| The Cold War | |
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| Topic Started: Apr 6 2015, 07:16 PM (159 Views) | |
| Basil Fawlty | Apr 6 2015, 07:16 PM Post #1 |
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Post Tenebras Lux
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Several overarching themes for discussion: - Who, in your opinion, bears greatest responsibility for the start of the Cold War? (Whether an individual or a nation.) - Who was most responsible for bringing about the end of the Cold War? - Why did the USA win and the USSR lose? Or to put it another way, why did the Cold War end with the dissolution of the USSR and not NATO/the United States? |
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| Lewington | Apr 7 2015, 10:40 PM Post #2 |
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Thinking over the first question made makes me interested in what possible course of action (if indeed possible) would have prevented the iron curtain from encompassing eastern Europe. |
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| Simon Darkshade | Apr 8 2015, 06:34 AM Post #3 |
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Nefarious Swashbuckler
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1.) The Soviet Union 2.) The combination of a resurgent USA, Reagan, Thatcher, John Paul II, Gorbachev, Afganistan, unsustainable Soviet defence spending and the burden of a Red Empire. 3.) More to come The Iron Curtain would have fallen somewhere, but a combination of more success in the West in 1944, Italy going smoother and something in th Balkans could hav changed the facts on the ground in Czechoslovakia and maybe Hungary and Bulgaria. Yugoslavia is its own kettle of fish. |
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| Simon Darkshade | Apr 8 2015, 06:37 AM Post #4 |
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Nefarious Swashbuckler
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Further to the above point, it is difficult for Romania and Poland not to fall into the Soviet sphere. National borders are less of a factor than geography. Once a Russian army is through the Carpathians, it can roll through the Hungarian Plain and Austria; Romania also had a border shell and then a clear run to the Danube. Edited by Simon Darkshade, Apr 8 2015, 07:22 AM.
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| Basil Fawlty | Apr 8 2015, 09:23 PM Post #5 |
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Post Tenebras Lux
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If you are willing to go back far enough: no invasion of the USSR. 1. If there is any one man responsible for the Cold War, very simply, it is Hitler. The Nazis were often obsessed with the idea of Soviet domination of Europe, but the Soviets had been pushed back by the Poles in the 1920s and were in no shape to dominate anything in 1941. They couldn't even defeat Finland. The war galvanized support for Stalin's regime and gave him the justification and the means for Soviet expansion into Eastern Europe. However, most people find this an unsatisfying answer. If we limit ourselves to the post-war environment, then the answer becomes Stalin. 2. Gorbachev. In the end the collapse of the USSR happened because the leaders were no longer willing to employ force to keep it together. A different set of leaders might well have been able to keep the trainwreck together longer. However, we could debate to what extent the emergence of a Gorbachev was made more likely by a stagnant economy and broader international pressures. |
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2:39 PM Jul 11