The Cold War

Introduction

From 1945 to 1991 tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union were referred to as the Cold War. The Cold War was defined by political conflict and economic competition rather than armed military conflict. In analyzing whether the Cold War was inevitable two factors must be considered. The first is whether conflict itself was inevitable and the second is whether the nature of conflict would inevitably be that of a cold war. A number of US political policies as well as key events further suggest that the Cold War was unavoidable. US political policies such as the policy of containment, fuelled by the 'domino theory', the conferences at Yalta and Potsdam, Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech, the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan particularly demonstrate how tensions were exacerbated by the political differences of the Soviets and the US (Sheehan, pp. 41). Additionally, analysis of actual events and actions carried out by both the Soviets and the US including Soviet expansion, the Berlin blockade and airlift, proxy wars, the nuclear arms race and the Cuban Missile Crisis provide further evidence that the Cold War was inevitable.

Discussion

The first element to consider in analyzing the inevitability of the Cold War is the inevitability of conflict between the USA and the USSR in general. Historians agree that the root cause of the Cold War was tension between the US and the Soviet over contradicting ideologies (Ross, pp. 27). The Soviet Union wished to expand their communist influence, believing global communist expansion was key to propelling the world into a better future. The US, a capitalist nation, felt it was their responsibility to prevent this occurring.[2] They felt threatened by these expansionist aspirations, as communism had the potential of jeopardizing the US' capitalist economic system and the international climate in which they operated. In turn, this would endanger their individual material wellbeing.

Examination of a number of US political policies during the Cold War period, and the ways in which they were implemented, further demonstrates the inevitability of the Cold War. One major construct behind US policy was known as the 'Domino Theory'. Although the term was not coined until the early 1950's the 'Domino Theory' was the most influential US political policy in terms of US-Soviet relations. It was believed that if one state became communist, it would influence the surrounding states and nations and a domino effect would be created, with an accumulation of nations falling to communism. This sparked the adjoining theory, the policy of containment. Articulated in July 1947 (Phillips, pp. 111), it outlined the importance of creating policies to contain the Soviet sphere of influence and halt the spread of communism so as to avoid the 'domino theory' occurring in practice. This exemplifies the US fear of Soviet communism and explains the actions taken to contain communism.

A third example of US political policy in action was the Yalta Conference in February 1945 (Lynn-Jones, pp. 231). The purpose of the conference was to determine what was to ...