cold war

The Cold War was a “war” was an arms race that took place between former allies The United States and the Soviet Union between the years of 1947 and 1989. This tension between the two nations, I believe is more the United States fault. The Cold War started after WWII, when the United States began having a collective fear of communism, and wanted to do everything in their power to stop it.

It was this fear that sparked the Cold War. Russia had different political and economic views than the US; Communism vs. Capitalism. The US was afraid that these communist ideas would spread to their nation as well. I fully blame the US for the start of this “war.” Who is to say that one nation’s economic ideals are wrong. The US should not have been the judge of weather Russia’s views were right or wrong. I believe that if the US had minded is own business the tensions would never have escalated to the point were we almost had a nuclear war and the Bay if Pigs incident would have never happened.

Another reason the US is to blame is because they used propaganda to put fear into its citizens, the Red Scare. The US warped peoples minds into believing that Communist were evil and had to be stopped. This I believe was unnecessary. If our nation had just been more willing to work with other nations with different governments, rather than trying to make everyone like the US. Then incidents such as this would have never occurred.

Greeks

According to Levi, the Greeks were the most civilized people within the concentration camp. Levi had noted that the Greeks acted as a community, and worked with each other while they were in the camp. For example, although they were regulated heavily and monitored by the Nazis, they also had regulation within their society. Someone who was caught stealing from someone else was punished and dealt with within the Greek community by Greeks. The Greeks also traded with each other, and formulated plans with one another. Cooperation was a major aspect of the Greeks. Most importantly though as Levi points out the Greeks always remained loyal to each other. For example, if someone had extra food on Monday, they were storing it for Tuesday, or when they needed it next. This is what kept them human. Levi emphasizes how the Germans degraded the Jews in the camps, removing their clothing, shaving their heads, and giving ID numbers on their arm. The difference between the Greeks and everyone else was that there was much fighting between people for extra clothing and food. There was no internal order amongst them. Levi said they were made into rats, and forced to act like animals. The Nazi strategy was to make the Jews feel like animals, no longer human. Thus to the Germans, you want to get rid of the rats. Levi argued that it was harder for them to kill the Greeks because you kill the animals, but you keep people and humans. In effect, the Nazi strategy worked amongst all the Jews, with exception for the Greeks who kept their humanity by keeping their community.

Cold War

The United States bears a fair amount of responsibility in terms of starting the Cold War. The economic systems of the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. are major factors in why the Cold War even occurred. The term Cold War is used because there was no actual physical fighting between the United States and Russia. The United States did have an armed conflict against North Korea and North Vietnam, but no Russian soldiers were present in these countries. In turn, Russia financed and supplied these countries to fight the U.S. Likewise, when Russia invaded Afghanistan; America supplied the Afghans with arms to fend off the Soviets. At The end of World War II, the Marshal plan was enacted and the U.S. was trying to convert as many countries as possible to a capitalist society. Because of this, the Soviets responded with the same thing and tried to expand communism as fast as possible. With this came the containment policy of the United States. Even though this was a counter response to the soviets, it helped to escalate the Cold War to never before seen levels. Additionally, American support against the communist revolution in Russia during World War I also added to Russian animosity towards America. American resentment of communism was still present after the revolution was successful, and was made clear to the Russians. These actions made by the United States helped Russia to not trust the United States in years to come.

Cold War

How much responsibility does the US bear for the start of the Cold War? The cold war started between the United States of America and Russia. Even though it was a war there was no actual fighting and that’s how the name “Cold War” came to be which may as well should have been called World War Three. The start of the war depends on which side’s point of view you look at. Both Soviets and Americans are at fault for the start of the Cold War. The United States felt that the Soviet was gaining power and any soviet aggression must be stopped. With this concern paranoia also formed within the United States. Anytime when the United States saw the Soviet making a move they would react to the move. For example when the Soviet tried to take control Berlin, Germany the US assisted in ways that would prevent that from happening. The Soviet Union figured that socialism would solve all the economic problems after the war. The Soviet Union also felt that the United States would take over with its political system. It really ended up being a war over power and who could get the most. The war was at fault from both parties.