Cold War (1917-1991): Political, Religious, And Social Dimensions

The Cold War (1917-1991)
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The Cultural, Economic, Political, Religious and Social Dimensions of Cold War (1917-1991)
The cold war of 1917-1991 took half of the 20th century bringing devastations to the world. Most of the policies either domestic or international about the economic, political, religious, cultural and social dimensions surrounded the event (Powaski, 1997). The central portion of the cold war surrounded the rivalry between the America and the Soviet Union. The cause of the cold war dates back to the Czarist regime in Russia and the infancy of the USA. The superpower nations at the time primarily USA and Russia delved into the expansion of their unique missions in the history. The USA for instance, perceived the Russian government at the opportunity to be despotic while the Russian government believed that the USA was a conspirator in preventing Russia from development. The present devastation in economic, political, cultural, religious and social dimensions bore their origins from the cold war of 1917-1991 due to the rivalry between USA and Russia. The present essay discusses such devastation impacts on the spectrum highlighted above.
Political Dimension
The cold war is an intense conflict on ideological differences that covers economic, political, cultural and social dimensions across different nations. The atmosphere at such moments is usually fierce with violence. The war entails military activities with no vandalism of diplomatic relations involving both the USA and USSR in the 20th Century (Powaski, 1997).
The political dimension of the cold war for half of the 20th century involved consistent rivalry which included the Marshall Plans, the communist coup of Czechoslovakia, the formation of NATO, the Berlin Wall and the Soviet nuclear test. Due to such political temperatures, dignitaries especially the USA president Truman and the allies believed that the victory of Communist over China and the war in Korea were testimonies of Russia’s expansionism ideologies. Therefore, the USA under the leadership of Truman and his successors began ways of developing mutual treaties for defense, military interventions and covert actions worldwide. Thus, action taken by the USA covered Caribbean, Middle East and the South East Asia of Vietnam (Powaski, 1997). Later on, different political events led to changes in domestic politics with heightened diplomatic maneuvers that worsen the conflict. The unending nuclear arms race, the recognition of China by the USA and the constant competition of Brezhnev with the USA culminated the war. As a result, the USA presidents especially Reagan and Bush played a critical role to ensure the collapse of USSR besides the economic failure at the time (Powaski, 1997).
One significant political aspect is the ideological differences between capitalism and communism. Vladimir Lenin who wanted universal peace under the control of socialism ideologies while Woodrow Wilson wanted a global political democracy and free trade using his 14 point charter. Furthermore, the USA earlier never recognized the new Soviet Union in 1922 (Powaski, 1997).
Secondly, the unending failure to achieve a peaceful settlement between leaders from USA, Britain and the USSR in Yalta and Potsdam to shape the post-war order escalated the war. Such meetings brought USSR and USA together in a way to shut down Hitler who occupied most parts of the Eastern Europe while the Soviet conquered territories of Hungary, Romania, Poland and Czechoslovakia under its influence. However, such alliances were futile as suspicion emerged about Soviet being brought back to the “Free world” as planned by Roosevelt (Schmitz, 1999). However, Truman and Churchill declined to the ideas which worsened the rivalry. The death of Franklin Roosevelt altered all the political landscapes in Pacific that would divide Germany into America, British, French and Soviet zones and at the time of the inauguration of United Nations. At the same time, an escalation of the Soviet war in Japan was eminent within the time for Germany to surrender (Gerstle, 2017).
Economic Dimension
The economy took center stage during the cold war of 1917-1991 with the western nations especially the USA that wanted to protect the free market. The USA struggled to prevent the economy of the Western Europe economies from falling to the control of the Communist nation especially Russia. Besides, the USA wanted to consolidate and control the international trade fairs with success in the economy (Maddrell, 2013).
One major factor at the time was the prevention of industrial activities from destructions. Nations such as Greece and Turkey faced economic turmoil due to communist terrorism hence Truman provided $ 400 million aid to the countries. Furthermore, famine affected Europe during the harsh winter period of 1946-47 which led to unemployment as many factories collapsed which would make the nations vulnerable to the USSR (Maddrell, 2013). Therefore, USA came up with the Marshall Plan and provided $ 13 billion as a European Recovery Program (ERP) for reconstruction amidst working to open markets and to win the European support. However, the Soviet-developed Molotov Plan to support the Eastern Europe hence the nation rewarded Jozef Cyrankiewicz with $ 450 million after boycotting the Marshall Plan (Maddrell, 2013).
The UN members formed the Bretton Wood Conference in 1944 to create International Monetary Fund (IMF) and later World Bank and the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). More agreements emerged on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) wi...