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The Cold War And The Soviet War

Decent Essays

The Cold War began at the resolution of WWII and continued into the 1990’s. The Cold War was fueled by many factors such as ideological differences, mutual mistrust, America’s fear of the spread of communism, and nuclear weapons. The war ultimately resulted in the collapse of communism. The war was supported by allied nations although the main instigators of the war were Russia and the United States.
A major short term factor that lead to the Cold War was USSR’s fear of America’s newly acquired atomic weapons. During WWII two atomic bombs were dropped on Japanese cities. The immense power and destruction caused by these new weapons resulted in the founding of United Nations Atomic Energy Commission. The goal of this commission was to contain atomic weapons and regulate their use. The US proposed the Baruch Plan, and the USSR proposed universal nuclear disarmament. Both of their proposals were refused and in the beginning of the Cold War, the United States had exclusive ownership of nuclear weapons. However, the USSR had begun working on acquiring and building their own stockpile of nuclear weapons. Although this process began slowly, after the USSR got a hold of their own uranium sources, they shocked the world and successfully developed and detonated their first nuclear bomb by 1949. This began the sort of Nuclear Arms race which ultimately increased hostilities between the two nations.
A main long term factor was the fear of spreading communism. Soviet Russia aimed to

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