Lauren Walters
HIS-102
FINAL Exam Paper A The Cold War was essentially a vast time period of mistrust and rivalry mainly between two great world powers, the United States and the Soviet Union. In the midst of World War II the U.S. and the Soviet Union were allied in the hatred of a common enemy- Nazi Germany. However, after the war this wartime alliance began to unravel. The Cold War was waged on political and economic fronts, dominating international affairs for decades and influencing many near disaster crises’. During this time issues such as the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Red Scare came about ultimately resulting in the issue of an international power struggle and the brink of nuclear war.
The causes of the Cold War due to the U.S. were their fear of the spread of Communism, Truman’s dislike and mistrust of Stalin, and the U.S.’s refusal to share nuclear secrets. As for the Soviet Union, the causes came about with their dislike for American capitalism and possession of the atomic bomb. They feared an attack from their old allies and demanded the need for a secure western border. The growth in weapons of mass destruction became the most worrisome and controversial issue between the two countries. The Cold War was official in the year 1948 and reached its peak from 1948 until 1953. With the Cold War came the idea of “containment”, the United States prevention of the spread of communism, which eventually led to the Truman Doctrine and the National Security Act.
At the peak of the Cold War the Soviets had blockaded sectors of West Berlin and the U.S. and its other European allies formed NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) in 1949. This treaty was a unified military command to resist the Soviet presence in Europe, declaring that an attack on one of the member nations constituted an attack on all of the members. . During the development of NATO, China fell to communist rule and the Soviet- supported communist government of North Korea invaded U.S. supported South Korea in 1950, setting off the Korean War that lasted until 1953. Tension began to relax however when Joseph Stalin died in 1953 however the standoff between the two powers remained. In the U.S. several investigation were launched into the citizens of our country searching for Soviet informants resulting in the death of many convicted traitors.
In 1955
