The Cold War And Vietnam - Research Paper Example

 The Cold War And Vietnam The people who lived in the 1950s through 1970s remember the term 'Cold War' with agony as they always feared that the Cold war might convert into a full-fledged war– perhaps, a nuclear war between two superpowers, namely, the US and Soviet Russia, involving the entire world.It will be indeed interesting to know how the people perceive and disclose the term ‘cold war’ now.Keeping this in mind, I interviewed three people who belonged to different ethnicities and had various cultural backgrounds.

For our understanding and recognition, we will call them Vietnamese, Afro-American and non-Hispanic American of the age between 30 and 35. They all were asked following questions: 1. What precisely do you understand about the term Cold War? 2. Did you ever read about the Cold War any time in the past? If so, could you make any inference from the reading?3. Who were the participating groups or members involved in the Cold War? 4. Can you describe any key events that occurred during the Cold War?

The findings from these interviews can be summarized as per the following:The Vietnamese were quite eloquent when I uttered the word Cold war to him; he told me that his country suffered most during the Cold war. He informed me that he was born in 1981 and heard a lot about the Cold war from his father when he was only 13. “I read quite a lot on cold war when I was in high school” was his short reply on asking about his readings on this subject.He further said, “The US and Soviet Russia were behind the Cold war and used Vietnam to propagate their dominance in the region”.

He became sad when he conveyed to me that thousands of his countrymen got killed during the war in Vietnam. On asking what he understood from the term ‘cold war’, he was very categorical in stating that the US and the Soviet Russia were fighting proxy wars. They never fought with each other directly. He seemed quite knowledgeable in explaining to me that the fight between them was more on ideological grounds. The US thought that free market and democracy should prevail in the world while the USSR’s position was based on the statement that free market cannot do any good to the people and people need not be given any freedom of thought or speech - all activities including production, agriculture, and trade should be under the state control.

The diametrically opposite views between these two superpowers were causing all troubles. On the other hand, Afro-American was not aware of the term ‘cold war’ at all. He thought about the Cold war in terms of a war between two groups doing illegal drug business. Since they never come out in the open, their stories are published in the newspapers. In short, he was associating the phrase‘cold war’ as “fight among goons” where ordinary people have nothing to do. He also confirmed having not read anything about the Cold war in the school.

Non-Hispanic American had sufficient knowledge about the Cold war. He was aware of the fact that before the collapse of the Soviet Russia, the relations between the US and the USSR were very tense. He said“Soviet Russia had planted nuclear missiles in Cuba to attack the US. But with the counter threat by the US president, those missiles were later removed when the US gave assurance to the Soviet Russia that they will not attack Cuba”. In his mind, this was the most dreaded event of the Cold war.

It is quite clear that at least one respondent – African American did not know about the term ‘cold war’ because he never read anything about it in the past. What he loosely explained as entirely his own imagination. The understanding of Vietnamese and non-Hispanic American of the war was quite in line with the details mentioned in the overview. Vietnamese knew about the Cold war more in detail because of his background and the suffering that his countrymen had gone through; also, he had read about the Cold war during his school-days.

Similarly, a non-Hispanic American had a fairly good image of the term ‘cold war’ and some of its consequences. ReferenceRowland, H. (2000). The Cold War. uhaweb.hartford.edu. Retrieved December 10, 2012, from hartford.edu. http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/rowland/coldwar.htm