain the reasons caused the Cold War and its importance for the international relationship. Harper explains the reasons and give details, “In simplest terms, the Cold War was a contest for supremacy between the United States, which saw itself as the leader of a ‘Free World’ of capitalist and liberal democracies (even though many who aligned themselves with Washington were far from democratic) and the …show more content…

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica “the Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) byname Star Wars proposed U.S. strategic defensive system against potential nuclear attacks-—as originally conceived, from the Soviet Union. Because parts of the defensive system that Reagan advocated would be based in space, the proposed system was dubbed “Star Wars,” after the space weaponry of a popular motion picture of the same name. (Ed.

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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.

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Among all the different lines that Rodgers follows throughout the book, I would like to deepen the “Losing the words of the cold war” chapter regarding the presidential rhetoric, the one that I found most interesting. I think that the process of fragmentation that he is describing is clearly visible in the kind of vocabulary used by the different presidents of the United States. Rodgers has been able to show, through the examples of several presidential speeches, the changing of the general frame of mind of the last quarter of the century. Firstly, the author underlines that, to make very long speeches has not always been the common practice. For instance, from Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, until Woodrow Wilson

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10 F. Sources (Works Cited).……………………………………………………………. ……11 Section A: Plan of Investigation The “Star Wars” Initiative, officially known as the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), was created during the Reagan

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During the Cold War was based on two different types of beliefs called Communism and Capitalism and both the U.S. with its own allies and the U.S.S.R. Its Communist allies are equally to blame for starting the war. When the Iron curtain was around the East European government adopted a communist system and fell under the control of the U.S.S.R. The Iron Curtain, political, military, and mysterious barrier raised by the Soviet Union after World War II to seal off itself and its dependant Eastern and Western European allies from open contact with the West and other non-Communist countries. (Document 1)

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The Cold War spanned approximately 44 years, from 1947 until 1991. Although the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union (also known as the USSR) never resulted in actual warfare, the “war” itself instilled a deep sense of fear in the hearts of Americans and others around the world. One of the many Americans deeply worried by the possible outcome of the Cold War was Mr. Christopher “Kit” Reichow. Mr. Reichow is a retired engineer from Lockheed Martin of 32 years. Mr. Reichow’s account on the Cold War exposes the chilling realities of living through the Cold War, which textbooks cannot depict.

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John Lewis Gaddis is a very well know Cold War historian and through his book The Cold War: A New History, he studies and follows the relations between the United States and the Soviet Union starting from World War II until the fall of the USSR. Gaddis presents an outstandingly written complete view of the Cold War, shining light with insightful judgments which helps bring life to the four decades of the US-USSR conflict. In this book, Gaddis stresses on the fact that the Cold War was both essential and obvious because the rise of communism was never going to be tolerated by the US and the Soviet Union and its allies had to be contained. This book serves the purpose of being an easy to understand, to the point fusion of the Cold War history.

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When evaluating the extent to which Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies lead to the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Soviet Union) it is important to look at many aspects: Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies that pushed the Soviet Union into an arms race, the U.S relations with the USSR to have a better understanding of the conflict between them. It is important to know which leader was in power in the Soviet Union during the time that Reagan was enforcing its foreign policies and also other economic crisis within the country that contributed into its collapse. The USSR was a Marxist–Leninist state on the Eurasian continent that existed between 1922 and 1991 where it officially collapsed on December 31, 1991. Dramatic economic

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The Cold War was a term Walter Lippmann used to refer to the relations between the U.S. and the USSR after World War II. Many historians, over the years, have debated on the subject of ‘What started the Cold War?’ There’s no clear answer, one thing’s for sure; although Soviet Domination of Eastern Europe was a cause, it was not the main reason for the Cold War. Mr. Winston Churchill’s iron curtain speech, along with Mr. X’s theories for containment, prove that Soviet Domination was a cause of the Cold War. Since other causes will be presented in this essay, I will prove [or at least try to prove] that Soviet Domination of Eastern Europe was not the main cause of the Cold War.

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The Cold War: A New History by John Lewis Gaddis seeks to provide an overview of the conflict which kept the peace promised with the resolution of World War II at bay for several decades of the twentieth century. Even though the Cold War had a great impact on America and the rest of the world, many American’s today cannot even tell you what The Cold War was about, other than the fact that it was a nuclear standoff between Russia and the USA. However, Gaddis dives deep into the conflict, starting at the very beginning where he outlines that the origins of The Cold War can really be traced back to World War I. From there, Gaddis gives a play by play of the roles of FDR and Stalin to Kennedy and Khrushchev. This work is a terrific

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While exploring this book I was able to get a better understanding of how exactly the Cold War shaped the world I live in today. The book The Global Cold War by Odd Arne Westad covers a wide assortment of topics, the most prominent being how the Cold war was shaped, and how it has shaped the places we call home today. Overall, this book allowed the readers to get a better understanding of the Cold War in a more in-depth and global way. Within this book, the reader can see that the chapters are divided by topics instead of when the events took place.

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The Cold War led to an internationalist approach in the United States’ foreign policy. It allowed the United States to help other countries while curbing Russian influence in the world. The long telegram inspired the idea of containment and fueled tensions between Russia and the United States. “While Kennan believed that the Russians could not be dislodged from control of eastern Europe, his telegram laid the foundation for what became known as the policy of ‘containment,’ according to which the United States committed itself to preventing any further expansion of Soviet power” (Foner 893). The idea of

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To examine the Cold War consensus, one must discuss the Cold War. The Cold war was the tension between the United States, standing for capitalism, and the USSR, standing for totalitarianism and socialism, following World War II. Although it was not a physical war between the two superpowers, many proxy wars had came out of it as way to spread or combat communism throughout the Free World. The Free World, as the U.S. came to define it, did not necessarily mean free as countries were being ruled by military regimes and dictatorships, but free from communism(70). During the Cold War, the spread of communism frighted the American People.

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In a hostile environment as such, a conflict was bound to break out, with no single nation entirely to blame. This political, economical and ideological struggle, lasting from 1947 until the termination of the Soviet Union in 1991 was known as the Cold War. Ultimately, both nation’s ideology playing a very important role in the perceptions of power and intentions throughout the war. As a result of the growing influence of the Soviet Union into Easter Europe, following Germany’s defeat, previous divisions between the Unites States and the Soviet Union began resurfacing. The two nations encouraged opposing economic and political ideologies, with both countries competing for influence across Europe.

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Unsoluble ideological contradictions, between two models of society socialist and capitalist became the main reason of Cold War. The West was afraid of strengthening of the USSR. Played a role and absence at the countries of winners of the general enemy, and also, ambitions of political leaders. Historians allocate the following stages of Cold

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The Cold War was believed to be inevitable by some historians. It was a time when communism was feared in America because of Joseph Stalin’s bloodthirsty empowerment and control of his country. Whitfield’s book is divided into chapters that go in depth with the voices of popular culture. According to him these voices contributed an astounding amount to the nineteen-fifties. Whitfield brings in certain public figures that were apparent in those times to serve as case studies throughout the book.

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