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.