The Cold War
Did certain events add to the longevity of the war?
The United Nations
The United Nations was a group of representatives from different nations that all got together to try and gain peace. During the Cold War, there were so many events taking place and decisions that had to be made, with not everyone in the United Nations agreeing with each other, that is took quite a bit of time for an agreement to be made.
The Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain was an ideological border set up by the Soviet Union to seperate Eastern and Western Europe. The Western side were the noncommunist people and the Eastern were the communist. Both sides were trying to expand their beliefs which was now made harder by this barrier, so spreading their beliefs to totally different countries took a bit of time. The Iron Curtain also led to a physical wall, the Berlin Wall, which obviously took a long time to build and to come up with the decision to build the physical wall.
Berlin Airlift
The Berlin Airlift was initiated when the Soviet Union cut off all roadways, waterways, and highways to West Berlin in order to starve them. American and US officials flew into West Berlin and dropped down food and supplies for the people. The Berlin Airlift lasted a year on it's own, which is a year of war that took place.
Brinkmanship
Brinkmanship is the act of moving on the brink of war and using force to get the other side to make a decision with violent consequences. A "or else" technique. This tactic could contribute to the length of war because the if the other side refused, then extreme measures had to be taken which could take weeks. Then they still had to try and get what they wanted after handling their unacceptable response of "no".
Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro was the leader of Cuba who established the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere. Fidel Castro definitely elongated the war when he put up the 42 missiles pointing at the United States.
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis took place when 42 missile points were set up facing the United States from Cuba. The 13-day negotiation between the US, Cuba, and the Soviet Union pushed the end date of the Cold War by a couple days, it may not seem like much, but in terms of war, every day counts.
Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, muslims formed groups called Mujahideens and revolts against the Afghani government and threatened the Communist regime. The goals that they were trying to accomplish with the amount of people involved definitely is not something that can be settled over night.
Truman Doctrine
President Truman wrote a letter to Congress proposing $400 million to help aid countries under threat of Communist takeover. Britain came to Truman and told him they could no longer aid Greece and Turkey. President Truman then had to think about what he wanted to do about that and think about how it could affect the United State. He then had to write a letter to congress with his proposition, then he had to wait for an answer. This whole process of getting Congress involved isn't something that can be done with really quickly. The process takes a lot of thought, in hopes of not making the wrong decision.