The Cold War: Capitalism vs. Communism the Clashing of Ideology

Throughout American history, the United States has been known to be involved in many wars. From the mid-1940s to early 1990s, the US has been involved in what was called the Cold War. To define what a cold war is, according to the US Military Dictionary, the Cold War is coined as “a state of international tension wherein political, economic, technological, sociological, psychological, paramilitary, and military measures short of overt armed conflict involving regular military forces are employed to achieve national objectives.” This definition is the epitome of what happened because of the drawn out tension that went on between the former Soviet Union and the United States.

The Cold War was a clash of political belief amongst the two countries and resulted after World War II. The United States and the Soviet Union were superpowers that were trying to dominate and become the ultimate superpower in the world. However, the US and the Soviet Union did not directly fight each other, although innovating technology, military build up, and weapons were highly invested upon. Though this period of hostility was amid the United States and the Soviet Union, the Cold War did not affect just these two nations alone, but the entire world.

After World War II, the entirety of Europe was in chaos. However, with Eastern Russia better off economically and military-wise than the rest of Europe, Lenin’s ideology of communism began to spread towards western Europe. On June 5th, 1945, Secretary of State, George Marshall called on the United States to assist countries in Europe through what is now called the Marshall Plan. George Marshall stated to a crowd Harvard University graduates, “do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace.” In turn, the Soviet Union devised its own assisted funding system called the Molotov Plan. Thus, the spreading of communism went even further in countries such as East Germany, Hungary, and countries that lay in Southeast Asia. Though the Soviet Union had these countries support, the United States was bolstered by the western region of Europe. With the European region split in half by ideals, as a result, opposition began to take place between the two superpowers of the world, the United States and the Soviet Union. The population of the United States and the Soviet Union were subject to propaganda, constant fear of being attacked, and conspiracy, the most notable being the United States.

The United States had entered a state known as the "Red Scare". The Red Scare was a period in which the American public had expressed a strong belief in anti-communism. At the time, the Soviet Union, was considered the enemy of the American public. To put this into modern perspective, the people of that time were just as afraid of the communists as we are of the terrorists today. The American public was afraid of a communist invasion in the United States, and the government fueled this fear by releasing propaganda such as "Is This Tomorrow: America under Communism" which stated the dangers that communism posed to Americans. This fear consequently resulting by turning Americans on their own fellow Americans.

"I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party". These words, spoken by Joseph McCarthy, ushered in the term McCarthyism. McCarthyism took anti-communism to a whole new level. American citizens who were federal employees were subject to President Harry Truman's Executive Order 9835. This set in motion rigorous questioning to determine whether or not they were communist, if one were to be convicted of being disloyal to the United States or even feel a tiny bit sympathetic towards communists, the employee was to be fired. Upon going into office in 1953 President Dwight Eisenhower not only extended the program but he strengthened it, he made it difficult for anyone to get repealed. Accusation did not only mean an employee lost their job, but it meant unemployment for possibly the rest of ones life. America’s intolerance of communism affected other countries as well though its foreign policies.

Many foreign policies that were created by the two nations aided in the rise of tenacious conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States, with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization being an example. Otherwise known as NATO, it was a treaty signed by the western countries of Europe and North America that agreed to mutually defend one another if one was attacked by an outer party. Counteracting this treaty, the Soviet Union created the Warsaw Pact to facilitate the countries that the Soviet Union gained after World War II. Also, the Warsaw pact enabled the Soviets to use their military force if any efforts were made to gain sovereignty from the Soviet Union. All through the period of the Cold War, the Soviet Union and the US never fought each other directly though there were periods when conflict had risen enough to become a “hot“ war. There were two instances in which the United States did go to battle to fight against communism. In these two cases in point, the US fought the Soviets indirectly. Those two occurrences were the main battles fought in Korea and Vietnam.

The Domino Theory was a theoretical foreign policy. The basic idea behind the Domino Theory was that if one country were to fall under the "tyranny" of communism the surrounding countries would fall into communism too, hence acting just as dominoes a domino effect with one falling right after another. The United States government was in profound support of the theory. President Dwight Eisenhower himself said "Finally, you have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the "falling domino" principle. You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences". The proof that the Domino Theory was logical was the rise of communism in Asian country's, this can be disproved by the fact that countries, such as Indonesia, did not become communist even after the United states withdrew from the region. The Domino Theory led to the United States involvement in Asian conflicts.

During the 1950s Korea was split in two, such as Europe, in terms of government and beliefs. The north was communist whereas the south was not. Naturally, the northern part of Korea would want to whole country become communist so they attempted to spread communism through invasion. The US greatly feared communism and did not want the southern part of Korea to become communist as well. As a result, the US financed and supported South Korea and in conclusion the north did not succeed. As of current, North Korea is still a communistic nation. This was known as the Korean War or the Forgotten War since it did not gain as much attention as World War II which was previous and the Vietnam War which occurred later on in 1959.

As with the Korean War, the Vietnam War was very similar. However, the Vietnam War lasted much longer, with the period of warfare lasting about 15 years. This war was brought upon by the north, once again a communistic region versus the south which was, once more, supported by the United States. Except this time, the support from the US was through vast amounts of battleground troops which resulted in a significant loss. The Vietnam War began to fall once the US pulled out under conditions posed out by the Paris Peace Accord. Unlike the Korean War, North Vietnam did succeed and the entirety of Vietnam is communist still today. Shortly after, another conflict arose when the Soviet Union gained hold of nuclear weapons.

All throughout the apprehension between the two nations, they both had stocked up on a large accumulation of nuclear weapons. With the two superpowers that were clearly in opposition with each other, mutually assured destruction, or MAD became the summarization of what would happen if the two were to bomb one another - or in even simpler terms, nuclear annihilation. In case this were to happen, President Ronald Reagan devised a plan to somehow destroy these nuclear missiles from space. This proposal was called the Strategic Defense Initiative. This defense system would be operated from ground and would have used space-based systems to shelter the United States from attack by strategic nuclear missiles. Soon enough, the Soviets started to fund their military, which left the Soviet population in a fiscal crisis. Therefore, the countries within the Soviet Union began to rebel, however laws that forbade possessions of weapons allowed the Soviet military to slaughter those rebelling, which is what happened in the former Czechoslovakia and Hungary. Many countries thereafter began to revolt and these revolts in result brought forwards new lawful rights. Some of these led to countries gaining their own independence. For example, in the early 1990s, eastern Berlin became united with the western Berlin. In conclusion, Mikhail Gorbachev and President George Bush finally ended this long period of tension in the year 1991, with the wall symbolizing communism was finally brought down.

Hypothetically speaking, if these outcomes did not occur, I believe that the following situation would take place: In 1974 The Soviet Union came to the realization that it would not be able to compete with the United States in all aspects. The Soviet economy crippled and its population were stricken with poverty. Out of desperation, the Soviet Union invaded Turkey, Yugoslavia, Austria, and west Germany. As a result, Yugoslavia and Switzerland surrendered out of fear for its population. West Germany and Turkey which were under NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) put up a resistance that was quickly lost within one day of battle, this was due to the unimaginable number of troops the Soviets possessed. The Soviets, with the assistance of China and its vast population, were able to take over Europe and Asia. Unfortunately, the United States was unable to go into battle due to its recent involvement in Vietnam. The following week, the Soviet Union attacked the United States from the west coast, Canada had no choice but to get involved. This warfare conflict lasted 3 years until finally the United States surrendered on June 20, 1991.