The Consequences Of The Cold War
The Cold War, a hostile rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, lasted from the late 1940s until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.Though the two nations fought indirectly, the tensions between these two former allies invited all the world’s countries to watch the events of this war closely because its outcomes could have changed the world and sent it towards a destructive future. Both superpowers threatened each other with nuclear annihilation and participated frequently in "proxy wars" by supporting allied nations in numerous skirmishes in events like the Korean and Vietnam Wars. The Cold War defined both countries' foreign policies through the second half of the twentieth century, as Americans and Soviets competed
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Within just a few years, however, wartime allies became mortal enemies, because of military, political, economic, and ideological differences. The alliance that had formed between the United States and the USSR during World War II was not strong enough to overcome the decades of suspicion and unease between the two super powers. Moreover, as both leaders had their own objectives, which were often mutually exclusive, and neither was willing to compromise. Tension arose when the big three, The U.S., Russia, and Great Britain, couldn’t agree on the terms at which to end the war. Russia wanted to obtain Poland as a satellite state to serve as a buffer between them and Germany which violated American and British values of self-determination, which held that the Poles ought to be allowed to make their own decision over whether or not to become a Soviet satellite. At the Yalta Conference in 1945, the leaders of the US, UK, and USSR were able to reach a number of important agreements like settling border disputes, creating the United Nations, and organizing the postwar occupations of Germany and Japan. But Poland remained a controversial problem. In the end, the Yalta agreements became a misunderstanding among the three leaders leading Stalin to believe he had won Anglo-American acceptance of de facto Soviet control of Eastern Europe and Roosevelt and Churchill left to believe they had won Stalin's acceptance of their values of self-determination. Future disputes over the problematic they were basically inevitable. Truman, who may not have ever known just how much Roosevelt had actually conceded to Stalin at Yalta, soon took office after Roosevelt’s death and viewed the Soviets' later interventions in Eastern Europe as a simple violation of the Yalta agreements and proof that Stalin someone who could never be trusted. Truman quickly took that stance
Within just a few years, however, wartime allies became mortal enemies, because of military, political, economic, and ideological differences. The alliance that had formed between the United States and the USSR during World War II was not strong enough to overcome the decades of suspicion and unease between the two super powers. Moreover, as both leaders had their own objectives, which were often mutually exclusive, and neither was willing to compromise. Tension arose when the big three, The U.S., Russia, and Great Britain, couldn’t agree on the terms at which to end the war. Russia wanted to obtain Poland as a satellite state to serve as a buffer between them and Germany which violated American and British values of self-determination, which held that the Poles ought to be allowed to make their own decision over whether or not to become a Soviet satellite. At the Yalta Conference in 1945, the leaders of the US, UK, and USSR were able to reach a number of important agreements like settling border disputes, creating the United Nations, and organizing the postwar occupations of Germany and Japan. But Poland remained a controversial problem. In the end, the Yalta agreements became a misunderstanding among the three leaders leading Stalin to believe he had won Anglo-American acceptance of de facto Soviet control of Eastern Europe and Roosevelt and Churchill left to believe they had won Stalin's acceptance of their values of self-determination. Future disputes over the problematic they were basically inevitable. Truman, who may not have ever known just how much Roosevelt had actually conceded to Stalin at Yalta, soon took office after Roosevelt’s death and viewed the Soviets' later interventions in Eastern Europe as a simple violation of the Yalta agreements and proof that Stalin someone who could never be trusted. Truman quickly took that stance