It significantly highlighted the true conflict involving the US and the USSR, and more importantly the ongoing battle between two opposing ideologies- capitalism and communism. The Korean War began with the communist North’s invasion of South Korea only years after the neighboring China ended its civil conflict and embraced a new Communist Regime under Mao Zedong. Whilst in the West communism had already been threatening to “swallow up” Europe seen through Stalin’s role in Czecoslovakinan Crisis; his disregard for the Yalta-Potsdam Agreements and the mobilized Red Army troops scattered over Eastern Europe. Consequently, the US where experiencing the beginnings of “anti-communist hysteria” due to the domino-effect Communist had had in Asia seen through the Sino-Soviet Pact (1950, and the possible threat of world-communism. In this sense, the Korean War is highly significant because it displayed the new terms of post-World War Two conflict and how difficult it would be to fight a contained War due to the snowballing effect of communism around the world.
Who was to blame for The Cold War? The Cold War happened over a long period time, unraveling and developing after the horrors of the Second World War. Throughout the course of the years that have followed the Cold War, mixed opinions of who is to blame for the war have arisen. It was believed, before the 1960s, that Stalin and his Communist ideologies brought the war to the attention of the world. Soon after, various evaluations of the war dictated that USA and the “western” supporters (i.e.
How far do you agree with the view that the developments of the cold war in the year 1945-8 owed more to soviet expansionism than to USAs economic interests? The developments of the conflict within the cold war (1945-48) are something of intense debate for many years. Historians such as Wolfson and Laver (S7) accredit the influence that Russian expansionism contributed to the conflict between the USA and the Soviet Union. In contrast this prospective is contrasted by Terry Morris and Derek Murphy’s prospective (S8) which places emphasis on how US economic interests were seen as a threat to the USSR and thus contributed to East-West tensions. Source 9 written by Michael Lynch adopts both prospective of USSR expansionism and also US economic interests, however Lynch also emphasises misjudgement and misperceptions which contribute to the conflict conceived at Cold War.
But United States leaders had other concerns. No sooner had World War II ended, then a "Cold War," between the forces of democracy and communism began (Schomp The Vietnam War 5). Long years of fighting had devastated the democratic nations of Western Europe, which left the communist Soviet Union as the dominant power in Europe and Asia (Schomp The Vietnam War 5). The Soviet Union had already over run most of Eastern Europe; now they seemed determined to spread communism all around the globe (Schomp The Vietnam War 5). To help counter that threat Truman started secretly sending money as well as supplies to help back the French forces against Ho Chi Minh's forces (Schomp The Vietnam War 5).
Communist aggression was the most important reason because without the original assault by North Korea there would’ve been no war, merely suspicion on the US’ part regarding Stalin and other Communist nations’ activities. Another reason for the outbreak of the Korean war in 1950 was the ambiguity of the US’ foreign policy. The US were very contradictory about their objectives prior to the war and at different stages throughout
Essay Questions: Modern World Study Evaluate the extent to which the ideologies of communism and capitalism influenced the policies and strategies of the cold war. To what extent were the emerging differences between the superpowers responsible for the origins of the cold war to 1949? Assess the impact of the Truman doctrine on Cold War tensions from 1945-53. Assess the impact of China becoming communist in 1949 on the development of the Cold War in the period to the mid 1960’s. Assess the impact of the US policy of containment and the Russian policy of peaceful co-existence on the cold war in the period to 1968.
The blame for the Cold War cannot be placed on one person -- it developed as a series of chain reactions as a struggle for power. It can be argued that the Cold War was inevitable, and therefore no one's fault, due to the differences in the capitalist and communist ideologies. It was only the need for protection that had caused the two countries to sink their differences temporarily during the Second World War. Yet many of the tensions that existed in the Cold War can be attributed to Stalin's policy of Soviet expansion. Stalin's foreign policies contributed an enormous amount to the tensions of the Cold War.
The Vietnam War started during this time. Vietnam was a series of battles fought by the United States, French, and South Vietnamese against the North Vietnamese, supported by the Russians and Chinese. It was a war similar to Korea in the fact that South Vietnam was trying to break away from the communist North Vietnam to start a democracy as South Korea had broken away from North Korea. It was a very long and very bloody war. The United States also began to feel more threatened by South East Asian countries especially China around this time (Roberts, 2006).
Sources O and R on the other hand show that superpower involvement was inevitable and which power struck first was a mystery but what is certain is as sources P, R and Q state, which is that Kim Il Sung’s drive for an invasion of south Korea and the pressure that came from the newly formed communist china caused an unavoidable mounting of tensions which caused the cold war to spread to Asia. Sources P and R illustrate the view that Stalin’s desire to spread the influence of the USSR resulted in the cold war spreading to Asia. Gaddis states in source R that ‘Kim got a green light from Stalin early in 1950’ suggesting Stalin preferred to act as pre-emptively as possible to take advantage of the USA’s negligence in leaving south Korea almost completely without reinforcement. Stalin was aware of the ‘considerable strategic gains in North East Asia’, as Rees puts it in source P. these gains were what drove Stalin to accept Kim’s proposal as a fully unified Korea under Soviet influence coupled with the backing of a Communist china up North would establish a significant powerbase to spread soviet influence that easily outmatched US influence in Japan. Rees further reinforces the view that Stalin
From 1917 to 1980, their relationship shifts from good relationship to bad relationship that almost led to nuclear war, which was fallowed again with a good relationship that led to arms control and détente, then to an intensified relationship until the end of the cold war. IA. It is important to know the background that strained the relationship of the Americans and the Soviets by understanding the period 1917 to 1945. It is not at this span of time that the nuclear arms race started but rather this period marked the beginning of the ideological clash between the Americans and the Soviets. The overthrowing of the Tsarist Empire in 1917 led to the creation of the Soviet Union, marking the expansion of communism in Europe.