Cold War

COLD WAR
The Cold War was the tense relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR) during the 46-year period following the World War II's end, but before the end of the Soviet Union. It refers to the time between 1945 and 1991.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE COLD WAR
At the end of World War II, English author and journalist George Orwell used Cold war, as a general term, in his essay "You and the Atomic Bomb", published October 19, 1945, in the British newspaper Tribune. Contemplating a world living in the shadow of the threat of nuclear warfare.
In diplomatic terms, there are 3 types of war:
Hot War : this is actual warfare. All talks have failed and the armies are fighting.
Warm War : this is where talks are still going on and there would always be a chance of a peaceful outcome but armies, navies etc. are being fully mobilised and war plans are being put into operation ready for the command to fight.
Cold War : this term is used to describe the relationship between America and the Soviet Union 1945 to 1980. Neither side ever fought the other - the consequences would be too appalling - but they did ‘fight’ for their beliefs using client states who fought for their beliefs on their behalf e.g. South Vietnam was anticommunist and was supplied by America during the war while North Vietnam was pro-Communist and fought the south (and the Americans) using weapons from communist Russia or communist China. In Afghanistan, the Americans supplied the rebel Afghans after the Soviet Union invaded in 1979 while they never physically involved themselves thus avoiding a direct clash with the Soviet Union.
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CONFLICTING COUNTRIES
Both the United States and Soviet Union had multiple countries on their sides. These countries were known as satellite states or client states.
The United Kingdom, France, New Zealand, Australia, West Germany, Canada, and the Netherlands are examples of countries on the American side. East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary, Poland were on the Soviet side. Cuba, North Korea, China, Mongolia and numerous other countries were friendly to the Soviets at various times.

ORIGIN OF COLD WAR
There is disagreement among historians regarding the starting point of the Cold War. While most historians trace its origins to the period immediately following World War II, others argue that it began towards the end of World War I, although tensions between the Russian Empire, other European countries and the United States date back to the middle of the 19th century.
As a result of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia (followed by its withdrawal from World War I), Soviet Russia found itself isolated in international diplomacy. Leader Vladimir Lenin stated that the Soviet Union was surrounded by a "hostile capitalist encirclement", and he viewed diplomacy as a weapon to keep Soviet enemies divided, beginning with the establishment of the Soviet Comintern, which called for revolutionary upheavals abroad. Subsequent leader Joseph Stalin, who viewed the Soviet Union as a "socialist island", stated that the Soviet Union must see that "the present capitalist encirclement is replaced by a socialist encirclement." As early as 1925, Stalin stated that he viewed international politics as a bipolar world in which the Soviet Union would attract countries gravitating to socialism and capitalist countries would attract states gravitating toward capitalism, while the world was in a period of "temporary stabilization of capitalism" preceding its eventual collapse.
Various events before the Second World War demonstrated the mutual distrust and suspicion between the Western powers and the Soviet Union, apart from the general philosophical challenge the Bolsheviks made towards capitalism. There was Western support of the anti-Bolshevik White movement in the Russian Civil War, the 1926 Soviet funding of a British general workers strike causing Britain to break relations with the Soviet Union, Stalin's 1927 declaration of peaceful coexistence with capitalist countries "receding into the past," conspiratorial allegations during the 1928 Shakhty show trial of a planned British- and French-led coup d'état, the American refusal to recognize the Soviet Union until 1933 and the Stalinist Moscow Trials of the Great Purge, with allegations of British, French, Japanese and Nazi German espionage. However, both the US and USSR were generally isolationist between the two world wars.
The Soviet Union initially signed a non-aggression pact with Germany. But after the German Army invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 and the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the Soviet Union and the Allied powers formed an alliance of convenience. Britain signed a formal alliance and the United States made an informal agreement. In wartime, the United States supplied both Britain and the Soviets through its Lend-Lease Program. However, Stalin remained highly suspicious and believed that the British and the Americans had conspired to ensure the Soviets bore the brunt of the fighting against Nazi Germany. According to this view, the Western Allies had deliberately delayed opening a second anti-German front in order to step in at the last moment and shape the peace settlement. Thus, Soviet perceptions of the West left a strong undercurrent of tension and hostility between the Allied powers.
CAUSES OF COLD WAR

