THE HISTORY OF COLD WAR

PLOTICAL SCIENCE

Submitted by:

DHARMENDRA TRIPATHI

2013134

SEMESTER II

DAMODARAM SANJIVAYYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

Visakhapatnam

MARCH 2014

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The history of cold war

S no. Particular Page no.

Content 2

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 3

1 Introduction 4

2 Historical Background 5

3 Review of literature 7

I End of World War II (1947-53) 7

II Beginning of Cold War (1953-1962) 8

III Cold War crisis (1953-62) 9

IV Confrontation through détente (1962–79) 13

4 Second Cold War 17

5 Last phase of Cold War 20

6 Post-cold war 23

7 Causes of cold war: 23

8 Conclusion 25

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I have endeavoured to attempt this project. However, it would not have been feasible without

the valuable support and guidance of Ms. T.Y.Nirmala Devi. I would like to extend my

sincere thanks to her.

I am also highly indebted to Damodaram Sanjivayya National Law University Library Staff,

for their patient co-operation as well as for providing necessary information & also for their

support in completing this project.

My thanks and appreciations also go to my classmates who gave their valuable insight

and help in developing this project

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1. Introduction:- The history of cold war were started during the 1946 – 1989. The first

phase of the cold war were started on the end of second world war the USSR

consolidated its control over the states of The Eastern Bloc1 while the United States

began a strategy of global containment to challenge Soviet power, extending military

and financial aid to the countries of Western Europe (example, supporting the anti-

Communist side in the Greek Civil War) and creating the NATO alliance. The Berlin

Blocked2 (1948-1949) was one of the first major international crisis of the Cold War.

During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet

Union blocked the Western Allies railway, road, and canal access to the sectors

of Berlin under Allied control. Their aim was to force the western powers to allow the

Soviet zone to start supplying Berlin with food, fuel, and aid, thereby giving the

Soviets practical control over the entire city. The blockade was lifted in May 1949

and resulted in the creation of two separate German states.  The Federal Republic of

Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany)

split up Berlin.

The Communist side in the Chinese Civil War and the outbreak of the Korean war (1950-

1953), the conflict expanded as the USSR and USA competed for influence in Latin America

and decolonizing state of Africa, and the middle east and South east Asia. Meanwhile the

Hungarian Revolution of 19563 was brutally crushed by the Soviets. The expansion and

escalation sparked more crises, such as the Suez crisis4 (1956). The Cold War (1962–

1979) refers to the phase within the cold war  that spanned the period between the aftermath

of the Cuban missile crisis in late October 1962, through the detente period beginning in

1969, to the end of détente in the late 1970s. This last crisis a new phase began that saw

the sino soviet split complicate relations within the Communist sphere while US allies,

particularly France, demonstrated greater independence of action. The USSR crushed the

1968 prague spring liberalization program in czechoslovakia and the Vietnam war (1955–

1975) ended with a defeat of the US-backed Republic of south vietnam, prompting further

adjustments. By the 1970s both sides had become interested in accommodations to create a

1  The former communist state of central and Eastern state, generally the Soviet union and the countries of the Warsaw pact . -(February 2,2014)(10:10)2 First International major Crisis of the Cold war(1948-1949). -(February 2,2014)(11:05)3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Revolution_of_1956-(February 2,2014)(11:25)4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Crisis

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more stable and predictable international system, inaugurating a period of détente that

saw Strategic Arms Limitation Talks and the US opening relations with the People's Republic

of China as a strategic counterweight to the Soviet Union. Détente collapsed at the end of the

decade with the Soviet war in Afghanistan beginning in 1979.  the mid-1980s, the new Soviet

leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the liberalizing reforms

of perestroika ("reorganization", 1987) and glasnost ("openness", ca. 1985) and ended Soviet

involvement in Afghanistan. The result in 1989 was a wave of revolutions that peacefully

(with the exception of the Romanian Revolution) overthrew all of the Communist regimes of

Central and Eastern Europe. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union itself lost control and

was banned following an an abortive coup attempt in August 1991. This in turn led to the

formal dissolution of the USSR in December 1991 and the collapse of Communist regimes in

other countries such as Mongolia, Cambodia and South Yemen. The United States remained

as the world's only superpower.

2. Historical Background:- On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped one atomic

bomb n Hiroshima that destroyed the city and half of its population. Two days later

the Russians declared war on Japan. At the Teheran Conference in 1943, the Soviet

Union reaffirmed its pledge to enter the war against Japan after the defeat of

Germany. Russian entry into the war in Asia was again confirmed at both the Yalta

and Potsdam conferences. The following day, August 9, a second atomic bomb was

dropped on Nagasaki. Japanese capitulation on August 15 made the Russian invasion

unnecessary. Stalin was convinced that the United States and Britain had contrived a

plan to use the atomic bomb to force Japan out of the war before the Russians were

able to comply with their promise to join the war against Japan and avoid agreements

turning over territory held by the Japanese since their victory over Imperial Russia in

the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. The Soviets likewise believed that the bombs were

also meant to intimidate the Russians, who had, like the Germans, experimented with

atomic energy but were well behind perfecting an atomic weapon. When the

Americans offered a plan for sharing nuclear capability among the great powers after

the war, the Russians rejected what they regarded as unfair or suspicious conditions.

Thus, the bomb that ended one war marked the beginning of another—The Cold War.

On September 1, 1939, Nazi troops invaded Poland beginning World War II. On

August 23 the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed a non-aggression pact. The

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public text simply indicated that Germany and the Soviet Union would abide by the

neutrality pact they had signed in 1926. The secret protocol however divided Eastern

Europe into Nazi and Soviet spheres. Britain and France declared war on Germany

shortly after the invasion of Poland. By mid-September Soviet armies had crossed

into eastern Poland. After capitulation, Poland was divided between the Nazis and

Soviets. In June, 1940, Nazi troops swept into France and within six weeks France

petitioned for an armistice. The battle for Britain began in earnest after the fall of

France. On June 22, 1941, German troops invaded the Soviet Union and were at the

outskirts of Leningrad by early September. The United States, professing neutrality,

sent massive quantities of supplies to Britain and later to Russia through a Lend-Lease

program pushed through by the Roosevelt administration. The United States entered

the war against Germany and Italy a few days after the Japanese attacked Pearl

Harbour in December 1941. The Big Three powers, the United States, Britain, and the

Soviet Union formed an alliance against the Axis Powers in Europe while Britain and

the U.S. joined forces against the Japanese in the Pacific theatre of the war.

