Ice, Baby, Ice?

With everything you have read and as we talk about the origins of the Cold War, I want to spend some time developing our understanding so we can begin to formulate our own perspectives. We will begin this process by identifying what you believe, at this point, to be the primary social, political, and economic causes of the Cold War. Second, in your view, is there a primary cause? If so, what is it? If not, why not? Third, is either the USSR to blame, the US to blame, both to blame, or is nobody to blame for causing the Cold War?

Since you may be thinking about this for the first time, your opinions may be subject to change over time, and that is okay. If your opinion does not change, that is fine as well. As long as your perspective is based on sound logic and fact, this is a success. To help facilitate this process, review and comment on a minimum of 3 of your classmates posts. This should help you question your own perspective and form a better, more conclusive understanding. I am genuinely looking forward to reading what you have to say!

  I believe the origins of the cold war date back to WWII.  US/USSR relations during the war turned into strong tension from the war in the Pacific, including the US' use of the atomic bomb.  Instead of allowing Russia to help finish the war, Truman had Russia hold off for just a few weeks longer.  In that period, the US bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending the war.  The USSR felt that the United States had wanted the glory of winning the war, which caused hard feelings.  The US didn't want communist success in the war, either.  Total losses on the Allied side were greatest for Russia, which was another cause of the bad feelings that Russians felt towards the US.  Soviets also felt threatened by the US' nuclear technology.  No one else in the world had such powerful weapons, but Russia definitely had the resources to make them, and they weren't going to live with such a powerful threat right in Alaska's backyard.
  I think a lot more of the tension of the Cold War came from post-war Europe's poor economic state.  The new countries that were established from war-broken boundaries were vulnerable to USSR implementation of Communism.  Western Europe was most succeptible because of the much worse conditions they faced than Eastern Europe.  Germany was a point of great alarm and conflict because of the Berlin wall.  The wall literally divided Communism from Germany's newly developed government.  The wall was also considered part of the Iron Curtain, containing Communism on the East side of it.
  The US fear of Communism was probably the largest factor to cause tension in the war.  The US took preventative measures to block out Communism from spreading to the vulnerable states in post-war Europe.  It wanted to make sure that Communism was not spread to Latin America and South America, because they could be strongly affiliated with Soviet Russia. 
  All in all, I think the US is really to blame for the start of the Cold War, because the US developed the A-Bomb and the US took strong measures (ex. Marshall Plan) to keep Communism out of countries.

Prezi summary

My prezi focused on Total war and the aspects of total war in WWII.  The war was considered a total war because of the many ways the war affected not just the people fighting.  Many people on the homefronts were killed.  Fighting took place in cities and farms, so more than just soldiers were taken out.  Advancing technology allowed each military to be relentless and bomb/nuke/take out hundreds of thousands of people in matters of days.

Prezi

http://prezi.com/4znvtmzjjqkj/total-war/

Night, by Eliezer Wiesel

Well, Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel was just a boy when the Holocaust took place.  Elie recounts the many traumatic events that occured while he was displaced through several concentration camps.  Not only was he starved,  beaten and overworked, but he was mentally scarred, something that to him will last forever.  The things he saw, the pains he bore, the many tragedies that could not break him all happened to him in a matter of a few years.  Wiesel was a strong boy.  Physically, he did the work he was forced to do.  He was worked to the core, everything about him physically did not, could not work when he was finally freed.  He was beaten, and tossed about.  Luck kept him alive.  The decisions he made were crucial to his survival, but he did not know any consequences of his actions beforehand.  Instead of going with the children, he went with the men, who laboured intensely.  Most children were put to death at that point.  Seeing the ashes rise from the smokestacks puzzled him, until he realized what the ashes meant.  Thousands upon thousands, millions upon millions of innocent people were killed because of stereotype, greed, and hostility.  Elie would not give up.  He saw too many people collapse, freeze in the snowy onslaught during a bitter storm, and burn in the giant "ovens".  Each of those faces- they all had a face.  Sharp, clear, innocent faces of people who had families, who had lives, who each had the ability to change others' lives- burned a memory in Eliezer Wiesel that cannot be taken from him.  It is the true specifics that change how we see the war.  It was not just murder.  It was physical and mental torture, and then psycopathic murder.  A warm shower turned into a bitter death.  Shovels, blood, flesh, dirt, bodies-once people- altered Eliezer Wiesel's life.

Goff! Moss! Terry! Upshur! Schroeder! 124-137

Tragedy: To an extent the war was a tragedy because of the many lives that were changed and lost.  After the war, however, was a direct continuation of the actual tragedy of war.  Attempting to dissolve hatred and hostility between countries Wilson devised a plan of common unity known as the League of Nations.  Although he, himself, did not want to be part of it, Wilson played an active role with promoting European involvement within the organization.  The goals of the League were to ensure that a global war like WWI never happened again.  The book defines it well as "Collective Security".  If every country would have done their part to promote and maintain peace, this collective security could have prevented another war.

What good came of the war?
The United States learned from the war and engineered rockets, airplanes, submarines, and tanks.  Intense preparation for WWII was going on, just in case.  The United States economy boomed with easily produced consumer goods which sold at much lower prices than ever had in history. Society greatly changed because of the war.

Gilbert! 80-98 Questions

My question for this chapter involves mostly how the chapter talked about the Irish involvement in the war:

-Were smaller nations/nations with weaker military forces (ex. Ireland) pivotal in determining the fate of the war?

Another question or thought I had was involving Roumania's decision to join the Allies in the war.  Although they remained neutral for the first two years of the war, could it be considered an imperialistic interest of theirs to join the Allies in hopes of gaining land?

Goff!Moss!Terry!Upshur! 102-115

WWI changed the way the world saw war.  So many new inventions and ideas combined to alter the face of war as the war was going on.  German U-boats gave them effective spying tactics, which was an advantage no one else had.  Their submarines influenced the U.S. into joining the war.  Germany was also effective at blockading the British with the submarine.  Machine guns, although they had many flaws, were able to mow down the enemies' rushing teams.  Their presence in the war caused a stalemate between the powers.  I think technology changes the way we interact with other people.  Today, cell phones and the internet have changed communication between people to an extent that more and more people are losing their "people skills" and can't carry on a normal conversation.  However, technology has given many nations the advantage in conflicts or in emergency situations.  Likewise, the war was affected by improving naval forces, guns that took out millions of enemies, tanks that could plow through the toughest of geographic barriers, and many other inventions.