United States' Action

USSR's Response

Question: How did this escalate the tensions between the United States and the USSR? 

1. Containment of Russia:

The United States felt that the most viable approach against the political and militaristic expansion of the Soviet Union was to implement a containment strategy that would help keep the Soviet expansion in check and protect Western democratic values. 

In 1947, President Harry Truman made the containment of the Soviet Union a top priority, laying the groundwork for the Cold War by introducing domestic policies that centered on undermining communism in the United States. 

2.  Arms Race between the United States and Russia:

To contain Soviet Union's military capacity, the United States began manufacturing armaments at an excessive rate, rationalising the production of these arms as necessary to ward off potential conflict. 

The Soviet Union and the U.S tried to outdo one another by creating more powerful and increasingly sophisticated nuclear weapons. 

3.  Development of Hydrogen Bomb:

The first successful detonation of an American-made hydrogen device happened on November 1, 1952. The resulting explosion was a visible example of just how justified the rising level of public fear and anxiety towards hydrogen weapons - the blast decimated nearby islands, leaving behind a crater more than a mile wide and creating a virulent mushroom cloud that was an approximate 100 miles wide and 25 miles high. 

Following the test, the Soviet Union rushed to develop hydrogen bomb technology. With the implementation of the hydrogen bomb, the Cold War was in full swing.

4.  Space Exploration:

The Cold War resulted in a technological competition between Soviets and US vied against one another to achieve space supremacy. 

The launch of Sputnik represented the ever-growing power of the Soviet Union and highlighted that the US was starting to fall behind in the technology-driven space race. In response, the United States Army launched Explorer I into space on January 1958.

5.  Fall of the Berlin Wall:

The Berlin Wall was designed by the Communist government of the German Democratic Republic as a means of curtailing the flow of East German migrants into democratic West Germany. The Berlin Wall became a potent symbol of the Iron Curtain - the ideological and physical divide that separated the democratic West from the communist East during the Cold War. 

Economic problems rooted in the Cold War caused Soviet influence to wane in Europe, and by 1989, most communist nations had transitioned to non-communist forms of government. In Nov 1989, the Berlin Wall, a famous symbol of communism throughout the world, was demolished by Berlin natives who were given permission to cross the border. By Oct 1990, East and West Germany reunified.  

Taken and adapted from: Norwich University

💡Food for thought: 

1. Was the Cold War conflict a conflict all about the ideological differences, or military arms race, or economic differences? 

2. Or, was there any other reason for the conflict?

3. Who was to be blame for the increasing Cold War tension? 

   • USA?

   • Soviet Union?

   • Or were they equally to be blamed?