Cold War Practices 2

In this article we are going to continue to look at the practices and nature of the Cold War. In the previous article you might have noticed that we placed a lot of our focus on two countries. The USSR and the USA were the main players in the war and that’s why its important to dedicate time to understand the role that they played in this part of history. But of course, the Soviet Union and the USA were not the only participants in this strange war. Indeed, they were the faces of the two-sides, but the war would have been far less impactful had the whole world not been dragged into it. It’s important to recognize the impact the tensions between the two superpowers had on the world too.

In 1950 the Soviet supported North Korea attacked its pro-western Southern neighbor. This war became the first proxy-war during this time and even with US support to the South Koreans, it dragged to a stalemate and ended in 1953. Vietnam was also such a proxy-war, where the communist Ho Chi Minh fought against the pro-Western Ngo Dinh Diem. Sadly, this quick intended war turned into an extremely destructive 20 year-long battle (1955-1975).

(Vietnam War)

In Europe there was no large-scale fighting not even through proxy-wars. The continent was still however divided. The Warsaw Pact, which set up unified military command under the Soviet Union, included most Eastern European countries. Because of this pact they were considered satellite-states of the USSR and were not allowed to be helped by American foreign aid. The Western European countries were the opposite of their Eastern counterparts. They “sided” with the US and formed non- or even anti-communist regimes.

In the Americas, there were disputes such as the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1961, which saw the arming of communist leaning Cuba by the USSR. With USA being in close range to Cuba, this was a real threat to the American government, however, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev backed down and decided against bombing the United States. This incident clearly suggested that the real threat of communism came from “Third World” countries, as they were more likely to gain from communism than from capitalism.

(Key players in the Cuban Missile Crisis 1961, American President John F Kennedy, Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro, Leader of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev)

The Cold War really started to cool off when US President, Richard Nixon came into power. He adopted policies such as détente, which saw the relaxation of policies against the USSR. In 1971 the USA and the Soviet Union signed SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) that successfully ended the longstanding nuclear threat by prohibiting nuclear arms manufacturing on both sides. In addition to this the United Nations finally recognized Mao’s communist China, by the encouragement of Nixon. This shifted the poles of power distribution in the world, if for nothing else than for the sheer size of China. It seemed like the concept of this War was fading.

The last push to end this conflict came when Ronald Reagan came into power in the USA. He reignited the flame against communism, but by this point, the Soviet Union itself was crumbling. Their leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev introduced policies like glasnost and perestroika, which promoted political openness and economic reform. This caused the Soviet controlled Eastern Bloc to relax and eventually led to the replacement of communist governments in all of these states.

The last straw was the tearing down of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The wall that was the visual symbol of the divide between communist and pro-Western itself was being teared down in Germany.

In 1991, the Soviet Union fell apart, thus the Cold War ended.

(Tearing down the Berlin Wall)

Now we understand the Cold War from its vague beginning to its definite end. The Cold War is an interesting topic to study because it is such an unusual phenomenon, nothing like it before had ever existed. It also raises many questions and is sometimes difficult to understand, but it embodies the shift from old to new, from the strict set up of the world that was previous to the war, to the world we know today. Hopefully, these articles have sparked your interest in this topic, and you feel driven to explore it even further.

If you understand the basics Cold War, you are already at an advantage to understanding why and how our world works today.