Cold War Dbq

Cold War DBQ l

Between the late 40’s and early 50’s the alliance between U.S. and the Soviet Union crumbled and the Cold War began. For the next four decades the U.S. and the Soviet Union competed with each other to try to increase their power. At times the U.S. and USSR were ready to start war. Containment is the control of the spread of communism. The U.S. contained communism economically and politically. Two regions that were affected were Western Europe and Eastern Europe.

The U.S. had many ways of trying to contain communism. One way was with the North Atlantic Treaty or NATO. NATO was a treaty that stated that parties shall agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe shall be an attack against all. Also each nation will take whatever action necessary to maintain NATO. (Doc 3) The formation of NATO means that European countries can adopt some of the US’s Military practices. The treat was from the Soviet Union and its pro communist satellites that included Bulgaria Hungary and Czechoslovakia. The U.S. contained communism by the Marshall Plan by providing Western Europe with aid. The Marshall plan was very successful. After World War II Western Europe was completely devastated the economy was in ruins and so was the infrastructure. It did miracles as the economy was producing at a rapid speed and trade with the Americans was booming offering some economic prosper in the U.S. as well. Some Americans were angry at the Marshall plan but it did contain communism away from the western European nations. The people of Western Europe were flying at a rapid speed as seen in “Keep Pumping” (Doc 5). While some of the polices seemed radical they all worked somewhat to keep the threat of communism and war away.

The U.S. and Germany were affected by the policy of containment. In a speech to the Americans John F. Kennedy basically said he demanded the removal of the missiles in Cuba or else there would be problems of a war...