How did the Cold War impact domestic policies and politics in both the United States and the Soviet Union?
By definition, deterrence refers to a strategy employed by two or more parties with an aim of avoiding a war situation especially a nuclear one adopted by both the US and USSR. It was on Mutual Assured Destruction, where both possessed nuclear tipped missiles, enough to obliterate the other many timRead more
By definition, deterrence refers to a strategy employed by two or more parties with an aim of avoiding a war situation especially a nuclear one adopted by both the US and USSR. It was on Mutual Assured Destruction, where both possessed nuclear tipped missiles, enough to obliterate the other many times over. Tension of the balance confidential for neither could they engage in a nuclear war since it was mutually destructive.
Cold War era had caused the world to come closest to a nuclear conflict in the period of Cuban Missile in 1962. The US learned that the Soviet began to place missiles in Cuba thus posed a threat to the security of the US. Both superpowers were tightening up and using diplomacy and force in their battles. The US responded by. placing an embargo on Cuba in the hope that it would stop further deliveries of the missiles while the Soviets threatened to use nuclear weapons in retaliation.
It was decided through secret diplomacy. The deal was that Soviet Union would withdraw missiles from Cuba if America also withdraw missiles from Turkey. So this crisis proved how unstable the ratio of forces is and that the system of deterrence has a good chance to prevent a nuclear disaster. It therefore shows that even the most dangerous of conflict can be solved diplomatically.
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For both the United States and the Soviet Union, there were harrowing effects on domestic policy and politics. Anti-communism gave birth to McCarthyism in the U.S., which launched political witch hunts and put a damper on civil liberties. Similarly, this was an era of gigantic military budgets and aRead more
For both the United States and the Soviet Union, there were harrowing effects on domestic policy and politics. Anti-communism gave birth to McCarthyism in the U.S., which launched political witch hunts and put a damper on civil liberties. Similarly, this was an era of gigantic military budgets and an Overpowering military-industrial complex. Domestic policies had to compete with the USSR by investing in education, science, and technology.
In the Soviet Union, Cold War issues underpinned authoritarian control. The regime clothed its repression and limitation of personal freedoms in the rhetoric of fighting Western influence. The massive allocations to the military and technological development to face the challenge from the West resulted in a lack of consumer goods directly affecting the quality of life for citizens.
With a view to national identity, ideology burrowed deep into the flesh of capitalism and communism in both countries. It then entered political rhetoric: both parties demonized each other’s systems. The fear of nuclear war penetrated both societies, influencing public opinion and, ultimately, policy decisions.
It configured social movements like in United States, civil rights activists were accused of communist sympathies, while in the Soviet Union, the dissident movements were suppressed as possible Western collaborators.
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