Preview

Why Wasnt The Cold War Avoidable?

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
803 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Why Wasnt The Cold War Avoidable?
One topic that stuck with me while reading the Cold War was that why wasnt the Cold War avoidable. The first thing that comes to mind is that during the war, it was two very powerful countries competing on the world stage to become the next super power. Being as powerful as they are things can get a little out of hand. Something else that also contributed to the war was how conflicting the political philosophies, which were Representative Democracy vs Communism, and for that a fear of the opponant on both sides of the conflict. Tensions were very very high. To begin with both countries were nuclear armed, it didnt help out at all, it just made things worse. There was a constant fear that, because there was not at the time a definitive World …show more content…
The French started to integrate more Western ideals, education, and religion including, for the first time introducing Christianity. The Modern Vietnam that we know today, was created from the French colonialism . Around 1883 France gained control of all Vietnam. After WWII, Vietnam gained independence but France still ruled the country Until Ho Chil Mihn took over in 1954. In 1959, North Vietnam began and forced a policy to reunify the country, which led to the outbreak of the American War in Vietnam. On August 2, 1964, the U.S destroyer Maddox exchanged shots with North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. Two days later, the Massox and another destroyer reported once again coming under fire. Although most historians, including those employed by the U.S military, have since concluded that the second of those attacks never actually occurred, it served as the pretext for an immediate ramp-up of the Vietnam War. By the end of the day, President Lydon B. Johnson had ordered retaliatory air strikes, and by late 1965 some 180,000 American troops were on the ground, with more on the way. The Tet Offensive was a military campaign that took place during the Vietnam War. It began on January 31, 1968. The offensive was a strategic attack aimed or planned on the US and South Vietnamses military and civilian command centres in South Vietnam. The NVA and NLF hoped that it would end the war very quickly. It is known as the Tet Offensive because it began on the morning of Tet Nguyen Dan, the first day of the year on the Vietnamese lunar calendar. Around 80,000 communist troops attacked more than 100 towns and cities, suprising the US and South Vietnamese armies and taking them by surprise. The Battle of Hue lasted a month, and fighting at Khe Sanh continued for two more months. Forty years after they won the war, the Communist Party still rules Vietnam with an iron fist. After, there was a bad capitalism, corruption, and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Ss211 Unit 2

    • 470 Words
    • 2 Pages

    “As your Reading and Discussions point out, one of the biggest issues that citizens and politicians confronted during the 1960s was the Cold War, which might be defined as the geopolitical tensions and proxy wars fought between the United States and the Soviet Union. Indeed, for anyone who grew up during the 1950s, 60s, or 70s, the Cold War was a household topic everyone seemed to understand.” When I compare my interviews to the Overview of the Cold War provided I see that over time things have been forgotten and even twisted.…

    • 470 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Vietnam War is still a very controversial subject to this day. Whether or not we won is still being debated, but during 1968 there were many significant events that took place involving the Vietnam War. The most significant would probably be the “Tet Offense”. On January 30, 1968, the “Tet Offense” was activated. This employed coordinated attacks on South Vietnam’s major cities by North Vietnamese and National Liberation troops. As a result, it failed to achieve its military objectives, but eroded U.S. support for the war. By February 24, the Tet Offense is halted, and South Vietnam recaptures the city of Hue. In the year, 1968, the War had escalated to its peak; this caused President Johnson to not seek another term in office. On March 7, the first battle in Saigon had happened which was a very big turning point for the U.S.…

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Another “weapon” used to fight the Cold War was political alliances. The U.S. was allied with France and the U.K. In order to keep these countries from falling to communism, the U.S. lent them money for rebuilding their economy (Doc. A). In addition, the U.S. also made alliances with Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Republic of Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and Greece. These democracies formed a treaty called NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) (Doc. D). The U.S. helped several European democracies, especially the U.K. and France, to rebuild their countries after WWⅡ. The democratic alliance, NATO, agreed that if one of them was under attack, then the other countries would help them. But unfortunately, the Soviet Union…

    • 144 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    On January 30, 1968 on the Vietnamese lunar New Year, Vietcong launched a surprise attack on US forces. Using the Ho chi minh trail tens of thousands of Vietcong snuck in to the south and attacked cities and us bases. 12 US bases and the US embassy were attacked and there were 3000 us casualties during the offensive. It took a month for the United States and South Vietnamese forces to drive the Vietcong out, resulting in 32000 North Vietnamese troops losing their lives. While this was technically a military victory for the United States it was devastating psychological defeat for the United States.…

    • 1197 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Battle of Hue

    • 1957 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Battle of Hue in 1968 was the bloodiest battle of Vietnam. On the night of January 30th 1969 the North Vietnamese (NVA) launched a massive offensive against the south called the Tet offensive. This offensive attacked all major political and military objectives within South Vietnam. This offensive was supposed to conduct a “shock and awe” that would demoralize the South Vietnam and Allied Forces. The city of Hue was one of these cities. At midnight the NVA started their assault on Hue City sending an entire division to attack and ending up seizing all of Hue City except for the ARVN Headquarters and the MACV Headquarters in the southern part. This caused the Marines and ARVN to fight an enemy largely outnumber in an urban environment. (O’Neill, 2003)…

    • 1957 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    War. When looking at the international community war seems to be the one thing we can always count on to be present. The majority of us do not seem to realize that there is always a war going on somewhere in the world. We go on living our cushy lives while people all over the world are suffering. One thing we may not realize is that we are in the midst of a war ourselves. This war has been going on since 1947, and it was thought to have ended in 1991. But did the Cold War really ever end? No it did not. Yes the war between the United States and the Soviet Union that was thought to have ended 24 years ago never really did. Tensions between the United States and Russia have increased gradually since the supposed end of the Cold War, which leads…

