Cold War
The Cold War
The cold War began after World War II. It started in 1947 and ended in 1991. The cold war basically was an argument between US, Soviet Union, Germany, china, and Afghanistan. The Cold War was a contest between the USA and the Soviet Union. It led to thousands of nuclear weapons, two universal ideologies in conflict, and two different self-images, the United States championing a world made safe for democracy. Its opponent, the Soviet Union advocated world Communism.
The United States prides itself on its heritage of freedom, a refuge for persecuted religious groups, and a land of liberty that successfully rebelled against the imperial power of Britain in 1776. Its guiding principles were the protection of the individual’s life, liberty and pursuit of happiness and the establishment of a constitution that embodied the best political idea of modern times, a system of checks and balances so that the president, Congress or parliament and judiciary or Supreme Court shared power, checking each other’s work to guard against dictatorship.
While the United States did not always live up to its ideals, nonetheless, on paper at least, it looked well compared to its Cold War rival, the Soviet Union. Led by a murderous dictator, Joseph Stalin, the Soviet government was brutal, outlawing all opposition, banned political parties opposed to the Communist Party, murdered millions and set up a vast prison camp system known as the Gulag. In the years 1937-38 alone, Stalin ordered the execution of one million citizens of the Soviet Union. In the fifty years of the Cold War, the United States only executed two of its own citizens, the husband and wife Rosenberg spy team. Even though the Rosenberg’s should not have been executed because their crimes were tiny in the context of the Civil War, the difference between the United States and the Soviet Union in terms of political mass murder of its own citizens is obvious.
Despite this fact, one third of the world went the
The cold War began after World War II. It started in 1947 and ended in 1991. The cold war basically was an argument between US, Soviet Union, Germany, china, and Afghanistan. The Cold War was a contest between the USA and the Soviet Union. It led to thousands of nuclear weapons, two universal ideologies in conflict, and two different self-images, the United States championing a world made safe for democracy. Its opponent, the Soviet Union advocated world Communism.
The United States prides itself on its heritage of freedom, a refuge for persecuted religious groups, and a land of liberty that successfully rebelled against the imperial power of Britain in 1776. Its guiding principles were the protection of the individual’s life, liberty and pursuit of happiness and the establishment of a constitution that embodied the best political idea of modern times, a system of checks and balances so that the president, Congress or parliament and judiciary or Supreme Court shared power, checking each other’s work to guard against dictatorship.
While the United States did not always live up to its ideals, nonetheless, on paper at least, it looked well compared to its Cold War rival, the Soviet Union. Led by a murderous dictator, Joseph Stalin, the Soviet government was brutal, outlawing all opposition, banned political parties opposed to the Communist Party, murdered millions and set up a vast prison camp system known as the Gulag. In the years 1937-38 alone, Stalin ordered the execution of one million citizens of the Soviet Union. In the fifty years of the Cold War, the United States only executed two of its own citizens, the husband and wife Rosenberg spy team. Even though the Rosenberg’s should not have been executed because their crimes were tiny in the context of the Civil War, the difference between the United States and the Soviet Union in terms of political mass murder of its own citizens is obvious.
Despite this fact, one third of the world went the