Matters of post war policy were discussed at diplomatic meetings

during the course of the war, specific policies were not thoroughly discussed in order to avoid

a rupture in the alliance. Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Premier Josef Stalin had

made an informal agreement at the Second Moscow Conference, October 1944, that would

divide the Balkans into British and Russian spheres of influence after the war. Roosevelt was

not a party to this agreement and soon let it be known that he would not be bound by the

decision reached at the Moscow Conference. The issue of Poland appeared to be the breaking

point of the grand alliance. Roosevelt and Churchill acquiesced to most of Stalin’s demands

at Yalta in exchange for a Russian pledge to enter the war against Japan shortly after the war

in Europe was brought to a close. Churchill and Roosevelt did get Stalin to agree to “free and

unfettered elections” in Poland and Eastern Europe based on universal suffrage and secret

ballot. A few months later at Potsdam, the Polish issue and Soviet interest in Eastern Europe

were to again be the focal points of discussion. Truman had become President in April

following Roosevelt’s death and Churchill, who attended the first sessions of the conference,

was defeated in the British election and was succeeded by Attlee. The major response by

Americans to Stalin’s posture was to “contain” what was regarded as a worldwide conspiracy

to spread communism. On February 22, 1946, George Kennan, the American chargé

d’affaires in Moscow, sent a confidential cable to the State Department. In this so-called

“Long Telegram” Kennan outlined Soviet policy and concluded that the USSR was on a

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fanatical crusade to obliterate the West. Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal had the Long

Telegram reproduced and made it required reading for higher officers in the armed services.

In his Memoirs published in 1967, Kennan remarked that the telegram read “like one of those

primers put out by alarmed congressional committees or by the Daughters of the American

Revolution, designed to arouse the citizenry to the dangers of the Communist conspiracy.”1

In March, Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech solidified opposition to Soviet encroachments in

Europe. In 1947, Greece was convulsed by a civil war supported by neighbouring Communist

states. At the same time the Soviet Union, to secure its position in the Eastern Mediterranean,

was putting pressure on Turkey. Faced with what was perceived as a Soviet takeover of both

Greece and Turkey, President Truman announced his “Truman Doctrine” that the United

States was pledged to preventing such takeovers, and the first of several similar interventions

was launched there at a cost of several hundred million dollars. In April 1948, the Marshall

Plan to reconstruct Europe was also conceived as primarily an “anti-communist” measure to

insure the rapid recovery of European economies devastated by the war. By 1949, the

Russians had tested a nuclear bomb. The arms race was on and would continue for nearly half

a century.

3. Review of literature

I. End of World War II (1947-53) :- war time conferences in Europe in that

time main conferences is Tehran conference and Yalta conference. The "Big

Three" at the Yalta Conference: Winston Churchill, Franklin D.

Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin, 1945. In the allies of the country they are

disagreed about to Europe map how should look, and how should borders

drawn on following war. Each side dissimilar idea regarding settlement of

peace and war to resolve peacefully on the country by the help of international

organisations. The destruction the Soviet Union sustained during World War

II, the Soviet Union sought to increase security by dominating the internal

affairs of countries that bordered it. The Western Allies were divided in their

vision of the new post-war world. Roosevelt's goals – military victory in both

Europe and Asia, the achievement of global American economic supremacy

over the British Empire, and the creation of a world peace organization – were

more global than Churchill's, which were mainly cantered on securing control

over the Mediterranean, ensuring the survival of the British Empire, and the

independence of Central and Eastern European countries as a buffer between

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the Soviets and the United Kingdom. Stalin seemed a potential ally in

accomplishing their goals, whereas in the British approach Stalin appeared as

the greatest threat to the fulfilment of their agenda. With the Soviets already

occupying most of Central and Eastern Europe, Stalin was at an advantage and

the two western leaders vied for his favours. The differences between

Roosevelt and Churchill led to several separate deals with the Soviets. October

1944, Churchill travelled to Moscow and agreed to divide the Balkans into

respective spheres of influence, and at Yalta Roosevelt signed a separate deal

with Stalin in regard of Asia and refused to support Churchill on the issues of

Poland and the Reparations. Further Allied negotiations concerning the post-

war balance took place at the Yalta Conference in February 1945, albeit this

conference also failed to reach a firm consensus on the framework for a post-

war settlement in Europe.

Potsdam Conference and defeat of Japan :- At the Potsdam Conference, which

started in late July after Germany's surrender, serious differences emerged over the

future development of Germany and the rest of Central and Eastern

Europe. Moreover, the participants' mounting antipathy and bellicose language served

to confirm their suspicions about each other's hostile intentions and entrench their

positions. At this conference Truman informed Stalin that the United States possessed

a powerful new weapon. Stalin was aware that the Americans were working on the

atomic bomb and, given that the Soviets' own rival program was in place, he reacted

to the news calmly. The Soviet leader said he was pleased by the news and expressed

the hope that the weapon would be used against Japan. One week after the end of the

Potsdam Conference, the US bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Shortly after the

attacks, Stalin protested to US officials when Truman offered the Soviets little real

influence in occupied Japan.

II. Beginning of Cold War (1953-1962):-

Conform and the Tito–Stalin split5 :- In September 1947, the Soviets

created Conform6, the purpose of which was to enforce orthodoxy within the

international communist movement and tighten political control over

5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cominform6 Cominform was a Soviet-dominated organization of Communist parties founded in September 1947 at a conference of Communist party leaders in Szklarska Poręba, Poland.