1.YALTA CONFERENCE
The Yalta Conference (sometimes called the Crimea Conference) was held in February 1945, just before the Second World War was over. It was when the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (Winston Churchill), the President of the United States (Franklin D. Roosevelt) and the dictator of the USSR (Joseph Stalin) all met and talked about what to do with Germany. The Yalta Conference was an important part of European History.
The Allies disagreed about how the European map should look, and how borders would be drawn, following the war. Each side held dissimilar ideas regarding the establishment and maintenance of post-war security. The western Allies desired a security system in which democratic governments were established as widely as possible, permitting countries to peacefully resolve differences through international organizations.
The allies agreed that: * Germany was to be completely disarmed * A new world organisation was to be set up called the United Nations (the UN) * Stalin agreed to join the war against Japan three months after the defeat of Germany * Germany would be cut up into four different pieces (occupation zones), one occupied by France, one by the USSR, one by the USA and one by the United Kingdom * Berlin would also be split up into four different pieces * All Nazis would be judged and sentenced * A neutral government would be set up in Poland * Eastern Europe would be under Stalin's influence * Free elections were to be held in those countries free from German rule in Eastern Europe * Start planning reparations and how much money Germany would owe the other countries

2. POTSDAM CONFERENCE
The Potsdam Conference was a meeting of the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States in Potsdam, Germany from July 17 to August 2, 1945. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (Winston Churchill), the President of the United States (Harry S. Truman) and the leader of the USSR (Josif Stalin), all met to talk about Germany on July 1945 and were going to discuss what should happen to it now that the Second World War was over.
The first conference was held at Yalta, but the allies did not agree on anything very important. However, a lot had happened since the Yalta Conference. Firstly, the USA had a new president named Harry Truman. He was much tougher on Communism than the previous president, Roosevelt, had been. This was a problem for Stalin. Also, Churchill had been voted out and was replaced by Attlee. Stalin saw himself as far more experienced than these new leaders. Stalin also caused trouble, as some of what the allies agreed on at Yalta was that Poland should have a neutral government. Stalin had killed the neutral government leaders and replaced them with ones that would listen to him. This meant that there were a lot of problems at Potsdam.
3.TRUMAN DOCTRINE
By 1947, US president Harry S. Truman's advisers urged him to take immediate steps to counter the Soviet Union's influence, citing Stalin's efforts (amid post-war confusion and collapse) to undermine the US by encouraging rivalries among capitalists that could precipitate another war. In February 1947, the British government announced that it could no longer afford to finance the Greek monarchical military regime in its civil war against communist-led insurgents.
The American government's response to this announcement was the adoption of containment, the goal of which was to stop the spread of communism. Truman delivered a speech that called for the allocation of $400 million to intervene in the war and unveiled the Truman Doctrine, which framed the conflict as a contest between free peoples and totalitarian regimes. Even though the insurgents were helped by Josip Broz Tito's Yugoslavia, US policymakers accused the Soviet Union of conspiring against the Greek royalists in an effort to expand Soviet influence.
Enunciation of the Truman Doctrine marked the beginning of a US bipartisan defense and foreign policy consensus between Republicans and Democrats focused on containment and deterrence that weakened during and after the Vietnam War, but ultimately persisted thereafter. Moderate and conservative parties in Europe, as well as social democrats, gave virtually unconditional support to the Western alliance, while European and American Communists, paid by the KGB and involved in its intelligence operations, adhered to Moscow's line, although dissent began to appear after 1956. Other critiques of consensus politics came from anti-Vietnam War activists, the CND and the nuclear freeze movement.
The chief aim of the Truman Doctrine was to protect the independent nations from Communist aggressions, to maintain the balance of power and to check the expansion of Russia’s influence over other countries. This Doctrine made it clear that America had no intension to keep itself isolated from the world events, and it was fully committed to the containment of Communism. This Doctrine accelerated hostility between America and Russia and was the main cause of the Cold War between them.
4. THE MARSHALL PLAN
In early 1947, Britain, France and the United States unsuccessfully attempted to reach an agreement with the Soviet Union for a plan envisioning an economically self-sufficient Germany, including a detailed accounting of the industrial plants, goods and infrastructure already removed by the Soviets. In June 1947, in accordance with the Truman Doctrine, the United States enacted the Marshall Plan, a pledge of economic assistance for all European countries willing to participate, including the Soviet Union.
The plan's aim was to rebuild the democratic and economic systems of Europe and to counter perceived threats to Europe's balance of power, such as communist parties seizing control through revolutions or elections. The plan also stated that European prosperity was contingent upon German economic recovery. One month later, Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947, creating a unified Department of Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the National Security Council (NSC). These would become the main bureaucracies for US policy in the Cold War.
Stalin believed that economic integration with the West would allow Eastern Block countries to escape Soviet control, and that the US was trying to buy a pro-US re-alignment of Europe. Stalin therefore prevented Eastern Block nations from receiving Marshall Plan aid. The Soviet Union's alternative to the Marshall plan, which was purported to involve Soviet subsidies and trade with Eastern Europe, became known as the Molotov Plan (later institutionalized in January 1949 as the Comecon). Stalin was also fearful of a reconstituted Germany; his vision of a post-war Germany did not include the ability to rearm or pose any kind of threat to the Soviet Union.
In early 1948, following reports of strengthening "reactionary elements", Soviet operatives executed a coup d'état in Czechoslovakia, the only Eastern Block state that the Soviets had permitted to retain democratic structures. The public brutality of the coup shocked Western powers more than any event up to that point, set in a motion a brief scare that war would occur and swept away the last vestiges of opposition to the Marshall Plan in the United States Congress.
The twin policies of the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan led to billions in economic and military aid for Western Europe, Greece, and Turkey. With US assistance, the Greek military won its civil war. The Italian Christian Democrats defeated the powerful Communist-Socialist alliance in the elections of 1948. At the same time there was increased intelligence and espionage activity, Eastern Block defections and diplomatic expulsions.
