Contributing Factors of the Cold War

The Cold war was a war that is forever imprinted into our minds as a time of many struggles.It has many contributing factors that made it as big as it was. Major contributing factors of the war was the Space Race, Vietnam war, and the Korean War. Many plans and Ideas came to play with this war. Plans that were specifically major contributors were the Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine these had impactful plans. There were also groups that were formed on each side make sure the side they supported would win such as NATO and the Warsaw Pact.

With many contributors of the Cold War you cant forget about the leadership behind these factors. The decisions of the people such as Ronald Regan and Michael Gorbachev made a impact. In this essay I will explain the contributing factors of the Cold War that made a huge impact.

Why was the Cold War such a dividing factor behind the space race?

The space race was a big part of the Cold War because it had shown the competition between the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. The space race started on October 4,1957 when the U.S.S.R took the first step and launched the first satellite called Spudnic. The U.S. after the launch of Spudnic was afraid that if the U.S.S.R could launch a satellite they would soon be able to develop a way to launch mussels to target certain places. Later on they launched satellite, Spudnic 2, had dog on board which was proof space travel was survivable for living beings. After working on a way to increase technology and creat a way to go to space the U.S. launched Explorer 1 in 1958. This start what is known as the space race. With the many advances the U.S.S.R was one step ahead of the U.S. Two years later after Explorer 1 was launched the U.S.S.R launched a man into orbit in 1961. Yuri Gagarin was the first man to be put into orbit. The U.S. trying to keep up later put a man in space a few weeks after. Alan Shepard was launched in Freedom 7. Though it took many years for the U.S. for them to put a man in orbit. The man the U.S. put in orbit was John Glenn.

By this time the U.S.S.R would have had accomplished many things. Accomplishments such as being able to take more passengers to space, first woman to space, etc.... While seeing their competition take off with so much success they had to go for a bigger goal. They decided to find a way to go and land a man on the moon. They didn't want to lose to the U.S.S.R with technological advancement. During the attempts of learning ways to get a man to the moon president John F. Kennedy said a very important saying on May 25,1961. He said Before this decade is out we will land a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth. This was important because it showed that they even had the president supporting them to increase their advances in the space race. Also after the speech from 1961 to 1964 the budget for the NASA program to get the man to the moon increases about 500%. They have many troubling times and tests that did not end well. For example in 1961 with the launching of the space shuttle Apollo, the shuttle had caught on fire. This killed the three astronauts that were in side. While the U.S. had many attempts and trials the U.S.S.R. Continued to their advancements in space travel. Though on December of 1968 the U.S. had accomplished the first moon landing. The Launched carried astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins. The U.S.S.R tried to copy the landing but it failed, which ended the Space race.

Discuss he influence of the Vietnam war an the Cold War

The Vietnam war was a big part of the Cold War. There were so many people who did not agree with sending people to the war because they believe that we had no reason for being involved since it wasn't our fight for independence. Many people believed the gov. wanted to be involved because they wanted to be in a war. This started many debates in the U.S. Two and a half million American citizens were sent to serve as G.Is in this war. Most people volunteered two thirds to be exact. While one-third was drafted into the war. The ages that were in this war was 21. That was a very young, the average age for WW2 was 26 years old, this shows there was a big need of people to go fight in the war. Some famous G.Is in this war was John MCCan, Al Gore, Oliver Stone, and Fredrick Smith. This war lasted from 1956 to 1975.

Men had at most 5 days of relief. This was a very intense and long war, that killed a lot of people. One out of ten men were killed or wounded in this war. This in reality counted out to be 58,214 people who died in this war, also over 1,700 missing or still not found now. Though this was was not necessarily a huge reason the U.S.S.R and the U.S were not getting a long it had an affect on it. The war showed the split in believes of the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. The U.S was helping south Vietnam Who was against the communist idea where the enemy they were against against was the north Vietnam who was bing backed up by the U.S.S.R who believe communism was a great idea. This is was a big reason the U.S. became a part this war. The U.S. main reason for joining was their belief in the Domino Theory in this war. The U.S.S.R was supplying north with weapons. With all the conflicts it shows the two different stances of the two super powers of this time period and even though they were not big players in the war it did incorporate a big different stance in beliefs of both of them. With the intensity of this war it made a foundation for the next war and a clear separation of the powers.

Discuss the influence of the Korean war on the Cold War

In this war the U.S.S.R and the U.S. was involved just like the Vietnam war. The U.S. took the side with south and the U.S.S.R took the side with the north. The two sides were separated by the wall. This wall was called the 38th parallel. The main reason the U.S. was involved this time was because they tried to fight the U.S.S.R from gaining more and more land from this war. This set up a huge fight, though the U.S. in this war had looked for many ways to end it and settle an agreement between both sides because they were afraid that an even bigger war would happen. The U.S.S.R had the leader of the north with them, his name Kim II Sung, and he was for communism. This was why the U.S.S.R supplied and worked with North Korea. Where in the south the U.S. had the leader Syngman Rhee who was against having communist ways in Korea. The U.S. had feared if they didnt help the fight against the the north the U.S.S.R will have had taken over another country with communism.

The war first started the south tried to get the communist out of the south. Then as the north kept trying to cross over to the south and turn them, It started a war and it changed the direction of what this war was for. From trying to keep the north on their side to trying to get ride of the whole communist idea in Korea in general. This went on for many years. There was a man on the U.S. side who wanted this war to turn into a huge war. This man was named McArthor, he was in charge of Asian theater. Even though the President of the United States and the government did not want th at to happen. Besides the fact the president and the government did not want the huge war he continued to tried different ways that would cause it to. He even went as far as sending a letter to China. In this letter had declared war on china. After the president found out he was fired, because he had shown defiance of authority.

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