Perspectives on the Cold War, Decolonization, and the Vietnam War Essay

Perspectives on the Cold War, Decolonization, and the Vietnam War - Essay Example and the USSR entered the postwar age as adversaries. Their competition for worldwide supremacy formed a phenomenon referred to as the Cold War. The Second World War also aided to fasten the pace of nationalism or self-rule in the earlier colonies, in Europe. From 1945 to 1985, over 90 nations (a third of the world’s populace) attained self-rule from their colonies. As decolonization happened together with the Cold War, the two worldwide occurrences had an extremely close, as well as interrelated past, with each one persuading the character and context of the other. This paper will make use of various historical documents to look into the ideas, perceptions and strategies, which formed the course of the Cold War and decolonization. Also, during the Cold War era, individuals invoked tough moral stands in a world filled concurrently with fear of one’s enemies and purpose to create circumstances for a brighter future, mainly in Third World nations (Sanders, Nelson, Morillio n and Ellenberger 190). Using the introductory material and documents from the section in the textbook, Perspectives on the Cold War, Decolonization and the Vietnam War, this paper will explain and analyze the historical context in which these developments occurred and the specifics of moral arguments made by individuals from the United States, the Soviet Union and Vietnam. In both sentiment and rhetoric, the Cold War was frequently perceived and viewed as a moral crusade (Sanders, Nelson, Morillion and Ellenberger 190). It was also perceived as a prolonged endeavor between the right and the wrong. These parties perceived themselves as the superior and exclusive model for the entire world. They each sought to use this view as a reason for their actions. To the people from the Soviet Union, Americans were aggressors, warmongers, capitalist imperialists and exploiters. To the Americans, on the other hand, communists were deceitful, expansionists, dishonorable and fanatics. Therefore, the cold war turned into something far more than simply a geopolitical attempt to benefit and attract other spheres of influence. The Cold War was also the basis of decolonization in much of Asia and Africa. Even though, opposition against European colonialism started much before the independence group gained momentum following the Second World War, much effect of decolonization was felt during the Cold War. Led by educated and determined elites, nationalist movements both in Asia and Africa mobilized their people to struggle for independence and resist colonial authority. In some regions, the formation of political groups, as well as the use of mass rebellions and public disobedience, forced the colonizers to offer independence in a fairly peaceful and orderly way. However, in other regions such as Kenya, Algeria and Angola, the colonizers forcefully endeavored to hang on to power, and it led to the formation of liberation movements, which caused actual fighting (Sanders, Nelson, M orillion and Ellenberger 191). Soviet’s thoughts of the U.S. and the Cold War As a leader of the USSR for more than 20 years, Josef Vissarionovich Stalin was one of the most significant figures of the 20th century (Sanders, Nelson, Morillion and Ellenberger 194). Stalin joined the Bolshevik Party, meaning communist and became one of the closest collaborators to communism. Having cautiously secured his political role by 1930, Josef managed a number of

Emerging Issues in Product Development Term Paper - 4

Emerging Issues in Product Development - Term Paper Example Companies and organizations have turned to product development as a means of staying relevant in the market. The essence of product development is to have customers get enhanced products that are capable of meeting their needs. Murad Ahmed, a senior technology journalist recently wrote an article concerning Microsoft is modifying the latest version of its software called the windows 8 (Ahmed 2014, p. 1). The story as reported by Ahmed detailed some of the reasons why Microsoft had decided to modify its latest product (Ahmed 2014, p. 1). The gist of the matter as reported by Ahmed was that customers world over were finding it difficult to use the product as it bore some sought of complications. The issue as reported in March 2014 by Ahmed seemed to have taken a number of people by surprise (Ahmed 2014, p. 1). Even though the giant software company has plans to incorporate the previous features in the newly introduced product, the actions should be well thought of as appropriate. It is just under 16 months since Windows 8 was introduced into the market (Ahmed 2014, p. 1). Pundits argued that this new development was by far the biggest thing that had ever happened in the software industry. The software product has gained a number of positive feedbacks since the time of inception. However, the company has reported that through its feedback system, a number of customers think otherwise about the product. Some think that the new software is not user-friendly and, therefore, provides a challenge in its use. This has prompted the Microsoft Company to announce its intention to return earlier features in the new product. While the company, maybe by right and well within its jurisdiction to satisfy its customers there are a number of issues that can be drawn from the company’s latest move. One of the issues that remain clear is that the company may not have done its homework properly. Before introducing a product into the market, it is incumbent upon a company to carry out the market survey so as to know what a majority of customers want.