Cold War Superpowers

The competing ideologies between the United States of America and the Soviet Union influenced the Cold War. The Berline Blockade and airlift, the Korean War and the Cuban Missile Crisis are crucial events of the Cold War and was a result of the ideological differences between the two superpowers. As Malone stated, “the United States’ ideology of capitalism and the Soviet Union’s ideology of communism led to a superpower rivalry” (156). The Berlin blockade and airlift which was the first crisis of the cold war, was caused by the ideological differences between the United States and the Soviet Union. After the defeat of Germany in 1945, the allies divided Germany into four zones, West Germany was controlled by Britain, America and France while …show more content…
Soon the United States came to South Korea’s aid because President Truman believed that “if we let Korea down, the Soviet[s] will keep right on going and swallow up one [place] after another” (history). Stalin’s ideas of wanting to expand communism and Truman’s idea of preventing the spread of communism caused the Korean War. The Soviet Union and the United States participation of the Korean war made it very competitive because the two superpowers were fighting to overpower their opposing ideology. With the signing of an armistice, the Korean war formally ended on 27 July 1953. Consequently, the “Korean War was simply a conflict of ideologies” (dtbar). The Cuban Missile Crisis which nearly turned into a nuclear war, was a result of the conflict of ideologies between the Soviet Union and the United States. After the United States’ failed the Bay of Pigs Invasion in April 1961, Nikita Khrushchev leader of the Soviet Union and Fidel Castro dictator of Cuba agreed to place nuclear missiles in Cuba to protect her from an invasion. In October 1962, an American U-2 spy plane secretly photographed nuclear missiles being built in …show more content…
As the tensions rose, both presidents looked for a way to solve the situation without starting a war. In his telegram to Kennedy, Khrushchev stated “We agree to remove those weapons from Cuba which you regard as offensive weapons” as long as the “the United States, on its part… will evacuate its analogous weapons from Turkey” (lslbustamante). The two leaders finally put apart their differences and came to an agreement that they would remove the missiles from Turkey and Cuba. On 28 October 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis came to an end. Accordingly, the different ideas that the United States and the Soviet Union had led to the Cuban Missile Crisis. In conclusion, the ideological differences that the United States and the Soviet Union had influenced the event which could have resulted in an end to mankind, the Cold War. The Berlin blockade and airlift, the Korean war, and the Cuban Missile Crisis are events of the Cold War which was caused by the ideological conflicts between the two super powers. The Cold War can be simply described as a war of competing