Cold War: US and Soviet Union - Worsening of Tensions Analysis

This assignment provides an analysis of the Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. It highlights how both nations contributed to the worsening of these tensions through various means. The assignment explains that the US and Soviet Union supported rival countries, leading to proxy conflicts. It also discusses the military aspect, including the formation of military alliances like NATO and the Warsaw Pact, and the development of ballistic missiles. Furthermore, the assignment explores the political strategies, such as brinkmanship, and the ideological conflict, where the US opposed communism and the Soviet Union aimed to spread it. The assignment references key sources such as Dunbabin (2014), Leffler and Westad (2010), and Miller (2015) to support its arguments. The overall aim is to offer an understanding of the key factors that escalated the Cold War.

AMERICAN HISTORY

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United States and Soviet Union contributed to the worsening of cold war tensions
Different ways in which both United States and Soviet Union contributed to the worsening of
the cold war tensions are:
 Supporting countries that were rivals: These two did not fight with each other but they
supported different countries that were fighting against each other. It was due to this
they both stood against each other at several places (Dunbabin, 2014). Like American
president made plans to give military and money aid to countries that was threat to
communism which was not like by the Russia which supported with the same to the
communist countries. There were more and more efforts to make more countries with
each other and threatened other smaller countries that they should come with them.
 Military reasons: The policy such as building of the NATO a military group of those
countries that was against the soviet Russia. Russia made Warsaw Pact where they
made military alliance with Eastern Europe (Miller, 2015). Both the country started
developing anti-continental ballistic missiles and Soviet Russia began secret
installation of the missiles in Cuba so as to launch attacks on the United States. This
brought both the countries at the brink of war.
 Policies: The use of Brinkmanship to establish them as super powers made the
situations worse. United States tried to make policies that was going against countries
in which there was communism both in terms of economic and political terms (Leffler
and Westad, 2010). On the other hand Russia was trying to spread communism in as
many parts as possible especially in the Asian region.

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References
Dunbabin, John Paul Delacour. 2014. The Cold War: The great powers and their allies.
Routledge.
Leffler, Melvyn P., and Odd Arne Westad, eds. 2010 The Cambridge History of the Cold
War. Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press.
Miller, David. 2015. The Cold War: A Military History. Macmillan.