Assigment 4 - Questions Contemporary World Assignment

Assigment 4 - Questions Contemporary World - Assignment Example Basically, the administration was focused on stockpiling enough nuclear weapons and arsenal to prevent the country in case of an attack from the Soviet Union. The resulting outcome would be so immense that the enemy would be assured of â€Å"total destruction†. This led to the establishment of the philosophy of nuclear deterrence (Brown, 31). The concept of MAD was not only put into practice by the US/USSR but also the Cuban. The concept almost came into practice eight months after McNamara’s speech by the Cuban Missile Crisis. However, the conflict was solved amicably without military intervention. The Korean and Vietnam’s proxy wars played vital roles in the duration of the Cold war. The Vietnam War was major accredited to the latter stages of the development and the start of the cold war. On the other hand, the Korean War mainly contributed to the causes and development of the Cold War. These two wars exhibit some similarities and some contrasts mainly in the causes and development. These include; The Korean war was fought in the early 1950’s. It was characterized by heightened tension that resulted to communist threat to Asian borders. Coincidentally, Korean war coincided with China’s involvement in Cold War. Importantly, the war leads to massive increase in Cold war tensions hence the concept of McCarthyism. The war brought China in the limelight following the decision by US to cross Chinese borders. The stalemate that existed between the two countries signified change in leadership for USSR, hence reduced tension between the countries. The ideas of Glasnost and Gorbachev played a vital role in shaping the current status of Europe. The ideas of Glasnost and Gorbachev were characterized by openness and played a major role in political and economic restructuring of Europe (Gibbs, 17). It is worth noting that these ideologies deviated from the old centralized control and communists that had dominated major parts of