The Cold War: Who and Why?

The Cold War was the longest conflict in the history of the United States. Although it is called the Cold War, technically speaking it wasn’t a war at all. The term Cold War implies that the countries involved, in this case mainly the United States and the Soviet Union, are not currently involved in any actual fighting. Instead, the term implies only that there is the potential for war to break out at any moment.Although many historians still debate when the Cold War started, it is generally believed that it started at the same time World War II ended. Some historians will argue that the Cold War actually started over a dozen years before the start of WWII.As we all know, the United States’ use of two atomic bombs on Japan is what put the exclamation point on the Second World War. The feeling of happiness and joy that was felt after defeating Adolf Hitler was short lived. Following the war, only 2 superpowers were left, the United States and the Soviet Union.So why were these two superpowers on the brink of war? The answer is fairly simple. The Soviet Union had lost an estimated 25 million soldiers during World War 2. They also lost many lives in World War 1. During both World Wars, the Soviets were invaded by eastern European countries. Their goal was to protect the borders from future invasions. As the Second World War was coming to its end, the Soviets were able to liberate many eastern European countries, and thus trying to influence them in a way that they would turn into communist states. This did not bode very well with the United States, the biggest democratic country in the world. The Soviet Union issued a warning to European countries telling them that if they did not install communist governments, they would be considered Anti-Soviet. By 1948, only 3 years after the end of WW2, pro-Soviet governments were in power in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. Even France, the birthplace of Democracy, was close to getting a communist government. The United States was desperate to stop the spread of communism in Europe. Several foreign policies were put in place by President Harry Truman to try and stop the spread of communism. The first of these policies was the Truman Doctrine. This doctrine ensured that eastern European countries threatened by communism would receive military and financial support. Another policy that was introduced by President Truman was the Marshall Plan. Similar do the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan was targeted and western European countries.It was getting clear to the United States that the Soviet Union was not backing down. In June of 1948, the Soviets blocked all surface transport into West Berlin. This meant that West Germany had been completely isolated from the rest of the World. President Truman was quick to act and ordered planes to help support the city. Great Britain and France also helped on this front. After Soviet leader Joseph Stalin died in 1953, there was renewed hope. A meeting between then President Eisenhower and Soviet leader Nikolai Bulganin was help in 1955. The meeting did not accomplish much. The tensions between the two countries would rise and fall for many years. Tensions reached their highest in 1961 with the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was soon known after that that the Soviets had missiles in Cuba. After one of the most intense weeks in United States history, Soviet leader Khruschchev agreed to remove the missiles under the condition that the United States not interfere with Cuba. In November of 1989, the Berlin Wall was torn down. Less than 10 months after the wall had been torn down, East and West Germany united once again to form a single Germany. Two years after that, the Soviet Union collapsed. This brought an end to the 45-year old Cold War.

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