The Cold War

 

1)      The Truman Doctrine declared that the United States would help Greece and Turkey with economic and military aid to prevent them from joining the Soviet sphere.

2)      The Marshall Plan began and was designed to give billions of dollars to assist the recovery of Europe.

3)      Stalins response to the Marshall Plan was the Berlin Blockade. He completely stopped all access to West Berlin by cutting off railroads and streets. Trumans response to this was flying supplies into West Berlin, internationally humiliating Stalin.

In 1949 America joined eleven other nations to form the North American Treaty Organiztion (NATO). Stalin responed by forming the Warsaw Pact, the communtist version of NATO.
(to be continued)

Cold War The US declared to help Greece and Turkey with economic and military aid, but did they actually follow through. Did they end up "falling in the Soviet sphere"?

C.Santos wrote:

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Was the Cold War actually a war or just a point of time in which each nation was scared that there could be a mass war in whihc the strongest nation would destroy most of the world? Also how was the Cold War affecting the people at the time in America as well as other countries?

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Curt, the Cold War was very complicated. While it was not technically a war itself it did involve and include the Korean and Vietnamese Wars. Also the Cold War was a 40 year period so it is hard to tell you how it affected Americans because it would be lke saying the same stuff that effected them in the 1950's still affected them in 1991 when it ended (which in some cases it did still effect them). BUt it did promote a serious change in the world in military, economics, and especially socially.

Makeda wrote:

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During the Cold War, America tried to "contain"  communism. They believed that if it was contained it couldnt spread and if it couldnt expand it couldnt become stronger. America and Russia were also competeing with each other in an arms race, in which they both built hundreds of nuclear bombs.

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Is this a question? Oh I see Makeda, you were just filling space trying to make it look like you were doin' something. I see how it is.

The Cold War continued

The Korean War was a conflict between Soviet occupied North Korea and American occupied South Korea. Some people believe that this was caused by the peace with Japan the the United States formed that gave it many long-term military bases.

The one the most important goals of the Cold War for both countries was to control the Third World and make it into a government simular to the mother country, so either democracy or communism, depending on who got there first.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was an important event that happened during Kennedy's time. the Soviets placed nuclear missiles in Cuba hoping that they could attack many places in the US at once (which they could if it worked). It was the closest time the US and Soviet Union ever came to armed conflict. The Soviet's weren't willing to take them away unless the US got rid of its Missiles in Turkey. The Soviets got what they wanted and began a huge military buildup. 

The Cold War... that involved the soviet union and the US and the rapid spread of communism.  That involved the nuclear arms race and the threat that a nuclear war would occur at any moment. 

But the soviets didn't exactly want to fight... but they wanted support right?  After WWII the soviets wanted support because their extreme loss.  We didn't help them.  Why not?

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The Cold War is the name given to the relationship that developed primarily between the USA and the USSR after World War Two. The Cold War was to dominate international affairs for decades and many major crises occurred - the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, Hungary and the Berlin Wall being just some. The growth in weapons of mass destruction was the most important issue for many.
Before the war, America had depicted the Soviet Union as almost the devil-incarnate. The Soviet Union had depicted America likewise so their friendship during the war was simply the result of having a mutual enemy - Nazi Germany. In fact, one of Americas leading generals, Patton, stated that he felt that the Allied army should unite with what was left of the Wehrmacht in 1945, the military genius that existed within it (such as the V2s etc.) and fight the oncoming Soviet Red Army. Churchill himself was furious that Eisenhower, as supreme head of Allied command, had agreed that the Red Army should be allowed to get to Berlin first ahead of the Allied army. His anger was shared by Montgomery, Britains senior military figure.

Soviet War in Afghanistan:
The Soviet War in Afghanistan was a part of the cold war that was a nine-year conflict involving Soviet forces supporting Afghanistans Marxist Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) government against the Mujahideen insurgents that were fighting to overthrow Communist rule. The conflict concurrent to the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War was also seminal in the rise of Mujahideens in central Asia. The final troop withdrawal began to take place on May 15, 1988 and ended on February 15, 1989. The Soviet War in Afghanistan was referred to as the equivalent of the United States Vietnam War.

Butchie wrote:

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Was the Cold War necessary or inevitable or could there have been some way to avoid this whole thing?

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It really depends on how you look at it. Could either country have lived with the other spreading its roots without doing anything? Should both countries have stopped spreading? Would it have been better if the Cold War never happened because of economic, military, and technological improvements it caused? It is a matter of opinion

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