6. BERLIN BLOCKADE AND DIVISION OF GERMANY
The United States and Britain merged their western German occupation zones into "Bizonia"(January 1, 1947, later "Trizonia" with the addition of France's zone, April 1949). As part of the economic rebuilding of Germany, in early 1948, representatives of a number of Western European governments and the United States announced an agreement for a merger of western German areas into a federal governmental system. In addition, in accordance with the Marshall Plan, they began to re-industrialize and rebuild the German economy, including the introduction of a new Deutsche Mark currency to replace the old Reichsmark currency that the Soviets had debased.
Shortly thereafter, Stalin instituted the Berlin Blockkade (June 24, 1948 – May 12, 1949), one of the first major crises of the Cold War, preventing food, materials and supplies from arriving in West Berlin.[82] The United States, Britain, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and several other countries began the massive "Berlin airlift", supplying West Berlin with food and other provisions.
The Soviets mounted a public relations campaign against the policy change. Once again the East Berlin communists attempted to disrupt the Berlin municipal elections (as they had done in the 1946 elections), which were held on December 5, 1948 and produced a turnout of 86.3% and an overwhelming victory for the non-Communist parties.[84] The results effectively divided the city into East and West versions of its former self. 300,000 Berliners demonstrated and urged the international airlift to continue, and US Air Force pilot Gail Halvorsen created "Operation Vittles", which supplied candy to German children. In May 1949, Stalin backed down and lifted the blockade.
In 1952, Stalin repeatedly proposed a plan to unify East and West Germany under a single government chosen in elections supervised by the United Nations if the new Germany were to stay out of Western military alliances, but this proposal was turned down by the Western powers. Some sources dispute the sincerity of the proposal.
IMPACTS OF THE COLD WAR
1. FORMATION OF MILITARY ALLIANCES (NATO WARSAW PACT)
The Nations on the America side formed the NATO and SEATO in order to find a ways for the elimination of its rival.
Participation of the United States was thought necessary both to counter the military power of the USSR and to prevent the revival of nationalist militarism, so talks for a new military alliance began almost immediately resulting in the North Atlantic Treaty, which was signed in Washington, D.C. on 4 April 1949. It included the five Treaty of Brussels states plus the United States, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland.
The Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, or Manila Pact, was signed on 8 September 1954 in Manila, as part of the American Truman Doctrine of creating anti-communist bilateral and collective defense treaties. These treaties and agreements were intended to create alliances that would contain communist powers (Communist China, in SEATO's case).
On the other hand, the USSR came up with the Warsaw pact to rebel against the existing NATO & SEATO. The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance (1955–1991), more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty between 8 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.
Thus, the world leaders, in place of improving the economic condition of the people in post-war era, embarked on the ways to eliminate their rivals.
2. UNITED NATIONS RENDERED INEFFECTIVE
The rival blocks of USA and USSR significantly reduced the effectiveness of the United Nations. Members of the UN did not consider issues on objective grounds. Their views were influenced by the ideological considerations which were an outcome of the Cold war. Moreover, the members of the UN detested this discussion wholly based on the 2 rivalry blocks. They felt that the post war (2nd world war) problems which were of primary importance were neglected. Thus UN turned out to be ineffective in solving the problems faced by the rivalries as well as the member countries.
3. ARMAMENT RACE
The Arms Race was an aspect of the Cold War, in which the United States and the Soviet Union competed to have greater military force than the other. Because of the lack of information on Russia, the United States based much of its need for military innovation on the assumption that the Russian military status was greater than that of America. The Arms Race had two fronts, nuclear weaponry, and conventional military weapons. Of these two, the more active was the nuclear front. America believed that if Russia were to have more nuclear warheads than the US that they would be less afraid to use them, and so the US should strive to maintain, at minimum, nuclear equality with Russia. Also, nuclear rivalry led to the invention of a long line of increasingly deadlier weapons. Each, by far, dwarfing the last. Obsession with nuclear stockpiling left behind a legacy of danger stemming from the very weapons created to protect. After the Cold War ended, both superpowers had more nuclear warheads than any country could ever use. The US and Russia both have to now spend billions on destroying these weapons to see that they never fall into the wrong hands. 4. MUTUAL SUSPICION AND DISTRUST LEADING TO PROXY WARS
THE Cold war triggered an era of mutual suspicion and distrust among the countries belonging to both the power blocks. Resultantly, there were problems, unrest and war between various countries cause for which actually was the politics of the Cold war. These were referred to as Proxy Wars. Hotspots for such wars were Korea (the Korean War, 1950-83), Hungary (the Hungarian crisis, 1956), Czechoslovakia (1969), Vietnam (the Vietnam War), Cuba (the Cuban crisis, 1962), China and Taiwan.
5. THE BERLIN CRISIS
The Berlin Crisis of 1961 was the last major incident in the Cold War regarding the status of Berlin and post–World War II Germany. By the early 1950s, the Soviet approach to restricting emigration movement was emulated by most of the rest of the Eastern Bloc.[165]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.[166]
The emigration resulted in a massive "brain drain" from East Germany to West Germany of younger educated professionals, such that nearly 20% of East Germany's population had migrated to West Germany by 1961.[167] That June, the Soviet Union issued a new ultimatum demanding the withdrawal of Allied forces from West Berlin.[168] 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.
6. THE SPACE WAR
The Space Race was a mid-to-late 20th century competition between the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States (USA) for supremacy in space exploration. Between 1957 and 1975, the Cold War rivalry between the two nations focused on attaining firsts in space exploration, which were seen as necessary for national security and symbolic of technological and ideological superiority. The Space Race involved pioneering efforts to launch artificial satellites, sub-orbital and orbital human spaceflight around the Earth, and piloted voyages to the Moon. It effectively began with the Soviet launch of the Sputnik 1artificial satellite on 4 October 1957, and concluded with the co-operative Apollo-Soyuz Test Project human spaceflight mission in July 1975. The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project came to symbolize détente, a partial easing of strained relations between the USSR and the US.

