The Cold War Creator

On Friday (10/25/13) we learned a few events that led up to the cold war. We learned that President Truman invited Winston Churchill to the U.S to give a speech to his people. The speech Churchill gave was called "The Iron Curtain" in which he stated that the USSR had drawn an iron curtain around Europe. He also said that communism was bad and we should try to spread democratic ideas. When Stalin heard this speech, he interpreted as a call to arms. He compared Churchill to Hitler and he said capitalism would bring war. George Kent (U.S) sent an 8,000 word telegram to the U.S saying that Stalin planned to take over the world and spread communism. These events lead me to the conclusion that the USSR is to blame for the start of the cold war. Why? Well first of all Stalin did not hold free elections in the states he had regained and also he did not give people freedom because he spread communism ideals. The U.S was only trying to keep Stalin in check by sending over troops to stop communist uprising, but maybe this was also a wrong thing to do. What do you guys think?

The Culprit of The Cold War

So far after what we have seen and discussed in class, I believe that both the U.S.S.R and the U.S are responsible for starting the Cold War. After World War I neither country had a reason to continue their alliance since as communists and capitalists, they were natural enemies. I think the speech given by Stalin in the documentary we saw in class today, and the "Iron Curtain" Speech by Winston Churchill show the responsibility each country contributed to the initiation of the war. When Stalin gave his speech he claimed that war between capitalists and communists was inevitable and declared that in order to establish Soviet security and gain strength, communism must expand to the rest of the world, and capitalism must be weakened. This speech sounded like a threat to the U.S and in response Churchill gave his speech describing the "iron curtain" that divided Europe into the democratic Eastern Europe, and the communist Western Europe. This speech was what Stalin considered a "call to arms" or to war. These two speeches are the reason I think both the U.S and U.S.S.R are responsible for the growing tension, threats, and conflict that led to the Cold War.  

War in the Pacific

On Friday we learned about the war between the Americans and the Japanese in the Pacific Ocean.  The Japanese made their first attack in Pearl Harbor, which officially brought the Americans into the war.  By the time Japan attacks Midway in 1943, Americans had figured out their code, and knew of their upcoming attack.  At Midway, the Japanese lost four carriers, and the Americans only lost one.  This is where America switched from defense to offense.  The goal of America was to gradually approach the main Japanese islands, and take them over.  After the Americans attacked Leyte Gulf, the victory was so overwhelming that the Japanese knew they had no chance winning the war.  This was the beginning of the kamikaze.  These were Japanese suicide missions, to blow up any American supplies or weapons that they could, before Japan was completely out of the war.

Kamikaze

This week we learned about the war in the Pacific and how it was fought. It was a naval war with battleships and aircraft carriers. The fighting was mostly between USA and Japan for territories in the Pacific. Japan wanted to cover their homeland so no one can get in. The US wanted to go to their homeland to fight for Pearl Harbor. Whenever the US pushed closer to Japan more soldiers would die. It got to the point where Japanese soldiers will never surrender and would kill themselves. Their fighters would do suicide missions by flying there planes into US ships. The US never saw anything like this and were a little terrified by this. This was known as the Kamikaze which translates to the divine wind. But the US still pushed on towards Japan. At the point when we finished in class Japan was unable to fight in the air and the ocean. 

Red Army

Today in Class we finished watching the video, "Vengeance".  In the beginning of the video, we learned how ever since the battle at Stalingrad, Germany's hope of winning the war was spiraling downwards.  Germany lost more hope after operation D-Day, when the allies bombed France. At this point, Russia was also planning on attacking Germany.  Operation Bagration was a victory for the Red Army.  This attack surprised Hitler, who thought the attack would take place in a different location.  Today, after finishing the movie, we learned about the Russians, who were gaining confidence, and had little tolerance for any traitors of their country.  Stalin deported many ethnic groups from the homeland because of the chance that they were collaborating with the Nazis.  The Red Army also treated prisoners of war badly, because Stalin believed that by surrendering, they were betraying Russia.  Stalin would send people to the Gulag for any tiny reason that made him believe that person was a traitor.  This made everyone afraid to do something wrong, so the people did not have the choice to disagree with Stalin.