Cold War Exam Question Essay

• The Cold War commenced with the close of World War Two and lasted late into the 20th century. What was the Cold War? Who were the participants? What philosophies did the participants represent? Describe four key foreign and military actions that the United States took in “fighting” this war. Who won, and why? Was it the right approach for the United States, or did it just drag out the issues that existed right after World War II over nearly 50 years that could have been successfully resolved much sooner? Explain.

Cold War was the geopolitical conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union that occurred throughout more than four decades between the end of the Second World War and the collapse of the USSR. 

The name of the conflict was derived from the fact that the two parties never had an active armed conflict between each other. However, some of the wars in the world came as a result of the Cold War, including the Vietnamese War, the Korean War, and the Cuban War. The main actors of the conflict, the Soviet Union and the United States, represented opposing values. The United States supported capitalism, liberal democratic values, freedoms of speech and press, individualism, and equality of opportunities, and equality before the law. On the contrary, USSR supported authoritarian and totalitarian political regimes at the various stages of the conflict, socialism, equality of condition, lack of liberal freedom, and collectivism. The country was looking to establish a Marxist-Leninist regimen in countries around the world. The United States was seeking to control the expansive tendencies of the United States as they were seen as a significant hazard for the future of the democratic world.

The United States took many foreign policy and military actions over the course of the Cold War, but some of them stood out. The Truman Doctrine was at the heart of the United States foreign policy during the Cold War. It established that the goal of the United States was to prevent the geopolitical expansion of the Soviet Union.  To secure this goal, the United States joined the newly formed The North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949.  In the Vietnam War, the United States gave active support to the military government of South Vietnam in order to avoid the unification of the country under the communist regime of North Vietnam. In addition, the country participated in the arms race and the space race with the Soviet Union. The United States won the Cold War due to the financial draining of the Soviet Union that led to the collapse of the USSR. There is an argument that the response of the United States to the actions of the USSR was greatly exaggerated during the Cold War, and the conflict could have been resolved in a more natural way. However, these statements are arguably not true as the conflict between the West and the USSR could not be resolved diplomatically without compromising democratic values. Therefore, the U. S. was right to act the way it did despite the fact that some mistakes were made.