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Soviet satellites through coordination of communist parties in the Eastern Bloc.

Conform faced an embarrassing setback the following June, when the Tito–Stalin

split obliged its members to expel Yugoslavia, which remained Communist but

adopted a non-aligned position.( The Cominform was dissolved in 1956 after

Soviet rapprochement with Yugoslavia and the process of De-Stalinization.)

Korean War :- One of the more significant impacts of containment was the outbreak

of the Korean War. In June 1950, Kim Il-sung's North Korean People's Army invaded

South Korea. Joseph Stalin "planned, prepared, and initiated" the invasion, creating

"detailed [war] plans" that were communicated to the North Koreans. the UN Security

Council backed the defence of South Korea, though the Soviets were then boycotting

meetings in protest that Taiwan and not Communist China held a permanent seat on

the Council.  A UN force of personnel from South Korea, the United States, the

United Kingdom, Turkey, Canada, Colombia, Australia, France, South Africa, the

Philippines, the Netherlands, Belgium, New Zealand and other countries joined to

stop the invasion. The Chinese and North Koreans were exhausted by the war and

were prepared to end it by late 1952, Stalin insisted that they continue fighting, and

the Armistice was approved only in July 1953, after Stalin's death. North Korean

leader Kim Il Sung created a highly centralized, totalitarian dictatorship – which

continues to date – according himself unlimited power and generating a

formidable cult of personality. After Rhee was overthrown in 1960, South Korea fell

within a year under a period of military rule that lasted until the re-establishment of a

multi-party system in the late 1980s.

III. Cold War crisis (1953-62): - The Cold War from the death of Soviet

leader Joseph Stalin in 1953 to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. The death of

Stalin unrest occurred in the Eastern Bloc, while there was a calming of

international tensions. The death of Joseph Stalin (who led the Soviet Union

from 1928 and through the Great Patriotic War) in 1953, his former right-hand

man Nikita Khrushchev was named First Secretary of the Communist Party.

Khrushchev gradually consolidated his hold on power. At a speech to the

closed session of the Twentieth Party Congress of the Communist Party of the

Soviet Union, February 25, 1956, Nikita Khrushchev shocked his listeners by

denouncing Stalin's cult and many crimes that occurred under Stalin's

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leadership. Although the contents of the speech were secret, it was leaked to

outsiders, thus shocking both Soviet allies and Western observers. Khrushchev

was later named premier of the Soviet Union in 1958. The impact on Soviet

politics was immense. The speech stripped Khrushchev's remaining Stalinist

rivals of their legitimacy in a single stroke, dramatically boosting the First

Party Secretary's power domestically.

Warsaw pact and Hungarian Revolution: - The soviets create a response to NATO-

The Warsaw pact. This military alliance encompasses countries within the sphere of

influence of the USSR. The Warsaw pact is an agreement imposed on its members.

While Stalin's death in 1953 slightly relaxed tensions, the situation in Europe

remained an uneasy armed truce The Soviets, who had already created a network of

mutual assistance treaties in the Eastern Bloc by 1949 established a formal alliance

therein, the Warsaw Pact7, in 1955. was a mutual defence treaty between eight

communist States of Central and Eastern Europe in existence during the Cold War.

The founding treaty was established under the initiative of the Soviet Union and

signed on 14 May 1955, in Warsaw. The Warsaw Pact was the military complement

to the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CoMEcon), the regional economic

organization for the communist States of Central and Eastern Europe. The Warsaw

Pact was in part a Soviet military reaction to the integration of West

Germany into NATO in 1955, per the Paris Pacts of 1954 but was primarily motivated

by Soviet desires to maintain control over military forces in Central and Eastern

Europe. The Warsaw Pact's preamble) to maintain peace in Europe, guided by the

objective points and principles of the Charter of the United Nations (1945)8.

Hungarian Revolution:-A series of anti-Soviet revolts in eastern culminate in the

Hungarian Revolution. Budapest rise up against what it views as the unreformed

Stalinist practices of its own communists as well as a national exploitation at the

hands of the USSR. The revolution is crushed by the Soviet army. The west does not

intervene-both embroiled in its own crisis, the Suez war, and not wanting to damage

the status quo.

7  The Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation, and Mutual Assistance8 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Pact

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In 1960, the Americans send a secret telegram to the Soviets by way of Yugoslavia. Its

massage- The government of the united- state does not look with favour upon government

unfriendly to the Soviet Union on the border of the Soviet Union.

The Hungarian Revolution of 19569 or Hungarian Uprising of 1956 (Hungarian: 1956-os

forradalom) was a spontaneous nationwide revolt against the government of the People's

Republic of Hungary and its Soviet-imposed policies, lasting from 23 October until 10

November 1956. It was the first major threat to Soviet control since the USSR's forces drove

out the Nazis at the end of World War II and occupied Eastern Europe. Despite the failure of

the uprising, it was highly influential, and came to play a role in the downfall of the Soviet

Union decades later. he revolt began as a student demonstration, which attracted thousands as

they marched through central Budapest to the Parliament building, calling out on the streets

using a van with loudspeakers via Radio Free Europe. A student delegation entering the radio

building to try to broadcast the students' demands was detained.  When the delegation's

release was demanded by the demonstrators outside, they were fired upon by the State

Security Police (ÁVH) from within the building. When the students were fired on a student

died and was wrapped in a flag and held above the crowd. This was the start of the

revolution. After announcing a willingness to negotiate a withdrawal of Soviet forces,

the Politburo changed its mind and moved to crush the revolution. On 4 November, a large

Soviet force invaded Budapest and other regions of the country. The Hungarian resistance

continued until 10 November. Over 2,500 Hungarians and 700 Soviet troops were killed in

the conflict, and 200,000 Hungarians fled as refugees. This revolution was suppressed in

Hungary for more than 30 years. Since the thaw of the 1980s. At the inauguration of

the Third Hungarian Republic in 1989, 23 October was declared a national holiday.

