COLD WAR

Cold War and U.S Diplomacy

Cold War and U.S Diplomacy

Introduction

It's called Cold War ideological confrontation that took place during the twentieth century, from 1945 (end of World War II) until the end of the USSR and the fall of communism that occurred between 1989 (fall of the Berlin Wall) and 1991 (coup in the USSR), including block - capitalist West led by America, and Eastern-communist, led by the Soviet Union. This confrontation took place at the political, ideological, economic, technological, military and informative. None of the two blocks ever took direct action against the other, why the conflict was called cold war. Cold War still remains a subject of debate with some revisionist historians putting it in 1919 for Allied intervention in Russian Civil War. Although schools to determine the cause of uncertainty of the Cold War, Soviet scientists put a more traditional focus on foreign policy after Russia's aggressive, World War II. Soviet repression of the democratic elections in Poland in 1946 and Stalin's speech for forecasting the global fight against the West was soon followed by speeches of Winston Churchill's March, denouncing the "iron curtain" descending across Europe. Action after the speech, as both sides insisted on the advantage in the series of crises (Roskin & Berry , 2010).

U.S.-Russian Relations in the 21st Century

In the early days of his presidency, George W. Bush (R) met with Putin in Slovenia. "I looked the man in the eye," Bush told reporters afterward. "I found him very straightforward and trustworthy. I was able to get a sense of his soul." The comment seemed to presage a friendly relationship between the two countries. Three months later, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and subsequent U.S.-led war in Afghanistan resulted in an outpouring of Russian support toward the U.S. Russia shared vital military intelligence with the U.S., and allowed the U.S. army to use Russian air bases as a launching point for the invasion of Afghanistan.. Since then, however, U.S.-Russia relations have cooled considerably, observers say. The reasons for that recent strain include:

Iraq War

In March 2003, the U.S. launched a war in Iraq, ostensibly because Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. Hostilities commenced despite the failure of the U.S. to gain the support of the U.N. Security Council. Russia, along with France and Germany, condemned the U.S. for initiating the bombing of Baghdad without proper U.N. authorization. Putin did not question the morality of the war; rather, he argued that the U.S. should have allowed U.N. weapons inspectors to take more time searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. As of May 2008, there has been no credible evidence suggesting that Iraq possessed such weapons at the time of the U.S.-led war (Papp et al, 2005).

Missiles in Eastern Europe: In 2007, Bush announced his intentions to build missile-defense components in Poland and the Czech Republic, citing a growing threat presented by Iran as the reason for the new facilities. Putin fiercely denounced that plan, however, arguing that the facilities ...