The Cold War: A Summary

The Cold War: A Summary

• The Cold War was a period of strategic and political conflict between the US and its Western European allies, and the USSR and its communist allies, following World War II.
• The term "Cold War" originated with American journalist Herbert Bayard Swope in a 1947 speech.
• The conflict began when the USSR used its military power to establish communist governments in Eastern Europe, violating agreements made at the Yalta Conference which promised free elections in Soviet-dominated countries after WWII.
• The US saw this as a threat, believing its future was tied to the fate of European countries, and feared Soviet expansion to Western Europe.
• The USSR, suffering immense losses in WWII, sought to strengthen itself by controlling its neighbours. The "Iron Curtain" symbolized this division.
• The USSR believed imposing communism on neighbouring countries was necessary for its survival and to counter its isolation against the US and its allies.
• The US formed alliances with Western Europe through the Marshall Plan, aiming to rebuild Europe's strength and increase US influence. The Marshall Plan also aimed to make Western European countries indebted to the US, strengthening the alliance.
• The East-West conflict played a significant role in future global conflicts, including the struggle for Germany, Korean War and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Origins of the Cold War

• US-Soviet relations, previously amicable for over a century, progressively deteriorated, culminating in the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution which established the Soviet Union and its ideological clash with capitalist Western countries..
• The US refused to recognize the USSR as a state until 1933.
• While allies during WWII, US-Soviet relations sharply declined from 1944 onwards, reaching a breaking point after Joseph Stalin violated the Yalta agreements by controlling Eastern European countries and preventing democratic elections.
• The Soviet actions were motivated by a desire to maintain communism's global survival in the face of capitalist powers' attempts to dismantle the system.
• Lenin had envisioned expanding communism globally to counter the threat of capitalism.
• The constant fear of communist expansion motivated a strong response from capitalist countries, putting the world on the brink of nuclear war.

The Cold War's Two Blocks

• The Cold War divided the global community into two opposing blocs: the communist East (led by the USSR) and the capitalist West (led by the US).
• Each bloc had its own political, economic, and military interests to defend.
• Later, China joined the communist bloc, creating a significant communist power bloc of over a billion people.
• The Sino-Soviet alliance was not coincidental. Decades of strained relations with capitalist powers motivated China's intervention, stemming from a perceived historical inequity.
• China's hostility towards the US was intense, surpassing even earlier tensions with the USSR due to historical grievances over exploitation and lack of respect from capitalist countries.

Economic and Military Rivalries

• West:

• Capitalism: An economic system emphasizing private enterprise, where individuals own and control production.

• Marshall Plan: A US initiative (1948) providing $13 Billion in aid to rebuild war-torn Western European economies.

• NATO: A defensive military alliance (1949), intended to counter potential Soviet aggression. Initial members included the US, Canada, and several Western European nations.

• East:

• Communism: A centralized economy where the state controls production.

• COMECON: A Soviet-led economic organization (1949) countering the Marshall Plan, fostering economic cooperation among communist countries. Member countries included Eastern European nations like Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia.