The Cold War: Who Shot First?
After the devastation caused by WWII, two of the world's superpowers that emerged after this world war entered into what is commonly referred to as the Cold War. Based on this week’s lesson, I think the it was the Soviet Union that initially started the war. There are people who claimed that the conflict between the US and the USSR was ignited mainly because of the rivalry. However, a closer examination of the events that occurred after the Second World War indicated that USSR caused the initiation of the Cold War.
The then US President Franklin Roosevelt has a vision of creating a harmonious international society and this vision has been advocated by the US presidents after him. However, Russia appeared not to have given up on its ambition to increase its territory by going back to its expansionism approach. It was an USSR’s leadership style that insists on the maintenance of its influence around the world that called for the creation of the US’ military and foreign policy.
While the ‘iron curtain’ as described by President Winston Churchill was already in existence right after the Second World War (Ryan, 1979), it was during 1962 when the Cold War almost resulted in the explosion of another major world war. One can say that it was the USSR who shot first; this was because despite the call to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons, American spies discovered the installation of USSR nuclear weapons in Cuba. The US moved for the prevention of further missile installation, while it issued an ultimatum demanding for the USSR president to order the withdrawal of the missiles from Cuba. Nevertheless, the Cold War between the two rivals continued and again ignited with the involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War, especially so that the USSR became one among the Veit Cong’s supplier of war munitions.
Cold War Buzz Words
The cold war refers to the condition of state relationships right after the Second World War. Specifically, the cold war denotes the conflicting affair between the United States and the USSR after WWII, pieces of which are manifested through the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 and the Vietnam War that ensued right after.
The iron curtain was coined by Winston Churchill after WWII and it refers to an imaginary dividing line that represents the effort of USSR to separate itself from the western world and other areas outside of its territorial sphere (Leffler & Westad, 2010). It was said that the establishment of the Berlin Wall during the early 1960s strengthen the Iron Curtain and the deepening of the Cold War.
Containment in relation to the Cold War refers to a military strategy that aims to prevent the further expansion of an adversary. It was a term used to describe the US policy in relation to the attempted expansion of USSR’s political and military dominion after WWII. In its basic sense, the containment policy of the US was a means to prevent the expansionist policy of the USSR.
The Domino Theory demonstrates the concept which explains the foreign policy of the US after WWII. According to this theory, the victorious invasion of communism in one country has a chain-reaction effect, such that communist takeovers can spread quickly in other regions. In an attempt to stop the spread of communism, the US used the domino theory to rationalize its stance against the spread of communist government, such as its involvement in the Vietnam War (Gaddis, 2006)
References
Gaddis, J. (2006). The Cold War: A New History. Penguin.
Leffler, M., & Westad, O. (2010). The Cambridge History of the Cold War. Cambridge University Press.
Ryan, H. (1979). A new look at Churchill's 'Iron Curtain' Speech. The Historical Journal, 22(4).
