TOPIC:

COLD WAR: A CATAYLST TO THE PRESENT WORLD ORDER

Introduction to Cold War

Cold War started after the World War II (also known as the Great War). It spanned almost
around 5 decades from 1945 to 1991. After the WWII, The united front put up by the US, UK
and USSR in WWII broke down and the old suspicions and distrust came to surface again. The
US wanted liberal democracy to be followed by the nations across the world while the USSR
was determined to stick to following communism. The Cold War led to heightened tensions
across the world, most notably the Cuban missile crisis when the world was at the brink of a
nuclear war. The Cold War saw a weapons and arms development race as well like the WWII.
The Cold War also divided the world into 2 blocs- The West Bloc and The East Bloc. A Neutral
side also emerged called as the Non-Alliance Movement (NAM). This consisted of countries that
were newly independent and did not want to join any camp and played a vital role in brokering
peace between these two blocs. Any move done by either side was viewed with great suspicion.
The Cold war ended in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed. The tussle for superiority
between US and USSR ended with USSR on the losing end and US coming out as mighty. Some
regard this as proving point that Liberal Democracy is a better ideology than Communism.

Cold War: Starting point

After the Yalta and Postdam conference, there was some friction and the British and US side
were unhappy with Stalin’s attitude especially towards Poland. He established a pro-communist
government there although a government at exile from London already existed there. Harry S.
Truman, the successor of Roosevelt committed to a policy to containing communism not just in
Europe but throughout the world. Europe was divided into 3 zones- Russian, American and
British zone. The US announced the Marshall plan in June 1947 which was an extension of
Truman’s doctrine to contain the spread of Communism. Under this plan, financial aid was given
to the W. European countries to help them get back on their feet again. The situation at W.
Europe was despotic. After the destruction it suffered due to WWII, it had the coldest winter in
70 years. The US extended financial aid under the Marshall Plan (also known as Europe
Recovery Plan). However, the financial aid wasn’t extended entirely on humanitarian grounds
but with the view that this would, in future open export market to US and also, more importantly,
the US would be able to exert their influence in the polity of this part of world and communism
won’t spread to flourishing W. Europe. By September 1947, 16 nations had signed for this aid
and over the next 4 years, an amount of over 13 billion dollars was given to these countries. This
helped in the recovery of industrial and agricultural sector of the countries.

The Russians viewed Marshall Plan with great suspicion. The Russian foreign minister Molotov
called the Marshall Plan ‘dollar imperialism’ and the Russian satellite states refused to take this
aid along with Czech. To counter this, the Russians came up with their own financial aid plan
called the Cominform. Under this plan, E. Europe was to be ‘industrialized, collectivized and
centralized’ and trade was promoted between Cominform states and through this; Stalin aimed to
further tighten his grip over the E. Europe sphere.

The takeover of Czech was a blow to the Western bloc as it was the only democratic state in E.
Europe and it could have acted as a bridge between E. and West Europe. With the signs of
communist side losing power in the upcoming elections, an armed coup was carried out and non-
communist leaders resigned. This led to the completion of the ‘Iron curtain’.

FORMATION OF NATO AND SPREAD OF COMMUNSIM

The 1st crisis in Cold War was over the treatment of Germany. The US under the Marshall Plan
helped in economic recovery of the zones under US. Stalin however acted out of revenge for the
damage German side inflicted upon USSR in WWII; it drained the German zone under USSR of
its resources. The German zone under USSR was poor and there was a stark contrast between the
US and USSR German zone. The US had to drop supplies to prevent starvation because USSR
had blocked all road and railway channels to force the West to retreat from there.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed in April 1949. The blockade done by
the Russians made the Western side think about their military preparedness and they had to ready
themselves. The nations that signed the Brussels’s treaty joined hands with US, Canada and
others and placed their defense forces under NATO. Under NATO, if one member was under
attack, the other countries would come to its aid and declare war on the aggressor.

When the US got to know that the USSR has successfully conducted an atomic bomb explosion
in September 1949, Harry S. Truman gave the go ahead for development of hydrogen bomb
which was more powerful than the already powerful atomic bomb. The H-bomb was called the
NSC-68. During this time period, Americans were also worried about the spread of communism
as a communist government was setup up under Mao Zedong in China. This was particularly
worrying for the US as they had backed KMT leader Chiang Kai shek for forming the
government but he was defeated and he had to leave mainland China. Also, Korea was divided
into 2 parts with one part going to the Soviets and other under US. Shortly afterwards, North
Korea invaded S.Korea to topple the democratic government that was in place in S.Korea.

SHORT-LIVED IMPROVEMENT IN RELATIONS

The East-West relations began to improve in 1953 albeit with some obstacles but relations had
begun to improve nonetheless. After the death of Stalin, a new generation of leaders emerged-
Malenkov, Bulganin and Khrushchev. They wanted to improve relations with US. They wanted
to avoid nuclear war as both sides were balanced as US had successfully developed the
Hydrogen bomb. Khrushchev adopted the foreign policy of ‘peaceful co-existence’. He
emphasized that this was important as either the East and West can co-exist peacefully or the
most destructive war would be started. US, led under President Eisenhower also reiterated that
they wanted to have friendly relations with the USSR. The Peace agreement signed in
Panmunjom in 1953 led to the end of Korean War. Khrushchev talked about improving relations
but was reluctant to give up Soviet grip over its satellite states. Furthermore, Berlin was a boiling
point between US and USSR. USSR wanted the West to withdraw from that area. When a U-2
spy plane crashed just outside of Russia in 1960, President Eisenhower refused to apologize and
said that US had a right to make reconnaissance flights. Outraged by this, Khrushchev walked
out of a summit in Paris and the thaw seemed to be over with. When John F. Kennedy came in
power in 1961, he also refused to withdraw from West Berlin which led to formation of Berlin
Wall in August 1961 and the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.

