War in Afghanistan vs Korean War

War in Afghanistan vs Korean War de tomipaladino

Potsdam and relations between the West and the USSR

A. What was decided at the Potsdam conference?
The allied leaders arranged for July 1945 in the Berlin suburb of Potsdam, a conference. There weren’t taken any decision, due to the fact the distrust between Stalin and Truman, so they had different disagreements, over what to do with Germany, over reparations and also over Soviet policy in Eastern Europe.

B. Why did the wartime unity of the Allies break down between 1945 and 1947?
The wartime unity of the Allies broke down because there was tension and suspicion between the USA’s president, Truman, and the USSR leader, Stalin. Because of these, in the Potsdam Conference, they did not come to an agreement in some major aspects: what to do with Germany, reparations and Soviet policy in eastern Europe.
Furthermore, in the months after the Potsdam Conference Stalin achieved the control of eastern Europe. Poland, Hungary, Romania Bulgaria and Albania had all Communist governments that were loyal to Stalin. Churchill described the borders between them and the West as an “iron curtain”. With Communist governments in all eastern Europe, Stalin tightened his control, eliminating opposition. In 1947, he set up the Cominform to organize and control all the Communist Parties, replacing independent leaders with people who were loyal to him.

C. "The Truman Doctrine generated much more tension than the Berlin Blockade" How far is that statement true?
Different things increased the Cold War tension, such as the Truman Doctrine: giving money to countries that were going to turn into Communism, to stop that movement. Or the Berlin Blockade, with USSR taking control of Germany. But what event produced more tension?
On the one hand, the Truman Doctrine added tension to the Cold War because USA was sending equipment and advice to any country which was, in the American view, threatened by a Communist takeover. They did this as a way of containing Communism.
On the other hand, the Berlin Blockade added much more tension to the Cold War, because as people living in the Soviet zone wanted to leave that zone, and Stalin, who had the control of Germany´s capital, closed all the railways and any possible way of going away from that zone, and that hurted a lot of countries and people.
To conclude, I think the Berlin Blockade added more tension to the Cold War that the Truman Doctrine because that involved more countries.

Vietnam War

 1. Describe American involvement in South Vietnam between 1854 and 1963
In 1954 the US applied a different rule: it prevented elections from taking place because it feared that the Communists would win. The Americans thought that China and the USSR were planning to spread Communism, and if Vietnam fell, many other countries (Laos, Thailand, etc.) would fall with it, and Americans were determined to resist the spread. In 1955, US helped the extremely corrupt president of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, to set up the Republic of South Vietnam (set up in December 1960), as he was anti-Communist and prepared to exile Communists. By 1962, President Kennedy was sending military personnel to fight the Viet Cong, arms and soldiers that were called “Advisers”. In 1963 and 1964, tension between North and South Vietnam increased and so did American involvement. However, Kennedy said he was determined that the US would not “blunder into war, unclear about aims or how to get out again”.  On March 1965, America was at war in Vietnam.

2. Why was Cuba important to the USA? 
Cuba was important to Usa since they were allies and negotiate together. Also Usa owned most of the businesses of Cuba and they had a huge naval base in the Cuba Island. Between 1959-61 Castro took over all this business and he wanted to run Cuba without interference, so Usa broke of diplomatic relations with Cuba. The invasion of USA  in the Island suggest that the USA was unwilling to get directly involved in Cuba. The soviet leader, Krushchev was scroful of Kennedy’s pathetic attempt to remove Communism from Cuba. Soviets was helping Cuba and Americans watched all this with great alarm, so Kennedy asked himself what he could do (Invade, Do nothing, Surgial Air Attack, Blockade, Diplomatic pressures).

3. How far is it true that the USA left the Vietnam War because of military failure? 
The US was involved in the Vietnam War from 1954 to 1973, when they retired all of their forces from the country. Many historians claim that this was due to military failure, but, how far is that true?
To begin with, the war was very different from how the Americans had imagined it. They thought their soldiers would win it easily, as they had largely superior technology and firepower, but the guerrilla tactics implemented by the Viet Cong fighters made this practically impossible. There were also other incidents, as the My Lay massacre and the Tet Offensive, that undermined the USA’s involvement in Vietnam. After the Tet offensive, President Johnson came to the conclusion that the war could not be won militarily.
There were also other factors that contributed to the end of the American involvement in Vietnam. A very important one of them were the huge peace demonstrations in universities and public spaces, in which people complained about the war in Vietnam. These were mainly because the USA was not only spending enormous amounts of money in the war, but also because they were sending hundreds of thousands of young men to fight a war that was not theirs. Moreover, many people were horrified when the My Lai massacre came to light. President Nixon (the one who pulled the USA out of Vietnam) was also involved in the Watergate Scandal.
In conclusion, military failure was an important cause for ending the USA involvement in Vietnam war, but there were also other reasons that made this happen.

4. Why did the unity of allies break down by 1945 and 1947?
The unit of allies between USA and USSR break down by 1945 and 1947, because they had different thoughts and wanted different things, Truman didn’t trust Stalin. Stalin was not respecting the agreement.