The Cold War: Part One

4/27/2020

Target Timeline: Thursday 4.30

A) What is your take on MAD?
B) Were you comforted by the Duck and Cover school video?
C) How are The Cold War and the Space Race historically connected?
D) How are the actions of the United States noticeably different after WWII than WWI?

Angel Brillon

4/27/2020 02:58:33 pm

A) My take on MAD is that total annihilation shouldn't be brought upon other innocent humans or homes that they live.
B)Yes, I was confronted by those videos
C)Both countries were competing to be the best as in evolve more like space exploration and nuclear powered weapons. While the cold war was going on both sides were still evolving to become powerful and then space race appeared to be the first to go to space.
D)WWII aftermath is that they tried every german/nazi who was involved with the events of WWII then they made a international organization to ensure peace which created help for people. But soon the Alliance breaks apart since France and Britain were drained and Germany was defeated and with no economic power left United States and Soviet Union were the only ones standing with economic power. WWI had made the US emerge into important powers.

Sherer

4/27/2020 03:05:36 pm

You were comforted? Really? Also, thanks for the post, but not very detailed answers nor are they overall correct.

Anthony Chapman

4/27/2020 07:13:11 pm

A)It was a great way to cause hesitation of both sides from doing something drastic like causing a fallout but it did cause a lot of tense moments.
B)No, because an atomic bomb is very powerful it could wipe out large building structures simply duck and covering wouldn’t help also after the fact radiation would skyrocket so if you somehow survived the explosion doubt you’d make it after.
C)The Cold War was a war of brains and technology pushing the limits of how far we could go with weapons of war and it was technically a race between Russia and America to see who could come up with the better weapon first, the space race was the same thing except it was with things to do with going beyond Earth with the goal starting small in the beginning like the Cold War but growing over time to see who could be the first to put a man on the moon.
D)After WW1 the USA didn’t change too much after that because nothing big happened during the time the USA was in WW1 but after WW2 the United States felt as if they were a great military force because of the contribution they had in WW2 that caused the US to expand more and take control over places like Hawaii and the Caribbean.

Sherer

4/28/2020 07:29:37 am

Hey Anthony! Long time to "see." A-C are pretty good but there are some historical accuracy issues with D and also a general lack of supporting evidence. Remember these units build, so "skipping" to unit 17 is going to leave some pretty big gaps in our understanding.

Dillen Holbo

4/28/2020 03:04:24 pm

A) MAD caused hesitation between the US and USSR regarding dropping bombs because essentially, as the name Mutually Assured Destruction suggests, it was a threat of “what you do to me, I’ll do back to you”. Of course, it’s unfortunate that we would come to the point of threatening entire populations with a weapon but it’s a good thing that we managed to avoid these bombings through MAD.
B) Duck and Cover is not comforting at all. It’s especially not comforting due to certain eerie lines such as when the narrator said something along the lines of “there may not be adults around when the bomb drops so you’ll be on your own.” Plus, in a way, the video does not protect the children it is targeted towards. If the bomb were to drop, children could die instantly and the video plays it off as a burn or being thrown against a tree or wall at worst.
C) Both the Cold War and the Space Race showed heavy competition in who could make advancements first between the US and USSR/Russia. In the Cold War it was a race to see who could make the more advanced military weapons while the space race was to see who could make scientific, specifically space science, achievements first.
D) After WW1 the US went into the Great Depression and was taking out loans from Europe, putting us into a huge debt as a country. However, after WW2, the US made hugely expensive aid packages worth billions of dollars for European countries in the close following Cold War, which would suggest we had come out with more money than the last war.

Sherer

4/29/2020 10:37:38 am

Good stuff here! Let us be clear about something, the space race was bot about landing on the moon at first, but rather creating high-powered rockets that could carry ICBMs, everything from the moon landing to the Hubble telescope was a byproduct of the initial goals. That is why Braun is such an interesting figure in the early story (from the Recovery of WWII lesson). As far as D, a major change should be seen in isolationism vs. collective security and the Truman Doctrine.

Antonio Marquez

4/30/2020 10:40:28 pm

A) What is your take on MAD?
I feel like this was something that helped the nations prevent a disaster from happening. The MAD doctrine was formed as a military tactic between the U.S and the USSR to stop nuclear power from being used to obliterate each nation.

B) Were you comforted by the Duck and Cover school video?
I was not comforted by the video because what the narrator was explaining for the kids to do during this situation wouldn’t help them out at all. I believe that this can even possibly be propaganda because it is giving them false hope of safety when there would have been very slim to no survival.

C) How are The Cold War and the Space Race historically connected?
The Cold War was a competition of politics, economics, and weaponized advancements between the U.S and the USSR. The Space Race was a competition to develop the best aerospace advancements.

D) How are the actions of the United States noticeably different after WWII than WWI?
With your information provided on Dillen’s post with the Truman Doctrine and isolationism, it seems like they don’t really want to fight as much, they just don’t want to associate with their enemy. WWI was more of a fight, a war, and a bloodshed.

