Throughout time different powers have fought each other whether if it s for land, politics, or they just don t agree on anything. More recently, one of the most well-known conflicts between modern countries has to be given to the United States and Russia, or other known as the USSR. Although not as old as Russia, the United States has proven itself one of the most powerful countries in the world along side Russia. Yet its not just to see who is more powerful, one of the strongest motives for the conflict is politics. One side believes that Capitalism is the best option for the people of its country while the other believes that Communism is the way to go, and while they are at each other s throats, there have been some instances that indicate a possible friendly relationship between the two superpowers. In recent years, and by recent, I mean in the past century give or take a few years, each country has shown some kind of diplomacy towards each other. Examples such as the ARA aiding the Russians during the famine, WW1, and WW2. In each of these situations, each country has put their differences aside to work with each other to reach a common goal, but there have been sometimes where the two countries have been at each other s throats. One example is the Cold War, in which nuclear war was almost guaranteed. If it weren t for the work of two ambassadors from each country, many of us wouldn t be here today. The only way they could reach an agreement was because of M.A.D, or Mutually Assured Destruction, meaning if one country were to fire its missiles, the other country would have time to fire its missiles back. Another example of the two countries trying to out do the other was during the space race, which was a competition between the USSR and the United States to see who had the best technology, science, and economic system. The history of the relationship with Russia has dated back many years, but it became evident back in 1914 when the First World War broke out between the Allied and Central Powers when the United States started trading with the Allied powers. It then grew much stronger after Germany threatened the United States after sending a telegram to Mexico asking for its support in the war if the United States join and if they did, Germany promised to help them recover land that was lost in the 1840s. This alliance with the Central powers improved relations between the two powers especially with them fighting side by side. In order for the United States to keep the Russians in the war, Ambassador David R Francis wanted to recognize the new Russian Government, which the United States become the first foreign power to recognize the new government. Later in in the war, after the United States joined on the side of the allies in 1917, the Russian government was faced with a new threat, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin who was exiled to Germany. He became the leader of a revolution of workers and peasants known as the Bolsheviks. The government gave up without a fight and the United States along with the rest of the Allied powers watched the Bolsheviks slowly take Russian poster that reads War until Victory over the government. This concerned the United States because this meant that Russia would pull out of the war, so president Woodrow Wilson brought fourth the fourteen major war aims to
congress, which included the restoration of previously taken Russian territories and increase Russian self-determination. Unfortunately for the Allied powers, on March 3, 1918, Russia signed a peace treaty with Germany, formally pulling Russia out of the war (1). Just a few years after Russia pulled out of the war and the end of WW1, the Russians got hit with a devastating famine in 1921. A massive drought hit the country causing crops such as wheat to fail. This caused an overall decrease in food for everyone in the country. It got bad once families started to sell human meat as means to actually feed people and provide for their family. Some people believe that the Bolshevik authority were the ones to blame mostly because after the revolution, they seized all crop surplus and over the years grain supplies to cities started to dwindle down to next to nothing. Once again this shows that even in the toughest of times people can set their differences aside to help each other. With the creation of the American Relief Administration (ARA) congress granted them 20 million dollars to help provide essentials to the Russian people such as food, commodities, and most importantly, grains to help get their agriculture back on its feet. After it was all said and done and Russia was able to rely on itself again, they commended the ARA for their actions to save the people of Russia. Although it has been debated, some say up to 4 million people died during the famine, although the ARA has records of only about 1 million dead. Although many people thought the first world war would be the War to end all wars it wasn t even close thanks to Hitler s ideology. At first both countries remained out of the war for a certain amount of time until they were pretty much forced to join. Russia was fine with staying out of the war until the Germans saw them as a potential threat while all their troops were trying to invade France, so they decided to invade Russia. Shortly after, the United States was dragged into the war after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. They felt that the United States was going to join anyway and the only chance they had was to strike them first. In return, both the Russians and the United States joined the war on the side of the allies, again setting differences aside for a common goal, to stop the axis powers. Many believed that the alliance between the United States and Russia would never happen, but when people started to realize that the Nazis were a greater threat than the Soviet Union, they found out that the alliance was no longer political, it was necessary. Unfortunately, over time there were a few times where the alliance was in Department of Defense Pro-Soviet Poster jeopardy such as when the Russians refused to aid the Polish Home Army during the Warsaw Uprising of August 1944. This lead to Great Britain and the United States excluding the Soviets during peaceful negotiations with Germany in 1945. But what really tested the alliance was when Russia asked the allies to open up the second front due to the Nazi invasion. Roosevelt promised to open it up, but it was delayed 3 years. In response, the Soviet Union recalled his ambassadors in Washington DC and London (2). This concerned the Allied powers because they feared that the Soviet Union would might go off on its own and seek a separate peace treaty with Germany, which did not happen. Towards the end of the war,
