John Tirman argues that the Cold War was one of the ways that America "screwed up the world". He cites several examples of American intervention that have had disastrous effects on the world. I'm not sure he give the Soviet Union enough credit for the destruction. what do you think? Today we will create a collage to visualize the problems and results of the cold war.
Did America screw up the world during the Cold War? Agree or disagree with John Tirman's essay. Comment on each other's posts, connect your argument, or team up with other people in the class to make your case.
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Full text of Tirman's essay
The Cold War: Excerpt from 100 Ways America Is Screwing Up the World
By John Tirman
When Harry Truman and Joseph Stalin kicked off the Cold War in the late 1940’s, they probably didn’t realize what a long game it would be-fully forty years of foot stomping, captive nations, petty dictators, surrogate wars, massive human-rights violations, wasted resources, and, of course, the nuclear arms race. The Cold War stands as the destructive centerpiece of the twentieth century, second only to Hitler’s and Tojo’s murderous lunacy. It was a state for east posturing while the drama itself wrought immense havoc. Ad its force field of waste, militarism, and fraudulent ideas continues to beset the world.
Containing Stalin’s expansionist tendencies was a sound idea, but the political, diplomatic, and economic encirclement urged by the architect of the policy, George Kennan, soon became a military doctrine and, inevitably, a military circus. Republican president Dwight D. Eisenhower, no wilting flower when it came to the armed forces, warned at the end of his presidency of the “undue influence of the military-industrial complex.” More prescient words were never spoken by any occupant of the White House.
The United States pursued a military strategy that proved unprincipled, counterproductive, and financial ruinous. It emphasized not only nuclear deterrence, but arming vicious strongmen the world over. This resulted in genocides in Guatemala and Cambodia, massively lethal wars in Angola and Mozambique, whole regions roiled by repression and conflict. “Triumphs” like supporting the Afghan mujahideen or the coup to install the shah of Iran turned against us. Direct wars in Korea and Vietnam took huge tolls-one million dead in Vietnam, a Korea still divided. The financial costs of the Cold War have been conservatively calculated in the trillions of dollars, and opportunity costs for American education, cities, infrastructure, and the other crumbling elements of our country are glaring. The costs in political liberty, in dashed democratic hopes in Latin America, much of Africa, Iran and Pakistan, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere cannot be calculated.
This is not an argument or moral equivalence. The Soviets were just as nasty abroad, and nastier at home. But the point is not to say who triumphed or who was worse or who spurred this or that phase of the hostility. Rather, it was almost all unnecessary, especially after Stalin died in 1953 and reformers came to power after that decade in Moscow. Despite that, the serious costs of the Cold War-the nuclear arms race, which only got going in the 1960’s, the proxy wars in Africa, Indochina, and Latin America, and the grip on various surrogate strongmen-were accrued long after Stalin was gone.
Was there another way? As it happened, the ideals of American democracy and prosperity triumphed in spite of the military waster and belligerency. The Soviet system was always most vulnerable to ideas rather than missiles. The growing disparity between Western lifestyles and the deprivations in the USSR, including political and cultural freedoms, became increasingly apparent. Civil society activists in Western Europe-greens, peaceniks, feminists, etc.-cultivated their counterparts in Eastern Europe with a simple logic: the Cold War is bad for everybody, so let’s demand its end. Europe was the buffer for the East-West rivalry, overflowing with troop deployments and spackled with nuclear weapons, and Europeans themselves were tired of the two behemoths threatening each other across fences. By the late 1970’s, they had had enough, and were saying so in large numbers and with great clarity.
American politics would not listen, of course, being in the habit of embracing Europe and remaining deaf to it at the same time. Détente did not sit well with much of the American policy and opinion elite, especially as U.S. misadventures and strongmen and strongmen in Vietnam and the rest of the Southeast Asia, the Persian Gulf, Central America, and parts of Africa began to unravel. Jimmy Carter, stunned by the Islamic Revolution and the consequent Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, stoked up the arms race and ended détente, policies confirmed and strengthened by his successor, Ronald Reagan.
