Introduction
The cold war was experienced from the mid-1940s to the early 1990s. It was a war against the United States and the Soviet Union states. It was a war that involved numerous military coalitions against the opponents in the effort to emerge with a perceived advantage. The war also involved; espionage, weapons innovations, spreading of propaganda, and the use of sophisticated technologies to outdo the opponents. This paper discusses the reasons that led to the end of the war.
End of the War
As the war progressed and talks continued about how the war could be ended, different countries started taking different sides; they started supporting one that did not necessarily have the same views as their camp. For example in the 1950-the 1960s, the European alliances started to weaken; France started to draw closer relations with Eastern Europe at the expense of withdrawing from NATO. In the Soviet Union, on the other hand, Romania was the first one to leave the camp of the union. This led to further wars and the International crisis became the order of the day. The major one was the emergence of the Berlin Blockade (1948–1949). The Korean War (1950–1953) arose where the southern and the northern part of the countries could not understand each other. They led to war against themselves, the Berlin Crisis of 1961, and the Vietnam War (1959–1975). The United States also decided to involve itself in the Vietnam War; a decision that made the European countries question the intention of the United States and for a period some level of détente was experienced and the focus was drawn from the cold war to the new Vietnam War. Amid the war, the trade among the countries was hindered.
United States President Ronald Reagan is credited as the man who geared to the end of the war; he was the president of the United States then. He developed policies that were targeted to end the war. In the 1980s the United States reviewed wars regarding the cold war and started campaigns to discourage the use of nuclear weapons. The policies and the different angles that were taken by different countries led to further weakening of the soviet states. This was fuelled further by increased poverty of the states because of the interacted trade. The countries could not cater to their basic needs and military forces became weak by the day. The United States on the other hand maintained good relations with its trade partners and thus they maintained a strong military force. This could override the soviet states. In those countries that needed more intervention, the United States intervened an example is the case of Korea; the division and the deployment of the foreign troop led to the control of the southern part by the United States and the northern part by the Soviet Union. This United States military was to be deployed in the southern part in their effort to ensure that there was peace in the country.
Conclusion
From 1989 to 1991 the cold war came to an end. This led to the opening of the Berlin Wall as well as the collapse of all the formed parties and unions.
Bibliography
- Dobrynin, Anatoly. In Confidence: Moscow’s Ambassador to Six Cold War Presidents. Washington D.C: University of Washington Press, 2001.
- Nashel, Jonathan. “Cold War (1945–91): Changing Interpretations (entire chapter)” in Whiteclay Chambers, John. The Oxford Companion to American Military History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.