Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2010 1:42 am Post subject: Prepare for Tomorrow's Seminar 6/8
Assigned: 6/8 Due: 6/9
Topic: "Could the Cold War have been prevented? If so, how?"
"Please post your thoughts on this - and I recommend that you print out what you write and bring it to class tomorrow so you can use it in our seminar. Good Luck!!!"
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I would suggest that we post our five questions or topics and get a nice pre-discussion going. I'm not sure if Martha's class also wrote down arguments against the options that they chose, but maybe try to post those as well. Lastly, let's see if we can think about the Cold War from the Soviet point of view, and post some thoughts. These are merely suggestions, don't feel obligated to do them. Thanks. -Eli
We did the 5 things to talk about in our class too. My group's were
*how did the atom bomb affect the war/how could the world's safety be ensured
*could we combine options 2 and 3
*could we have worked with the soviet union instead of going to war
*how are these options morally and politically correct/incorrect
*how was the rest of the world affected by these options
I think the issue of the atom bomb complicated the war a lot. Before its discovery, warfare was more contained to just armies, and didn't effect civilians on as large a scale. There was never an option of blowing up an entire city before WW2, which made the Cold War a lot different, and a lot scarier, than previous wars. I think that it probably could have been prevented if the US had decided not to get involved with Russia, but a lot of people would argue that that would have been wrong morally or politically. (I'm not sure which values were more important here) However, that also might have led to another war in Europe. We probably could have gone about it in a more productive way.
Basically, cold war could have been prevented if there's a one ideology such as communism or capitalism, so they no point to fight each other. Because they have same ideology as a example, they don't have to compromise or make a war.
Secondly, the compromise can be great solution for preventing the cold war between US and Soviet Union(SU). Of course. it's hard to acheive their own goals and make benefit. However, if they step back a little bit, then it will be great compromise. I am not sure how long the compromise lasts between US and SU.
Thirdly, if there's no WW2, then the cold war could have been prevented. The reason why there was cold war is that the expansion of the SU. After the war, many countries suffered with lack of money and poor economy, some countries chose communism and some countries tried to become communim countries. In order to prevent the expansion of communism, US helped other countries with enormous money aganist communism. Therefore, the cold war began.
Eli I'm so glad that you made your little suggestions in your earlier post. I think we often get trapped looking at a corner rather than an entire room. Tking about this from the soviets point of view I don't think that the war could have been prevented. The fact that they wanted to continue living as they did with communisim and spread it just as America felt they had the duty to spread democracy it was inevitable. They also had to continue in the battel so that the world wouldn't be afraid of America, so that no nation was above others they had to coninue fighting to prove that the USA was also weak. The only way that the war could have not occured would be if either side gave up.
As a class, we had a seminar and came up with the following questions:
- could we combine options 2&3, a kind if 2.5? What would it be like?(a favorite of th two classes I can see)
-why was the USA afraid of communisim?
- could the USA and USsR be friends, what would it take?
-in what way are the soviets insecure?
- what happens if we do nothing?
- what would happen if the soviets address their insecurities?
- did the unities states spread the idea of comunisim by hating the idea of it? What if we just minded our business?
And we wanted to explore some of the proxy wars that USA&USSR fought
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Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2010 5:15 am Post subject: Eli 6/8
I do not think that the Cold War could have been prevented, but if certain decisions had ended differently, the war would have been lest tense, and less costly. At the present, I can only think of one. If the United States had pulled out of Vietnam sooner, after realizing their campaign was not effective, there would have been fewer casualties. I did some research, and found that the US was prepared to drop 3 tactical nukes on North Vietnamese positions in 1954, prior to deploying any troops. President wanted British support, but London did not condone this course of action. The proposed Operation Vulture never happened, but if it did, the war could have either ended quickly, or become a nightmare.
It seems like America chose option two, or something closely related. The Truman Doctrine shaped not only the Cold War, but American foreign policy to this day. We still are the world superpower, and were are still obligated to "support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures."
Arguments against Option 2:
Military Spending, Arms Race
Proxy-Wars (Korea, Vietnam, Cuban Missile Crisis)
Strained Alliances
Lack of Public Support
Escalation to All-Out War
Arguments against Option 3:
World Peace is nearly impossible to achieve
The longest consecutive period without a war was seven years
Therefore, Lasting peace is unattainable
Compromise might worsen Relations (Like that of 1850)
Questions & Topics for Discussion
Why is the United States so afraid of Communism? Economic Reasons, Trade, the Red Scare.
Could we combine Options 2 and 3 into Option 2.5? What would be a better course of action?
How did America and the USSR finally compromise? Khrushchev and Kennedy, Gorbachev and Reagan. What changed?
Did the United States help bolster Communism by being distrustful and paranoid? The Soviets may have used this in their fear-mongering.
