Ice, Ice, Baby! The Coldness of the Cold War

Reasons contributing to the Cold War: the US' paranoia over communism, general distrust for Stalin in America and Truman in the USSR, and need for the economies of both the US and USSR to set up identical systems in other countries after the end of WWII. All of these reasons created high tension between the US and the USSR. However, I feel as though there was one MAIN cause that caused the Cold War, and that was the atomic bomb.
The bomb was not needed to end the war in the Pacific, so the reason that the US even dropped the bombs on Japan was to end the war before the Soviet Union could join in and get a say in the fate of post-war Asia. This signaled to the Soviet Union that there was a definite aire of hostility between the two countries, and they could sense it. Neither country had completely trusted the other, but now it was more "out in the open". High-stakes competition erupted, and thus began the Cold War. I am not saying that it was completely the fault of the US, however. During the post-WWII agreements between the Allies the Soviet Union had been demonstrating a desire for power, and to gain the upper hand over the US. The US realized this, and took the more decisive step in acting on it by dropping the bomb. After the USSR saw throught the whole "saving lives" smoke screen, it became apparant to people in government, Stalin in particular, that they needed to act against the US, but indirectly. This was to happen by attempting to spread Communism, and develop military advantages. They began work on their own nuclear weapons, which let to very close calls later on. This was particularly evident during the Cuban Missile Crisis, which was the closest the world had ever come to nuclear war.
So no, fingers should not be pointed at any one country, or event, for solely causing the Cold War. But the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan was definitely a major turning point in world history.

The Potsdam Conference

Okay, so for my topic I chose the Potsdam Conference. The conference took place in Potsdam, Germany, near Berlin. The "Big Three" leaders (Truman, Stalin, Churchill, and Attlee after Britain's election) met there to discuss and come to agreements about how to deal with post-war arrangements in Europe. The meeting, which ran from 16 July 1945 to 2 August 1945, was recorded in history as the last true conference of World War II. The leaders had trouble agreeing on most of the topics (reparations, the Oder/Neisse Line, how to deal with Japan, Russia joining the war in the Far East, and Allied control of defeated Germany), but did come to a concise decision when it came to Japan. During the conference, the leaders released the Potsdam Declaration, which demanded the Japan agree to their terms of an unconditional surrender, or face "prompt and utter destruction". Truman had told those at the meeting that the United States had created a weapon of awesome power, but that seemed an insignificant detail to leaders with millions of troops stationed in Eastern Europe. The Potsdam Declaration contained no direct reference to the atomic bombs, only that doom awaited Japan if she did not surrender. The warning went unheeded, and the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan about one week later.

Italian Expansion--Italy

Not happy here--apparantly blogger did not publish my beastly post, so I apologize to everyone that was watching the clock. So here we go again:

During the time period after World War I, Italian expansion was increasing rapidly. Fascist Italy (under Mussolini) was continuing to evolve toward greater authoritarian controls, and therefore becoming more aggressive in its expansion. Both Italy and Nazi Germany were increasing their severity of expansion. In late 1935, Italy attacked Ethiopia, and consequently conquered the helpless nation. The League of Nations provided no resistance to Italy's actions: the league inposed only halfhearted and short-lived economic sanctions on Italy. Why was this? Was the league afraid that Italy woud instead turn on the imposing nations? Or did the league simply think that this issue would resolve itself? Either way, Mussolini was just getting started. The combined Fascist and Nazi efforts in Spain aided Franco in his efforts to win the civil war there. It was then that Hitler and Mussolini witnessed the inability of Great Britain and France to check their actions. Not long after, Italy continued on its path and annexed Albania. Italy was easily able to expand in these ways, aided by the reluctance of Great Britain, France, and the United States to take measures to check aggression. Was this what caused WWII? Had Italy's expansion been interferred with, what would have changed? Would the aggression have been crushed, and the world have returned to relative peace? Or would Italy and Germany have marched more quickly against new opposition from the League of Nations?

Again, I am sorry for the time delay. I tried to write a new post as fast as I possibly could.

Why Thursday?

So I have a question, why did Black Thursday happen? I'm not sure if I sound totally stupid in asking this, but it's something that has made me wonder a bit. We all know about the banks crashing and the Great Depression, but what happened that made the stock market drop so much in one day? I mean, a 9% decline in 1 day? That seems like an extreme sudden coincidence. I guess what I want to know is what happened on Wednesday.

Book Report-- The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union

Ok, this book answered one of my burning questions: Why did Russia suddenly pull out of WWI? I wondered this in that way that 17-year-old females often wonder about history. Which they do. It didn't make a ton of sense to me why Russia stayed in the war for so long only to quit near the end. This book was my Mayan god. It told me that the reason they left the war was the change of power. The Bolsheiviks claimed leadership, and quickly pulled their county out of the war. This would not have happened without this change of power. I love that this book answered this for me, and I see the world differently now. I see rainbows and butterflies and Tess skipping through fields of wildflowers. She wants to check me for ticks.

GOFF 124-137 U.S. Economy

Ok, props to Kaylan for completing the optional question. I feel like that deserves high praise, and since this is a blog written by me, I shall honor myself. You did great, Kaylan.

Personal time over, I had a question from the homework. Question 5: How did WWI help the U.S. economy in the 1920s, and then hurt it in the 1930s? This baffled me, if you will. Not that that happens often. But the best I can come up with is that with the whole "Roaring 20's" idea people were spending money they didn't have, and then the markets crashed and so on. I just don't necessarially understand how that relates strongly to WWI. Help is appreciated.

80-98 GOFF- Russia

I have a question about Russia's motivations. Why were Russia's citizens so intent on pulling out of the war? They had sufficient numbers to be a major competator in the war, but yet it's civilians protested violently against it. They had made it throught the most taxing part of the war, when a lot of the fighting was between Russia and organized Germany. Now the U.S. had entered the war, and the Allies were more prepared to handle Germany. So why did the civilians want out so badly? If they were to hang in there, they would reap more benefits than quitting. Why did they not have the same confidence as Germany?