Cold War Essay -- essays research papers

In the post World War II era, a war arose between the Soviet Union and the United States, but in reality there was never really any documented fighting between the two nations, thus spawning the catch phrase "Cold War." Even though both countries were ready to go to war at the blink of an eye and almost did, the powers-that-be never got the nerve to authorize a nuclear war that would have made World War II look like child's play. This was a war fought in the political ring, and was also a war that did not start at the end of World War II, this war started during the war against Hitler and lasted for forty more years before peace became predominant over the crumbling Soviet Union. Many events occurred in this political heavyweight bout, and both sides can be blamed for the extremity the tensions escalated to, and this Cold War would have been tough to avoid taking into account the political beliefs of the countries at hand. During the war, once the Allied powers from the west joined forces with Stalin's Red Army, trouble was inevitable. Luckily for the world, America had a great leader and foreign diplomat in Franklin D. Roosevelt while England countered with Winston Churchill. This duo created a steady working relationship with Stalin, thus creating the Big Three and the Grand Alliance. Even though it was far from a perfect relationship, all three diplomats realized the task at hand, the mandate of stopping Adolph Hitler and the Nazi regime of Germany. Sadly, this priority overwhelmed the Big Three, and no solution was ever conjured up on how to handle the Post-War situation in Europe and Asia following an Allied victory. Understandably, stopping Hitler was far from guaranteed, but any plan that was taken by the Allies in Europe never even considered the implications of how to handle the war-torn countries of Eastern Europe afterwards, an area that the Soviets had suffered many casualties and other losses to free from facist control. The few problems with Churchill and Roosevelt is that they both tended to do things their own way, sometimes leaving Stalin out to dry, and also relied heavily on their own diplomatic skills, leaving other politicians out of the foreign policy matters for each country. While many United States Government officials were not fans of Stalin, they all realized the urgency in having him on their side of the fight. In r... ...or Russia to cease these actions, so even though America could have reacted better to some events during and after the war, Russia still would not have been easy to deal with when it came to their own country, not to mention Eastern Europe. The Cold War was more than likely inevitable, but it probably could have transpired more peacefully and definitely not on such a grand level. Someone that crazy as Stalin was and consequences so heavy as letting Russia into Eastern Europe could not be ignored, and the Americans had every right to stop the advancement of Russia into Poland. The Polish would not want to suffer those horrendous acts of oppression, and if the United States wanted to be the policeman of the world and stop these human rights violations, then Russia is the perfect place to start. The United States certainly did not always act brilliantly, and indeed they caused plenty of their own problems by a lack of good communication, but Russia was just as much to blame for the tensions throughout the world during the origins of the Cold War in the late 1940's to early 50's. eCheat. (2004). The Cold War. Retrieved Feb 28, 2005, from http://www.echeat.com/essay.php?t=25261.