Essay on Cold War

Submitted By Hco_24
Words: 3622
Pages: 15

Terry Sales Ideas are a blessing and a curse, they can build wonderful things or can destroy that very same thing. Most of the time different ideas can reach a compromise, but when neither ideas gives way nor both sides fill strongly about it this leads to conflict or in this cause war. This belief or, ideologies, was a driving force between the capitalism of The United States and the communism of the USSR (Soviet Union) as they were the only super powers in the world after WWII. This resulted in one of the greatest conflicts of the twentieth century that almost brought the world to a nuclear war: The Cold War. The Cold war was a proxy war, which means that the United States and Soviet Union did not fight each other directly but used third world countries to fight each other and spread capitalism and communism to the world. There were several major causes that created tension between the two superpowers. As World War II ended the United States and Soviet Union divided Europe and wanted to split the world as well. The Soviet Union saw the United States rebuilding Europe and Japan in an effort to expand its markets. The United States feared the USSR was trying to destroy democracy and capitalist institutions. The Soviet feared that The United States' Marshall plan was a way of using their money and power to dominate Europe and destroy the soviet influence. As a result, each feared the other's intended goals and sought to spread their influence to other regions of the world to increase their power. In 1945, at the end of World War II the Big Three of the allies met at two international conferences, first at Yalta then Potsdam, to see how Europe would be split up. The Yalta Conference was a meeting with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt representing their respective countries in early February 1945. The conference led to many changes. First Germany was divided in four sectors, with control going to Britain, US, France, and Russia. Second, all Eastern Europe countries would hold free and fair election for their new government. Third Russia would join the fight against Japan and regain any land loss during the war. Last, the League of Nations would be replaced by the United Nations, as this upgrade was to stop future world conflicts. At first the Yalta conference seemed like it worked, but Britain prime minster told Roosevelt “The Soviet Union was a danger to the world.” However three key points were not agreed on like: Russia getting a piece of Poland, in which they wanted to established a communist government there, and the amount of money Germany would have to pay for its role in the war. The Potsdam conference, was the last of the Big Three meetings during World War II. It was attended by Premier Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union, the new American President, Harry S. Truman, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain. Many arguments broke out as the Allies were not happy with the way Germany was split, the size of war reparations and Soviet policy in Eastern Europe because Russia broke its promise to hold free elections in Eastern Europe and installed governments dominated by the Soviet Union. As the fighting was ended the Allies and the Soviet Union soon developed tension between themselves as their ideals were directly opposite. The creation of the atomic bomb didn't given the destructive force that was seen at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Many people theorized why Truman dropped the A-Bomb, was it to end the war quicker, show he was’t afraid to use WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) and or to impress Stalin? If Truman decision was intended to inspire fear in the soviet Premier, he failed, because, by the end of 1949, the Soviet Union had created its own bomb furthering the tensions between the US and the Soviet