The Cold War Essay -- American History Papers

The Cold War When World War II in Europe finally came to an end on May 7, 1945, a new war was just beginning. The Cold War: denoting the open yet restricted rivalry that developed between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, a war fought on political, economic, and propaganda fronts, with limited recourse to weapons, largely because of fear of a nuclear holocaust.1 This term, The Cold War, was first used by presidential advisor Bernard Baruch during a congressional debate in 1947. Intelligence operations dominating this war have been conducted by the Soviet State Security Service (KGB) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), representing the two power blocs, East and West respectively, that arose from the aftermath of World War II. Both have conducted a variety of operations from large scale military intervention and subversion to covert spying and surveillance missions. They have known success and failure. The Bay of Pigs debacle was soon followed by Kennedy's ft handling of the Cuban missile crisis. The decisions he made were helped immeasurably by intelligence gathered from reconnaissance photos of the high altitude plane U-2. In understanding these agencies today I will show you how these agencies came about, discuss past and present operations, and talk about some of their tools of the trade. Origin of the CIA and KGB The CIA was a direct result of American intelligence operations during World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt recognized the need to coordinate intelligence to protect the interests of the United States. In 1941, he appointed William J. Donovan to the head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) with headquarters in London. Fo... ...or the enemy and ally alike so as to be able to understand their capabilities and shortcomings without intelligence agencies. The CIA and KGB by themselves cannot assure peace. With the knowledge supplied by each to its leaders, intelligent decisions can be made in the world's best interest. Moreover, the status quo and power base remains relatively stable with the East and West on opposing sides. There can never be true and utterly complete peace, these organizations will continue to exist contrary ignorant ideals of the public for peaceful coexistence. Works Cited 1Encyclopedia Britannia index page 237 2KGB/CIA, Jonathon Bloch page 12 3KGB/CIA, Jonathon Bloch page 21 4CIA: The Inside Story, Andrew Tully page 113 5CIA: The Inside Story, Andrew Tully page 119 6General Thomas R. Phillips, U.S. Army, retired. 7Bay of Pigs, Peter Wyden page 59