History - Cold War Between USA and USSR

Running head: HISTORY
History
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1HISTORY
Cold War is one of the major determinants in the power structure of the world history
today. It has been noted as a constant fight without weapons for several years. The foreign
policies and political moves were used as the weapons in this Cold War. This essay will look to
find out all the relevant points regarding this war, its causes, effects and impacts on the society.
Various issues regarding the social structure will be the focus of this essay. The differences of
opinion between capitalist led United States of America and communist led United States of
Soviet Russia were the basic reason for this Cold War to take place.1 Later on many other
countries got involved in this fight as well. The timeline of this event and the reactions from
different countries will be the focal points of this essay. Basically this was a geopolitical tension
between two chief powers of the world and people went through difficult times during this time.
Thesis statement: Communism ideology of the Soviet Union suffered setbacks after the
Cold War between USA and USSR.
It is quite astonishing to know that USA and USSR fought in the Second World War as
allied forces against the Axis Powers like Germany, Japan and Italy. USSR was against the
outrageous decisions of Hitler of Germany and Mussolini of Italy. They stood against up against
the fascism or autocratic tortures of these leaders. The purpose of USA to take part in WWII was
completely different though. They only wanted to establish their supremacy over the global
politics. Both USA and USSR emerged as two superpowers. The conflict was inevitable
therefore. The geopolitical tensions began to grow when Soviet Union and United States found
they had to part ways from allied forces for certain reasons. The allies of Soviet Union were
called Eastern Bloc and United States allies were called the Western Bloc.
1 Dalby, Simon. Creating the second Cold War: The discourse of politics. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016.

2HISTORY
Critics of international relations have described this tension as Cold War because there
was no direct fighting with the use of any weapon between them. They employed some tactical
moves and made some decisions in terms of foreign policies that created barriers in front of one
another. Still there were many proxy wars that took place during this time between allied forces
of these two major superpowers.2 The expansion of this Cold War can be traced up to the
implementation of Truman Doctrine in 1991 when Soviet Union was finally dissolved. The
ideological differences between the two powers also contributed to this situation. Though they
formed a short term alliance to defeat the Nazi Germany in 1945, they did not share any kind of
fellow feeling.
No such direct fight between these two countries ensued because both these countries had
their nuclear strategies. These nuclear weapons were the basic fears that they restrained from any
pre emptive attacks. The American people were too worried about the tyrannical behaviors and
approaches imposed by the Joseph Stalin in Soviet Union. They wanted to put an end to this
practice completely. The delayed entry of the Americans had particularly resulted in the death of
millions of Russian people. Therefore, Soviets did not want to admit USA as a part of the
international community. The enmity between these two global superpowers ensued this time
and they did not trust each other anymore.3
2 Herken, Gregg. The Winning Weapon: The Atomic Bomb in the Cold War, 1945-1950. Princeton University Press,
2014.
3 Davis, Lynn Etheridge. The Cold War Begins: Soviet-American Conflict Over East Europe. Princeton University
Press, 2015.

3HISTORY
The Soviet forces went on to expand and this created the fear in the minds of USA. They
feared that this process would jeopardize their claim to be the supreme leaders of the world if
Russia gradually began to expand into the different countries of the Eastern part of Europe. The
approach of USA officials was completely interventionist into the international relations.
Russians completely resented against this approach.4 The international atmosphere in the
international sphere was completely hostile and people of both the countries were very much
afraid indeed. This is why it is completely evident that the blame for Cold War can be attributed
to any single country. Most historians are of the opinion that this Cold War had to happen and
there were no other options to avoid it.
The economic theories of Eastern Bloc and Western Bloc were guided by socialism and
capitalism respectively. This is where the opinion difference took place. Soviet Union was
regarded as the Marxist-Leninist state. The approach of the government was completely
totalitarian. The decision making systems were controlled by the central committee called
Politburo. The Communist Party of Soviet Union (CPSU) had a tremendous influence over this
second world. On the contrary, the right wing governments were supported by the United States
government. Soviet government led by CPSU made arrangements for funding the communist
parties in the country.5
Most countries under the colonial rule had gained the independence between 1945 and
1960. Therefore, USA and USSR used these countries as the battlefields for Cold War. American
4 Sempa, Francis. Geopolitics: from the Cold War to the 21st Century. Routledge, 2017.
5 Dunbabin, John Paul Delacour. The Cold War: The great powers and their allies. Routledge, 2014.

