Cold war crisis and wars Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Cold war crisis and wars - Term Paper Example Therefore, the case of the USA was in absolute terms a paradox. In the course of defining itself as well as protecting itself from the aggression of the Nazi Germany, the other superpower that took part in the WWII, (the Soviet Union) ended up as having the biggest army in the whole globe. Just like the USA, the Soviet Union had gained a lot of muscle since the Asian and European rivals had experienced gigantic losses during the war. Politics had it that immediately after World War II, the USA would emerge to the top as the nation with the most influence and power while the Soviet Union would come in second, but the second rankers were not satisfied with this fate. The Soviet Union was ready to do anything to move to the top of every nation in the world. But to make matters even worse, they were at a relatively distant second. This is due to the fact that even if the Soviet Union had moved strides ahead in given sectors, some had lagged behind. Hundreds of thousands of people and a g ood number of towns, cities and villages had been lost during the war. Reconstruction was the main task, which the Soviet Union faced after the war, thus. Also the nation had to prove that it had legitimacy in diplomacy following years of sidelining by other close countries and that the Joseph Stalin’s government would use other means other than military power to forge ahead. Origin of the Cold War and Causes Therefore, faced with all the forces from outside, it is usually argued that USA involved itself in this war that was to be known as the Cold War. It is in the 1990s, though, that it was clear to many about the boundaries that were brought about by the cold war. It is said that the Cold War was in existence for four decades and a half. That is, from 1945 to 1990 as Gregory and Balkin say in their book. This term â€Å"Cold War† can trace its origin from the speech of financier Baruch in 1947 and this signified a time period of hostility and rivalry that was first witnessed between the Soviet Union and the US and that was an issue of hostility short of combat only. (Gregory and Balkin, 2003 p263) The other perception with regards to the origin of Cold War is as presented by King Lisa in the ‘Origins of the Cold War’ study. The author puts it that it all started with the Hiroshima bombing where the US was the nation responsible and it happened in August 1945. The city together with half of its dwellers faced the worse end. Two days following this bombing Russia made a declaration of war against Japan. The war on Japan declaration had however not started in 1945, it had all began in the 1943’s Teheran conference where the Soviet Union made a reaffirmation that it would attack Japan subsequent to the loss to Germans. In other two conferences, Potsdam’s and Yalta’s, Russia also declared their entry into war with Asia came August 9th in 1945, just after the August 6th Hiroshima bombing, another atomic bomb hit Nag asaki. Following the surrender that happened later in mid August 1945 it rendered the planned attack on Japan useless. It is noted that Joseph Stalin was not convinced by the two bombings as the usual kind of occurrences in a war but as sabotage. It was a plan by Britain and the US to use these atomic bombs to put Japan out of the war just before Russians implemented their plan. This was just before Russia had accepted taking part in the war against Japan. Also the USA’s bombings of Japan were seen as a move to ensure that Russia did not get the territory that had been taken by