Berlin crisis :- The Berlin Crisis of 196110 was the last major incident in the Cold

War regarding the status of Berlin and post–World War II Germany. By the early

1950, the Soviet approach to restricting emigration movement was emulated by most

of the rest of the Eastern Bloc. However, hundreds of thousands of East

Germans annually emigrated to West Germany through a "loophole" in the system

that existed between East and West Berlin, where the four occupying World War II

powers governed movement. The emigration resulted in a massive "brain drain" from

East Germany to West Germany of younger educated professionals, such that nearly

9 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Revolution_of_195610 Berlin_Crisis_of_1961#Berlin_ultimatum.org

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20% of East Germany's population had migrated to West Germany by 1961.That

June, the Soviet Union issued a new ultimatum demanding the withdrawal

of Allied forces from West Berlin. The request was rebuffed, and on August 13, East

Germany erected a barbed-wire barrier that would eventually be expanded through

construction into the Berlin Wall, effectively closing the loophole. On June 15, 1961,

two months before the construction of the Berlin Wall started, First Secretary of

the Socialist Unity Party and Staatsrat chairmanWalter Ulbricht stated in an

international press conference, "Niemand hat die Absicht, eine Mauer zu

errichten!" (No one has the intention to erect a wall). It was the first time the

term Mauer (wall) had been used in this context.

On 4–7 August 1961, the foreign ministers of four Western countries (the United States,

United Kingdom, France and West Germany) held secret consultations in Paris. The only

question on the agenda was how to react to the Soviet provocations in Berlin. In the course of

these meetings Western representatives expressed an understanding of the defensive nature of

Soviet campaign in Germany, and unwillingness to risk a war11. In 1960 the soviet shot down

Americans spy plane and in 1961 American president john F Kennedy launched an invasion

of Cuba by way of a force of Cuban exiles. This attempt to take back Cuba, known as the

way of pig invasion fails. Poor planning and chance are at fault. Latter the Soviet cosmonaut

Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to orbit the Earth. Yet another success for the Soviet

space program. The USSR seals East German borders and begins construction of the Berlin

Wall.

Vienna summit:- The Vienna summit12 was a summit meeting held on June 4, 1961,

in Vienna, Austria, between President John F. Kennedy of the United States and

Premier Nikita Khrushchev of the Soviet Union. The leaders of the

two superpowers of the Cold War era discussed numerous issues in the relationship

between their countries. In addition to conveying US reluctance to defend the full

rights of Berlin’s citizens, Kennedy ignored his own cabinet officials’ advice to avoid

ideological debate with Khrushchev. Khrushchev outmatched Kennedy in this debate,

and came away believing he had triumphed in the summit over a weak and

inexperienced leader. Observing Kennedy’s morose expression at the end of the

summit, Khrushchev believed Kennedy "looked not only anxious, but deeply upset…I

11 http://en.wikipedia.org/12 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_summit

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hadn’t meant to upset him. I would have liked very much for us to part in a different

mood. But there was nothing I could do to help him…Politics is a merciless business.

the Americans, the summit was initially seen as a diplomatic triumph. Kennedy had

refused to allow Soviet pressure to force his hand, or to influence the American policy

of containment. He had adequately stalled Khrushchev, and made it clear that the

United States was not willing to compromise on a withdrawal from Berlin, whatever

pressure Khrushchev may exert on the "testicles of the West", as Khrushchev once

called them.

IV. Confrontation through détente (1962–79):- In the course of the

1960s and 1970s, Cold War participants struggled to adjust to a new, more

complicated pattern of international relations in which the world was no

longer divided into two clearly opposed blocs. From the beginning of the post-

war period, Western Europe and Japan rapidly recovered from the destruction

of World War II and sustained strong economic growth through the 1950s and

1960s, with per capita GDPs approaching those of the United States,

while Eastern Bloc economies stagnated.

As a result of the 1973 oil crisis, combined with the growing influence of Third World

alignments such as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the Non-

Aligned Movement, less-powerful countries had more room to assert their independence and

often showed themselves resistant to pressure from either superpower. Meanwhile, Moscow

was forced to turn its attention inward to deal with the Soviet Union's deep-seated domestic

economic problems. During this period, Soviet leaders such as Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei

Kosygin embraced the notion of détente.

Cuban missile crisis: - The Bay of Pigs Invasion13, Kennedy and his administration

experimented with various ways of covertly facilitating the overthrow of the Cuban

government. Significant hopes were pinned on a covert program named the Cuban

Project14, devised under the Kennedy administration in 1961. In February 1962,

Khrushchev learned of the American plans regarding Cuba: a "Cuban project"—

approved by the CIA and stipulating the overthrow of the Cuban government in

13 The Bay of Pigs Invasion, known in Hispanic America as Invasión de Bahía de Cochinos (or Invasión de Playa Girón or Batalla de Girón), was a failed military invasion of Cuba14 he Cuban Project, also known as Special Group Augmented or Operation Mongoose , was a covert operation of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) developed during the early years of President John F. Kennedy's administration.

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October, possibly involving the American military—and yet one more Kennedy-

ordered operation to assassinate Castro. Preparations to install Soviet nuclear missiles

in Cuba were undertaken in response. The Cuban Missile Crisis (October–November

1962) brought the world closer to nuclear war than ever before. It further

demonstrated the concept of mutually assured destruction that neither superpower was

prepared to use their nuclear weapons, fearing total global destruction via mutual

retaliation. The aftermath of the crisis led to the first efforts in the nuclear arms race at

nuclear disarmament and improving relations, although the Cold War's first arms

control agreement, the Antarctic Treaty15, had come into force in 1961. – (The main

treaty was opened for signature on December 1, 1959, and officially entered into force

on June 23, 196116. The original signatories were the 12 countries active in Antarctica

during the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957–58. The twelve countries

had significant interests in Antarctica at the

time: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New

Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and

the United States. These countries had established over 50 Antarctic stations for the

IGY. The treaty was a diplomatic expression of the operational and scientific

cooperation that had been achieved "on the ice".) The Cuban missile Crisis. Soviet

nuclear missiles in Cuba threaten the start of a nuclear war. If the Soviet fire at the

USA from Cuba, the American will retaliate by firing at the USSR, eventually the

crisis is contained and nuclear war averted. That an agreement is reached says much

about the shifting reality of the cold war. In 1964 china donate the first nuclear

weapon.

