The COLD WAR

Introduction

The Cold War is the term used to describe the intense struggle that followed between the United States and its allies and the USSR and its allies after the World War 2. Generally it is believed that the Cold War period started from the mid-1940s and ended in late 1980s. The international politics, during this period was marked by an intense rivalry between these two blocs of power.

Britain, France, West Germany, Japan and Canada were some of the principal allies of the United States, while the Soviet Union had allies like Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, East Germany and Romania. Many countries remained neutral or non-aligned to either blocs.

Interpretation

Scholars feel that the Cold War was an ideological contest between two power blocs – one representating capitalism, the other representing communism. It also signified the extreme polarization of the world in general and Europe in particular.

Causes

The origin of the Cold War lies in the events that followed after the end of the Second World War. After the war, Soviets wanted war indemnities from Germany to rebuild and repair its damages. However, the move was resisted by the USA. Finally, it was decided that Britain, France and the United States would control some parts of western Germany, while the USSR would control the eastern Germany.

The USSR started to have control on eastern European nation after it was denied the control of Poland by the USA. The Soviets started to help countries after countries to form Communist government. More than half of the Europe like Poland, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria was under the grip of Communism supported actively by the USSR.

The Soviet control on almost half of the European nations brought political and economical differences. This formed the base of mutual mistrust. The US and the western European countries were suspicious of the communist regimes.

In March 1947 the Truman Doctrine was brought forward by the US President S. Truman to prevent countries from falling into the Soviet influences. This further antagonized USSR. Then came the famous Marshall Plan, making USSR more suspicious. It was a program of economic assistance for all European countries including the Soviet Union. The USSR referred to the plan as ‘Dollar Imperialism’, an attempt by the USA to interfere in eastern Europe. In response to these the Soviets announced Cominform Plan and the Molotov Plan offering economic assistance to the eastern European countries that had communist government.

Cold War Crisis

The first major crisis of the Cold War was the Berlin crisis, when the USSR imposed a blockade over west Germany which prevented food material and supplies to reach west Berlin, occupied by the US and its allies. The US responded to this crisis by airlifting food and other essentials into west Berlin.

Military Alliance

In March 1948 the Treaty of Brussels was signed between United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg in order to assist mutually in case of communist threat. In the next year USA joined the bloc and the famous NATO (North Atlantic Treaty) came into being, necessitated due to the fear of the Soviet poaching. USA was joined by Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland apart from the signatories of the Treaty of Brussels. The USSR responded to the NATO by coming up with Warsaw Pact in 1955 which included east European nations with communist governments.

Impacts

The Cold War was the conflict between the USA and its NATO allies (also called western bloc) and the USSR and its Warsaw Pact allies (called eastern bloc). Though the Cold War never resulted in the full scale conflict between both sides, it had many long lasting impacts on the world politics. Armament race and proxy war were the two great impact of cold war.

It is estimated that both the USA and the USSR spent over eight trillion dollars to produce weapons including nuclear arsenals capable to destroy both countries.

Proxy wars were fought between the two powers using third parties as substitutes rather than fighting each other directly. Both the nuclear armed superpowers USA and USSR did not engage in direct military action, since that would have the risk of nuclear warfare. The Korean War in 1950-53, and the Vietnam War in 1961-75, were the two main proxy wars fought.

In Korea the issue was to reunite the two parts of Korea under their respective governments. While the negotiations were going on suddenly North Korea attacked South Korea and a full blown war started. The South Korea was helped by the western blocs and the UNO while Soviet Russia and China supported North Korea. After a long war and large scale destruction of lives and properties an agreement was signed restoring the original boundaries between the two Koreas.

In Vietnam, the revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh organised resistance against the French occupation of their country with the help of China, which the USA considered as civil war and jumped into the fray to help its western bloc ally France. It had disastrous effect on the USA and the fight continued till a ceasefire was announced and USA agreed to withdraw its troops after heavy losses.

The other impact was the Arab Crisis, Cuban Missile Crisis, Czechoslovakia crisis and the Hungarian Crisis. Arab crisis was due to the objective to retain the control over the vast oil reserves. The USSR took advantage of the spread of Arab nationalism, which aimed at creating some sort of political and economic union among the Arabs. This was threatened by the US support for the independent state of Israel which was founded in 1948, by dividing the state of Palestine.

Next the capture of power in Cuba by Fidel Castro in 1959 increased the apprehensions of the USA about the increasing influence of the USSR in the region. Soon Soviet Union decided to set up nuclear missile launchers in Cuban territories aimed at the USA. This meant that the major US cities like New York, Washington, Chicago and Boston came under the direct threat of the Russian missiles. The USA reacted by trying to blockade Cuba. The crisis lasted for a week but it brought the world to the brink of a nuclear war. In Hungary and Czechoslovakia the respective communist governments were dismissed under the influence of the civilians who wanted to change their way of government angering Russia. This blew into crisis when the USA wanted to help the civil wars.

End of the Cold War

By the end of 1970s and the mid 1980s many events started to happen helping to create conditions for the end of the Cold War. The major reason was the change of mind of the two super powers. The USSR was concerned about the increasing defense expenditures and the USA after the humiliation and losses in Vietnam was eager to come out of this mess. In 1980 the relationship between USSR and USA improved considerably.

In 1987 both the countries signed the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty agreeing to an actual reduction in nuclear arsenals rather than merely restricting their proliferation. In 1989 Germany was reunited, communist governments in Poland, and some other countries were toppled leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 ending the Cold War.