The Cold War

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how the Cold War between America and the Soviet Union that began after World War II affected the entire world and led to a legacy that is still viable and important today. It examines how it has left a legacy of mistrust between the Soviet Union and the United States and how it also helped create the space race, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the war in Afghanistan, and a wall of communism across Europe. The paper also looks at how, although today Russia and the United States are supposedly allies again, the continuing unrest in Russia under Boris Putin's regime, has led to instability in Russia, and one must wonder what will happen to Russian/U.S. relations in the future.

From the Paper:

"The Cold War grew as more people succumbed to the "us" versus "them" mentality, but there was another very compelling reason the Cold War came to be and grew through the 1950s and 1960s. America had the atomic bomb, and the Soviet Union did not, at least at first. Initially, President Truman advocated sharing knowledge about nuclear energy with an international organization as a way to drive Soviet-American relations to greater bargaining and agreement. The Russians, at the end of World War II, were moving toward dominance of certain Eastern European countries, such as Romania and Poland, and the U.S. hoped to use the bomb as a way to diffuse Soviet dominance and reach accords with them. Ultimately, the Russians resented Truman's lack of communication about the bomb before it was used on Japan, and when Truman did not offer up the technology to an international group for management, resentment began to fester (Whitcomb 44-46, 68). "

Sample of Sources Used:

• McMahon, Robert. The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2003.
• Nichols, Thomas M. Winning the World: Lessons for America's Future from the Cold War. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002.
• Van Hoesel, Frans. "Cold War: Postwar Estrangement." Library of Congress. 2007. 12 Dec. 2007. <http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/soviet.exhibit/coldwar.html>
• Whitcomb, Roger S. The Cold War in Retrospect: The Formative Years. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1998.
• White, John Kenneth. Still Seeing Red: How the Cold War Shapes the New American Politics. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998.

More papers on The Cold War:

• Article Review # 122091 : "Review of "The Cold War: What do we Now Know?"
• Analytical Essay # 66991 : "The Cold War"
• Book Review # 124367 : "The Cold War"
• Comparison Essay # 56723 : "Dr. Strangelove" and the Cold War in America"

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