Cold War: Origins and Ideologies

• The Cold War describes a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, including their respective allies (the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc), from the mid-1940s to the late 1980s.
• The United States and the Soviet Union were the main participants, whose power grew dramatically after WWII.
• The United States and the Soviet Union disagreed on how the postwar world should be structured.
• The term "Cold War" comes from the fact that the United States and the Soviet Union never engaged in direct, large-scale military conflict with each other.

Origins

• The US promoted democracy and capitalism, whereas the USSR promoted communism and a totalitarian state, resulting in conflicting ideologies.
• The Soviet Union took control of much of Eastern Europe after WWII and installed communist regimes.
• Policies like the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan were formed because the US feared the spread of communism and sought to stop it.
• The USSR aimed to grow its reach and create a buffer zone of allied states in Eastern Europe.

Key Events and Developments

• Winston Churchill coined the term "Iron Curtain" to describe how Europe was divided into Western and Soviet spheres of influence.
• The Soviet Union's blockade of West Berlin (1948–1949) prompted a US-led airlift to supply the city.
• The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was established in 1949 as a military alliance between the US, Canada, and Western European countries.
• The Warsaw Pact was established in 1955 as a military alliance between the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellite states.
• The Korean War (1950–1953) was a proxy war between South Korea (backed by the US) and North Korea (backed by the Soviet Union and China).
• The Space Race involved the US and the USSR competing to reach space exploration milestones. In 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, which spurred significant investment in the US space program.
• During the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), the Soviet Union placed nuclear weapons in Cuba, which led to a tense standoff with the US. Negotiations led to the resolution of the crisis; the USSR removed the missiles, and the US promised not to invade Cuba.
• The Vietnam War (1955–1975) was a proxy war between South Vietnam (backed by the US) and North Vietnam (backed by the Soviet Union and China).
• The US and the USSR engaged in a massive buildup of nuclear weapons during the Nuclear Arms Race, which led to a state of mutual assured destruction (MAD).
• The US and the USSR provided support to opposing sides in conflicts around the world, such as in Korea, Vietnam, and Afghanistan, during the Proxy Wars.

Containment Policy

• The US sought to prevent communism from spreading beyond its borders with the containment policy.
• To help countries threatened by communism, the Truman Doctrine offered economic and military aid.
• The Marshall Plan was established to offer financial aid to war-torn Europe in order to help rebuild and resist communist influence.
• According to the Domino Theory, if one country became communist, its neighbors would follow suit.

Détente

• The late 1960s and 1970s saw a period of decreased tensions between the US and the USSR, known as "Détente".
• The US and the USSR engaged in Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) to limit the production of nuclear weapons.
• The Helsinki Accords (1975) fostered cooperation and promoted human rights among the US, Canada, and European nations.

The End of the Cold War

• The Soviet Union experienced economic stagnation in the 1980s, which led to widespread discontent.
• Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of perestroika (economic restructuring) and glasnost (openness) weakened the Soviet system.
• Revolutions in Eastern Europe in 1989 resulted in the fall of communist regimes.
• The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 represented the end of the Cold War.
• The Soviet Union was dissolved in December 1991, which marked the official end of the Cold War.

Key Figures

• Harry Truman was the US President who put the containment policy into effect.
• Joseph Stalin was the Soviet leader during the early Cold War period.
• John F. Kennedy was the US President during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
• Ronald Reagan was the US President who took a hard-line stance against the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
• Mikhail Gorbachev was the Soviet leader who carried out reforms that resulted in the end of the Cold War.

Effects and Consequences

• For more than four decades, the Cold War influenced global politics.
• New weapons technologies were developed, along with a massive military buildup.
• Numerous proxy wars and conflicts around the world were a result of the Cold War.
• The global balance of power shifted, and new nations were formed as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union.