But the toughening at the top merely stirred the activism from below, and the peace movements in Europe and America, the growing boldness of civil society activists in Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and Hungary, and a broad, global opprobrium regarding the arms race began to have an effect. The new human rights movement achieved and enormous breakthrough with the Helsinki accords of 1975(opposed by Reagan and halfheartedly endorsed by Democrats), which proved to be a powerful devise to carve space for activism in the Soviet bloc and build strong global norms more widely. All the while, transnational activism among scientists, for instance, on both who were worried by the nuclear brinkmanship-created its own opportunities, convinced opinion elites that the government were out of step, and paced the way for broad public support for an end to the hostilities. When Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985, he was seeking reform, but instead witnessed (and, importantly, allowed) a revolution from below. It finally brought down the rotting Soviet Empire. Reagan, chastened by the Iran-contra scandal, saved his presidency by embracing Gorbachev’s reformism and witnessed the activists lead the way to the end of the Cold War. With some luck, it all could have happened twenty-five years earlier.
The misapprehensions of the Cold War as a military victory for the United States has already led to new tragic mistakes. The Cold War incurred colossal costs, too great, really, to calculate. They remain with us today-nuclear weapons, overbuilt militaries, rogue intelligence agencies, human rights violations, failed states, and cultures of violence and reaction throughout much of the world.
America’s role in the Cold War is not one to glorify-if it was occasionally necessary, in some way, this need was always over pursued and its noxious practices made permanent. No, rather, the Cold War should be phenomena to learn from, a pedagogical opportunity we have yet to engage.
I believe the cold war did screw up America because it left a big scar in society.For example, many people died and it could have been prevented to start with.This STARTED genocides in Guatemala and Cambodia,and wars in Angola and Mozambique.On the other hand it may have been good because it brought down the Soviet Union but it still screwed up America because the society is stil trying to repair many problems caused by the genocide. The genocide caused growning disparities between Western lives and deprivations in the USSR
I do think america screwed up in the cold war because in the article it says that they economic problems.Also in the article it says that america did not held out alot in the cold war alot but they were still apart of it
Q: Did America screw up the world during the Cold War? Agree or disagree with John Tirman's essay. Comment on each other's posts, connect your argument, or team up with other people in the class to make your case.
A: America did screw up the world a little because, "America’s role in the Cold War is not one to glorify-if it was occasionally necessary, in some way, this need was always over pursued and its noxious practices made permanent." This is showing that America gave unwanted help and the people in other countries suffered because of our "help".
I agree with Alexis. America did screw up the world in the Cold War. America is one of the top countries and we always wantto help people, but we don't realize that everyone doesn't nee our help at all. Because of what we did during the Cold War millions of people were killed in Japan because of the atomic bomb let loose on them. Series of events happened because of the one thing we thought we had to do. We set a bomb off and it scared other people so they made their bombs and now there are bombs missing from places. We have no idea who has the bombs now. For all we know a countrythat hates us has it and the next thing you know America will be bombed. I know America may have screwed up the world, but I think America does need to be cut a little slack because we are growing as every country is and like kids we make mistakes and we learn from them.
I think that Tirman is right in a way."America’s role in the Cold War is not one to glorify-if it was occasionally necessary, in some way, this need was always over pursued and its noxious practices made permanent." In some ways the war needed to happen but if there were many negitive affects as well. "captive nations, petty dictators, surrogate wars, massive human-rights violations, wasted resources, and, of course, the nuclear arms race. The Cold War stands as the destructive centerpiece of the twentieth century, second only to Hitler’s and Tojo’s murderous lunacy." But we can not just blame the United States for their role becasue Russia was involved too. They could have tried to put an end to the "fight".
yes America did screw up the world. America is always sticking their head into other countries business. We are the ones who made the first nuke bomb witch is what lead to the cold war. If we did not do this their would not even have been a arms race. Once we started making bombs other countries followed and now some of the countries have unaccounted for nuke bombs. How do you lose a nuke bomb? or they have sold them to people such as terrorists. America has always had the tendency to stick their nose into other countries business even when we are not wanted.
America dont think that america screwed up the world during the cold war. America wasnt the onl country involved in the war, there were other countries. the nuclear arms race though went too far. it wasnt important to have as many or more nuclear arms as Russia. that was really expensive, the money could have been better spent on more important things that could have benefited the United States.
i agree with what alexis said about america giving so called help to countries during the cold war. however i would also argue that it was not just americas fault because had america not built up its nuclar arms then russia would have control over the world in a sense because of america didnt have nuclear weapons then russia alone would have them and if the attacked someone with the america nor any country around the world could not strike back giving ussia control of the world. that is why it was a proper and appropriate thing to do building up its arms.