French NATO withdrawal: - The unity of NATO was breached early in its history,

with a crisis occurring during Charles de Gaulle's presidency of France from 1958

onwards. De Gaulle protested at the United States' strong role in the organization and

what he perceived as a special relationship between the United States and the United

Kingdom. In a memorandum sent to President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Prime

Minister Harold Macmillan on September 17, 1958, he argued for the creation of a

tripartite directorate that would put France on an equal footing with the United States

and the United Kingdom, and also for the expansion of NATO's coverage to include

15 The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements, collectively called the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), regulate international relations with respect to Antarctica, Earth's only continent without a native human population.16 Antarctic Treaty" in The New Encyclopædia Britannica. Chicago:Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., article published by encyclopaedia Britannica

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geographical areas of interest to France, most notably French Algeria, where France

was waging a counter-insurgency and sought NATO assistance.

Considering the response given to be unsatisfactory, de Gaulle began the development of

an independent French nuclear deterrent and in 1966 withdrew from NATO's military

structures and expelled NATO troops from French soil.

Third World escalation: -  April 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson landed some

22,000 troops in the Dominican Republic for a one-year occupation of the republic in

an invasion codenamed Operation Power Pack, citing the threat of the emergence of a

Cuban-style revolution in Latin America. Presidential elections held in 1966, during

the occupation, handed victory to the conservative Joaquín Balaguer. Although

Balaguer enjoyed a real base of support from sectors of the elites as well as peasants,

his formally running Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) opponent, former

President Juan Bosch, did not actively campaign. The PRD's activists were violently

harassed by the Dominican police and armed forces. The Middle East continued to be

a source of contention. Egypt, which received the bulk of its arms and economic

assistance from the USSR, was a troublesome client, with a reluctant Soviet Union

feeling obliged to assist in both the 1967 Six-Day War (with advisers and technicians)

and the War of Attrition (with pilots and aircraft) against pro-Western Israel.  Martin

Shaw described these atrocities as "the purest genocide of the Cold War era." Vietnam

deposed Pol Pot in 1979 and installed Khmer Rouge defector Heng Samrin, only to be

bogged down in a guerrilla war and suffer a punitive Chinese attack.

Sino American rapprochement: - Richard Nixon meets with Mao Zedong in 1972.

As a result of the Sino-Soviet split, tensions along the Chinese–Soviet border reached

their peak in 1969, and United States President Richard Nixon decided to use the

conflict to shift the balance of power towards the West in the Cold War. The Chinese

had sought improved relations with the Americans in order to gain advantage over the

Soviets as well. In February 1972, Nixon announced a stunning rapprochement with

Mao's China by traveling to Beijing and meeting with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai.

At this time, the USSR achieved rough nuclear parity with the United States;

meanwhile, the Vietnam War both weakened America's influence in the Third World

and cooled relations with Western Europe. Although indirect conflict between Cold

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War powers continued through the late 1960s and early 1970s, tensions were

beginning to ease.

Nixon, Brezhnev, and détente: - China visit Nixon met with Soviet leaders,

including Brezhnev in Moscow. These Strategic Arms Limitation Talks resulted in

two landmark arms control treaties: SALT I17, the first comprehensive limitation pact

signed by the two superpowers, and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which banned

the development of systems designed to intercept incoming missiles. These aimed to

limit the development of costly anti-ballistic missiles and nuclear missiles.

Nixon and Brezhnev proclaimed a new era of "peaceful coexistence" and established the

ground breaking new policy of détente18 (or cooperation) between the two superpowers.

Meanwhile, Brezhnev attempted to revive the Soviet economy, which was declining in part

because of heavy military expenditures. Between 1972 and 1974, the two sides also agreed to

strengthen their economic ties, including agreements for increased trade. As a result of their

meetings, détente would replace the hostility of the Cold War and the two countries would

live mutually.

Meanwhile, these developments coincided with the "Ostpolitik19" of West German

Chancellor Willy Brandt. Other agreements were concluded to stabilize the situation in

Europe, culminating in the Helsinki Accords signed at the Conference on Security and Co-

operation in Europe in 1975.

Late 1970s deterioration of relations: - In the 1970s, the KGB, led by Yuri

Andropov20, continued to persecute distinguished Soviet personalities such

as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov, who were criticising the Soviet

leadership in harsh terms. Indirect conflict between the superpowers continued

17 SALT I is the common name for the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks Agreement, also known as the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty18 (French pronunciation: (detɑ̃]t), meaning "relaxation") the easing of strained relations, especially in a political situation.19 “new eastern policy" Ostpolitik for short, refers to the normalization of relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and Eastern Europe,20 was a Soviet politician and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 12 November 1982 until his death fifteen months later.

16

through this period of détente in the Third World, particularly during political crises

in the Middle East, Chile, Ethiopia, and Angola.

Although President Jimmy Carter tried to place another limit on the arms race with a SALT

II21 agreement in 1979, his efforts were undermined by the other events that year, including

the Iranian Revolution22 and the KGB-backed Nicaraguan Revolution23, which both ousted

pro-US regimes, and his retaliation against Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in December.

Elections in Chile become a Cold War battleground when both the CIA and KGB each

spend roughly $450,000 in covert support of opposing candidates: right-leaning Jorge

Alessandri and left-leaning Salvador Allende, respectively. Allende wins the election by

1%.

In 1973, the CIA will support a coup that topples Allende's government.

