Soviet-American Relations in Post WWII Period
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This paper will cover Soviet-American relations in the years following the Second World War, as well as the evolution of events that led to the end of the Cold War in 1990. At the end of the Second World War, the Soviet Union, under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, began to expand its military influence into the weakened nations of Eastern Europe. The threat of further Soviet expansion was found in such "flashpoints" as Manchuria, Iran and Turkey. Manchuria was a potential flashpoint because the Soviet Union provided military equipment (seized from the Japanese) to assist the Communist Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung in his efforts to conquer the region. The Middle East was a potential trouble spot because Soviet interest in oil concessions culminated in the support of an Azerbaijanian rebellion in Northern Iran. Turkey was considered a problem area because of the Soviet Union's desire to control the Daranelles Straits and thereby gain permanent access to the Mediterranean Sea. Soviet interest in these areas led to an early version of the "domino theory," which was based on the assumption that Stalin, like Hitler, was "intent on unlimited conquest" (LaFeber 96). This theory led to the United States developing policies for the containment of Soviet expansionism. Containment was designed to control, or "contain," the expansionist intentions of the Soviet Union (Kennan 104). The idea of containment was that the United States would use counterforce to stop Russian expansion
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nkmanship." This meant that potentially aggressive nations would be forced to exercise caution, since they could never be sure how far to the brink the U.S. would be willing to go before retaliating (Freedman 118). The New Look also took into consideration the need for flexible retaliation. This was the strategy to be used in times when a large-scale nuclear response was not appropriate. There were many examples during the Cold War of regional conflicts requiring a limited reaction on the part of the United States. These included the 1950 invasion of South Korea by North Korean Communists, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, in which the U.S. initiated a naval blockade on Cuba in order to force the Soviet Union to withdraw its missiles from there. The United States was also engaged in limited warfare against the North Vietnamese during that time.
The early 1970s saw the introduction of a new concept in the Cold War: the technique of detente. This technique stemmed from President Nixon's efforts to seek rapprochement with China. This change in U.S.-Chinese relations caused the Soviet Union to react with suspicion and concern. Nevertheless, there was little that the Soviets could do to rectify the situation except to t
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Approximate Word count = 1846
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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