    • 1601 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cold War Dbq

    • 926 Words
    • 4 Pages

    One of the main reasons was that there were huge differences in the way that the East and West were led and the disagreements about this point. The West was a democratic state, while the East was a one-party state. Overshadowing all these initial Cold War issues of 1945 was the Atomic bomb. The new weapon used at Hiroshima and Nagasaki presented a category of problems. Einstein wrote a letter to FDR asking him to start work on a new super-weapon before the Germans had developed one…

    • 926 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There were many fears of the Cold War that the American people feared in the aftermath of the Second World War, which is stated in Document A. The American people feared the Soviet for two reasons. One reason was why the American people feared the Soviet was because the Soviet had nuclear bombs. The other reason was that the Soviet was the first to put up an orbiting satellite, which was Sputnik. However, as in stated in Document B, the American people greatest fear was communism. Because China turned Communist and allegations were made about the United States having communism here in their own homes made the American people fears worsen. However, the administration of President Eisenhower addressed these fears with caution with an open-mind sense of understanding. Eisenhower's administration used consensus decision-making, which was a management style based on group efforts to solve problem. Therefore, Eisenhower's administration made mostly great decisions. Eisenhower and his administration greatest decision was how they addressed Communism.…

    • 697 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Vietnam War Notes

    • 14746 Words
    • 59 Pages

    A nine-year war took place between the French and the forces of Ho Chi Minh, but the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu in 1954…

    • 14746 Words
    • 59 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Tet Offensive go its name from the most important holiday and celebration of the lunar new year, Tet. North Vietnamese and communist Viet Cong forces initiated a synchronized attack against numerous targets in South Vietnam on January 30th, 1968 as one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War. At the end of these attacks, the US and South Vietnam suffered heavy loss and it also failed the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces by not inspiring widespread rebellion among the South Vietnamese citizens. During the 1968 election, the Johnson administration claimed that the Vietnam War was nearing its end, however, the Tet Offensive showed the American people that the war would be a long struggle. Johnson was the front-runner for…

    • 189 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Cold War was by chance the most stressful part of the World’s history than anything else because it stretched across the entire globe and affected every country in one way or another. There are several reasons that the Cold War began and several different points that can be described as the beginning of the Cold War. By far the most influential part of the Cold War was the distrust that Joseph Stalin had between Winston Churchill and Harry Truman. The hostile relationship between the countries began when the Soviet Union would not open invade the Eastern part of Europe pushing Germany back and helping out the rest of the allies (Crash Course #39). The Cold War was a time that no one wanted to blink because they were afraid they might miss something important.…

    • 799 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It could be argued how realistic it is to claim that for some given reasons the Cold War could have been avoided; what is sure is that if there are were any major events that if avoided, would have evaded the creation of the cold war these are numerous. Now I want you to reread this and ask yourself if it's easily understood. Some of the foremost events that could be taken into consideration are Churchill's Iron Speech and Truman's 1947 address to congress. However, in a wider context, ideological reasons were at the origin of the Cold War, and thus a peaceful coexistence of different ideologies could have been the key to avoiding the Cold War.…

    • 696 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Despite of some serious crises, the Cold War never resulted into a Third World War. Although cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union was the main reason, there were other reasons to why it never resulted into another world war. The end of the Second World War resulted in the separation of Europe. Western Europe was under strong influence by the United States and capitalism, while Eastern Europe was under strong influence by the Soviet Union and communism. This separation of influence in Europe would eventually result globally as the two superpowers race to spread their influence on every livable continent on earth. The race resulted in many conflicts and devastating proxy wars that could have easily triggered a third world war. Among others, these conflicts included the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Korean War, and the Yom Kippur War. Despite of all these wars and crises, the two superpowers managed to prevent another world war through negotiations, treaties, and constant cooperation. The United Nations should also be given some credit over keeping the United States and the Soviet Union at peace, because since its creation, the organization had been a mediator in helping the two superpowers negotiate.…

    • 1732 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Was the Cold War Inevitable

    • 2933 Words
    • 12 Pages

    The orthodox view of the Cold War elucidates its inevitability due to the great ideological differences that existed between the Soviet Union and United States. On the other hand, the revisionists argued that it happened due to the actions that Soviets took and the consequential responses made by the United States as a result of their inflexible, single-sided interpretations of Soviet action. Yet, even with the backdrop of the early Bolshevik conflict in 1918 as well as the great ideological gulf between the Soviet Union and United states, the cold war could have been avoided in its initial stages under President Roosevelt. However, what really determined it was the series of events that occurred after Roosevelt was succeeded by Truman. The inevitability of the Cold War, at its roots, was due to Soviet aggression and attitudes felt by the United States which was exacerbated from the post war climate of the time. To be precise, it was a combination of the subsequent events that followed Truman’s accession that sealed the unavoidability of the Cold War. American diplomatic policies were dictated by their fears of communism as well as opportunities that arise from modern warfare which aided in the evolution of American foreign policies. In the end, the Cold War was inevitable as a result of the conflict of interest between nations, whether it be the ideological gulf between communism and capitalism or the determining the political future of Eastern Europe, which was ultimately fuelled by the unstable post World War II environment.…

    • 2933 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Cold War was a result of conflicts between the US and the Soviet Union. These conflicts were both internal and external that could have been prevented. They include the creation and use of the atomic bomb, US and Soviet Union world supremacy, and the creation of the Truman Doctrine and Containment.…

    • 652 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays