Introduction to General Cold War History
Cold War, the struggle for power and influence in the years after World War II between the Communist nations led by the Soviet Union (the East) and the Western allies headed by the United States (the West). Cold War tensions began to moderate in the 1960's, and a "thaw" was said to be setting in. In the 1970's, the phrase "Cold War" (coined by Bernard Baruch in 1947) generally fell into disuse, but the East-West rivalry continued, as did the conditions that caused it. The Cold War ended with the collapse of the eastern European Communist regimes in the late 1980's and the breakup of the Soviet Union into 15 independent countries in 1991.
The origins of the Cold War and the motives of its antagonists are the subject of much controversy among historians. There are three principal interpretations:
Highlights of the Cold War1946-1948 Communists take over Eastern Europe.1947 Truman Doctrine announced by United States.1948-1949 Berlin blockade set up by Soviet Union.1949 NATO pact signed by 12 countries.1949 Communists win control of China.1950-1953 Korean War--first use of UN troops in battle.1953 Death of Stalin alters Cold War.1955 Summit conference held in Geneva.1960 Soviet Union downs U-2 spy plane.1961 German Communists build Berlin Wall.1961 Castro announces he is a Communist.1964 United States bombs bases in North Vietnam.1975 Communists win Vietnam War.1979 Soviet Union invades Afghanistan.1989 Communist rule comes to an end in several Eastern European countries.1989 German Communists open Berlin Wall.Background
Two "superpowers," the United States and the Soviet Union, emerged from World War II. The two had long had incompatible ideologies and national interests, and their wartime alliance against Nazi Germany had begun to crumble even before the fighting ceased.
During the war, the Soviet Union had annexed three formerly independent countriesLatvia, Lithuania, and Estoniaand after the war it set up puppet regimes in the eastern European countries occupied by its troops. China, which became a Communist power in 1949, sought dominance in eastern Asia. Both nations also promoted Communism throughout the world.
The United States and its Western European allies felt that their national interests and security were threatened by an expansion of Communism, and attempted to "contain" itthat is, prevent it from spreadingon all fronts. To further the policy of "containment," a number of anti-Communist alliances were formed in various parts of the world. Many of the countries of the world eventually became allied or aligned with either the United States or the Soviet Union. Those that did not became known as the "nonaligned," "neutralist," or "third world" countries, and their support was courted by both sides.
The armed forces of the major antagonists, the Soviet Union and the United States, did not confront one another directly in battle during the Cold War period. However, both sides were at times drawn intoas supporters, suppliers, or participants"brushfire" wars (fighting limited in scope or area) or more sizable conflicts (such as the Korean and Vietnamese wars). These were considered part of the large worldwide struggle between Communist and non-Communist powers.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed in 1949 to protect Western Europe from Soviet aggression. It was countered in 1955 by the Warsaw Pact, formed by the Soviet Union and its European satellites. Shown here is President Truman signing the treaty that created NATO.How the Cold War Was Waged
The tactics of the Cold War were, for the most part, the traditional ones used by rival powers in trying to gain an advantage over their opponents during peacetime These tactics involved, in addition to diplomatic maneuvering, the following:
Economic and Military AidThe United States gave aid to its allies on the theory that military power and economic prosperity build stability and keep nations safe from external aggression and internal subversion. The Soviet Union gave military aid and some economic assistance to its satellite nations, but at the same time tried to keep those countries dependent on it Both countries also tried to win the support of non-aligned nations by providing them with economic and military aid.
PropagandaEach side attempted to persuade uncommitted countries that its way of life was superior and that the opposing system was deeply flawed The Soviet Union portrayed itself as a peace-loving nation and the United States and its allies as warmongering imperialist powers. Communist China called itself the champion of Asian, African, and Latin American peoples in the struggle against the political and economic imperialism of the West.
Western statesmen pointed to the freedom that existed in democracies as compared to the oppression in Communist countries. They also argued that the Soviet Union and China traditionally tried to dominate their smaller neighbors, whereas the colonial empires of the West had been broken up and the colonies given independence.
Military might and space achievements were also used for propaganda purposes. Both were presented as indications of an advanced level of technological development in an attempt to increase international prestige.
EspionageSpies were employed to obtain facts about military, political, and economic developments in rival countries. In addition, monitoring activities were conducted by high-altitude reconnaissance planes, offshore intelligence ships, and space satellites. Diplomatic personnel were also used to gather intelligence.
SubversionAttempts to weaken or displace unfriendly governments were common during the Cold War. In some countries, Communists directly attempted to overthrow governments; in others, they attempted to get control of political parties or labor unions and use them to secure support and power. In some underdeveloped nations, guerrilla wars called "wars of national liberation" were launched by local nationalists with outside Communist support.