Did America screw up the world during the Cold War? The answer to that quesion is simple...yes. The United States did things that did screw up the world during the Cold War. "The United States pursued a military strategy that proved unprincipled, counterproductive, and financial ruinous." (The Cold War: Excert from 100 Ways America Is Screwing Up the World) This does in fact show that the United States had bad strategy and that they did waste money. That waste of money did in fact make it so that the financial costs of the Cold War came out to be trillion of dollars. That really does show that the United States really did screw up the world.
Q: Did America screw up the world during the Cold War? Agree or disagree with John Tirman's essay. Comment on each other's posts, connect your argument, or team up with other people in the class to make your case.
A: I belive that america did screw up in the war beacuase we got into yet another countries beeswax. As we said in class we are still paying for some things like wasted money and the arms race. also with this build up of guns the russians made i easy for countries like africa have horrible trible wars and they make guns very cheap... personally i think that this war was just to see which guy had more ball and the ordasity to take it to the next level-----Bovell ----Hilary for da 08
Yes america screwed up the the cold war because the american military started to give advice to the people in the cold war when they had everything under control. "The united states pursued a military strategy that proved unprincipal, counterproductive and financial ruinous." This basically means that the USA wanted to take a part into the cold war when they didnt need to.
I do believe that America did mess up in the cold war because i think all the countries were confused especially the U.S like the communism between one another, and we were not even needed in the war. And the government did get into something they didnt need to and now because of that, we let off a bomb that should not had happened and we have that mistake on our back for years.
pjdAmerica did not screw up the world in the cold war. They did screw up some aspects of America though. They used American soilders as guinea pigs for their nuclear testing. Also, they spent millions/billions of dollars to intimidate their enemies in a pointless war. This money could have been used for several different needs. Such as budgets for education and jobs and things of that nature but instead they flushed it down the tubes and completely misused our tax money.
Yes i do think that America screwed up the world in the cold war because America is always minding other countries an dnations buissness trying to always be the on on top, bu that always cant be the case.They always want to help and get into buissnes that doesn't concern them. Also America wants to help in situations were there advice isnt neccesary. Thats one reason why the Cold War even started because of competition and wanting to mind another's counties buissness.
-Phylicia Lilly
America did screw up in thr cold war because in the article it left economic problems and damage our soceity. Many people died and this caused genocide and all this could have been prevented. But instead the killing went on in guatemala and cambodia. the soceity is trying to fix problems caused by genocide.
__KRISTINA__
America did screw up the world in the Cold War. America is one of the top countries and we always want to help people, but we don't realize that everyone doesn't need our help at all. Because of what we did during the Cold War millions of people were killed in Japan because of the atomic bomb let loose on them. Series of events happened because of the one thing we thought we had to do. We set a bomb off and it scared other people so they made their bombs and now there are bombs missing from places. We have no idea who has the bombs now. For all we know a countrythat hates us has it and the next thing you know America will be bombed. I know America may have screwed up the world, but I think America does need to be cut a little slack because we are growing as every country is and like kids we make mistakes and we learn from them.The United States did things that did screw up the world during the Cold War. "The United States pursued a military strategy that proved unprincipled, counterproductive, and financial ruinous." (The Cold War: Excert from 100 Ways America Is Screwing Up the World) This does in fact show that the United States had bad strategy and that they did waste money. That waste of money did in fact make it so that the financial costs of the Cold War came out to be trillion of dollars. That really does show that the United States really did screw up the world.
Americas role in the cold war screwed up the world. No one can win a nuclear war. Because America discovered nuclear weapons, soviet russia thought that they had to protect themselves. So they decided to make an effort and come up with stronger nuclear weapons. As a result of this, the battle began. Both countries made better and better weapons and attepmted to out do each other making powerful weapons. If we look at what is going on in Iraq today, then we realize that because of the cold war. We have all these powerful weapons and it is beacuse of the arms race in the 1940s.
i agree with Tirman: "America’s role in the Cold War is not one to glorify-if it was occasionally necessary, in some way, this need was always over pursued and its noxious practices made permanent."however i would also argue that it was not just americas fault because had america not built up its nuclar arms then russia would have control over the world in a sense
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