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The Cold War was a time of mass paranoia as two superpowers flexed their muscles at each other. Each faction had its own agenda and “fought” hard to keep the other from gaining too much ground. With each step one side took, the other was sure to follow up very quickly.
Both sides thought themselves as righteous in their approach. Nikita Khrushchev showed the Soviets’ desire to help the less fortunate people of the world by providing a class-free Communist government (Doc 1). However, the United States disagreed with this approach and prevented many Soviet actions to take place. Under the North Atlantic Treaty, the U.S. used forces to help transport goods across the East Berlin border in what came to be known as the Berlin Airlift (Doc 3). The United States constantly argued t humanitarian goals against Soviet oppression of nations (Doc 5). The Soviets however, blamed the United States for much of the turmoil caused in post-World War II Europe. The Soviets stated the Truman Doctrine was the dividing factor of Berlin and that the U.S. was seeking capitalist oppression (Doc 6). Both sides escalated arms against each other and formed strong alliances with other nations that held similar beliefs, such as NATO and the Warsaw Pact (Doc 8). The two sides also struggled for technological superiority, using spy tactics and sabotage whenever possible. The Soviets developed the KGB system (Doc 10) while the U.S. had utilized a fleet of U2 spy planes (Doc 2). Eventually, these two super powers knew that this "Cold War" had to lighten up a little. The SALT treaties helped limit the arms within the two super powers; however, these limitations did not do an extreme amount of help, but each country had their own agenda over the treaty (Doc 9). The United States received political backlash on the mounting arms development and the USSR was falling apart at the top, which is shown by Brezhnev and Dubcek's conversation (Doc 11). Despite Russia's outspoken feelings toward the capitalists (Doc 4), the arms limitations helped both countries continue the Cold War without throwing both countries more unstable, politically. After these treaties, the War actually becomes an endurance race to who will leave hte battle first. Both powers are eager to match each other, even when it comes to arms limitations. This endurance race proves to be a very trying time to both countries, enough to completely topple a super power's government. However, the impending demise of this country doesn't mean that the road wasn't a tough one. |
