Thursday, May 29, 2014
Was the Cold War inevitable?
Was the Cold War inevitable? During WWII, the US and USSR allied up to take down Germany. But after the end of WWII, their alliance just was not strong enough to survive, ultimately resulting in the Cold War. Even while they were allies, they generally distrusted one another and didn't like each other. The USSR always wanted the US to put forth more effort and push forward faster and the US had always hated communism. Before WWII, the world was very multipolar, but after WWII, the US and USSR seemed to not take much damage and the world was more bipolar, putting these two nations at the top of the hierarchy, putting them both in a situation where they felt threatened by the other. Also, Stalin was very communist. He believed communism was great and wanted to spread it to weak countries. He was very powerful and his views were so different than the US's so they had to do something. The US saw this as a threat and started initiating containment. Because of these reasons I believe the Cold War had to happen sooner or later, but I can't help but wonder if there was anything they could have done differently to prevent this war from ever taking place. Do you think there is anything the US and USSR did wrong that could have prevented the Cold War entirely? Or do you think there are certain details that could have ended the Cold War much sooner than it did?
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The Cold War could have played out differently if the US and the USSR understood each others views and goals. Russia wanted to benefit themselves after the war by rebuilding their economy and producing industrial items, whereas the US was promoting democracy and wanted to rebuild Europe after WW2. Do you think if the US didn't worry about the affect of WW2 in Europe, that the Cold War wouldn't have happened since Russia wouldn't have felt threatened?
ReplyDeleteI think that the USSR would have always felt threatened because the US was one of the main powerhouses and there would have always been tensions about power between USSR and the US.
DeleteThe USSR and the US had the same overall goals, but didn't pay attention to the other and tried shoving the other out of the way in order to fulfill their goals and dreams. If they tried to understand each other a bit more then it would have played out better for both of them. Plus, neither side had exactly the best leaders. Imagine it like this: There are a bunch of runners running to a finish line, you see two major ones who are constantly pushing and shoving each other and trying to get ahead, instead of cooperating and pushing everyone else out of the way, the keep nagging and pulling on each other and thus slow themselves down.
ReplyDeleteI think that the Cold War was going to happen sooner or later. The reason why I think the two countries allied together in World War II was to take down a common enemy it wasn't because they had similar beliefs and ideas. They needed to team up because with there strength combined Germany stood no match and that was their top priority at the time instead of fighting with each other.
ReplyDeleteI think that the cold war would have eventually happen and it was inevitable. I would like to argue that even though we can come up with ways to prevent the cold war, this time period was actually crucial. I felt like the cold war was a period that was necessary in making world progress. The cold war did lead to more competition and in return, education did increase and technology did also increase. So, the cold war is not all bad but it could have ended way earlier if countries were willing to talk and listen to each other more.
ReplyDeleteI think some sort of disagreement between the US and the USSR was bound to happen. They were both egotistical, nationalistic, growing superpowers and had conflicting ideals- democracy vs. Stalin, capitalism vs. communism, and so on.
ReplyDeleteI do think that lack of communication made the Cold War into a bigger deal than it had to be. If the US and the USSR had been more open with each other, they wouldn't have seen each other in every shadow. Overall, if the two countries had just been able to trust each other, the Cold War could have been much smaller.