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Teaching with Primary Sources The Federation of Independent Illinois Colleges and Universities |
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Using the Library of Congress to
Advantage to Study The Cold War Jessica Schmidly, Jacqueline Kelly, Jackie Roth, Holly Martin and Sara Melton |
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For
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Following the end of World War II, the United States found itself facing off with the Soviet Union in a new global confrontation, which became known as the Cold War. The exact dates of the Cold War have been a point of disagreement between historians. Most believe that the Cold War began in 1945, where other historians believe that the war began in 1917 with the Bolshevik Revolution, and then ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Cold War was a struggle for global supremacy between the United States and the communist Soviet Union (Pike, 2011). During its first few years the Cold War was more political than military, where both sides fought for closer relations with nations who had not yet committed to either sides, and also articulated their opposing visions of the post war world. The Communist takeover in China, the Truman Doctrine, the advent of a Soviet nuclear weapon, tensions over Germany, the Korean War, the Warsaw Pact and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization all lead to the eventual military dimension of The Cold War (Pike, 2011). The possession of nuclear weapons by both the United States and the Soviet Union added increasing tension and a dangerous aspect to the Cold War. The ideas of deterring conflict through “mutually assured destruction” lead to both sides having invested large amounts of money that resulted in large stockpiles of nuclear weapons (Pike, 2011). While the United States and the Soviet Union military forces never officially clashed directly, the two expressed tension through proxy wars, espionage, and propaganda, conventional and nuclear arms races. At the conclusion of the Cold War, 325 Americans died as a result of hostile action, more than 200 airmen were killed by Communist air defenses, and more than 40 American intelligence aircraft were shot down (Pike, 2011). |
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