Themes in the Cold War Era - Paper Example

The cold war was a significant era in the United since it was a battle between the Soviet Union and the United States which proceeded the World War II. The Soviet Union and the United States were allies despite their tenuous relationship during this era. During this era, the antagonism started when the United States suspected Stalin and their communist government. Since the United States hesitated to assist the Soviet Union during World War II, they ended up blaming the United States over the deaths of Russians. The two superpowers led tensions all over the United States, thus growing in distrust of each other. Due to the Soviets communist ideologies, they focused on controlling the world, but the United States proceeded to make plans to contain communism from spreading to other nations. These actions led to a standoff between 1947 and 1991, thus being characterized by various themes and events (Harrington 558). Due to the ideological and political differences between the Soviet Union and the United States, this paper tends to focus on multiple themes which occurred during the cold war era.

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The distrust of Stalin made Britain and the Americans worry that the whole world will fall under communism due to its expansive nature in the world. Stalin, who was the leader of USSR, believed that America required to turn the world into a communist, thus creating no room to the disadvantaged groups (Altbach and Hans 9). The reason as to why Stalin wanted to turn the world into communism was due to the famine which had resulted from the world war. He believed that people could share their resources and food hence making the world a better place. Also, Stalin had distrust with Britain and the United States since the Soviet Union was attacked three times during his era. Stalin became suspicious with the capitalists who were Britain's and the Americans as they did not support the communist ideologies (Lucas and Kaeten 54). Therefore, since the Americans knew that individuals wanted to own property, they developed distrust to Stalin, who tried to taint capitalist with communism.

Consequently, Winston Churchill's led to tension when he pressed the idea of the Big Three summit between the Soviet Union, the United States, and Britain. Since Churchill had not trusted Stalin before, He increased tension between Truman and Stalin (Merleau-Ponty 2017). Also, Churchill delivered his Iron curtain speech that encouraged the isolation of the Western European nations from those which had been dominated by the Soviet Union. Churchill proceeded to warn the public against the dangers of communism since he did not want its expansion throughout other nations (Homolar 720). Therefore, this action led to the tension that contributed to the cold war between the Americans and the Soviet Union.

The nuclear terror made the United States insist that one country should control the new nuclear weapons which were anticipated to cause mass destruction. The acquisition of the atomic technology made the Soviets to test the Atomic bomb in 1949, leading to fear the red menace (Harrington 577). This action led to the development of the backyard bomb shelters and the temporary housing, which could serve as bomb shelters (Lucas and Kaeten 44; Robock and Owen 76). After the Soviet tested this bomb, the United States developed a hydrogen bomb which was more potent than the atomic bomb. Due to the development of these bombs by the superpowers, tension continued to be felt among the people.

Therefore, the cold war had various themes, which led to fear among the people. The Soviet Union and the United States fought to become superpowers hence leading to tension. Through these themes, the Soviet Union and the United States came to an understanding in the future, which contributed to the collapse of the cold war era. The free elections which emerged after the collapse of the Berlin Wall led to ousting of the communist regime in Eastern Europe. The Soviet Union dissolved and joined the republics, thus making the Iron Curtain arise ending the Cold War.

Works Cited

Altbach, Philip G., and Hans De Wit. "Internationalization and global tension: Lessons from history." Journal of studies in international education 19.1 (2015): 4-10. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/186810341103000101

Harrington, Carol. "Resolution 1325 and post-Cold War feminist politics." International Feminist Journal of Politics 13.4 (2011): 557-575. Retrieved from https://www.historyonthenet.com/cold-war-causes-major-events-ended

Homolar, Alexandra. "Rebels without a conscience: The evolution of the rogue state's narrative in US security policy." European Journal of International Relations 17.4 (2011): 705-727. Retrieved from https://study.com/academy/lesson/winston-churchills-iron-curtain-speech-summary-analysis-significance.html

Lucas, Scott, and Kaeten Mistry. "Illusions of coherence: George F. Kennan, US strategy and political warfare in the early Cold War, 1946-1950." Diplomatic History 33.1 (2009): 39-66. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-7709.2008.00746.x

Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. Humanism and terror: The communist problem. Routledge, 2017. Retrieved from http://themesinamericanhistory.blogspot.com/2010/10/cold-war.html

Robock, Alan, and Owen, Brian Toon. "Local nuclear war, global suffering." Scientific American 302.1 (2010): 74-81. Retrieved from https://lagunita.stanford.edu/asset-v1:Engineering+NuclearBrink+Fall2016+type@asset+block/Nuclear_Weapons_and_the_Escalation_of_the_Cold_War.pdf