Cold War: Summary

What is the Cold War? Summary of the main events and protagonists who made the history of the conflict between the USA and the USSR.

Cold War: Summary

The Cold War refers to the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union that immediately followed the Second World War , which was fought not with weapons but on the political and economic front.

At the end of World War II , American, English, French and Soviet troops occupied German soil, part of which was ceded to Poland. The occupation zones were well delimited following the partition of the territories.

Between 1947 and 1949 the USA , Great Britain and France unified their respective zones, while in its zone the USSR initiated economic and political measures that were clearly aimed at the establishment of a communist German republic.

This is how in 1949 we witnessed the formation of two Germanies: 

• In the west, the Federal Republic of Germany was established (with its capital in Bonn),
• In the east, the German Democratic Republic (with its capital in Berlin) was formed .

But the situation in Germany actually outlined a much broader situation, which went beyond the division of a single country. Two blocks of states had formed around the two great victorious powers:

• In the West, France and Great Britain were economically dependent on the US giant, which also made its weight felt in countries like Italy.
• In the East, communist regimes arose in the countries liberated by the Red Army. The principle of dividing Europe into zones of influence, formulated already during the conflict, began to find implementation.

 Cold War: Power Scheme

France and England implemented the process of decolonization , which weakened their role as a power. On the contrary, the Soviet Union and the United States, having emerged victorious from the conflict, now constituted the two major powers in the world, even though the two different political and economic systems on which they were based did not allow them to find an agreement.

The USA, in its socio-political vision, considered the West as the “free world”, which could expand its influence by gradually freeing the countries of the Soviet bloc from the game of communist slavery.

Furthermore, they feared the expansion of Soviet domination in Europe and therefore favored the removal of socialist, but especially communist, parties from all governments of Western European states.

On June 5, 1947, the United States launched a vast economic assistance plan for trusted European countries, the so-called Marshall Plan . This aid, in addition to allowing the beneficiary countries to overcome the serious economic difficulties due to the expensive and necessary reconstruction, politically allowed the strengthening of democratic regimes and, on the other hand, the weakening of the unrealizable philosophical or revolutionary aspirations of Western communist parties.

 NATO and the Warsaw Pact

In 1949, the United States established a defensive alliance with some European countries, including Italy, France and England, which took the name of NATO ( North Atlantic Treaty Organization ). The response of the Soviet government, which feared the expansion of the United States in Europe, was immediate: between 1947 and 1948, it ensured that communist governments were formed throughout Eastern Europe and in 1955, it drew up the Warsaw Pact with the countries that had adopted this type of political orientation .It was officially the beginning of the Cold War , given the presence of two distinct military blocs: one dependent on the USA and one on the USSR.

Cold War: Meaning and Main Events

The dominant powers were mainly two, and radically opposed on an ideological level. For many years the conflict seemed inevitable, and several times it seemed as if we were on the verge of a third world war . This situation of forced balance due to the very powerful armaments that both powers possessed, and of tension due to the fear of a new conflict, led to the choice of the term Cold War:

• War , because the opposition between the contenders seemed like a real conflict, and because within the countries involved a military, economic and psychological “war” mobilization was taking shape;
• Cold , because the weapons, which continued to be produced and stockpiled, could not be used.

The entire world order from the immediate post-war period until the end of the 1980s (the fall of the USSR in 1991) can be defined as the “cold war”. This long period, however, had 3 phases:

• The first of the real Cold War , which lasted from 1947 to the early 1960s;
• The second, called the détente phase , in the sixties and early seventies;
• After 1973, a new phase of international tension based, however, on partly new instruments.

Military arsenals themselves were one of the main weapons deployed for this new conflict: atomic weapons and their destructive power were well known since the end of the Second World War. For this reason, the study of nuclear weapons continued, until it gave birth to extremely powerful weapons, increasingly sophisticated and capable of a destructive power much higher than that already known with Hiroshima and Nagasaki .

