Contemporary Wolrd (Cold war and Promise of Kennedy and Johnson era from 1961-1968

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Cold War ' is the term used to refer to the period of delayed , nonphysical , mostly political and psychological conflict between the Soviet Union and the US and their respective allies including Britain , Germany and other parts of Europe . This happened during the 1940 's to the late 1980 's

There are a few theories surrounding the origin of the Cold War . One of these theories is that of the Wisconsin School of Interpretation According to their theory , the US and the Soviet Union were natural enemies because of their economic

rivalry . This inability of the Soviet Union to compete with the US caused them to close certain parts in Asia to trade with other more powerful nations . Some suggests that the rivalry begun at the beginning of the 20th century over Manchuria (Cold War , 2006 . But looking at events pre- and post- Cold War , it can be said that the war was more of ideological in origin . As it is well-known , the United States was and is still a supreme promoter of democracy as well as capitalism , while the Soviet Union was a firm supporter of Communism

Prior to the Cold War , the US , together with Britain was allied with the Soviet Union against the Nazi Regime in Germany . But it was only at that aspect in history that the countries considered themselves as allies . Lenin and Stalin once dreamed that the Russian Revolution would further Communism not only in Russia but in the whole world . But before the Bolsheviks took over Russia , many troops from different countries including US and Britain were sent to prevent the Russian Revolution This led the two Russian leaders to think that the Western countries would do anything to fight Communism , the very ideal they stood for

The different interpretations on the Yalta Conference also attest to the significant effect of ideological differences in the Cold War . The Yalta Conference was done during the imminent defeat of Hitler as an attempt of the Allied countries to settle the post-war framework . It was proposed by the US and the British that there would be a coalition government and free elections in Poland , aside from the Declaration on Liberated Europe which would be based on democracy and free elections According to Frank Roberts , one of the British Delegates at Yalta Stalin interpreted this differently which would be seen later on with his actions post-World War II (CNN , n .d

The US vision of post-war reconstruction was to create a liberal international system with established open markets allowing free trade Russia 's vision was to prevent Germany from similar wars in the future through the Communist control of Poland , breaking of Germany , and dominion of the country line traversing the Baltic and Adriatic Sea

The US and Britains ' view of Russia was expressed by an American diplomat based in Russia , George Kennan through a telegram implying that Russia was motivated by Marxist ideologies must be contained as it had imperialist plans . This is confirmed by one...