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History Cold War O Level
History Cold War O Level
Another reason was due to the Soviet actions taken after WW2. For
example, one was the Berlin Blockade. The Allies had different views
about the future of Germany. USA, France and the United Kingdom
felt that Germany should be strong, while Stalin wanted Germany to
remain weak and poor so that it would not be a threat again, and
wanted complete control of Berlin. Stalin ordered a blockade by
closing roads, railways and canals to drive the allies out of Berlin
and force West Berlin to surrender in 1948. USA ordered a huge,
costly airlift operation to help the West Berliners. Stalin realized his
failure and lifted the blockade a year later in 1949. This drove the 2
sides further apart and intensified the Cold War. Thus, these actions
by the USSR also helped to deteriorate the relations between USA
and USSR during 1945 and 1949.
The CMC brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. By providing
nuclear weapons to Cuba, the US saw this as a direct threat to its
sovereignty and security. In retaliation, US stationed forces in Florida
that could carry out a possible invasion of Cuba. US Navy ships also
took positions around Cuba, ready to stop Soviet ships from carrying
missiles. This served a mistake as the tensions between the USA
and USSR worsened. Nuclear weapons were involved in the crisis,
and this brought the world to war. In anticipation of nuclear war,
millions started preparing for evacuation. Thus, Khrushchev’s
decision was a mistake.
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2. The CMC broke out because firstly due to tensions between USA
and Cuba/American attempts to remove Castro from power, such as
the Bay of Pigs incident. Kennedy had hoped to train Cuban exiles
and staged an attack to topple Castro but the invasion force was
quickly subdued upon landing in Cuba. This made Castro very
confident that USA would stage a full scale invasion of it soon.
Furthermore, the US also conducted Operation Mongoose, with the
aim of overthrowing Fidel Castro. Castro turned to the USSR for
protection from USA and this resulted in USSR’s involvement, thus
resulting in the outbreak of the CMC.