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Example research essay topic: U S History The Cold War - 1,846 words

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U. S. History - The Cold War Outline Thesis Statement-Policy of the United States in the Cold War Introduction -History of the Cold War Post World War II-Reasons of the Cold War Analysis-Generalized Analysis of the Cold War Conclusion-Conclusion of the Essay with generalized justification Thesis Statement While the Cold War period theoretically lasted from 1945 to 1991, the policy of the United States was based on the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan to subvert communism wherever possible and to support any nation that was in danger of falling to Soviet expansionist plans. The Truman Doctrine therefore came to serve as the containment doctrine and official policy of the United States that would restrict the worldwide spread of communism by the USSR. Introduction The signs of hostilities that were to later develop between the United States and the USSR were evident at the end of World War I, when the Bolsheviks with their doctrine of communism overthrew the Russian government and at the end of they year 1922, formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Initially the United States refused to recognize the new Soviet State until more than a decade when it was finally recognized by it in 1933. The ideological differences between these two countries became more problematic and further deteriorated because of the ruthless dictatorship of Joseph Stalin from 1929 to 1953 who controlled and ruled the USSR with an iron hand. However, with the development and testing of the first atomic bomb by the United States in the middle of 1945, it gave the United States a two pronged advantage of being able to bring a quick end to World War II as well as to dominate with its foreign policies in the world. To describe the tensions that were building up after World War II between the United States and the USSR, the term Cold War was coined in 1947 between these one time allies in the world war. While there never was direct military confrontation or engagement between these two super-powers, a 50 years period ensued that was full of stress, tension and competition with for world domination until the Cold War finally ended in the early 1990 s with the disintegration of the USSR.

Throughout the Cold War period these two countries were indirectly involved with each other in various areas such as military coalitions, espionage, military, industrial and technological developments, ideologies, psychologies, and in massively expensive race on defense spending, nuclear arms race and various proxy wars including their interferences in allied and satellite nations. As the Cold War spread out to almost every region the world over, the United States adopted the policy of containing of communism and allied itself with many nations in West Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. (Cold War 50 Years, Cold War) Post World War II The historical popularity high point for communist ideology was evident after World War II because of the great respect the Red Army and the USSR had earned in the war. This was exploited to the full by Stalin. With communist parties winning sizeable shares of votes in election Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Finland, France, Greece and Italy as well as popular support for it in the Asian countries of China, India, Iran, Japan and Vietnam as well as all over Latin American countries, the United States and Britain were worried that the communist influence would lead to economic and political changes in West Europe. Moreover with Britain having granted independence to India as well as having handed over the mandate of Palestine to the United Nations, it was not the majestic imperial power of the past, yet it had intervened in Greece from where it decided withdraw as well as from Turkey. Greece was likely to be taken over by communist led revolution; in 1947 the United States provided aid under the Truman Doctrine as justification to support any nation that would fall to Soviet expansionist plans.

The Truman Doctrine therefore came to serve as the containment doctrine and official policy of the United States that would restrict the worldwide spread of communism by the USSR. By the August of 1949, the Soviet Union had developed and tested its first atomic bomb, which brought an end to the United States monopoly in the nuclear weaponry field and the Cold War took on a more ominous turn with the arms race on at full speed with the United States beating the USSR by testing the first Hydrogen or Super bomb in 1952. The Cold War took on a more definite term when in 1954 the United States announced its policy of striking with massive nuclear retaliation in response to any attack by the USSR. As a result the development and race for the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile tipped with thermo-nuclear bombs was underway with sufficient accuracy to power to target each other from distances of 5, 000 miles. In 1961 the USSR detonated the largest ever nuclear device that was so powerful and equivalent to more explosives then had been used in the entire World War II after an agreement was made to limit nuclear testing as an act of intimidation as this explosion had not military or strategic value. However, in 1962 when it was discovered by the United States that the Soviets were about to position their nuclear missiles in Cuba, the Cold War almost turned into a Hot War when the United States setup a naval blockage to stop the Soviet ships.

