Sanam Mostashari
Bear #: 17.50
Monday, April 19, 2010
THE COLD WAR
Since the end of World War II, The United States and Soviet Union began
competing and exerting great effort to spread their influence culturally, economically,
politically, and ideologically. The United States was out to spread capitalism while the
Soviet Union wanted to globally advance their ideology of communism. Capitalism is an
economic system in which most businesses are privately owned. On the other hand, in
communism, the state or community owns all means of production and distributes all
profits of enterprise equally to all people. The Soviets strongly despised the capitalist
system as they had experienced severe poverty and repression under capitalist Czars and
ruler. As a result, they wanted to kill capitalists and the capitalists knew what was
coming.
The Iron Curtain was a term used to describe the symbolic and physical boundary,
which divided Berlin into two spheres. After Nazi Germany’s defeat in World War II, the
Soviet Union gained almost full control of Europe and created the Iron Curtain. The East
of the Iron Curtain was dominated by the Soviet Union under communism while
capitalists had power over the West. The main purpose of the wall was to prevent
Germans in the East from fleeing west. The Curtain remained until the communist
governments collapsed in the late 1980’s.
During World War II, in 1941 as Germany invaded Russia, the Soviets occupied
Iran to secure its oil lines. While in Iran the Soviets managed to take over the North and
attempted to spread communism through the Iranian nation. After World War II the
United States pressured the Soviets into leaving the country. The U.S. supported the shah,
who then allowed the United States to use Iran as a gateway to send weapons and other
Sanam Mostashari
Bear #: 17.50
Monday, April 19, 2010
supplies to Europe along with Turkey. In 1948, the Russians blocked the train line from
East to West Berlin. They were hoping to force the Western powers to allow them to start
supplying Berlin with fuel and food so they could gain control over the entire city. In
response, the Allies began airlifting food and supplies to the West half of Berlin.
During World War II the United States economy had hit a new high as increased
military spending had brought the country full employment and high wages. As a result
the United State was capable of assisting the reconstruction of Europe by creating the
Marshall Plan. This plan to restore the nation from the war’s devastation was
implemented from 1947 through 1952. The plan had more than one incentive as it was
additionally designed to prevent the spread of communism. As a result a number of
