What were the causes of the Cold War? Also, describe the steps that the USA took to meet the perceived Soviet threat during the 1940s, �50s and �60s.
Essay#2
Describe the collapse of the Soviet Union. Begin with the events during the 1980s including the entire Gorbachev era.
Essay #3
English transcript of Osama bin Laden’s speech
What are some examples of bin Laden’s complaints against Western society?
What seems to be his plan for the Islamic world?
TO BE RE-WRITTEN FROM THE SCRATCH
Causes of the Cold War and United StatesSteps
The Cold War that last for about forty five year can be traced to the relationship between the allies(the United States, Great Britain and France) and the Soviet Union between 1945-47. Going back to the Russian Revolution of 1917, there were already tensions between the allies and the Soviet Union caused by the Bolsheviks signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Central Powers that led to mistrust of the Soviets by the Americans (Haslam, 2011). The situation was worsened by the United States helping the anti-Bolshevik whites that consequently led to an ideological rift between capitalism and communism. The ideological rift was captured in the Red Scare and Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points. These tensions were exacerbated by the Soviet-German pact and the apparent delay of an amphibious invasion of German-occupied Europe.
Moreover, the allies’ support of the Atlantic Charter irked the Soviets as did disagreements during wartime conferences regarding the fate of Eastern Europe. These disagreements were captured during the Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam conferences. The Polish-Soviet War, Soviet funding of a workers’ strike in Britain in 1926, the Shakhty and Moscow show trials, the Great Purge, the Ukrainian famine and the Treaty of Rapallo further cemented the tensions between the allies and the Soviets, contributing to the start of the Cold War (Friedman, 2007). Other causes of the Cold War included creation of the Eastern Bloc of Soviet satellite states by the Soviets, the scrapping of the Morgenthau Plan and support for rebuilding of German industry. The Marshall Plan further led to escalation of the Cold War.
The United States also supported establishment of international organizations such as the Atlantic Charter, League of Nations and the United Nations. The Atlantic Charter was a liberal international organization to promote free trade and open markets so as to rebuild capitalist Europe. The United States leveraged its powerful economy and political leadership that had not been ravaged by the world wars, unlike most of Europe. In so doing, US developed allies against the Soviet Union through international trade with the devastated European countries. It also strengthened its economic systems through access to international markets and raw materials. As a result, the economically devastated Soviet Union was no match for the powerful American economy (Applebaum, 2012). This dominance was cemented with the formation of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the NATO Alliance that the Soviet Union was not a part of.
The isolationist stance adapted by the United States that initially led to it joining World War 2 was another step the US took to deal with the perceived threat of the Soviet Union. Isolationism of the Soviet Union was further established through the “Long Telegram”, “Iron Curtain” speech and repudiation of the Morgenthau Plan in favor of the Marshall Plan. The isolationism was not without its setbacks such as the Hungarian Revolution, the Prague Spring and the Vietnam War (Friedman, 2007).
Through government spending, the US government sustained capital investment in industry. This cut the need for postwar demilitarization to curb overproduction and the subsequent need for the United States to aid Soviet postwar reconstruction in lieu of Soviet expectations. The continued power of US military led to it developing the atomic bomb. Until 1949, it had monopoly on this bomb and hence could put in check the dwindled power of the Soviet Union (Haslam, 2011).
Essay#2
Collapse of the Soviet Union
The collapse of the Cold War, and consequently the United Soviet Socialist Republic, can be traced to the détente that led to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) and development of US-China relations that dented the strength of the Sino-Soviet relations. The tensions of the Cold War however had escalated in the early 1980s with the Soviet’s downing of Korean Airlines Flight 007 and increase in NATO military exercises (Friedman, 2007).
Due to focus on development of its military arsenal and inadequacy of the communism system, the Soviet Union had by then suffered economically, with hardly any economic development being experienced in the union. While building up its military to consume a quarter of its Gross National Product (GNP), the Soviet Union had suffered in investments in the civilian sector and consumer goods, a situation exacerbated by collectivized agriculture and inefficient planned manufacturing. These structural problems and inefficient systems at the expense of Cold War commitments led to economic stagnation in the later years of Brezhnev (Wilson, 2014).
Moreover, the United States and its allies escalated this poor situation by piling economic, diplomatic and military pressure on the Soviet Union. President Ronald Reagan of the United States and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Britain were committed to winning the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union by escalating threats and attacks on the Soviet Union and its communist allies directly and through theirproxies. The Able Archer 83 NATO military exercise posed a major nuclear attack threat to the Soviet Union, Pope John Paul 2 offered a moral compass especially for Poland’s Solidarity movement and Saudi Arabia increased its oil production leading to an oil glut that affected the Soviet’s major export.
These and other factors led to Mikhail Gorbachev, the new Soviet leader, initiating liberalization reforms of glasnost in 1985 and perestroika in 1987. Glasnost refers to openness in social and political spheres by granting the people more rights and freedoms, including increased media freedom. Perestroika involved reconstruction o…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Causes of the Cold War ………….
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