The accumulation of weapons became, essentially, a sort of symbolic substitute for the actual use of the weapons themselves. But each weapon at the disposal of the states corresponded to a very specific function:

• Deterrence
  Atomic weapons , which through the threat of the opponent prevented him from making any aggressive move
• Persuasion
  Diplomatic channels , which after 1945 experienced an enrichment and growth in complexity such as to cause a gradual shift in the balance, over the decades: from a prevalence of American influence, there was a shift to the growth of decolonized countries often available to agreements with the USSR.
  Propaganda action , where mass communication was capable of influencing public opinion in the opposing country
• Subversion
  The use of clandestine tools – up to terrorism – to infiltrate the opponent’s area, undermining its ability to control (e.g. secret services such as the CIA or the KGB)

During the Cold War, the USA and the USSR tried to extend their spheres of influence, supporting governments favorable to them in different parts of the world. For this reason, they repeatedly clashed, almost breaking out into a real war.

The Berlin Crisis and the Airlift

The first crisis of the Cold War involved the city of Berlin . Partly controlled by Western powers, Berlin was located in Communist Germany: it was essentially a Western outpost on Soviet soil, which created no small problems for Eastern governments, who feared a “Westernization” of their bloc.

When Westerners actually tried to introduce economic innovations in their part of the city – in particular, the idea was to introduce their own currency and liberalize the economy – the Soviets decided in June 1948 to block all access to the city .

The Americans then supplied Berlin, which was completely isolated, with an airlift. The Russians did not dare to prevent these air supplies for fear of a new war, but the tension between the two blocs became very high. It was resolved peacefully about a year later, with the West abandoning the prospect of introducing a new currency and the East testing the American strength that had so well faced the blockade.

 The Korean War

The second crisis exploded in Asia, an area that, after the affirmation of Mao Zedong in China , seemed destined to fall mainly under Soviet influence. It was precisely in Asia that the first conflict linked to the Cold War broke out: the Korean War (1950-1953).

At the end of World War II, Korea was divided into two parts along the 38th parallel north: North Korea, led by a communist government, and South Korea, an American ally. In 1950, North Korea attacked South Korea. The Americans intervened but also found themselves facing troops sent by China. The war ended in 1953 with the reaffirmation of the border of the 38th parallel. Once again, however, the world had come close to direct involvement of the superpowers and total war.

 De-Stalinization

In 1954 Stalin died and his disappearance caused substantial changes in the structure of the Soviet regime. His successor was Nikita Khrushchev , who initiated the “de-Stalinization” and at the same time a new attitude towards the USA. High-level meetings, such as the Geneva Conference of 1955 , and exchanges of visits favored the birth of the “thaw” after the “cold war”. Contacts between the USA and the USSR slowly moved on to dialogue, albeit through several moments of tension. The most important novelty of Khrushchev’s policy was the denunciation of Stalin’s crimes.

 The Hungarian Uprising

In October 1956, a Hungarian revolt broke out, which was put down by the Soviets in order to avoid a dangerous split in the Communist bloc. In 1960, new international hopes were aroused by the election of John F. Kennedy (later assassinated in Dallas in 1963) as President of the United States : a young president who made no secret of wanting to initiate an American renaissance, which would coincide with a period of peace for the entire world.

The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Naval Blockade

But not long afterward, the new president’s diplomatic skills were put to the test.

In Cuba a communist movement, led by Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara , overthrew the old regime linked to the Americans (1959). Fidel Castro became politically closer to the Soviet Union and allowed the Russians to install missiles on the island, effectively acting as a missile base for a possible attack on the USA.

In October 1962, as soon as the American intelligence services informed them of the presence of the missiles, President Kennedy ordered a naval blockade around Cuba and forced the USSR to withdraw its atomic weapons from the island. The Soviets gave in and the missiles were dismantled, but the world had been on the brink of atomic war for several days.

