Cold War
Introduction
Cold War was fuelled by the military supremacy between Western countries led by the United States against countries in the Eastern bloc, led by the Soviet Union. These two blocs had different political ideologies, the former advocating for democracy and liberty for the citizens while the latter was pro-communist. In order to show their supremacy, each party, especially the United States and USSR (Soviet Union) embarked on building military power in readiness for any nuclear attack. Incidentally, the US and USSR remained to the only superpowers in the world, with profound military might. Cold War affected other countries in the world, where both parties had plans to advance their interests. Other countries also entered into proxy wars by the support of the parties involved in the Cold War. Nevertheless, this standoff ended by the disintegration of the USSR into independent nations.
Start of the Cold War to the end of Truman Administration
Cold War started after World War II, during which the United States and Soviet Union were allies in the battle that led to the defeat of the Nazi Germany. The problem started during the rebuilding of the Western and Eastern Germany where the political differences between the two countries were evident. The US, Great Britain and France worked towards uniting, rebuilding and democratizing Germany; however, the Soviets were for communism. In effect, Soviet Union controlled Eastern Germany, while the US and allies controlled West Germany. During this period after, the Soviet Union ordered for the building of the Berlin Wall that sought to build a barrier to stop Eastern Germans from crossing to the Western part where opportunities and jobs were plenty and readily available; not such a good decision by the Soviet Union leader.
More to this, the communist Soviet Union embarked on a plan to consolidate and influence some of the countries in the eastern bloc to adopt communist ideologies and to be under their control. The Soviet Union planned to achieve this control by funding and supporting revolutions, coup de ’tats and civil wars in different countries in order to install leaderships that ascribed to their communist political stand, something that raised the red flag to the United States and allies. The red flag meant that the influence of the Soviet Union was increasingly being felt by the initiatives it had embarked. Some of the activities included supporting decolonization of African countries and encouraging rivalries within capitalist nations. This was, indeed, a threat to the United States that encouraged capitalism.
United States President Harry Truman responded to this influence by adopting a policy that sought to put a stop to the spread of communism. This entailed military and financial support to different nations of the world in support of liberty. According to Truman, these policies were part of the war that pitted free people against totalitarian powers. Democrats and Republicans unanimously lent their support towards expenditure towards strengthening Western powers in order to counter Soviet threats. This marked the beginning of the Cold War, where these two superpowers build their military ability in an attempt to show readiness for nuclear war. Regrettably, this standoff led to a number of wars in other parts of the world, all coming from the battle of supremacy from the two parties.
Actions that Contributed to the Conflict
Cold War was brought about by the decision of the Soviet Union to expand their influence in other countries within the Eastern bloc. As noted above, the Soviet Union embarked on the plan that sought to do away with the democracy and civil liberties, values propagated by the United States. In order to counter this influence, the United States also embarked on the program to expand its military might in order to show its superiority. This military standoff led to the tension and readiness to counter any attempt of nuclear war. This campaign also led to the military and financial support of different proxy wars in other parts of the world.
A number of policies were enacted in response to the beginning of Cold War. For instance, President Truman adopted a policy ensured military and financial support for countries that supported civil liberty. At the beginning of the period, the US and other Western countries came together to form NATO in order to restore and uphold capitalism. On the other hand, USSR and other Eastern countries established Warsaw pact that ensured that communism was adopted; however, it did not work.
Whom to Blame
I blame the Soviet Union for the Cold War. However, it is important to take into account suspicion that had existed before between the US and USSR. Nevertheless, the USSR made the situation worse by their quest to grab more territory within the Eastern bloc, imposing their communist ideologies. In countries like Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania, USSR imposed puppet governments, going further to use secret police to suppress any opposition. On the same note, the Berlin experience was not positive in terms of the humanitarian grounds. I believe that the US responded to stand by the ideologies of civil liberties for the people of the world, standing firm to show military power. Therefore, the action by the US was only a response towards an agenda that sought to popularize communism by force.