the Russians reached Hitler first after he killed himself alongside his wife before the Americans did, and later on the War ended after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, thus creating a new type of warfare. Now that the threat of war was over, the United States deiced to turn its focus once more on an old threat, the spread of communism. Just a couple years later in the late 1940s there was the big Red Scare, which was the belief that the spread of communism could reach the shores of the United States. It became known as the Red Scare due to the color of the red communist flag. Fortunately, the Red Scare didn t last too long but it still help lead up to the events of the Cold War. It all started when the United States put nuclear weapons in both Italy and Turkey. This concerned the Soviet Union so once Cuba became Communist, the USSR decided to station nuclear missiles there giving them the first strike advantage, creating a domino effect of both sides producing more and more nuclear weaponry. Both sides were in fear of American poster displaying the dangers nuclear strike, so they had to guarantee that they could strike. of the Red Menace back. Fortunately, they were able to de-escalate the situation with M.A.D, or Mutually Assured Destruction, meaning no matter what happens, both sides would be destroyed in the event of nuclear war. They also created S.A.L.T 1 which decreased the number of nuclear weapons each country had (3). They even agreed to no have any defensive weapons against MIRVeds so that an attack on the other country would be discouraged because they could defend against a nuclear strike. A low point between the United States and Russian relationship was the U2 accident, where the United States sent out a series of U2 pilots to fly over certain Russian military bases to spy on them and report back with the information. The U2 plane could fly up to 70,000 feet so the United State wasn t too concerned about being spotted until one of the planes got shot down and the pilot captured and questioned. The United States in response said it was a weather plane they shot down but then the USSR released the data given to them by the captured pilot revealing that the United States had lied to cover up their actual intentions (4). In response to this, the US revealed that a seal of the United States given to Ambassador Averell Harriman in 1946 had been bugged. In 1952, security found a secret microphone implanted in the seal showing that for six years, the Russians had been spying on them. Thus, making the U2 program justified. Yet during the cold war another conflict arose between the United States and Russia, the Space Race. Most people around the world expected the United States to be the first into space with their constant research and with the defect German scientist Wernher Von Braun. But that wasn t the case. The Russians were able to beat the United States into space after sending up Sputnik 1 and in the late 1950s, the Russians sent up the very first man made satellite into orbit around the Earth. To the United States, this wasn't just about showing the Russians what they were capable of, it was also to show them their military strength. One of the main worries during the Space Race was that either one of the countries could send weapons into orbit and use them against each other, and the best way to combat this was to one up the other country. Unfortunately for the United States, Russia had many firsts; first satellite in space, first human in space, first dog in space, first women in space, first spacewalk, etc. (5). But the United States
wasn t far behind, only a few months later sending their first man into space. It wasn t until 1969 when the United States send up Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins to the moon, thus ending the Space Race with the US on top and bankrupting the Soviet Union. The relationship between the United States and the USSR/Soviet Union has been very unstable throughout the century. We have helped each other, such as The United States coming to the aid of Soviet Russia during a major famine or a loose alliance during both WW1 and WW2. We have also been at each other s throats, especially during the Cold War where nuclear warfare was almost guaranteed. Its hard to tell how the relationship will change in the future because what time has told us is that we are capable of having peace, yet we are constantly disagreeing with each other, we are viewing each other as enemies but when something big comes up, we end up working together unless it directly effects either one of us like it did during the Cold War. We are even working together, such as on the International Space Station where Russia sends up American Astronauts, but we are also trying demoralizing the other side or effect the way they function, such as the 2016 presidential election. Either way its hard to say what is going to happen in the future but for everyone s safety lets hop its for the better.
Endnotes (1) United States Relations with Russia: Establishment of Relations to World War Two. U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of State, 20 Jan. 2001, 2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/pubs/fs/85739.htm. https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/pubs/fs/85739.htm (2) Clements, Kendrick A. The Russian Famine, 1921 1923. SpringerLink, Palgrave Macmillan, 1 Jan. 1970, link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230107908_9. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230107908_9 (3) Paul Doty. Strategic Arms Limitation after SALT I MIT press, MIT press, 212, https://www.belfercenter.org/sites/default/files/legacy/files/daedalus - strategicarmslimitationaftersalti.pdf 4 (4) Gottschling, Irimia R. "The U-2 Crisis." The U-2 Crisis. doi:10.3897/bdj.4.e7720.figure2f. 119 (5) Asif A. Siddiqi, CHALLENGE TO APOLLO: THE SOVIET UNION AND THE SPACE RACE, 1945-1974 NASA, 2000, https://history.nasa.gov/sp-4408pt1.pdf Xii