The Western powers used subversion far less frequently than the Communists. On occasion, however, they intervened in non-Communist states when they considered them threatened by Communism. The difficulty in penetrating Communist nations hampered anti-Communist efforts to organize opposition to the ruling regimes.
Military ForceAll the major nations involved in the Cold War used military force at one time or another to maintain or advance their interests. Some actions, such as that of the Soviet army in Hungary in 1956, were attempts to squelch a revolt by forces perceived as being hostile to the intervening power; others, such as the United States' action in Korea, 195053, were efforts to defend an ally against attack.
Military potential also played an important role in the Cold War A nation prepared to fight and capable of fighting effectively was considered less likely to be attacked than one that was weak. Following the end of World War II, the major Communist and anti-Communist nations began a vast buildup of armamentsthe arms race Nuclear weapons of devastating power had been developed and stockpiled. These weapons came to form the so-called nuclear deterrent, or "balance of terror." Neither side dared to attack the other for fear of a devastating reprisal.
Korean War, 1950-53 was one of several "hot" wars fought during the Cold War period. Shown here are U.S. Marines fighting in Seoul in 1950.History
BeginningsAt the end of World War II, parts of Europe were occupied by Soviet and Anglo-American (later, also to include French) forces. The Soviet Union, in violation of agreements made with the Western powers, continued its occupation of eastern Europe in the postwar period. At the Yalta Conference of 1945, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin had indicated that there would be free elections in eastern Europe, but elections were not held. By the end of 1947, six nationsPoland, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Albania, and Yugoslaviawere Communist-controlled. The Soviet-occupied zone of Germany also came under Communist administration.
Winston Churchill, alarmed by Soviet expansionism, warned in a 1946 speech, "From Stettin to Trieste an iron curtain has descended across the [European] continent." Neither the United States nor its allies, however, were ready to go to war over eastern Europe. Instead they attempted to halt further Communist expansion through a policy of containment.
Early in 1947, President Harry S. Truman announced the Truman Doctrinethe United States would help non-Communist peoples preserve their independence. Congress voted funds for economic and military assistance to Greece and Turkey, both of which were in danger of a Communist takeover. Soon after, the European Recovery Program, or Marshall Plan, was begun to promote western Europe's economic recovery.
In June, 1948, relations between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union deteriorated when Marshal Tito, the Yugoslav leader, refused to put his country's army under Soviet command. In the same month, the Soviet Union closed all road, rail, and canal links between western Germany and West Berlin (located deep in the Soviet zone of Germany), in an effort to force the Western allies out of that city. (Under the Yalta agreement, the Western allies were to share administration of Berlin with the Soviets.) The United States rushed economic and military aid to Yugoslavia, and the Western powers thwarted the Berlin blockade by transporting supplies by air. Earlier in 1948 the Communists had taken over the government of Czechoslovakia.
In 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was created to protect western Europe from military aggression. That same year the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb. Until then, the United States had been the only nation that possessed practical nuclear weapons. By the end of the 1940's, the European continent had been split into two hostile camps.
In 1949 the Chinese Communists drove Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists from the mainland to Taiwan. China, the most populous country in the world, had become Communist, allying itself with the Soviet Union.
EscalationIn 1950, troops from Communist North Korea invaded South Korea. The United Nationsduring a period when the Soviet Union was boycotting that organizationvoted South Korea military support, the bulk of which came from the United States. After UN forces had retaken lost ground and occupied almost all of Korea, Communist Chinese forces invaded the peninsula. The Soviet Union gave aid to the Chinese and North Koreans. The conflict was in effect stalemated in 1951, when armistice talks were begun, but: fighting continued until the armistice was signed in 1953.
Communists joined nationalists in French Indochina following World War II to drive out the French. After years of fighting, the French were decisively defeated in 1954. At war's end, Laos, Cambodia, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam were created. North Vietnam became a Communist state. Later in 1954, the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was organized to prevent further Communist expansion.
In 1955 the Soviet Union began major efforts to win the support of African and Asian countries, some still British and French colonies, others newly independent. Most of these countries wanted to remain neutral in the Cold War, but also wished to reduce the influence of the West on their affairs. The Soviet Union became especially active in the Middle East, supplying military equipment to the Arab nations. At the same time, the West sold arms to Israel. In 1955, an anti-Soviet defensive alliance popularly called the Baghdad Pact was organized with Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and Great Britain as full members and the United States as an associate member. When Iraq withdrew in 1959, the alliance was reorganized as the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO).
At the United Nations, the growing group of African and Asian nations (the "Afro-Asian bloc") often supported Soviet resolutions and voted against the West. The Soviet Union, however, received general condemnation for crushing an uprising in Hungary in 1956.
ThawIn the late 1950's, a slight thaw seemed to occur when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev claimed that his country's goal was "peaceful coexistence"a peaceful struggle for world leadership. The Soviet Union scored a propaganda and technological success in 1957 when it orbited the first man-made satellite, Sputnik.
