The Cold War
When we look back over the span of centuries that represents American history, it is easy to call out major military engagements which represent the major wars of this country. From World War II to the Civil War to Korea to World War I, America has been involved in many military engagements and emerged victorious in all but a few of them. But one of the strangest, longest lasting wars that America has entered into was the one that was called “The Cold War”.
For many Americas living today, The Cold War was a fact of life for decades. The reason it was a cold war was that there was no battlefield, no armies on deployment, no body counts and no major engagements to report. Instead it was a long period of silent animosity between the United States and the Soviet Union that lasted from the end of World War II up to the early 1990s.
The strange thing was that the cold war grew out of our relationship with the Soviet Union during World War II which was a relationship of friendship. But the seeds of the “conflict” were in place at the end of that horrible war. With the presence of nuclear technology, the concept of a “superpower” was born. This was not itself a source of tension until the Soviet Union themselves developed the bomb as well and a long cold stand off ensued in which both nations trained thousands of these weapons on each other to warn the other that they must never consider firing those weapons.
It was a staring contest that lasted almost fifty years and created a tremendous drain on both economies. Both countries had to maintain “parity” of their nuclear weapons so neither country got more than the other thus throwing of the balance of power and giving one combatant an unfair advantage. This was a strange logic in that both countries possessed enough weaponry to destroy the earth dozens of times over but still they insisted on “having parity” throughout the cold war.
It was clear that no battle between the Soviet Union and America could ever be tolerated. The potential outcome of engaging those weapons had the power to destroy life on planet earth. But neither country was prepared to lay down their arms and begin the process of making peace with the other. So the weapons continued to point at each other, day after day, year after year, for fifty years.
So instead of conducting battles directly, the two countries fought each other through small wars around the world. The Soviet Unions, working with China happily contributed to the humiliating loss in Vietnam that the United States endured. But the United States then turned around and armed the Afghan Mujahideen which lead to the defeat of the Soviet Union in their occupation of that country. From proxy wars, the space race, and occasional face offs such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Cold War continued for decades testing the will and resolve of both countries never to look away and give the other the advantage.
Finally the pressure on the economies of the two countries took its toll in the early 1990s, particularly in the Soviet Union as the stress of sustaining such an expensive and unproductive war forced the Soviet economy into collapse and the empire broke up. The United States had won the cold war by sheer will to endure and stubborn refusal to give in. This is a seldom spoken of element of the American spirit but it is one that the Soviets learned to their own disaster not to test. Hopefully no other “superpower” will ever think they are equipped to test it again.
Related topics
|
|
|
07/03/2008 08:17 PM |
|
On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress accepted the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson. The declaration came about as a result of the War of Independence. ...
|
|
|
07/01/2008 08:03 PM |
|
On July 2, 1881, President James Garfield was shot two times while waiting for a train at a train station. His assassin, Charles Guiteau, a lawyer whose application to...
|
|
|
06/30/2008 08:24 PM |
|
The Battle of Gettysburg was the costliest battle of the American Civil War based on number of casualties. Spanning over three days, from July 1-3, 1863, the Battle resulted...
|
|
|
06/27/2008 08:50 PM |
|
After three months of negotiating, the five Great Powers (Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and the United States) who participated in World War I agreed on June 28th to a post-war...
|
|
|
06/25/2008 08:07 PM |
|
On June 26, 1917, the first U.S. troops arrived in France to fight alongside Britain, France, Italy, and Russia against Germany, and Austria-Hungary in World War I....
|
|
|
06/22/2008 08:59 PM |
|
On June 23, 1683, William Penn signed a treaty with the chiefs of the Lenni Lenape tribe to guarantee the peace between the two groups. The area of...
|
|
|
06/19/2008 08:07 PM |
|
While the first industrial revolution focused on a move from hand and home-made products to machine-made goods, the second industrial revolution that was centered on America expanded on this and...
|
|
|
06/16/2008 08:25 PM |
|
1972 - Five men were caught breaking into the Watergate Hotel |
|
On June 17th, 1972, five men were caught breaking into the Democratic National Headquarters located at the office complex of the Watergate Hotel located in Washington, D.C. This eventually led...
|
|
More Articles
When America Proved That Anything Is Possible
Related Products And FREE Videos
More Articles
... masterpiece of American political ligature would certainly be ranked as perhaps his finest hour. George Washington was rewarded for his superior leadership skills when he was given the awesome responsibility of serving as the nations first President of the United States. His wisdom ...
... spanned form the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. This was the dream of the early settlers of this country. They did not just see a new nation but one of importance, of an almost holy calling to become a virtual utopia of democracy and opportunity. And part of that utopian vision was ...
... coalition forces, lead by General Norman Schwarzkopf, used satellite technology and navigation systems to guide their armies across that desert by night and stage a stunning surprise attack on the Iraqi Republican Guard bringing them to defeat with a decisive blow. The term Lightning ...
... make even the possibility of war within the borders of America even possible. The war s statistics are staggering for a relatively short conflict. The war started on April 12. 1861. It was the confederacy that drew first blood attacking Fort Sumter in South Carolina. The battles of ...
... out on the moon and declare, This is one step for man, a giant leap for mankind. That was one of the proudest days in American history and it was Kennedy who inspired us to that kind of greatness. As much as the life and leadership of John F. Kennedy perfectly exemplified the optimism ...