Prolonging the Cold War
Who and what contributed to it?
What was the Cold War?
The Cold War was a 45 year war that was mainly between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Instead of fighting physically with each other's armies, this war was more of a war of ideas. The Soviets wanted the world to be full of communism while the U.S. wanted the world to full of capitalism. They both tried to prevent the spread of each other's beliefs.
What contributed to it?
There were many factors that were the cause of the Cold War being so long. There was: Ho Chi Minh, the Cultural Revolution, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Brinkmanship, the Great Leap Forward, the Berlin Airlift, the 38th parallel, and the Marshall Plan.
Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh was a person who was the leader of North Vietnam who helped push the Vietnam war. He fought for communism in all of Vietnam and this led to the Vietnam war. The 20 years spent on the Vietnam war prolonged the Cold War.
The Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution was a time period when the leader of China tried to revive in the old spirits in the youth. This prolonged the Cold War because this extended event took a long time to occur so it only postponed the end of the Cold War.
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a standoff when there were missile on Cuban soil that made the U.S. feel threatened. This crisis helped to make the Cold War last even longer because this created only more tension between the U.S and the Soviet Union/Cuba which makes it harder to stop a war.
Brinkmanship
Brinkmanship is the foreign policy where a party forces interaction to the threshold of confrontation to gain an advantage in negotiation. This helped to make the Cold War last for so long because it created more tension between the U.S. and the Soviet Union which made it even harder to resolve the issues and end a war. This policy also was the cause to situations like the Cuban Missile Crisis and others that also helped to prolong the war.
The Great Leap Forward
The Great Leap Forward was an attempt to modernize China to rival the U.S.'s economy. This modernization was one of the reasons the Cold War was so extended because it took a long time for China to modernize itself so much to the point where it would rival the U.S.'s economy.
The Berlin Airlift
The Berlin Airlift was when the European powers tried to starve the western powers out of Berlin by starving it of resources. This was one of the reasons the Cold War lasted so long because it was what helped to spark the war and it created tension that was hard to stop once the war had already began.
38th Parallel
The 38th Parallel was the geographic line between North Korea and South Korea once Korea had been split. The 38th parallel was one of the reasons that the Korean War started and the Korean War was 3 years long which helped postpone the Cold War for as long as the Korean War lasted.
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was the plan where America would supply European countries with money in order to restore their economy. This prolonged the Cold War because the Soviets didn't agree with what the U.S. was doing in this situation because they saw it as intervening in national affairs. This only created more tension between the two countries and this made it even harder for the war to be resolved.