Somehow better sense prevailed between the two super-powers and this almost eyeball to eyeball confrontation crisis ends with the radio announcement of the Soviet leader Khrushchev about the dismantling of nuclear missiles from Cuba without the demand for the dismantling of the United States nuclear missiles from Turkey. The one lesson that both these countries learn from this crisis it that for the achievement of political goals, the option of considering the nuclear option was a too dangerous one and they continued their Cold War proxy duels through conflicts in other parts of the world. The final end to the Cold War was mainly contributed because of the 1979 Ussr's invasion in Afghanistan for the establishment of a Communist regime, where it was badly bogged down and suffered several military reversals. With the announcement in 1983 of the Strategic Defense Initiative, made more famous by President Ronald Reagan as the Star War Program through which incoming missiles with their warheads would be destroyed in space by a satellite based defense system and the announcement by the Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985 on a nuclear test moratorium, the first arms accord for the elimination of the entire range of Intermediate-Range Nuclear missiles between these Cold War adversaries was signed by Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan as Presidents of their countries in December 1987.

Almost fifty years after the Cold War had begun in July 1991 the Soviet Union and the United States signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Act to bring the Cold War to its final conclusion. (Cold War 50 Years & Paul H. Nitze) Analysis When we consider the Cold War with an orthodox point of view, we find that very few historians in the United States challenged or interpreted the in any way for almost a decade as to how this Cold War began. And even then they place the responsibility of this crisis on the Soviet Union because of its expansionist policies in East Europe with the argument that the Stalin violated promises and imposed Soviet dominated regimes forcefully on unwilling states there and had a conspiracy plan to spread communism all around the world. Therefore, the United States was forced to respond with the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan to subvert communism wherever possible. The revisionist accounts came in the context of historians becoming disillusioned by the containment view point and in the 1960 s these accounts began to emerge during the Vietnam War whereby the role of the United States began being viewed in international affairs in terms of being empirical and hegemonic. Revisionist scholars argued that the Soviet Unions occupation of East Europe was based on their defensive rationale so as to avoid getting encircled by the United States and its allies as after the World War II, the Soviet Union had weakened extensively and was in no position to pose any threat to the United States.

They further make a point when they state that the United States use of atomic weapons against the population of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the effective causes for the beginning of the Cold War. Therefore, the bombs were used against Japan that was already defeated so that it could test their nuclear weapon and at the same time intimidate the Soviet Union and to signal that it would not hesitate to use nuclear weapons to structure its interests and the postwar world as it saw fit. Furthermore they argue that the United States had maintained its nuclear monopoly until 1949 when the Soviet Union finally detonated its first atomic bomb. In reality we can only make sense of the Cold War as a rhetoric story between two blocs wanting to dominate, control and discipline their own people as well as the populations of the world who supported them so that they could benefit through the political anxieties over perceived enmity and increase the production capacities of their arms and ammunition with the most advanced technologies possible. (Cold War & Paul H.

Nitze) Conclusion While the whole period of the Cold War was wrought with crisis but it seems that was sensible understanding between the two super-powers that they should under no circumstances escalate into a direct confrontational war between them. While millions of people were killed due to the direct consequences of the Cold War in the notable Korean War from 1950 to 1953, the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1975 and the Soviet-Afghan War from 1979 to 1989 in many ways as proxy wars of the super-powers with periods in-between where tensions were somewhat reduced, military attacks towards one another was deterred because of mutually assured destruction through the delivery of unlimited nuclear weapons that had been piled up in the Cold War. Realistically speaking it was only because the then President of the United States, Ronald Reagan had raised the cost level so high besides the unsuccessful Afghanistan invasion and the economic restrains that the USSR was undergoing, that Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the famous reform programs of perestroika and glasnost so that the Cold War could conclude in the late 1980 s and the Soviet Union having to cede over power East Europe and finally disintegrating in 1991. (History of the Cold War) Works Cited: Cold War, From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia (Accessed: May 23, 2007) web Cold War 50 Years (Accessed: May 23, 2007) web History of the Cold War, From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia (Accessed: May 23, 2007) web Paul H. Nitze, "The Master of the Game", U. S. Cold War Strategy from Truman to Reagan, The National Security Archive (Accessed: May 23, 2007) web


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