The Cold War United States Politics Essay

The Cold War: United States Politics Essay, Research Paper Cold War vs. United States The Cold War ended in 1991 after the Soviet Union fell apart. Since then, Russia’s economy paralyzed, and the United States is three trillion dollars in debt, and both counties were weakened by the Cold War because of military spending. To have world peace does not mean that United States should increase its military strength. The Realist theory would argue that military strength is important to maintain peace both domestically and internationally. Even though the United States as the only superpower remains in certain perspective, the U.S can not be the peace keeper for the whole globe and every state on it. First of all, there are more than two hundred sovereign states in the whole

world, and to have world peace requires every sovereign states’ effort not only the United States but also every other states. A good example was the coalition force led by the United States under UN command which defeated Iraq’s invasion army in Kuwait City in 1991. But the United States still respected Iraq’s sovereignty under international rules. That was probably the reason why President Bush did not order the U.S army to invade Iraq after the U.S led coalition force expelled Iraq’s force in Kuwait. Another example would be when Iraq’s government massacred thousand of ethic minority Kurds when the Kurds rebelled against Iraq government in northern Iraq. The United States did not do a lot to help the Kurds because United States and the rest of the countries around

the world recognized Iraq as a sovereign state in the international community even though that United States had a large military presence in the Persian gul f area during that time. More and more, non goverment organizations also play very important roles in world peace. Since 1945, the United Nations, a non government organization, has helped to bring cease-fire agreements to numerous hot spots around the globe in place like Cambodia or the Mid-East. Individual persons also play important roles in world peace. Such as former President Jimmy Carter, who helped negotiate the peace agreement that restored the democratic elected President Aristide back to his office in Haiti and avoided a direct military confrontation between the United States and the Haiti’s military government

in the last minute. Secondly, the cold war made former Soviet Unions bleed to white but also put the United States three trillion dollars in debt, and the debt is going up too. According to the IRS, the United States government is spending fifteen percent of gross annual revenue just paying off the interest of the three trillions deficits in 1996 (3). So people in the United States wonder where did all the deficit come from? The answer is that during the Cold War, especially during the Reagan administration, military spending skyrocketed because of the fear and mistrusts of a Soviet Union which would pose a threat to world peace. That was the Realism’s way of thinking, that in order to contain the threat of the Communist Soviet Union, the United States spent billions ands

billions of dollars on new weapons, such as the Star War program to increase military strength. Now it is such a big financial burden that the issue of deficits made the United States government shut down twice in 1996 and it continues to be one of the topics of the 1996 presidential election. People could imagine that the United States government could go bankrupt in the future if it keeps on spending and wastes its moneys without certain limits. Another issue here is the environment. Because the United States government built thousands of nuclear bombs to increase its military strength during the cold war, it costs more money now to take the bombs apart and safely store all the hazardous material without polluting the environment. It seems to makes absolutely no sense at all to