4. Second Cold War: - The term second Cold War refers to the period of intensive

reawakening of Cold War tensions and conflicts in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Tensions greatly increased between the major powers with both sides becoming more

militaristic. Diggins says, "Reagan went all out to fight the second cold war, by

supporting counterinsurgencies in the third world." Cox says, "The intensity of this

'Second' Cold War was as great as its duration was short."

Soviet war in Afghanistan: - In April 1978, the communist People's Democratic

Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) seized power in Afghanistan in the Saur Revolution24.

Within months, opponents of the communist government launched an uprising in

eastern Afghanistan that quickly expanded into a civil war waged by guerrilla

mujahideen against government forces countrywide. The Pakistani government

21 The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) were two rounds of bilateral talks and corresponding international treaties involving the United States and the Soviet Union—the Cold War superpowers—on the issue of armament control. The two rounds of talks and agreements were SALT Iand SALT II.22 the 1979 Iranian (Islamic) revolution in Iran. For the revolution that took place between 1905 and 1911, see Persian Constitutional Revolution. For the series of reforms launched in 1963,23 encompassed the rising opposition to the Somoza dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s, the campaign led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) to violently oust the dictatorship in 1978-79, the subsequent efforts of the FSLN to govern Nicaragua from 1979 until 1990.24 Is the name given to the communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) takeover of political power from the government of Afghanistan on 27-28 April 1978. The word 'Saur', i.e. Taurus, refers to the Dari name of the second month of the Persian calendar, the month in which the uprising took place

17

provided these rebels with covert training centers, while the Soviet Union sent

thousands of military advisers to support the PDPA government. Meanwhile,

increasing friction between the competing factions of the PDPA – the

dominant Khalq and the more moderate Parcham – resulted in the dismissal of

Parchami cabinet members and the arrest of Parchami military officers under the

pretext of a Parchami coup. By mid-1979, the United States had started a covert

program to assist the mujahideen.

In September 1979, Khalqist President Nur Muhammad Taraki was assassinated in a coup

within the PDPA orchestrated by fellow Khalq memberHafizullah Amin, who assumed the

presidency. Distrusted by the Soviets, Amin was assassinated by Soviet special forces in

December 1979. A Soviet-organized government, led by Parcham's Babrak Karmal but

inclusive of both factions, filled the vacuum. Soviet troops were deployed to stabilize

Afghanistan under Karmal in more substantial numbers, although the Soviet government did

not expect to do most of the fighting in Afghanistan. As a result, however, the Soviets were

now directly involved in what had been a domestic war in Afghanistan.

Carter responded to the Soviet intervention by withdrawing the SALT II treaty from

the Senate, imposing embargoes on grain and technology shipments to the USSR, and

demanding a significant increase in military spending, and further announced that the United

States would boycott the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics. He described the Soviet incursion

as "the most serious threat to the peace since the Second World War". President Reagan

publicizes his support by meeting with Afghan Mujahideen leaders in the White House, 1983.

Regan and Thatcher: - In January 1977, four years prior to becoming

president, Ronald Reagan bluntly stated, in a conversation with Richard V. Allen, his

basic expectation in relation to the Cold War.  In 1980, Ronald Reagan defeated

Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential election, vowing to increase military spending

and confront the Soviets everywhere. Both Reagan and new British Prime

Minister Margaret Thatcher denounced the Soviet Union and its ideology. Reagan

labelled the Soviet Union an "evil empire25" and predicted that Communism would be

25 The phrase evil empire was first applied to the Soviet Union in 1983 by U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who took an aggressive, hard-line stance that favoured matching and exceeding the Soviet Union's strategic and global military capabilities, in calling for a rollback strategy that would, in his words, write the final pages of the history of the Soviet Union.

18

left on the "ash heap of history26". 1985, Reagan's anti-communist position had

developed into a stance known as the new Reagan Doctrine27—which, in addition to

containment, formulated an additional right to subvert existing communist

governments.  The CIA encouraged anti-communist Pakistan's ISI to train Muslims

from around the world to participate in the jihad against the Soviet Union.

American President Ronald Reagan introduces the idea of "Star Wars", an anti-missile

satellite system. The move is indicative of American economic pressure on the Soviet, which

is no longer able to keep up—or keep up the illusions of keeping up—with American

technological and military progress.

Soviet and US military and economic issues: - Moscow had built up a military that

consumed as much as 25 percent of the Soviet Union's gross national product at the

expense of consumer goods and investment in civilian sectors. Soviet spending on

the arms race and other Cold War commitments both caused and exacerbated deep-

seated structural problems in the Soviet system, which saw at least a decade of

economic stagnation during the late Brezhnev years. Soviet investment in the defence

sector was not driven by military necessity, but in large part by the interests

of massive party and state bureaucracies dependent on the sector for their own power

and privileges. The Soviet Armed Forces became the largest in the world in terms of

the numbers and types of weapons they possessed, in the number of troops in their

ranks, and in the sheer size of their military–industrial base. However, the quantitative

advantages held by the Soviet military often concealed areas where the Eastern Bloc

dramatically lagged behind the West

Tensions continued intensifying in the early 1980s when Reagan revived the B-1

Lancer28 program that was cancelled by the Carter administration, produced LGM-118

Peacekeepers, installed US cruise missiles in Europe, and announced his

experimental Strategic Defence Initiative, dubbed "Star Wars" by the media, a defence

program to shoot down missiles in mid-flight.