 The Berlin Wall

Another episode had already brought US-USSR relations to the brink of breaking: the construction by the Soviets of a wall in the city of Berlin , so as to divide the eastern sector from the western one. This drastic and sudden measure (the wall was built almost entirely on the night of August 12, 1961) aimed to put an end to the numerous escapes from the Russian sector of a large number of citizens who left East Berlin attracted by capitalism and the freedom they breathed in the western sector.

 The Vietnam War

Under Kennedy, the United States intensified its military commitment in Vietnam . In 1964, with the new president, Lyndon Johnson , they decided to start bombing the territory of North Vietnam. But American military force was unable to crush the Vietcong resistance , which could count on the support of the Soviet Union and China.

But the world was changing, and the pacifist movements of citizens who considered the Vietnam War unjust and absurd did not take long to arrive. Intellectuals and singers supported the protests, which were also and above all based on the military failures of the Americans. It did not take long for the USA to decide to withdraw from the region in 1973. The whole of Vietnam thus fell under North Vietnamese control.

 The Khmer Rouge

Cambodia (Indochina) was involved in the Vietnam War, following US military operations, which led to the formation of communist-minded guerrilla groups, the Khmer Rouge. After the US withdrawal, they seized power and eliminated all those who could be political adversaries. Millions of citizens were forced to move to the countryside, for their plan that included the entire population engaged in agricultural work, under ruthless control, whereby any minimal disobedience was punishable by death. The forced transfers, the executions, the terrible famine caused by the failure of the government’s economic policy, caused the death of at least two million people. Only the intervention of the Vietnamese army (1978) put an end to the government of the Khmer Rouge .

 The Israeli-Palestinian Question

In the Middle East area , the tension between Israel and the Arab states was supported by the USA and the USSR.

On May 14, 1948, the state of Israel was proclaimed, incorporating most of Palestine, while the Gaza Strip was occupied by Egypt. The support of the United States and, to a lesser extent, the Soviet Union was crucial, as they believed it would be advantageous to create a state of Western culture in an Arab world that was becoming increasingly strategically important due to its immense oil reserves.

The Arab states intervened militarily, after the formation of the state, but the war, like most of the subsequent ones, was resolved in favor of Israel which emerged from it controlling a larger territory. Other wars occurred in ’56, ’67, ’73 determined by the desire of the refugees to return to their homes, by the will of the Palestinians to have their own state, by the refusal of Israel to accept their requests, by the refusal of the Arab states to recognize Israel.

In particular, the war of ’67 remains one of the main ones because Israel took over territories taken from Jordan and Egypt. After ’73, a glimmer of hope opened up thanks to the agreements between Israel and Egypt that, with American mediation, ended with the Camp David agreement in 1978 – Egypt recognized the state of Israel, and the latter returned the Sinai-. But the state of war continued and Palestinians and Israelis continued to die.

But who supported and continues to support Israel?

• The numerous Jewish communities in the world
• The United States, which has always seen Israel as a sort of Western presence in the Middle East.

The Soviet Union, on the other hand, which had initially favored the birth of Israel, later sided with its adversaries.

Since the 1960s, the Palestinians have been organized into many groups, which meet and confront each other in an organization, the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), whose most famous leader was Yasser Arafat. Some Palestinian groups, driven by desperation, chose to adopt a guerrilla method of struggle, which sometimes resulted in terrorism. This strategy was openly adopted only by some Palestinian groups, but according to some sources it also found consensus at the top. The methods used ranged from hijacking planes to hostage-taking, to the assault of suicide “commandos” against military and civilian targets.

 The Yom Kippur War

In 1973, a new conflict between Israel and the Arab countries flared up: the Yom Kippur War . It ended with the defeat of Egypt and demonstrated the inability of the Arab countries to defeat Israel.

The issue of the Palestinians living in the territories occupied by Israel has resulted in the so-called Intifada , a situation of permanent revolt, mainly by young people, against the Israelis. Only on September 13, 1993 did the ministers Peres and Rabin for Israel and Arafat for the PLO sign an agreement in Washington, in the presence of the American president Bill Clinton, even if the Palestinian situation has not yet found a definitive solution.