Late Cold War Blog
Goodbye Lenin is about a young German boy who must keep the secret of the Berlin Wall coming down from his mother who recently awoke from an 8 month coma. His mother loved East Germany and believed it was the motherland. When his mother wakes up the doctor warns him that she cannot handle drama or commotion in risk that she may have another heartattack. To do this he has to redorate the house to how it was before the wall was taken down, make sure she can not tell from the view from her bedroom window and even go as far as make fake news shows to keep her from finding out. He becomes very stressed and tired from all he must do to keep her from finding out. One day he falls asleep and she wanders outside and is struck with reality. I really enjoyed this movie for a few reasons. The main reason, however, it becasue it showed us how different the West and East of Germany really were. We see this primarily when the mother goes outside for the first time after awaking from her coma and sees the pink fuzzy lamp, the bright clothing, the car stores and ikea ads. This movie was very sucessful in showing the multiple sides of Berlin during that time frame.
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"To what extent did the USA win the Cold War through economics?"
The USA won the Cold War by pushing the Soveits to the breaking point. When Ronald Reagan was elected President, he created Reaganomics. Reaganomics was the idea of playing the USA's strenghts against the Soviets. Reagan saw the USSR as an evil empire and would not negotiate with them. He created the Strategic Defence Initiative (aka-star wars) to prevent missile attacks from the USSR. This was the USA's strength- money. This idea of building weapons in soace to shoot deon nuclear missiles forced the USSR to spend tons of money to achieve the same security. The Soveits thought they had an advantage against the USA becasue they knew their secret, however, it actually but the Soviets in a worst position. Since the US had made it known to the Soviets that they were investing tons of money into the massive defense network called Star Wars, the Soviets tried to match it. They could not come up with a solution. They kept spending more and more money trying to come up with an answer. Eventually their economy sank. America never was sucessful in bulding star wars, but they were sucessful of putting themselved much ahead of the Soviets. The US found the Soviets weak spot and used it against them. The Arms Race contimues and the Soviets kept loosing money until Gorbachev came into power. Gorbachev brought an end to communism and the cold war. The US won the Cold War because of the Soviets weak economy at the time. "List 4 detente events and describe which one you think had the most success in lessening tensions in the Cold War?"
Detente means a relaxation of tension. This relaxation refers to the hectic times of the Cold War when it seems as if the world was coming to an end due to the threat of a nuclear war. Detente included four events: the Nuclear non- Proliferation Treaty, Ostopolitik, Helsinki accords and the Salt Talks. The most successful of the four detente events was the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty. This was an international treaty that was created in 1968. Its purpose was to stop more countries from creating nuclear weapons and preventing the threat of nuclear wars. The treaty stated that if a country did not already have nuclear weapons they were not allowed to start making them. Since France and China were both extremly close to creaty their own nuclear weapoms they would not sign it. This treaty ensured that the world only had five nuclear countries; the US, Russia, the UK, France and China. Even though many people would say thag the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was the most succesfull at lessening tensions throughout the Cold War, the other three detente events were successful in other ways. "In what ways did the USA lose the Vietnam War? Did the domino theory occur as a result?"
The USA did not neecessarily loose the Vietnam War, however, by the end of the war they did not gain anything. They lost a ludicrous amount of money and many soldiers. The Vietnam war costed the USA 150 billion dollars and led to many unhappy Americans. Thousands of American soldiers were loosing thier lives so in reaction to that the government brought in Vietnamization. Although the Americans did not lose the Vietnam war, they did not have any success. The US originally went the Vietnam to stop the spread of communism to the South of Vietnam. As a result the Domino Theory occured. The Domino Theory was created becasue the Americans learned that communism was becoming a big threat in various other countries outside of Europe. The fear of communism spreading like wildfire rekindled in Americans minds. They feared this in South East Asia. The US knew that if the South of Veitnam were to turn communism that they rest of South East Asia would follow in their footsteps. This theory was the reason that the US went to Veitnam in the first place. Their main objective was to ensure that Vietmam did not fall to communism. That ultimatley failed because the South of Vietnam ended up turning communist. |
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