Sherer

5/4/2020 01:05:18 pm

Good point, how could a side be sincerely enthusiastic if both sides were destined to be obliterated and buried in nuclear ash!?

Jolene Johnson

5/1/2020 09:47:32 am

B) The duck and cover video did not make me feel comforted because it was unrealistic. If and atomic bomb were to go off ducking under a desk or behind a wall would not save you. Showing kids covering themselves with newspapers or a blanket would not stop the blast from killing them. I thought by showing the video it would make kids more afraid of the bomb dropping by bringing attention to the possibility of it happening.

Kid

5/1/2020 12:46:14 pm

A) I think MAD was a good policy between the nations because both sides were scared to attack and even if they did attack, they were scared to deal with the consequences and devastation that their country will face. MAD was a good thing because it prevented a big destruction between the two superpowers in the cold war and it led to them to avoid bombings on both countries. There are people who thought it was dumb but it is that dumb policy that saved their lives.
B) No, I wasn’t comforted with the video duck and cover. It was a disturbing video because telling kids to duck and cover and thinking it would actually protect you against an atomic bomb is unbelievable. Telling kids to watch out for an atomic bomb everywhere they go at anytime would stress them out. Kids are supposed to enjoy their childhood instead of living in fear every day because two nations want to become the dominant country. Making the citizens of your country suffer because of the government’s pride disgusts me to be honest. The worst part of all this is that the duck and cover wouldn’t even work if an atomic bomb was actually launched. The explosion can crush you, the blast can crush buildings, and the radiation can poison you; there is nothing duck and cover can do for you against an atomic bomb, it was just a stupid defense propaganda and the defense minsters should be ashamed of themselves.
C) The Cold War and the Space Race were historically connected because it was another battle between the superpower countries to show who had the best science and technology, they were both trying to show who had the upper hand in rocket research which would benefit their military. The U.S. and the USSR were racing to see who had better military weapons and the USSR started leading the arms race by putting ballistic missiles in space first; by putting the ICBMs in space it showed that they had an advantage in weapons against America. Since the Cold War was a war to show who had or create better weapons, the Space Race was connected to it because their main goal was to create rockets that can take their missiles to space, missiles that were capable of reaching any target and were immune to any defensive measures. While they had some side goals like getting to space first and landing on the moon first, their top priority was to build a missile and send it to space to increase their military strength and to show which country was supreme.
D) America’s goal after WW1 was to focus more on improving their own government, they wanted to become isolationists to prevent America from getting involved in a European war. They also wanted to prevent communist influences from getting into America because communism threatened to change the American culture and America thought that if it isolated itself from Europe, it could also isolate itself from its cultural influences. America’s goal after WW2 was to follow the policy of the Truman Doctrine and isolate the Soivet Union and stop it from spreading communism to other countries. America wanted to contain the spread of communism and encourage democracy, they wanted to spread their culture influences to other countries. America also wanted to make an alliance system between the democratic countries to boost their security and military, the alliance system also benefits America because it promotes American values of democracy. To sum it up America’s goals differ after WW1 and WW2 because in WW1 America only thought about keeping itself safe from communist influences and European wars and in WW2 America thought that they should stop the spread of communism to other countries as well because they can be in danger if all of them turned to a communist country.

Robert Joseph Jordan

5/4/2020 11:18:48 am

A) Although I like the idea of MAD, it has too many flaws for it to be effective. The general idea of MAD sounds reasonable alone, because it explains why two or more powerful nations would not want to engage in a nuclear war; destruction of all nations involved would benefit no one. However, there are several criticisms, as shown in the anti-MAD document, that prove why it wouldn't work at all. Any country that wants to take over would simply take advantage of these flaws, and MAD would be useless.

B) Not at all. Not only is the "duck and cover" method the only practical protocol to take at any given time for this situation, the looming, uncontrollable threat of an atomic bomb possibly dropping at a random time is not something that is easily ignored. In many cases, the duck and cover method won't do much at all, but is the only thing you could do at a moment's notice. It doesn't really matter though, because if an atomic bomb gets dropped, it's all over.

C) The Space Race was simply a way to show which nation could launch a large missile over a long distance. Whoever could get a spacecraft to the moon first would be the first one to launch a missile to the other country. Since the cold war was about having the better technology, the winner of the Space Race would be the one winning the war at the time.

D) After WW1, the United States wanted to quickly go back to worrying about itself, while after WW2, it started to become involved with international affairs. Once WW1 ended, the U.S. immediately brought back all of their troops, and resorted back to isolationism. However, after WW2, they started helping other nations, got involved in the Cold War, and so forth.

Sherer

5/4/2020 01:06:14 pm

Robert and Kid, you both make excellent points. Well done. You will both be very prepared for next year's history course.

The Cold War: Part One

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