Questions and Essay - 04

 

The Cold War: Who Won?

 

You should try to answer these questions from your reading.  If you can't figure out the answer, look up the terms (using a web searcher, like Google).  These questions are meant for you to check your knowledge of this unit:

  • What was the Cold War?
  • When did it begin, when did it end?
  • Why "cold"? Why "war"?
  • Describe the major defining events in the Cold War (for example, the Berlin airlift, Sputnik, the Cuban missile crisis, Czechoslovakia invasion, the Afghan Invasion, Polish "Solidarity"); define and describe major concepts of the Cold War (for example, the Iron Curtain, NATO, Satellites, Detente, Third World, The China Card and the Domino Theory, Berlin Wall, MAD (mutually assured destruction), SALT, "Evil Empire").

The Russian leaders, Yeltsin and Putin, both established their credentials in the Soviet Union before becoming leaders of Russia in the post-Soviet period. Yeltsin was a political rebel who survived attempts to undercut his power by the last Soviet leader, Gorbachev, and became the founder of the new Russia.  Putin and Medvedev are very different professionals: not politicians, but security and business specialists. They are no less a product of Soviet training and experience, and they carry much Soviet experience into the position of President of post-Soviet Russia.

 

DAILY ESSAY

 

In 1991, with the demise of the USSR, America and the West celebrated their victory in the Cold War. But has the Cold War ended, or rather, is the US wise to view the Soviet Union as having been totally defeated? Is the "Evil Empire" gone? Or are there Cold War issues that still affect US-Russian relations? Write an essay on the Cold War, as seen 17 years after it "ended." Has the competition that drove the Cold War ended? What should we as Americans expect from President Medvedev. Give examples to illustrate your points.

Write about 500 words, which is two pages, double spaced 12 pt. Save the essay as a file and send the essay to me via e-mail AS AN ATTACHMENT or via the Assignment Collector by the midnight deadline.

 

 

Presidents Bush and Putin sign nuclear arms reduction treaty, Moscow, May 24, 2002. "This treaty liquidates the Cold War legacy of nuclear hostility between our two countries."

<><><>