The Cold War Today

Even though the Cold War ended technically in 1945, we still see it appearing in 2010. On April 10, 2010 President Barack Obama and President Dmitry Medvedev from Russia signed the START treaty. This treaty consisted of a reduction in the nuclear weapons in the United States and Russia by 1/3%, though they are both trying to still reduce the amount in other countries. This treaty taking place now in the present day shows the relationship from now and the Cold War, because we are connecting with Russia just as we did before trying to make their country and ours safer just as we did in the Cold War. Yet not all the effects today relating back to the cold war are positive because we are still seeing racism today as we did in the Cold War. As people look upon it today they see its wrong but things are not done to consume it as it was in the Cold War when Civil Rights activist did all in their will power to stop the horrid actions preceded by people. Hopefully another Cold War won’t take place because people are too scared to speak up against what’s really wrong in our society today.

Sweet Land of Liberty O' thee I Sing

The United States ultimate goal during the cold war was to contain communism and keeping the land of opportunity free. Though the cold war took place around 50 years ago the goal of the United States still relies the same.
Proposing plans to promote the US idea of democracy such as the Truman Doctrine and Marshal Plan were sent overseas to Russia so the domino theory would soon never take place. The plan eventually began to take a toll on other countries so they could experience the type of government shown in America. Having the right to voice your opinion if government and feeling the honor inside with helping other countries. I am proud to be an American so I can experience all these great things and see the amazing symbols expressed throughout the county such as: the statue of liberty, a the beauty of the bald eagle flying threw the sky. I must say the best sight is when I am able to see the wondrous American Flag wave through the sky everyday showing our countries pride.

Cold War back in the states causing tension overseas

Americans back home were going crazy because of the tensions and scarcities of the war, but the government seemed to make matters much worse when they started antagonizing innocent people. Everyday people were being harassed so the government could find all floating communist in the country, though they weren’t very friendly when doing so. Many people lost the only jobs held in their household because they were suspected by the government. The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) was a group of people who accused guilyt and unguilty people of the United States of portraying communism. Many of the people they accused were filmmakers of Hollywood. The HUAC subpoenaed 43 of these filmmaker witnesses yet only 10 of these witnesses actually testified and they were known as the “Hollywood Ten”. These ten men and women were brought to the eyes of the HUAC because they had made numerous films about communism and really exaggerated it when doing so. These film makers were being arrested before the cold war had really taken off. More than 500 producers, directors, and actors protested for the government taking away the only jobs they had. This just shows that the HUAC began to react too far and just caused people to lose their jobs that were totally innocent.

SPUTNIK

On October 4, 1957, the first artificial satellite was launched into space by the Soviets. The name of this big satellite was Sputnik and traveled around the Earth at about 18,000 miles per hour. This scared the Americans traumatically because the satellite could land on them at any given time without knowing it was coming. Americans felt like they were falling greatly behind in the new technology, which left them increasing their study habits. They thought that the level of education would help them succeed with new technology, so the levels of mathematics and science increased greatly. The United States wanted to try as soon as possible to get a satellite in space next yet… that plan didn’t pan out so well at first. Their satellites were such a disaster at the beginning they were drawn to the press’s eyes before they could dig their selves of the hole and were called names such as “Flopnik” and “Stayputnik”. The United Stated began making changes to redeem themselves from those names and finally launched their first satellite on January 31, 1958; with not stopping they began trying to make the next bigger and better satellite.

The H-Bomb

American scientist had developed and launched the atomic bomb so it was now time for the U.S to move on to the next best thing. They knew it would probably be possible to create a hydrogen bomb since the atoms split and fused. The scientists figured with their calculations that this bomb would cause much more damage than the bomb dropped in Hiroshima. Yet this new bomb was not greatly liked by everyone, Oppenheimer the creator of the atomic bomb had opposed this bomb because of the “success” of the atomic bomb at first. When the soviets had taken away the U.S’s nuclear farness the government began vastly working on the H-Bomb when Truman gave them the okay. When the bomb was finally finished the thermonuclear bomb was launched and exploded on November 1, 1952. Yet they didn’t celebrate for too long because the Soviets fired right back at them one year later.

Tensions of the Cold War leading to the Korean War

In August of 1945, World War II ended and the Japanese troops north of the 38th parallel surrendered to the soviets, while the Japanese south of the line surrendered to the Americans. Therefore this left half of the country of Korea as communist while the other half was not. This caused a bit of conflict because each side believed their way of ruling was better than the other. Unwilling to compromise the North and South found their selves in a little predicament called, WAR. Their disagreement with the way of ruling the nation led to the Korean War with the North invading the South. This altered many counties including the United Stated. President Truman was not going to let another country fall into communism, so that caused U.S military forces to act upon the situation fast. North Korea armored unites seemed to be unstoppable, and then General MacArthur came into the picture and moved more than half of the North to surrender and the rest to rest back home. Though with indifferences still appearing the war continued for two more years and began to travel towards China. During the war the United States their commander MacArthur because he was fired by Truman for going against his orders. The North and South began to settle down with communism being contained. Though at home MacArthur was disappointed he wasn’t there to be there for the final conclusion when he said, “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away”.

Cold War Tensions in China

The Americans were fighting in Korea during the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War when the Japanese had invaded China. This caused the Nationalist and Communist from China to shift back to their own homeland to try to get these foreign people in their country out and back to their own. China’s leaders were Mao Zedong (communist) and Chiang Kai-shek (nationalist). Chiang Kai-shek was from south China and well supported by the United States though when the U.S military came into encounterment with him they saw a different man. They saw he wasn’t as nice as the United States had shown him to be, but that he was kind of corrupt when ruling. Mao Zedong was the other ruler from northern China. Zedong was the communist who held propaganda campaigns about national liberation. Most of the country fell into the support of Mao Zedong’s idea of communism because the natives felt he was doing more to help their country then Kai-shek was doing. China had finally gotten the Japanese out that had invaded, but issues still existed within the Chinese government. After many disagreements the communist government won which forced the nationalist to leave, but also hurt the United Stated because Truman was blamed for “losing” and not giving enough support to the Nationalist.