Discuss the Proxy-Wars. Korea, Vietnam, Cuban Missile Crisis, Afghanistan, etc. Intelligence Agencies: CIA and KGB.
I think that option 3 from the reading had some possibility of stopping the war but I agree with a lot of what you guys are saying, it is unrealistic. When we got into groups we came up with the idea that the US and USSR were out for power and the spread of their types of government, but we also thought that they both wanted peace so our questions were based around that:
1. How do the lessons of history affect whether we choose a morally or politically correct way of action?
2. Which major issues would we look at to determine which option to choose as what we would do if we were about to go into the cold war?
We chose Peace and power
3. Which is more important to the US Peace or power? what about the USSR?
4. How do our own personal experiences affect how we personally would choose a way of action versus how the US would?
This is kindof a question to see the differences in how we think and how the US would think in this situation.
5. Is there an option we can make to give us both peace and power IE a compromise?
I personally believe the Cold War was most likely inevitable, especially if option 3 didn't work. I think both countries wanted power and no matter what something was bound to happen when to superpowers collide. I do think there was a little possibility, mainly because they coexisted and worked together in WWII, but I can't figure out what it is. All they did was fight against a common enemy. Is that what they need to be friends? or is there something else that can bring them together and accept eachother's differences? I think that is a question that needs to be answered to answer whether the cold war could have been prevented.
I dont think war is preventable.
If one set of events was changed, another set would come along and cause a war. Tension between different countries is unavoidable, everyone has different views on, government, religion, etc. The Cold War was not avoidable and no war will be, no matter what compromise or treaty is made. Someone will break it, or disagree, always.
No, I do not believe that the cold war could have been prevented. The U.S. and the Soviet Union had too much tension which only heightened during WW2. The communists saw that conflict with a capitalist nation (of the world) inevitable. The U.S. was growing/ becoming much more powerful and in many ways could embody a capitalist nation.
If the cold war could have been prevented there would need to be some sort of compromise. In many ways, the U.S. and Soviet Union were on plan #3 (compromise with each other out of mutual hatred towards Germany) and that only increased conflict to a boiling point. Showing that the conflict between the two couldn't be solved by a compromise.
It is hard to say whether the Cold War could have been prevented. Both the Soviet Union and the United States were undoubtedly power-hungry. I wonder if it would have helped if America had not fought so hard to keep countries like Greece and Iran independent from the Soviets. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I don't think that America has the right to convert the whole world to being a Capitalist democracy. To respond to Leah's question, I don't think there is a way to combine Options 2 and 3. If Americans tried to contain Communism by forming further alliances and controlling the seas, this would definitely not help the idea of co-existence and might even cause another world war. I believe that the best way to prevent war is for the United States and the Soviet Union to trade like friendly brothers instead of as business rivals. History has shown that nations progress further when they work together.
1. How do the lessons of history affect whether we choose or not a moral or political correct decision?
2. What are the major issues we should look at to determine which opinion we should pick?
3. Between peace and power, which one is more important to America?
4. How do our own bias and personal experiences affect how we personally choose an opinion versus now the US would?
5. Is there an opinion that could incorporate both peace and power?
Cold war is basically a fight between the Soviet Union and the United States of America in order to hold the world’s greatest power. I would rather think this topic in the simple way. Two ideologies, capitalistic democracy and socialistic communism are totally different. Capitalism respects private property, but communism supports equal prosperity. As they did at that time, I can’t find a middle point that embraces capitalism as well as communism either. In other words, the US and USSR should not have met each other after WW2. In especially US should not have intervened the expansion of USSR. The option 4 exactly means what I think. This option basically means the US isolation; US avoids from foreign entanglements. It isolates itself from foreign affair, but strength itself. I think this is the most possible way that could have prevented the cold war.
honestly i think the cold war was unavoidable in certaint aspects. what i mean by that is that i think there would have been a conflict regardless of any preventative measures by one or both countries, but i do not belive it would have had to be a millitary conflict. i belive we chose the easiest of the options (2) because it was logical and in our intrests in terms of millitary establishment and also financial dominance. by cornering the soviet union off we could contain communisim and still trade with states around the soviets. However this did not create a freindly or trusting envoronment between the US or Soviet Union. I belive a good approch would have been to reconize the strenght of the other nation and respect that. There would always be a level of suspicion and fear, but i belive that each side realizing the costs of a war and being on guard would be a logical aproach. Another approach i would support would be to facilitate friendly relations between the two states. meaning they could help eachother out with building/ techonology, and international affairs. even they did not trust eachother, doing things together would facilitate somewhat better relations. This way we could be close to them (in proximity) but have them not feel as threatened. _________________ If you give a man a cupcake he will have dessert for one day
If you give a man a million cupcakes he will have dessert for the rest of the month until the sad day when all the other cupcakes go stale
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