CONCEPTION OF WORLD WAR
Interview Project on Peoples View about Conception of World War
During World War II, U.S.S.R and the United States worked together to overthrow Germany leader Adolf Hitler. But when the war came to an end new rivalry emerged and the relationship between Russia and the United States became extremely tense leading to the emergence of the cold war. Do people in our society understand what this war is all about? To answer this question several interviews have been conducted and the findings are discussed in this project.
The cold war is the rivalry that emerged between the two superpowers (the U.S and the U.S.S.R) due to their ideological differences. The war was fought without actual fights on the battlefield. It started in 1945 after the end of World War II and ended in 1990 and throughout that period there were fears that the third world war would emerge. Various events intensified the tension between the two superpowers. For example, the United States president Truman introduced a doctrine that was called Harry Doctrine in 1947and the document said that America would support the free people who were opposing communism (Truman, 1947, March). In addition, the U.S.A become part of the Marshal Plan and this triggered the East to form the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Hogan & Hogan, 1989). In 1945 the western block formed NATO an organization to fight against communist attacks. The cold war led to war in some countries like Korea, Afghanistan and Korea. The space race intensified where Russia led the race and U.S.A followed suit (Siddiqi, 2000). It also led to the spread of capitalism and communist ideology in Eastern Europe among other places.
I contacted three of my friends John Kupta, Stephen Jones, and Myles Jackson to get their understanding of the cold war. The three are experts in Military Corporation and have worked for the government for several years. To get their understanding I asked them via the social media, “What words come to mind when they think of the term Cold War, did they ever study Cold War in school?” I also asked them who were the parties involved in the Cold War and to what are the main events involved in the Cold War.
In response to my questions, John rightly said, “According to me cold war is the conflict between U.S.A and Russia where the two were fighting for political and economic dominance. When I was in high school the teacher told us that the two parties involved in the war were mainly the Communist and the Capitalist and all countries took side to either of them” John contends that “one of the events that led to the war is the arms race where the superpowers were each side was manufacturing weapons that they thought were better than those of the opposite side.” John has the exact facts of what was happening during the war and he has been taught this in school.
Stephen on his side gave some facts which I think are quite misguided. He said, “Cold war is the period in which people did not actually fight with weapons but they fought using abusive words and propaganda.” It is true that during cold countries used propaganda but the fact is that war actually broke out in some parts like Korea and Vietnam. Though he said he has learned about cold war in school, he can’t rightly remember all the facts but he correctly recalls that the war was between the west and the east blocks (Jones, 2019, April 24). He continued and said, “Some of the effects of the cold war the rise of nationalism in Asia and Africa as well as the widespread of human suffering around the world.”
Myles was very quick to confess that he has learnt about the cold war in school or any other source but he gave his view too. He said, “Cold war is a war between America and Russia when Russia was fighting for its independence from the Americans.” His view is truly misguided since Russia was never colonized by the U.S and though the two were in conflict it was not to gain freedom. He rightly identifies the America and Russia lead to the occurrence of the war but he has neither idea when the war occurred nor what effects the war had on peoples culture (Jackson, 2019, April 24).
Johns and Stephen’s definition are closely related. They both bring out the view that the cold war was a rivalry between the superpowers. But in his definition, Stephen narrows down and state that the war was only a verbal war and nothing more. But that is not the case since the period experienced an emergency of several battle wars. Even though John has not openly discussed the occurrence of the war, his definition is not limiting the cold war into just verbal war. Myles definition is not explaining cold war at all. Russia was never colonized by the Americans and the two are the superpowers that emerged after World War II. The definition of each one of them is partly affected by the current occupation and also by the knowledge they acquired in school. Even Myles who never studied about cold war in school seems to be having some basic knowledge probably from his occupation.
After interviewing the three and analyzing their findings I can conclude that people’s knowledge about the cold war is in three categories. There are those that have actual facts of what happened, those that have some hints about the war, and those that know absolutely nothing concerning the war. But through teaching the topic in schools people have acquired basic information about the war, events leading to the war, and the impact the war had on the society.
References
Truman, H. S. (1947, March). The Truman Doctrine. In Address, Joint Session of Congress, US Capitol.
Hogan, M. J., & Hogan, M. J. (1989). The Marshall Plan: America, Britain and the Reconstruction of Western Europe, 1947-1952. Cambridge University Press.
Siddiqi, A. A. (2000). The challenge to Apollo: the Soviet Union and the space race, 1945-1974. The challenge to Apollo: the Soviet Union and the space race, 1945-1974.