As the Cold War was a too long period, we will try to summarize the
most important events during those years.
Cold War is called the political phase running from 1945 to 1990. His
main characteristic is the rivalry between the two superpowers that won the
Second World War. On the one hand the United States (USA) leading the
capitalist bloc, on the other hand the Soviet Union (USSR) directing the
communist bloc. He did not have a direct war between the two powers, but there
were proxy wars in other countries in which each power supported its allies. In
these peripheral wars the USSR supported the guerrillas or communist government
and the US supported the guerrillas or anti-communist government. The balance
of these wars was 60 million deaths (45 to 95). Direct conflict for fear of a
nuclear war ended without victors, with mutual annihilation (MAD "Mutually
Assured Destruction") was avoided.
There are three periods during the Cold War:
1st phase:
Maximum tension (1947-1953).
In this phase there are two important events, such as:
-
The Berlin Crisis (1947): In
1945, the Allies decided to split Germany into four zones of occupation. The
capital, Berlin, was also split into four zones. The USSR took huge reparations
from its zone in eastern Germany, but Britain, France and America tried to
improve conditions in their zones. In June 1948, Britain, France and America
united their zones into a new country, West Germany. On 23 June 1948, they
introduced a new currency, which they said would help trade. The next day,
Stalin cut off all rail and road links to west Berlin - the Berlin
Blockade. The west saw this as an attempt to starve Berlin into
surrender, so they decided to supply west Berlin by air. The Berlin Blockade
lasted 318 days. During this time, 275,000 planes transported 1.5 million tons
of supplies and a plane landed every three minutes at Berlin's Templehof
airport. On 12 May 1949, Stalin abandoned the blockade.
-
The Korean War (1950-1953): The Korean War began as a
civil conflict between communist North Korea and the Republic of Korea to the
south. After failed attempts to create insurgencies in South Korea, North
Korean troops crossed the 38th parallel, the border between the two nations, in
the early hours of June 25, 1950 and invaded South Korea. Shortly after this event, U.S.
President Harry Truman, with the support of the United Nations (UN) Security
Council, ordered General of the Army Douglas McArthur to use whatever force was
necessary to aid the South Koreans. This resolution marked the first time in
the UN's short history that the use of force in answer to another's country's
aggression was authorized. Ultimately, the U.S. would send over five million
soldiers to the Korean theatre before the conflict ended three years later, but
the war also involved service members from a large number of other nations,
including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, South Africa,
India, France, The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg, Colombia, Greece,
Ethiopia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Turkey. The UN and South Korean forces
suffered a final casualty toll of 200,000 people, including 37,000 U.S.
servicemen, before the independence of South Korea was restored. Although an armistice was signed in 1953 between the U.S.,
China and North Korea, South Korea refused to sign it, leaving the two Koreas
separate to this day. Currently the U.S. still maintains a military force in
South Korea.
2nd phase: Peaceful
Coexistence.
In this phase:
US loses nuclear monopoly.
Stalin dies and Eisenhower arrives to power.
Negotiations are possible, but conflicts appear:
-
The Missile Crisis of Cuba (1962): In October 1962, an American U-2 spy plane secretly
photographed nuclear missile sites being built by the Soviet Union on the
island of Cuba. President Kennedy did not want the Soviet Union and Cuba to
know that he had discovered the missiles. He met in secret with his advisors for
several days to discuss the problem. After many long and difficult meetings,
Kennedy decided to place a naval blockade, or a ring of ships, around Cuba. The
aim of this "quarantine," as he called it, was to prevent the Soviets
from bringing in more military supplies. He demanded the removal of the
missiles already there and the destruction of the sites. On October 22,
President Kennedy spoke to the nation about the crisis in a televised address. No one was sure how Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev would respond
to the naval blockade and U.S. demands. But the leaders of both superpowers
recognized the devastating possibility of a nuclear war and publicly agreed to
a deal in which the Soviets would dismantle the weapon sites in exchange for a
pledge from the United States not to invade Cuba. In a separate deal, which
remained secret for more than twenty-five years, the United States also agreed
to remove its nuclear missiles from Turkey. Although the Soviets removed their
missiles from Cuba, they escalated the building of their military arsenal; the
missile crisis was over, the arms race was not.
- The Vietnam War (1968-1975): Between 1945 and 1954, the Vietnamese waged an
anti-colonial war against France, which received $2.6 billion in financial support
from the United States. The French defeat at the Dien Bien Phu was followed by
a peace conference in Geneva. As a result of the conference, Laos, Cambodia,
and Vietnam received their independence, and Vietnam was temporarily divided
between an anti-Communist South and a Communist North. In 1956, South Vietnam,
with American backing, refused to hold unification elections. By 1958,
Communist-led guerrillas, known as the Viet Cong, had begun to battle the South
Vietnamese government. To support the South's government, the United States
sent in 2,000 military advisors--a number that grew to 16,300 in 1963. The
military condition deteriorated, and by 1963, South Vietnam had lost the
fertile Mekong Delta to the Viet Cong. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson
escalated the war, commencing air strikes on North Vietnam and committing
ground forces--which numbered 536,000 in 1968. The 1968 Tet Offensive by the
North Vietnamese turned many Americans against the war. The next president,
Richard Nixon, advocated Vietnamization, withdrawing American troops and giving
South Vietnam greater responsibility for fighting the war. In 1970, Nixon
attempted to slow the flow of North Vietnamese soldiers and supplies into South
Vietnam by sending American forces to destroy Communist supply bases in
Cambodia. This act violated Cambodian neutrality and provoked antiwar protests
on the nation's college campuses. From 1968 to 1973, efforts were made to end
the conflict through diplomacy. In January 1973, an agreement was reached; U.S.
forces were withdrawn from Vietnam, and U.S. prisoners of war were released. In
April 1975, South Vietnam surrendered to the North, and Vietnam was reunited.
3rd phase: new
outbreak of the Cold War.
-
Following the victory of Reagan: During his
first term (1980-1984), Reagan launched the largest program of rearmament in a peace
period in US history. He called the USSR as the "evil empire" in 1983
and it started what was called as the ”Reagan Doctrine”: a policy of military
intervention to overthrow Marxist regimes in the Third World. Examples of this
doctrine were the invasion of Granada in 1983 and the military and economic
support for the Nicaraguan Contras and the Afghan Islamic guerrillas.
END OF WAR:
It occurs when Gorbachev access power in the USSR in 1985.
The Socialist bloc is dissolved in 1990.
Personal comment:
Personally we thought the Cold War made little sense, except from the perspective of geopolitic. We say that it made little sense because both the USSR and the United States had fought together in World War II with fascism. It did not be in the United States interests that there was a so strong communist country in a destroyed Europe after the war because it was a danger to the future of the capitalist system. In our opinion, the victory of the Cuban Revolution was a key factor in the evolution of events, both for good and for evil, since the US would not dare launch an attack if there was an ally of the USSR a few kilometers from their costs. But perhaps this also lengthened the war, considering that the Soviet Union found an ally in a strategic position.
Our sources:
Este comentario ha sido eliminado por el autor.
ResponderEliminar