26 is a figurative place to where objects such as persons, events, artefacts, ideologies, etc. are relegated when they are forgotten or marginalized in history. freedom and democracy will leave Marxism and Leninism on the ash heap of history."27 The Reagan Doctrine was a strategy orchestrated and implemented by the United States under the Reagan Administration to oppose the global influence of the Soviet Union during the final years of the Cold War. While the doctrine lasted less than a decade, it was the centre piece of United States foreign policy from the early 1980s until the end of the Cold War in 1991.28 The Rockwell (now part of Boeing) B-1 Lancer is a four-engine supersonic variable-sweep wing, jet-powered strategic bomber used by the United States Air Force (USAF)

19

On September 1, 1983, the Soviet Union shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, a Boeing

747 with 269 people aboard, including sitting Congressman Larry McDonald, when it

violated Soviet airspace just past the west coast of Sakhalin Island near Moneron Island —an

act which Reagan characterized as a "massacre". This act increased support for military

deployment, overseen by Reagan, which stood in place until the later accords between

Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. The Able Archer 83 exercise in November 1983, a realistic

simulation of a coordinated NATO nuclear release, has been called most dangerous moment

since the Cuban Missile Crisis, as the Soviet leadership keeping a close watch on it

considered a nuclear attack to be imminent. Meanwhile, the Soviets incurred high costs for

their own foreign interventions. Although Brezhnev was convinced in 1979 that the Soviet

war in Afghanistan would be brief, Muslim guerrillas, aided by the US and other countries,

waged a fierce resistance against the invasion. The Kremlin sent nearly 100,000 troops to

support its puppet regime in Afghanistan, leading many outside observers to dub the war "the

Soviets' Vietnam". However, Moscow's quagmire in Afghanistan was far more disastrous for

the Soviets than Vietnam had been for the Americans because the conflict coincided with a

period of internal decay and domestic crisis in the Soviet system.

A senior US State Department official predicted such an outcome as early as 1980, positing

that the invasion resulted in part from a "domestic crisis within the Soviet  system. ... It may

be that the thermodynamic law of entropy has ... caught up with the Soviet system, which

now seems to expend more energy on simply maintaining its equilibrium than on improving

itself. We could be seeing a period of foreign movement at a time of internal decay".

5. Last phase of Cold War: - Mikjail Gorbachev becomes the Soviet leader. He

will introduce a loosening of Soviet controls that will unintentionally lead to the

eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union. The Soviet economy was stagnant and faced

a sharp fall in foreign currency earnings as a result of the downward slide in oil prices

in the 1980s. These issues prompted Gorbachev to investigate measures to revive the

ailing state. An ineffectual start led to the conclusion that deeper structural changes

were necessary and in June 1987 Gorbachev announced an agenda of economic

reform called perestroika29, or restructuring. The new Soviet leader proved to be

committed to reversing the Soviet Union's deteriorating economic condition instead of

29 It was a political movement for reformation within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during the 1980s (1986),

widely associated with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his glasnost (meaning "openness") policy reform. The literal meaning of perestroika is "restructuring", referring to the restructuring of the Soviet political and economic system.

20

continuing the arms race with the West. Partly as a way to fight off internal opposition

from party cliques to his reforms, Gorbachev simultaneously introduced glasnost, or

openness, which increased freedom of the press and the transparency of state

institutions. Glasnost was intended to reduce the corruption at the top of

the Communist Party and moderate the abuse of power in the Central

Committee. Glasnost also enabled increased contact between Soviet citizens and the

western world, particularly with the United States, contributing to the

accelerating détente between the two nations. Reagan and Gorbachev sign a treaty

banning certain types of missiles from Europe.

Thaw relation: - In response to the Kremlin's military and political concessions,

Reagan agreed to renew talks on economic issues and the scaling-back of the arms

race. The first was held in November 1985 in Geneva, Switzerland. At one stage the

two men, accompanied only by an interpreter, agreed in principle to reduce each

country's nuclear arsenal by 50 percent. A second Reykjavík Summit was held

in Iceland. Talks went well until the focus shifted to Reagan's proposed Strategic

Defence Initiative, which Gorbachev wanted eliminated. Reagan refused.  The

negotiations failed, but the third summit in 1987 led to a breakthrough with the

signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF). The INF treaty

eliminated all nuclear-armed, ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with

ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometres (300 to 3,400 miles) and their

infrastructure. In 1989, Soviet forces withdrew from Afghanistan and by 1990

Gorbachev consented to German reunification, the only alternative being a

Tiananmen scenario. When the Berlin Wall came down, Gorbachev's "Common

European Home" concept began to take shape.

On December 3, 1989, Gorbachev and Reagan's successor, George H. W. Bush, declared the

Cold War over at the Malta Summit; a year later, the two former rivals were partners in

the Gulf War against Iraq.

East Europe breaks away: -By 1989, the Soviet alliance system was on the brink of

collapse, and, deprived of Soviet military support, the Communist leaders of

the Warsaw Pact states were losing power. Grassroots organizations, such

as Poland's Solidarity movement, rapidly gained ground with strong popular bases. In

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1989, the Communist governments in Poland and Hungary became the first to

negotiate the organizing of competitive elections. In Czechoslovakia and East

Germany, mass protests unseated entrenched Communist leaders. The Communist

regimes in Bulgaria and Romania also crumbled, in the latter case as the result of

a violent uprising. Attitudes had changed enough that US Secretary of State James

Baker suggested that the American government would not be opposed to Soviet

intervention in Romania, on behalf of the opposition, to prevent bloodshed. The tidal

wave of change culminated with the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, which

symbolized the collapse of European Communist governments and graphically ended

the Iron Curtain divide of Europe. The 1989 revolutionary wave swept across Central

and Eastern Europe peacefully overthrew all the Soviet-style communist states: East

Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria, Romania was the only

Eastern-bloc country to topple its communist regime violently and execute its head of

state.

A wave of successful independence movements in Eastern Europe. Communist governments

fall across the "Soviet Bloc": Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, etc. The USSR does not

intervene. In 1989, the Berlin Walls falls. In 1990, Germany unites.

Soviet republics break away: - In the USSR itself, glasnost weakened the bonds that

held the Soviet Union together and by February 1990, with the dissolution of the

USSR looming, the Communist Party was forced to surrender its 73-year-old

monopoly on state power. At the same time freedom of press and dissent allowed

by glasnost and the festering "nationalities question" increasingly led the Union's

component republics to declare their autonomy from Moscow, with the Baltic

States withdrawing from the Union entirely.