4HISTORY
government officials understood the form that they had to use the strategy named ‘Containment’
so they could tackle against this threat of the Russian Communist party. The Americans believe
that they had to take up a long term strategy that would help the containment process run with
vigil.6 This would lead USA to be vigilant and put a firm hold on the expansion strategies of the
USSR. This was the method through which America constructed their foreign policies properly.
Through this Containment strategy, the arms buildup process also went on in the parallel way.
The National Security Council had sent a report named NSC 68 that contained the news that
Truman recommended to use the military forces wherever it seemed necessary in terms of Soviet
expansionism. The view of Truman was to use the atomic bombs in these cases of Soviet
expansion like it took place in 1945 at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
As a result of the Cold War, the international business had been hampered a lot indeed. In
the last years of this geopolitical tension, the military spending had been cut off and reduced to
half dramatically. This was a backdrop of economy for USSR since one fifth of young adults
served in the armed forces of Soviet Union. Millions of people across Soviet Union were left to
be unemployed. The economic reforms like Perestroika and Glasnost were taken up by Russia in
this discourse after Cold War came to a possible end. The economic impact of this Cold war was
indeed huge.
This severe economic crisis in Russia is deemed as more fatal than the Great Depression
in the United States during the 1930s. Through this Cold war, the overall political role could be
identified for United States. Their moves and tactics were noted by many historians and they
opine USA behaved in the best manner during that time. The impacts were severe in case of US
6 Maddox, Robert James. The new left and the origins of the cold war. Princeton University Press, 2015.

5HISTORY
economy also. Almost $8 trillion had been spent by the United States to support their armed
forces during the Cold War. More than a million American people lost their lives during the
Vietnam War and Korean War. The overall financial cost of the Soviet Union was much higher
than that of the United States.
Apart from the death of millions of soldiers in the uniform, numerous soldiers had also
died in the proxy wars that took place between these two global superpowers.7 USA was
desperate to establish their monopoly in the world and turn it to monopoly from bipolar power.
Most of these proxy wars took place in the Southeast Asia. All these impacts were very harmful
for both the nations. In this scenario, it should be highlighted that USA was able to get over this
loss because of their supreme capitalist economy.8
On the contrary, USSR began to struggle and their internal economy was entirely
crippled. Russia was also afraid of the atomic bomb that was possessed by the Americans. USSR
had been invaded twice in the beginning of 20th century. The invasion by Hitler and his Nazi
party showed them the flaws in their security systems. During the Cold war, Soviet Union had
designed numerous Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs). Apart from that, USA also
tested a hydrogen bomb to show USSR they were ready of any attack.9
7 Rawnsley, Gary D. Cold-War propaganda in the 1950s. Springer, 2016.
8 Kroenig, Matthew. "Facing reality: Getting NATO ready for a new Cold War." Survival 57, no. 1 (2015): 49-70.
9 Friedman, Jeremy. Shadow Cold War: The Sino-Soviet Competition for the Third World. UNC Press Books, 2015.

6HISTORY
Though, Soviet Union also had their ICBMs, they did not have the atomic or hydrogen
bomb in their arsenal. This threatened them and they began to back away.10 The implementation
of the Marshall Plan by USA to deal with communism challenges was big positive point for
America. Finally, the communist government under Mikhail Gorbachev was dissolved and
Communist Party of Soviet Union (CPSU) also lost its grounds too.11
The conclusion of the paper can be drawn by aligning it with the thesis statement that
Cold War between USA and USSR ultimately jeopardized the communist government in Russia.
Both the countries had to suffer huge losses- both monetary and manpower. Still, United States
was slowly able to come back from these serious conditions. Soviet Union was unable to come
back from this economic disaster and their ideology also succumbed. The communist and
socialist ideology of Soviet Union was backfired though they had put up a challenge in front of
United States very strongly for more than four decades.
10 Shulman, Marshall D. Beyond the Cold War. Routledge, 2019.
11 Hanson, Philip. The Rise and Fall of the The Soviet Economy: An Economic History of the USSR 1945-1991.
Routledge, 2014.

7HISTORY
References
Dalby, Simon. Creating the second Cold War: The discourse of politics. Bloomsbury Publishing,
2016.
Davis, Lynn Etheridge. The Cold War Begins: Soviet-American Conflict Over East Europe.
Princeton University Press, 2015.
Dunbabin, John Paul Delacour. The Cold War: The great powers and their allies. Routledge,
2014.
Friedman, Jeremy. Shadow Cold War: The Sino-Soviet Competition for the Third World. UNC
Press Books, 2015.
Hanson, Philip. The Rise and Fall of the The Soviet Economy: An Economic History of the USSR
1945-1991. Routledge, 2014.
Herken, Gregg. The Winning Weapon: The Atomic Bomb in the Cold War, 1945-1950. Princeton
University Press, 2014.
Kroenig, Matthew. "Facing reality: Getting NATO ready for a new Cold War." Survival 57, no. 1
(2015): 49-70.
Maddox, Robert James. The new left and the origins of the cold war. Princeton University Press,
2015.
Miller, Chris. The struggle to save the Soviet economy: Mikhail Gorbachev and the collapse of
the USSR. UNC Press Books, 2016.
Rawnsley, Gary D. Cold-War propaganda in the 1950s. Springer, 2016.

8HISTORY
Sempa, Francis. Geopolitics: from the Cold War to the 21st Century. Routledge, 2017.
Shulman, Marshall D. Beyond the Cold War. Routledge, 2019.