The Cold War took place between 1947 and 1971 as a result of struggle for superpower. It refers to the political tension that developed between the United States and USSR after the end of the World War II. While the two nations had joined forces to fight the Germans during the World War II, it is believed that their temporary friendship was severed by the growing interest to dominate international activities.
As a result of the struggles, many crises emerged in both nations. The most prevalent occurrence was the manufacture of weapons used for mass destruction. Other crises included the Berlin Wall, Hungary, Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Vietnam wars. It is believed that neither USA nor the Soviet Union considered each other as a partner before the war. However, they only formed a team because they were fighting a common enemy, the Nazi Germany.
The end of Cold War
While the United States had invested heavily on technology to challenge the powerful resistance of the Soviet Union, it is widely believed that they contributed to ending the Cold War. It can be argued that the 1980s war between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan was frustrating, at best. Actually, they wasted time fighting when the Soviet economy was facing a downfall due to the high prices of arms. While people showed concern at the economic burden and tried to initiate reforms, the Soviet Union persisted in their fight of other Eastern European nations who tried to challenge it out of power. The downfall began in 1989 and 1990 when the Berlin Wall collapsed, borders opened and Communist Regimes got replaced with free elections.
Further misery arose when the Soviet Union was dissolved into independent nations towards the end of 1991. After the dissolution things got out of control and many changes took place within a short period of time. As a result, the Iron Curtain was raised to pave way for the end of the Cold War.
Cold War Liberals
The Cold War liberals were already existent even during the World War II. They were mainly concentrated in the United States and included a group of labor union leaders and liberal politicians who fought for equality and democracy. In addition, they advocated for the expansion of labor groups, the movements of civil rights, as well as participation in the campaign against communists and totalitarianism.This implies that the Cold War liberals essentially aimed at supporting campaigns against the Soviet Communism. The Cold War liberals were actively involved in the war matters as they tried to advocate for the innocent Americans to receive justice and fairness.
End of the Cold War and the Liberals
Arguably, the end of the Cold War sent excitement to the liberals of America. It can also be argued that the end crowned them as the victors. Given that the Soviet Union surrendered the battle, it only follows the liberals became the winners. Since the two states were fighting over the international superiority, United States became the superpower. During the war, the United States was majorly governed by the Republicans and that pushed the liberals to struggle for the victory. The end of the war, therefore, meant that the liberals had won the battle to fight the Republicans for power. It actually, gave them more room to maneuver their way to governance within the United States. While the war ended over a decade ago, the democrats have always enjoyed many favors since then. They were placed under a lot of pressure by the Republicans who accused them of being reluctant to fight the communist. The Republicans even used this to charge the Democrats for the failure of the American government.
In response, the liberal leader, John F. Kennedy, decided to send troops to Vietnam to fight the Communists. He also promised to use any resource or pay any amount of money to fight the Soviet Union. This implied that had they had lost the war then they (liberals) would incur huge losses in terms of money and resources.
Not only did the liberals use the Cold War to stop the Republicans, it also earned them the American leadership, which critics have considered as hegemonic, which they had been seeking since World War I. This is evident from the fact that they partnered with the Roosevelt administration to create the Bretton Woods economy, the United Nations as well as pursued free trade at the global level. In the same strain, they partnered with the Truman administration to create NATO and implemented the Marshall Plan. The two projects were aimed at isolating the Soviet while connecting the United States with the Western Europe. They sought assistance from the CIA, which helped them in fighting the foreign aggressors. While the liberals were frequently commissioned to fight the foreigners, they also had home political battles to take care of. They had to define the role played by the Cold War liberalism in Democratic Party. For instance, their presidential candidate, Henry Wallace, was denied the chance in 1944 over the cold war connections.
In conclusion, a closer examination of the aforementioned factors reveals that only the end of Cold War could free the liberals from their rather tight and unfavorable conditions. Had they lost the war, they would have incurred huge loses in terms of money and resources. Similarly, the end of the war gave them more room to carry out their activities towards conquering the American political leadership.
References
Knight, P. (2009). Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia. New York: ABC-CLIO.
