Usa And Ussr example essay topic
There was a 'Nuclear Arms Race' to see who could get the most nuclear weapons after World War 2 and during the Vietnam War, USA and USSR fought each other by backing different countries. They were both sending money and weapons to try and help their side win the war. Russia also spent a lot of money on gymnasts to the USA. In 1980 the USA didn't go to the Moscow Olympics Games as a protest and the same thing happened four years later at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic games. The USSR refused to go because they feared their athletes's af ety. The America sent out propaganda through the radio to the USSR.
It was a pro-American broadcast. The USSR published pro-Soviet Union books in foreign languages for export. The superpowers fought each other in many ways, trying to outdo each other, but no actual fighting took place. The tension between the two superpowers was mainly because of the different beliefs.
USA was a capitalist country and the USSR was for communism. America believes that people should work for their own money and follow the American Dream. The USA was a democratic country and any party were allowed to stand in elections. There was a free economy that allows competition and freedom of speech. Whereas the USSR was a communist country after the Communist Revolution. There were very few rich people and many poor people in the USSR so the poor people rebelled and the Communist Revolution took place.
After that there was only one party, people didn't have the right to vote, but everyone was equal. The government owned the factories and industrial sites, so the wealth could be shared out. But if there was so much tension, then why didn't the Cold War begin until after 1945? We might have expected confrontation to begin in 1917, when communism started and America began to fear it spreading, but after the war, both countries were very weak. They had lost a lot of men and money in the war, so they needed to rebuild and strengthen their forces.
The US president at the time, Franklin D. Roosevelt, didn't want their nation to be in another war because he had seen the horrifying effects and he didn't want them repeated. This is why America drew themselves from the United Nations. They isolated themselves from Europe so they didn't have to be involved with any more wars. Another reason that America didn't want to be involved because they were doing well and were having what they called the Boom Years. They were very rich and had a strong stock market. Then, in the 1930's, the country was in depression.
The stock market crashed and USA lost a lot of money. This was called the Wall Street Crash. USA couldn't afford to be involved in a war. Another long-term reason that confrontation didn't occur was because Stalin's five-year plan for the future was working.
USSR were behind the world in technology so Stalin decided that USSR should be brought into the next century and their industry should be built up. You wouldn't expect the Cold War to break out between 1939 and 1945, because this is when World War 2 took place. Hitler was the common enemy between the two countries and they needed to work together to defeat Hitler. During this period of time USA called Stalin, 'Good Old Uncle Joe', which helped bring the tension down. The countries had to be friends so that they could defeat Germany in the war. After World War 2, the tension between the superpowers grew bigger.
The allies agreed who would occupy which countries, how much Germany should pay etc. This was called the The Yalta Agreement. They agreed that the people from the countries liberated from Nazi rule should be allowed to set up their own independent government. Germany would be split up.