ARMS RACE AND CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS

There was a very competitive arms race in Cold War, mainly between the US and USSR. The
US developed the H-bomb in 1953 and USSR also made the same in the following year.
However, US always had more amounts of weapons than USSR. First time, USSR overtook
them was with the Inter Continental Ballistic missile (ICBM), this could reach the US even if
launched from USSR. The US came soon forward with their own ICBM. US also developed
shorter range nuclear missile known as Jupiter and Thor which could be launched from US’s
satellite states and signed an agreement with Turkey. The entry of Cuba in Cold War was in 1959
when Fidel Castro overthrew America-backed Batista from power. The US cut their diplomatic
ties and financial aid from Cuba from 1960s and Cuba was forced to take help from USSR.
Seeing this, John F. Kennedy launched the invasion of Bay of Pigs to overthrow Castro regime
took place but that effort was thwarted due to poor planning and execution. Khrushchev
extended support to Cuba and decided to install a nuclear launch site. Through this, he could
launch attack on major cities of the US. This was seen as a counter move to US planting missiles
in Turkey. The US decided to retaliate with planned air strikes. However, the then President John
F. Kennedy decided against any armed attack and a peace settlement was signed. MIRV’s were
also developed by US and Russians made their own version of it. The two sides were developing
and stockpiling arms at a very fast rate.

DÉTENTE
Détente is a period of permanent relaxation of tensions between US and USSR from the 1970s to
1990s. Both the sides were developing and stockpiling arms at a very fast rate. However, this
was straining the economy as well, particularly that of USSR. It was finding it difficult to keep it
up with US. It diverted most of its resources towards armament and a good standard of life could
not be provided its citizens. After the show of military strength from China in Korean War, US
realized its limitations of military power and realized it is not the only way to contain
communism. From 1970s, various treaties were being signed to slow down the arms race and
limit the number of weapons. The first breakthrough was Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty- I
(SALT-I) was aimed at doing this only. This limited the amount of ICBM’s and SLBMS’s each
side can have but could not slow down the race. Helsinki agreement in 1975 saw USSR
promising Human Rights in their satellite states. SALT-II was signed and US began to export
wheat to Russia. However, there was still distrust between the two sides as can be seen in 1979
when NATO saw Russia deploy 150 SS-20 missiles. NATO responded with over 500 Cruiser
missiles installed at Europe. Under Ronald Reagan (1981-89), he initiated the ‘Strategic Defense
Initiative’ (SDI, also called Star Wars). However, things took turn for better when Mikhail
Gorbachev came in power. He was determined to improve relations with US. In a meeting in
November 1985, a joint statement was given by both sides saying “that nuclear war will never be
fought and must not be fought”. In 1986, after the accident in Chernobyl, a meeting was held in
Iceland where Gorbachev proposed a 15-year timetable for getting rid of nuclear weapons.
However, Ronald Reagan was not ready to give up SDI project. The breakthrough point was in
1987 in Washington when both sides signed the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty
(INF). Over the next 3 years, warheads from both sides were to be scrapped. This amounted to
4% of weapons being scrapped but this was first step towards scrapping of arms.

END OF COLD WAR

The beginning of end of Cold War started in 1988 in Poland when a Solidarity Trade Union
launched a movement against communist control. Other countries also wanted to overthrow
communist regimes and adopt democracy. These movements gained traction and in 1989, the
Berlin Wall was breached and Germany re-united in 1990. Many of the satellite states such as
Albania, Czech and Yugoslavia overthrew communist regimes and conducted multi-party
elections. In 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned and USSR collapsed and was divided into many
separate republics.

CONCLUSION

The Cold War was a very long war, from 1945-1991. It had the potential to make the world see
the most destructive war ever fought on the planet. It acted as a catalyst to the present world
order. Post WWII, both US and USSR sought to establish themselves as the most superior and
Post-Cold War, US is the most powerful nation in the world. China gave up socialist idea for its
economy in late 1970s with the ‘four modernizations’ under the Chinese SEZ program and afraid
of isolationism, China began fostering better relations with US from the 1970s and adopted a mix
of Communism (government ideology) and Capitalism(industrial model) and it is very powerful
nation as well. The satellite states under USSR overcame Communist regime. Isolationism
means “the political principle or practice of showing interest only in your own country and not
being involved in international activities”1and this idea at large is not prevalent anymore and free
trade is in practice and encouraged among the nations. The nations now are hesitant to engage in
armed attacks and retaliation and rely on dialogues and diplomatic ties. This dialogue practice
can be seen from the Cold War era, most prominently by JFK in Cuban missile crisis and by
Reagan and Gorbachev which aided in end of Cold War and establish friendly relations between
the two blocs. Germany was reunited in 1990 and it is a very powerful nation as well under the
leadership of Angela Merkel. Parallel to the Cold War, the formation of Council for economic
cooperation between the Western European nations began and it culminated in the formation of
EU which is a now super-nation power on the global stage.

REFERENCE

Mastering Modern World History by Norman Lowe

1
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/isolationism