The Cold War

The Cold War

Sociology 310-21

Professor Munson Weinberg

November 1, 2011

The Cold War Era was one of the tensest times in U.S. History. The Cold War Began in 1945 with the end of World War II where the United States and the Soviet Union were Allies. They shared a common dislike for Nazi Germany. The Soviet Union harbored feelings of distrust of the United States because of the delayed entry into World War II which caused the deaths of millions of Soviet Union soldiers and the continued refusal of the United States to treat them like a legitimate part of the international community. The United States’ distrust of the Soviet Union stemmed from the Soviet’s ideologies. (Cold War, 1996) The United States was concerned with the communistic rule of Joseph Stahlin and the treatment of his own people. The Truman Doctrine of 1947 all but solidified the United States’ stance on communism. In the Truman Doctrine the U.S. aided Greece and Turkey with $400 million towards the fight against communism and in a sense started the Cold War. The Cold War was the United States’ attempt to thwart the spread of Communism. There were several incidents within the Cold war that fueled a fire that would span several decades and eight U.S. Presidents. The genuine dislikes for one another’s ideals lead to a series of events that would help shape the United States political stance. The most noteworthy were: The United States’ first military action in the Cold War the Korean War, The organization of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949, the Space Race, the creation of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Vietnam War and the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961.

The height of the Cold War was The Cuban Missile Crisis. The U.S. and Soviet Union were engaged in a military deadlock that lasted 14 days. This conflict began after a U.S. pilot photographed the assembly of a Soviet nuclear missile in Cuba. President Kennedy knew...