Ameilia Yeo CTG119 H1 History How far does a study of the globalization of the Cold War between 1950s

and 1960s, show that the superpowers were the main driving forces (played the largest roles, major factors, determined the outbreak and development, orchestrated the course of the conflict)? Discuss the validity of the statement with references to the Korean War and Cuban Missile Crisis. The Korean War was driven by several countries and parties whereby some had significant roles than others; USA was more of the main driving force and played the significant role in the cause of the Korean War. However, USSR also played a role in the role in the Korean War, but a limited role. Other countries like China and Korea played a small role. In Cuban Missile Crisis, USSR played a larger role in Cuba rather than in Korea. Thus, the study of the globalization of the cold war showed that the superpowers were the main driving forces. The globalization of the cold war was due to the superpowers concern and aims during the Korean War and Cuban missile crisis. Thus, they were significant in the globalization of the cold war. USA felt that both incidents were started by the USSR, and they influenced other countries to start the conflict. USA intervened in the conflict as they wanted to stop the expansion of communism to other countries. USA was more involved in the Cuban missile crisis thus; USSR was also more involved in the Cuban missile crisis. When USA lost their atomic monopoly and china fell, USA was afraid that USSR was being expansionistic and felt that soviet was a threat. They used the Domino Theory to justify them being involved in the conflict. NSC-68 was implemented to continue their military advantage over USSR. USSR had a limited role in the Korean War, mostly in the end where USSR influenced them to extract more concessions from USA and encouraged them to invade South Korea. USSR escalated the conflict to a crisis in Cuban missile crisis as they placed missiles in cuba is actually an act of provocation. USSR also built the Berlin wall as a desperate measure to prevent East Germans from escaping to West Berlin. USSR wanted to keep up militarily and maintain arms parity with USA. Thus, USSR played a larger role in Cuba than in Korea due to their paranoia and pride and was a main driving force in globalizing, militarizing and expanding the conflict. The great control and involvement of the superpowers showed that the superpowers were controlling the situation more than the local leaders. USA determined the direction and escalation of the conflict throughout the two conflicts, more than USSR. Even though both conflicts started as a local problem and issue, when the superpowers got involved, they directed the war. USA determined the escalation of the Korean war when USA had the UN involved when they had a rollback policy where they wanted to remove communism to safeguard democracy. They also did the rollback policy in china, therefore expanding it by involving other countries. However, USSRs role was not as big as USSR did not directly involve them inside the conflict. The U2 incident caused them to be wary and suspicious of each other, a tit-for-tat reaction thus occurred and the USSR placed missiles in Cuba and then denying it caused US suspicions and tensions to rise. As a result, the globalization of the cold war was largely due to the superpowers aims to control the entire conflict.

In the resolution, the two superpowers played a larger role compared to the local leaders. USA directly interfered in the Korean War to fight communism while USSR did not directly involve themselves in the Korean War. In the Cuban missile crisis, USSR sent two letters to USA in an effort to end the conflict and they managed to come to an agreement whereby both the countries removed the missiles. While in the Korean war, USSR influenced the extraction of concessions on Kim and the Chinese prolonged the resolution to the war and it only came to an end when Stalin died. There were also other factors such as the roles of the regional leaders bringing about the Korean war and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Kim II Sung started the Korean war as a civil war as he wanted to unify the Korean peninsula and was a bit provocative as he seek soviet and Chinese support although both gave limited aid initially, and was seen as a Marxist onslaught in the eyes of the USA, making USA paranoid thus making them involved in this saga. In the Cuban missile crisis, Castros aggressive methods and aggression provoked the USA and drew in soviet involvement by trading with them and turning communist. And they asked for Soviets help when they were being ousted by the USA and gave USSR a chance to place missiles in Cuba. They also tried to escalate by asking for even more aid which the soviet gave in to their demands. In conclusion, USA was the main driving forces in both the Korean war and the Cuban Missile Crisis. USSRs role in the Korean War was limited as there was limited participation. Both the actions of the two superpowers in cuba escalated the event and both played a large part in the development of the conflict. And their actions almost led to a nuclear warfare. Local leaders played a much smaller role with their provocative actions.