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.
In the cold war, both the Soviet Union and the United States were building up a nuclear arsenal. The nature of the ballistic missiles dictated that if one side was to launch them, it would be virtually impossible to stop them all. Instead of attempting to de-escalate, Reagan acted in a conservative, aggressive manner, and promoted a strategic defense system. It was an orbital system that could theoretically stop all Soviet-launched ballistic missiles. According to A Star Wars Solution, “We[Americans] must show the Soviets both that we can deploy a strategic defense system soon and that we will negotiate over its deployment if they are willing to make stabilizing reductions…”
After World War two had ended both the United States and the Soviet Union, also known as the USSR, had become reigning countries in the world. While both held great power it also caused chaos leading to extreme rivalry and the Cold War. Since this rivalry between these two nations was foreign is caused a great deal of effect on the United States foreign policy however it also deeply damaged the United States domestic policy through the fear of potential attacks of atomic bombs, the changes in the U.S defense budget, and the constant fear of the spread of communism within the nation. For example in Document number 5, an image shows a man building a bomb shelter near his home during 1951.
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)
In order to make the American people aware of the growing Soviet threat, the National Security Council create the NSC-68. This document contains information on defense and internal security to deal with the threat. In terms of defense, the NSC-68 “was the result of a review of American foreign and domestic defense policies.” The document outlines the conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States. It mentions four options for responding to the threat: 1) maintaining and continuing our current policies, 2) “returning to isolationism,” 3) deciding to go to war with the Soviet Union, 4) and “a rapid build-up of political, economic and military strength in the Free World.”
In WW2 the United States and the Soviet Union were allies. So what caused all this tension and rivalry between them in the first place? That eventually led to the Cold War. There were three main reasons that I believe were the stepping stones to this, difference in government, distrust and anger. At the time Russia was a Communist country meaning that no one owns land, or their own property, and instead of like the US where some people are more wealthy than others, everyone is at the same level.
After World War two the U.S. and the Soviet Union initially had an ideology and political rivalry between the United States and USSR that gave way to the start of the Cold War. This period was known as the Cold War because there was no large-scale fighting between the two superpowers. The Cold War impacted more than world events and U.S. foreign policy, It impacted U.S. domestic policy and American society because after WW ll the U.S. decided to spend 64% of the money more on military defenses than education. They had also taken away the freedom of speech, took away passports, it was a struggle for Paul during this time in June 1956.
The Cold War lasted decades and tensions continued to heightened. Trepidation spread among American citizens about the future of their country and world. Would communism take over or would the United States stand their ground and push for democracy? Following the Second World War, the Cold War caused the American people to fear the growth Communism, an economic depression, and a possible nuclear war, yet the Eisenhower Administration successfully addressed these concerns and implemented ways to reduce these fears. First and foremost, the American people feared that communism would spread and take over governments in other nations beyond the Kremlin.
He implemented the Reagan Doctrine, under which America provided aid to anticommunist movements in other countries. In 1983, Reagan introduced the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). It was nicknamed “Star Wars” by the media and it was a plan to produce space-based weapons to protect America from attacks by Soviet nuclear missiles. SDI was one of Reagan’s most criticized ideas because at the time America had nowhere near the amount of money needed to construct the idea, but many historians believe that Reagan didn’t have any intentions of actually building the weapons, but he was instead using it to scare the Soviets.
he first chapter of The Cold War: A New History begins by comparing the United States to the U.S.S.R. and talking about the similarities between the two. It also talks about Communism and how Marx deemed it necessary in order to build up the economy. Lenin tried to implement Communism in Russia. They were not quite ready for that kind of system, so Stalin tried to modernize the economy. The U.S.S.R. had more casualties in World War II, but things were not necessarily looking great in America either.
As the SDI program failed to show any results, the Soviets developed and was ready to use highly dangerous weapons systems that would have elevated tensions with the U.S and the Soviet Union(Podvig). Furthermore the external interactions from the U.S regarding the Star wars program, didn’t have a lasting effect on the Soviet
Sarah Paroya D period I hate MUSH The end of World War II should have marked a period of relief in America but instead, it lead America into a completely different type of war called the Cold War. The Cold War was an ongoing state of political and military tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. This constant state of tension and fear had been embedded deep in the American public.
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.
The cold war was characterized being a psychological war, sort of ideological or even statement. Mostly every conflict developed in this context were moved by political wills, and served by the intentions of politics and regimens, just like USA, USSR, China, Japan that implemented every type of manipulations, including mass media, and communications enterprises, using propaganda to fulfill their political intentions. This sinister war between ideologies, in the first side the capitalist, commanded by USA and almost every part of the world, on the other hand the “red vision”, the “commies” called properly as the Communists ideology adopted by the USSR, this ideology reached Korea as well, where in the beginning of this conflict the leaders
The Cold War was a crazy war mainly involving the US, the USSR. There were a lot of things happening like the use of atomic usage of bombs and at the same time, a war was going on. There were spies hidden in the United States. There were all these things happening but the big question here is if the United states was made stronger or weaker. I think the United States was made stronger as a country.
