The Cold War: An Analysis

The Cold War was a period of conflict, tension, and competition between the United States and the Soviet Union and their allies from the mid 1940’s until the early 1990’s. The main U. S. allies were Western Europe, Japan, and Canada. The main Soviet allies were Eastern Europe and China. Throughout the period, the rivalry between the tow superpowers was played out in several arenas such as military coalitions, ideology, psychology, and espionage; military, industrial, and technological developments; costly defense spending; a massive conventional and nuclear arms race; and many proxy wars.

            Patterson’s main focus in his article was Foreign Relations and the important place that took in the transformation of American history. Bureaucracy, high search fees, and narrow definitions of national security that keep to many documents closed and censored encumbered this process, huge batches of primary sources were released under the Freedom of Information Act. The article also stated that foreign relations historians also transformed the field as they have responded to other historian’s criticisms. The heads over the United States foreign relations begin to make faster breaking news comprehensible to explain the origins of pressing contemporary issues, to inform current debates and to converse with the large American audience.

The author also stated the four different levels of analysis; those were international, regional, national, and individual. The international level focused on issues that were non-domestic. These issues were sometimes very difficult to handle. The international level also dealt with the multinational mechanisms for resolving disputes, addressing transnational questions, transmitting culture, or creating stability by the creation of the World Bank and the League of Nations. The regional level focused on the geographical location and place. The most common terms used were East, West, Third World, North Atlantic, and Southeast Asia. The national level focused on the domestic history of a nation. The way things have always been done also was brought up in this section. The nations economic development is also a contributor to behavior in the international system. The individual level is mainly dealing with he individuals themselves, as in reference to the decisions they choose to make. These range from whether they will vote or not or if they will fight or negotiate.

In the reading The Cold War: Four contemporary Appraisals John L. Snell gives his perspective of the Cold War, and he also takes an in depth look at the views of three other prominent writers. Snell sees the Cold War is something that several Americans look at as a very frustrating experience. Snell also states that the Cold War is and an aspect of right versus wrong. For those who stand on the right have been more vocal since World War II. He stated that those who stand on the right tried to offer an explanation of the war through a film, but all that did was create an illusion of encirclement that more than once has led nations into unrealistic and suicidal foreign policy decisions. He also states that the United States lost the Korean War because American political leaders inept or worse, frustrated the sensible purpose of brave generals that socialism is entrenched in most of Western Europe, and that socialism is the only prelude to Communism.