To what extent did the USA win the Cold War through economics?
The USA won the cold war by pushing the soviets as far as they could go. Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, saw the USSR as an evil empire and wouldn’t by any means negotiate with them. He implemented the Strategic Defence Initiative to prevent missile attacks from other countries but especially from the USSR. Ronald Reagan made it known to the Soviets that the US were investing in a massive defense network called Star Wars. S. The Soviets therefor thought that they had an advantage knowing the US’s “secret.” However the Soviets could not come up with a solution, they kept spending more and more money trying to come up with an answer but were unsuccessful and eventually their economy sank. This put the US way ahead of the soviets. This program was successful in driving them away. This was successful because it hit the Soviets in exactly the right place. The US knew that they were not as wealthy them and therefore found their weak spots. The soviets lost the Cold war from not having as strong an economy in comparison to the US at that time.
"List 4 detente events and describe which one you think had the most success in lessening tensions in the Cold War?"
Four of the détente events included Nuclear non- Proliferation Treaty, Ostopolitik, Helsinki accords and the Salt Talks. I believe that the most successful détente event was the Nuclear non- Proliferation Treaty. This is an international treaty created in 1968. The purpose of this treaty was to prevent more countries from building nuclear weapons. This treaty stated that if a country did not already have nuclear weapons they were not allowed to begin making them. This treaty is what made the world only have five nuclear countries, the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China. Many people would say this is one of the most important treaties created. Although the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty was most successful in lessening tension worldwide during the Cold war, the other détente events were successful in their own ways.
"In what ways did the United States lose the Vietnam War? Did the domino theory occur as a result?"
The United States didn’t necessarily lose the war. However by the end of the war, the US did not gain very much and they lost an absurd amount of money. The war cost 150 billion for the US. In addition, they lost a significant amount of soldiers. In regards to many Americans being unhappy about how many American soldiers were loosing their lives, the US brought in Vietnamization. Overall, the war was in no means a success for the United States but they did not lose it. The Domino Theory did occur as a result. The Americans created the Domino Theory because they learned that communism was becoming more of a threat in other countries outside of Europe. They were scared that communism would spread like fire in South East Asia. This theory was the whole reason for the US being in Vietnam, and they wanted to make sure that all of Vietnam did not fall to Communism as well as South East Asia.