Was the cold war inevitable essay

Was the cold war inevitable essay

Jun 01,  · It was not inevitability which led to the Cold War, but inflexibility. Bibliography. Costigliola, Frank. “After Roosevelt’s Death: Dangerous Emotions, Divisive Discourses, and the Abandoned Alliance.” Diplomatic History 34, no. 1 (): Edwards, Lee. “Congress and the Origins of the Cold War: The Truman Doctrine.” Was The Cold War Inevitable. The Cold War was a state of political hostility and military rivalry between the United States of America and the Soviet Union. It was characterised by threats, propaganda, power blocs, espionage and intense competition. Schlesinger defines the Cold War as “a presumably mortal antagonism, arising in the wake of the Second World War, between May 23,  · It claims that as long as Stalin and the authoritarian government were in power, a cold war was unavoidable. It argues that Stalin violated agreements that he had made at Yalta, imposed Soviet policy on Eastern European countries aiming at political domination and conspired to advocate communism throughout the world

Was the Cold War Inevitable - Free Essay Example | blogger.com

Furthermore, this army had run out of replacements in Januaryso its combat strength could only go down. And, of course, the Soviet Union did not have the atom bomb. This means that while the Soviets were imposing and very scary to the Was the cold war inevitable essay, they had weaknesses of which Stalin was largely aware. The Westerners understood that the Soviet military was flawed, was the cold war inevitable essay, but they also knew that the cost of fighting the Soviet Union would have been enormous. Could the Soviet Union have won a war with a determined West in ? Absolutely not, but victory would have taken years and several more atom bombs. In fact, they had been paranoid about this threat for decades.

Stalin and his cronies made some incorrect assumptions about the Western threat, though. First of all, they lumped the Nazis in with the British and the Americans: Stalin always feared they would come to an accommodation. How it works. The United States produced an enormous amount of stuff, but it did so with deficit spending and its spending was devoted to war materials. With the war coming to an end the US home front was going to be flooded with returning veterans for whom there were no jobs. Furthermore, was the cold war inevitable essay, there was the cold war inevitable essay practically no consumption at home to sustain spending, so American industries would collapse again from lack of demand.

This would open the door for communist success in the West and Stalin wanted to be ready for that. The solution was to keep them in uniform occupying Eastern Europe. They looted the land under the guise of reparations and also provided a useful buffer for the Soviet Union. In the immediate aftermath of the War the West did suffer some bad recessions. Communist parties in Europe made lots of headway. What Stalin did not anticipate was the way in which America responded. First of all, the US was more prepared for returning servicemen than even they realized. The GI Bill was a stroke of genius. For one thing, was the cold war inevitable essay, it gave many servicemen the opportunity to go to college.

That meant that many servicemen ended up going to school instead of returning to the work force. This alone forced an expansion of the education sector which in turn drove domestic consumption. The educated folks who graduated years later provided the basis for the educated workforce the US needed, was the cold war inevitable essay. The GI Bill also allows for servicemen to get decent mortgage rates, etc. This made it easier for employed servicemen to buy a house. Now, the construction industry had been moribund for much of the Depression and only returned to life during the War. Well, the construction during the War was not for civilian use, so there was a huge pent up demand for housing. The construction industry actually expands. So, in the US there was a minor recession, but it was ameliorated in the long term by the GI Bill.

The Was the cold war inevitable essay Bill was not intended to save the US from economic ruin: it was just a bonus. But the Marshall Plan was intended to save the West from economic ruin. People forget how much money and aid the US was already sending overseas and they focus on the Marshall Plan. It was all loan money, was the cold war inevitable essay, but the US had rules on how it was to be spent. This, of course, drove the US economy even further. This was brilliant. The US was essentially writing a check to allow Western countries to deficit spend to rebuild their industrial sectors. To Stalin this looks like a direct threat to him and the Soviet Union. Stalin knew that the Soviet Union and its satellite states were woefully behind in reconstruction.

The idea here was to demonstrate to Europe that the Soviets were the only true power on the continent. Thus, we get recurring Berlin Crises, etc. Of course, the US did stand up to the Soviet Union which resulted in a hardening of the Western alliance. Stalin was brutal and evil, but he was not an idiot. His calculations are rational, but his conclusions were all wrong. A few things happened. One of them is George Kennan. George Kennan articulated the theory of containment. To this end, Kennan posited, the Soviet Union needed to push worldwide revolution: was the cold war inevitable essay could only be successful when it achieved world domination. He was right that economically a true communist state could only succeed if it had all means of production under its control.

Stalin more likely wanted to neuter the major powers around him and to dominate Eurasia. In any case, Kennan argued that stopping the communist tide rested on a combination of approaches, diplomatic, cultural, economic, and military. Kennan lays out a policy, but it catches fire for many reasons. One is that many politicians in the US are already inclined to be anti-communist. Plus, the sense is that giving the communists an inch anywhere would be appeasement, and that led to disaster with Hitler. There was certainly an uptick in Communist Party membership.

The perception was that the Soviets controlled the foreign communist parties. At the very least the Soviet Union used the communists and their fellow travelers as a recruiting base for spies. As spies were uncovered paranoia in the United States mounted. What we have here is a ratcheting process: The Soviet Union was trying to achieve its goals by frustrating the United States. The United States felt that the Soviet Union was trying to expand its power by any means necessary, was the cold war inevitable essay. They ended up both raising the stakes, because neither one wanted to be humiliated. I think the Cold War could not have been avoided given what people knew at the time. Both sides were rational but had totally different domestic pressures and ways of looking at the world.

Neither could see a way out of confrontation without backing down. Only if the Soviets and the Americans gave up their lifelong preconceptions about the other, which would be incredibly unrealistic. Need a custom essay on was the cold war inevitable essay same topic? Our writers can help you with any type of essay. For any subject Get your price How it works.

Who was to blame for the Cold War?

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History Essay: "Was the cold war inevitable?: Argumentative essay - Eddusaver

The belief that the Cold War was inevitable is completely false. Undoubtedly there would be tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union after the war, but to claim that their disagreements would inevitably result in some degree of a Cold War is inaccurate. Had the countries resolved their disagreements in a more diplomatic fashion, there would be no form of Mar 26,  · historians about whether or not the Cold War was inevitable. Some argue that despite their alliance during World War II (WWII), the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR) had conflicting ideologies and postwar plans in Europe such that the Cold War was inevitable. However, there is evidence to support that the Cold War was not inevitable Jun 01,  · It was not inevitability which led to the Cold War, but inflexibility. Bibliography. Costigliola, Frank. “After Roosevelt’s Death: Dangerous Emotions, Divisive Discourses, and the Abandoned Alliance.” Diplomatic History 34, no. 1 (): Edwards, Lee. “Congress and the Origins of the Cold War: The Truman Doctrine.”