The Cold War is termed as a period where there was tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cold War began after the end of the Second World War. It is referred to as the Cold War because there was no any active confrontation between any nations. The main reason why there was no active confrontation is mainly due to the fear of nuclear power that various nations had in their possession. There were numerous indirect attacks that took place on various nations. The most common form of indirect is that Vietnam and Korea. The Cuban crisis in 1962 is one of the incidences when the World almost came to a point of using nuclear power (Van Evera, 2013).
Causes of the Cold War
The major cause of the Cold War was as a result of the intentions of the Soviet Union trying to ensure that the ideology of communism gained fame in various parts of the World. That was against the wish of Americans who strongly believed in Democracy. Acquiring of automatic weapons by the USA caused fear and panic among the soviet people. The control of Eastern Europe led to the suspicions that the US president had to the Union. The US president personally disliked the leader of the Soviet Union. The fear that was among Americans was that the Soviet Union may use Western Europe as a base to cause attacks. The occupation of some parts of German by the Soviet Union also annoyed the Americans (Dudziak, 2011).
There were three underlying causes of the Cold War. They are classified as ideological, economic and power rivalry. In terms of ideologies, the United States believed democracy while the Soviet Union was a communist State. The Soviet Union had tried to advance attempts of ensuring that their ideology of communism was adopted by all states. That idea angered the US people. In terms of economy, the United States tried to ensure that there was free trade in all parts of the World, a concept that was opposed by the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union wanted its territories clear of any international commerce. There were power rivalries between the United States and the Soviet Union. That led to the creation of tension among the countries. Europe becomes dominated by the Soviet Union and the United States. The fight to gain total control by each of the States led to rivalry among the two countries (Dudziak, 2011).
Steps taken by the United States to counter the threats from the Soviet Union
The United States was shocked with the rate at which communism was growing in Europe. They immediately set the Marshall Plan that was aimed at countering the effect of communism that had widespread throughout in Europe. Through the plan, the US was able to offer relief support to countries that were in war torn areas to rebuild their economy. The money was not available to any of the Soviet countries or any of its close allies. The main motive for the financial assistance was to create business partners and exclude the Soviet Union from any trading relationships (Obama, 2010).
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