TOWARDS THE END OF THE COLD WAR

IRON CURTAIN
For almost half a century, Europe was forcibly divided into East and West by the "Iron Curtain", a border stretching from the Barents Sea to the Black Sea
The Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological conflict and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The Iron Curtain was erected by the Soviet Union to block itself and its dependent and central European allies off from open contact with the west and non-communist areas. On the East side of the Iron Curtain were the countries that were connected to or influenced by the former Soviet Union. On either side of the Iron Curtain, states developed their own international economic and military alliances: * Member countries of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and the Warsaw Pact, with the Soviet Union as the leading country. * Member countries of the European Community and of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and associated countries with the United States as the leading country.
Physically, the Iron Curtain took the form of border defenses between the countries of Europe in the middle of the continent. The most notable border was marked by the Berlin Wall and its Checkpoint Charlie which served as a symbol of the Curtain as a whole.
REUNIFICATION OF GERMANY (FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL SYMBOLISING THE END OF COLD WAR)
The fall of the Berlin Wall happened nearly as suddenly as its rise. There had been signs that the Communist bloc was weakening, but the East German Communist leaders insisted that East Germany just needed a moderate change rather than a drastic revolution. East German citizens did not agree. As Communism began to falter in Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia in 1988 and 1989, new exodus points were opened to East Germans who wanted to flee to the West. Then suddenly, on the evening of November 9, 1989, an announcement made by East German government official Günter Schabowski stated, "Permanent relocations can be done through all border checkpoints between the GDR (East Germany) into the FRG (West Germany) or West Berlin."
People were in shock. Were the borders really open? East Germans tentatively approached the border and indeed found that the border guards were letting people cross. Very quickly, the Berlin Wall was inundated with people from both sides. Some began chipping at the Berlin Wall with hammers and chisels. There was an impromptu huge celebration along the Berlin Wall, with people hugging, kissing, singing, cheering, and crying.
The Berlin Wall was eventually chipped away, into smaller pieces (some the size of a coin and others in big slabs). The pieces have become collectibles and are stored in both homes and museums. After the Berlin Wall came down, East and West Germany reunified into a single German state on October 3, 1990.

HISTORY/CIVICS
PROJECT
ON
COLD WAR

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BY
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NAME: J.B.AKSHAYA
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CLASS: X ‘A’
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ROLL: 3
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ACHARYA VIDYA KULA