Essay on A History of the Cold War - 2808 Words

â€Å"As crossfire raked his body, the second boy fell back onto the strip of now churning sand. Wounded, moaning for help, he lay only 300 yards from a unit of United States troops. But the American commanding general issued orders: ‘Stand fast. Do nothing.’ Fifty-five minutes later Peter Fetcher was dead, and his body was carried away into the recesses of the city from which he had tried to escape.† This excerpt, from The Cold War: From Yalta To Cuba by Robin W. Winks shows how, despite its name, the Cold War was anything but cold. World War II is considered by most experts to have ended in 1945, when the Japanese signed an unconditional surrender to Allied powers. Although World War II ended, the Cold War was just warming up. A†¦show more content†¦The Marshall Plan and Zhadnov Doctrine increased tensions between the US and USSR. The USSR was not as successful as they had hoped in stopping the US from aiding Europe, so in 1948, Stalin ordered t he Berlin Blockade. To get around this, Allied suppliers flew in and airdropped supplies to the Berlin citizens. Eventually, Stalin realized he could not keep them out, and ended the blockade in 1949 (Trueman). Next, in an attempt to further unify the Allied powers and make communication between them easier, â€Å"Britain, France, the United States, Canada and eight other western European countries signed the North Atlantic Treaty of April 1949, establishing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)† (Gaddis). The USSR did not join NATO. Furthering the arms race, the USSR detonated their first atomic bomb in August of 1949. The fear of global nuclear warfare made itself more prevalent in the minds of people worldwide. NATO had its first real test in 1950, when North Korean troops unexpectedly attacked South Korea. At this time, North Korea was dominated by the USSR and influenced by Communist ideas, while South Korea followed NATO and US standards. After NATO cal led for North Korean troops to withdraw and they did not, they sent, with great urging from the United States, troops to aid South Korea in pushing back their enemies. This was successful, until Chinese forces started attacking. Douglas McArthur, the leading general of the NATO forces, hadShow MoreRelatedThe Cold War : A New History1650 Words   |  7 PagesThe Cold War lasted for forty years, from 1945 to 1985. Few historians took the time to address the events as they unfolded thus leaving most people with little or no explanations of the development of the war. During this fearful period, nine presidents served Americans and each president thought that the war carried a lot of dangers for forty five years. Accordingly, young Americans, Soviets and other citizens of the world require the services of a scholar with extraordinary gifts to provide insightRead More The History of the Cold War Essay4156 Words   |  17 PagesThe History of the Cold War The Cold War is the term used to describe the intense rivalry between the United States and its allies and the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics and its allies. The Soviet Union and its allies were refereed to as the Eastern Bloc and the United States and its allies were referred to as the Western Bloc. The Cold War period lasted from the mid-1940’s until the late 1980’s. During this period international politics were shaped by this intense rivalry between this twoRead MoreThe Cold War Really Shaped History1983 Words   |  8 Pages The Cold war certainly shaped history in the 1900s as a major global threat due to vast political and military tensions. 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The Cold War began after the SecondRead MoreThe Cold War : A Great Impact On Modern History2724 Words   |  11 PagesWorld War II, tensions between two major military forces in the world, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc, had not diminished. This period of strong political posturing and open disagreement is known in history as the Cold War. The term â€Å"cold† is used to denote that there were no direct and large-scale battles between the two forces, despite being heavily armed with nuclear weaponry and prepar ed for the worst. However, a few regional wars, aided by both sides, were actually fought. The Cold WarRead MoreThe Cold War: A New History by John Lewis Gaddis831 Words   |  4 Pagesof American history was analyzed. The Cold War is rampant with American foreign policy and influential in shaping the modern world. Strategies of Containment outlines American policy from the end of World War II until present day. 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The American revolt against the arrogant, totalitarian regime set a precedent for the future events in which the nation came together to oppose anything that went against the concept of democracy, and capitalism. Communism, or Marxism posed as a huge threat to the free mined Western societies, thus resulting in world wars that left perilous aftermaths, and bred an ongoing conflict between the two global political establishments. The Cold War, which is most commonlyRead MoreThe Cold War : A New History By John Lewis Gaddis Essay1711 Words   |  7 PagesI chose The Cold War: A New History by John Lewis Gaddis for my book to review. I originally read parts of this book for History of the International System, but we did not read the entire book in class, only certain chapters. It’s been two years since I’ve picked up the book, and after reading about the Cold War in the context of U.S. foreign policy rather than simply an international history class, it seems like an entirely new book. I really like how the book into broken up into a series of themesRead MoreRethinking Cold War History, By John Lewis Gaddis1340 Words   |  6 PagesGaddis, John L. We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press1997. We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History, is a book about the Cold War. This book was written by John Lewis Gaddis. John L. Gaddis is a Cold War historian. He portrays the Cold War in English and through the dialect of others. The thesis of this book is, I seek to situate this book at a particular point in time, not to claim timelessness for it. This is what I think we know now but did not know