Soviet dissolution: - Gorbachev's permissive attitude toward Central and Eastern

Europe did not initially extend to Soviet territory; even Bush, who strove to maintain

friendly relations, condemned the January 1991 killings in Latvia and Lithuania,

privately warning that economic ties would be frozen if the violence continued. The

USSR was fatally weakened by a failed coup and a growing number of Soviet

republics, particularly Russia, who threatened to secede from the USSR.

The Commonwealth of Independent States, created on December 21, 1991, is viewed

as a successor entity to the Soviet Union but, according to Russia's leaders, its

22

purpose was to "allow a civilized divorce" between the Soviet Republics and is

comparable to a loose confederation. The USSR was declared officially dissolved on

December 25, 1991.

6. Post-cold war: - In various Eastern European countries, Communists—suddenly

reborn under different political names—remain in politics or even in power. Some

still remain in power today. The Cold War, though officially "over" because one of

the two combatants, the USSR, no longer exists, isn't quite over in Eastern Europe30.

In Russia, Vladimir Putin, twice President and still the de facto leader of the country,

was a member of the KGB. He stills keeps various KGB ties. In addition, various

Communist Party members, though no longer official politicians, now exert political

pressure as businessmen in control of vast industrial firms that passed from

nationalized control to their own as the chaotic end of the Soviet Union made

immense wealth available to those with the proper connections. In Russia, more so

even than in Eastern Europe, the Cold War is not yet over.

Neither is it over in the United States, which still continues with certain Cold War

policies (such as constructing a Star Wars-like missile shield in Poland and the Czech

Republic) and, at times, treats the new "war on terror" as an extension of the Cold

War to be fought with similar tactics.

7. Causes of cold war: - The cause of the Cold War is debatable. Because the Cold

War doubles as a conflict between two countries (the USA and the USSR) and

between two ideologies (Capitalism and Communism) several different causes can be

suggested:

1. Because Capitalism and Communism are usually seen as antithetical, it can be

argued that the Cold War began when Communism began, in 1917 with the Russian

Revolution. Or, if not quite in 1917, then in early 1920s, when Lenin and his

Bolsheviks consolidated their power in Russia and tried to spread Communism to the

30 http://coldwaressay.blogspot.in

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West, to Europe on the blade of their swords—although they were rather quickly

unsuccessful, being defeated by the Poles in the Polish-Soviet War (1919-1921).

2. Another commonly argued cause of the Cold War is, fittingly enough, the

beginning of World War II in Europe: 1939. The Soviet Union, now under Stalin, had

signed a secret pact with Germany's Hitler, and both countries attacked Poland in

September of that year.

3. However, the most popular cause of the Cold War was not the beginning, but

the end of World War II: 1945. Stalin, after being betrayed by Hitler in 1941, finished

the war on the Allied side, but the tensions between the victorious Western Powers

and the USSR were already in evidence. The USSR was gobbling up the countries

East of Germany, and part of Germany itself, which made the Americans and British

somewhat hesitant. The British feared too strong a Soviet presence in Europe and the

Americans wanted a free and open Germany which would become a large market for

its products. The Soviets stood in the way to both. In fact, American General George

Patton once famously remarked that when the Americans had gotten to Berlin, they

should have kept going on to Moscow!

4. Finally, probably the latest starting date and cause for the Cold War that's been

argued is 1947, the year in which the Soviets acquired the knowledge to make nuclear

weapons. Because the Cold War is so heavily wrapped up into nuclear technology—

and technology in general—some will argue that it was caused by the Soviet

challenge to American nuclear power, which had been demonstrated at Hiroshima and

Nagasaki at the end of World War II.

The most important thing to keep in mind when looking at the cause of the Cold War

is that there is no one, definite cause. The Cold War was a conflict that was

ideological, that grew out of World War II—which, itself, grew out of World War I

and its aftermath—and that was fought in various ways. Hence, the key when

24

deciding on the cause of the Cold War is not which cause you choose, but how well

you argue the one you do. They all have more than enough evidence for you to

construct a solid argument.

8. Conclusion: -Following the Cold War, Russia cut military spending dramatically.

Restructuring of the economy left millions throughout the former Soviet Union

unemployed. The capitalist reforms culminated in a recession more severe than the

US and Germany had experienced during the Great Depression. The aftermath of the

Cold War continues to influence world affairs. After the dissolution of the Soviet

Union, the post–Cold War world is widely considered as unipolar, with the United

States the sole remaining superpower.  The Cold War defined the political role of the

United States in the post–World War II world. Military expenditures by the US during

the Cold War years were estimated to have been $8 trillion, while nearly

100,000 Americans lost their lives in the Korean War and Vietnam War. Although the

loss of life among Soviet soldiers is difficult to estimate, as a share of their gross

national product the financial cost for the Soviet Union was far higher than that

incurred by the United States. The aftermath of Cold War conflict, however, is not

always easily erased, as many of the economic and social tensions that were exploited

to fuel Cold War competition in parts of the Third World remain acute.  The

breakdown of state control in a number of areas formerly ruled by Communist

governments has produced new civil and ethnic conflicts, particularly in the former

Yugoslavia. In Central and Eastern Europe, the end of the Cold War has ushered in an

era of economic growth and an increase in the number of liberal democracies, while

in other parts of the world, such as Afghanistan, independence was accompanied

by state failure.

BIBLOGRAPHY

25

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Revolution_of_1956

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Crisis

3. Article on Cold War: from the October Revolution to the fall of the Wall. By Jonathan

Haslam. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 2011. 523pp.

4. Mitterrand's France, the End of the Cold War, and German Unification: A Reappraisal

by Frédéric Bozo

5. BULLETIN OF THE GHI | 50 | SPRING 2012 Conference at the European Academy

Berlin, July 14 –17, 2011. Cosponsored by the Berlin city government; the European

Academy Berlin

6. NATIONAL CENTER FOR HISTORY IN THE SCHOOLS by University of

California, Los Angeles

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