A "thaw" in the Cold War: Eisenhower and Kruschev at Gettysburg.During the 1950's, the Western European democracies were greatly strengthened economically as a result of joining together in the European Community, through which they coordinated their economic policies and lowered trade barriers among themselves.
The early 1960's were years of severe tensions. Cuba, located only 90 miles (145 km) from the United States mainland, became a Communist state under Fidel Castro. In April, 1961, anti-Castro Cuban exiles armed and trained with United States aid invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, but they were defeated within hours. The Soviet Union began to send aid to Cuba to counter an economic boycott of the island by the United States and its allies. In June, 1961, East Germany erected a wall separating West Berlin and East Berlin to prevent East Germans from escaping to the West. The Soviet Union renewed its demand that the Western allies withdraw from West Berlin. Later in the year, the Soviets broke a moratorium on nuclear-weapons testing, in effect since 1958, by exploding a large hydrogen bomb.
In 1962, the Soviet Union attempted secretly to place guided missiles in Cuba. American reconnaissance aircraft detected their presence, and the United States demanded that the missiles be removed. Nuclear war between the two superpowers threatened before the Soviets agreed to remove them. However, the so-called Cuban Missile Crisis led to a new understanding between the two nations and, eventually, to improved relations. In 1963 the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union signed a treaty banning all nuclear tests except those underground.
In Southeast Asia in the early 1960's, guerrilla activity by Communists increased markedly in Laos and South Vietnam. This situation brought expanded military aid from the United States. In 1965 the fighting in Vietnam developed into full-scale war, involving large numbers of American troops.
By the mid-1960's, disagreement between the Soviet Union and China over the goals of Communism had turned into a bitter dispute. Western unity was shaken in 1966, when France withdrew from NATO's military command.
Cold War tensions moderated despite the continuing Vietnamese War, a crisis in the Middle East (where pro-Western Israel was confronted by Communist-aided Arab states), and the Soviet Union's 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia to remove a liberal government there. A treaty for the peaceful use of outer space was signed by the United States, the Soviet Union, and other nations in 1967. In 1969 Soviet-American cooperation led to agreement on a nuclear nonproliferation treaty.
DtenteSeveral major steps were taken in the 1970's to promote East-West dtente (relaxation of tensions). In 1970, the Soviet Union and West Germany, long bitter foes, signed a pact renouncing the use of force and accepting postwar German boundaries as permanent. In 1975, the United States, the Soviet Union, and 33 other countries signed the Helsinki Accords, in which they recognized all borders in Europe as inviolate and agreed to respect human rights. Continued Soviet violations of the human rights provisions, however, remained a source of strained relations with the West.
The United States and the Soviet Union were able to achieve some progress in nuclear arms limitation during the decade. The Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty (SALT) I was signed and ratified in 1972, limiting the number of each nation's ballistic missiles. The SALT II agreement, designed to place further limits on each nation's strategic nuclear strength, was signed in 1979. Although the United States did not ratify SALT II, both countries abided by its terms.
Meanwhile, the United States withdrew from the Vietnamese War in 1973. In 1975 the North Vietnamese conquered South Vietnam. In Cambodia and Laos, regimes backed by the United States fell to Communist insurgent forces. Having failed to prevent Communist expansion in the region, SEATO disbanded in 1977. CENTO collapsed in 1979. After a decade of growing rapprochement, the United States and China established diplomatic relations with one another in 1979.
Dtente. President Nixon (facing camera) and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev (wearing medals) toast world peace following a summit meeting in 1974. The thaw in East-West relations that occurred in the early 1970's ended when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979 to put down an anti-Communist rebellion.Renewed ConflictRelations between the Soviet Union and the West worsened after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and the imposition of martial law in Poland in 1981. After the election of Ronald Reagan to the presidency in 1980, the United States built up its military strength and more vigorously provided military and economic aid to nations and groups fighting Communism. In 1983, the United States ended Communist influence in the Caribbean country of Grenada by direct military actionan invasion by soldiers and Marines.
End of the Cold WarRelations between the Soviet Union and the United States improved significantly during the late 1980's, especially after Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet Union in 1985. In 1987 the Soviet Union and the United States agreed to eliminate their intermediate-range nuclear weapons from Europe. Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan during 198889. In 1990, members of NATO and the Warsaw Pact signed the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty, which provided for an extensive reduction of nonnuclear weapons in Europe.
Meanwhile, during 198990, political upheavals led to the collapse of the Communist regimes in eastern Europe. Germany was reunified in 1990. The Soviet Union made no effort to thwart these changes, and in the summer of 1991 the Warsaw Pact was disbanded. Late in 1991 the Soviet Union broke up into 15 independent countries, some of which began establishing democratic governments and market-based economic systems. These developments marked the end of the Cold War.