Crises of the Cold War

What were the main crises of the Cold War which affected the world in the period 1945 – 1990? – Redmond Egan
Introduction
There were many crises of the Cold War which affected the World. Some of the main crises were the Berlin Blockade, which forced the Americans to consider attacking the Russians on the ground. The Korean War, which brought the USA and the USSR into full battle under the gauze of the UN army and the North Korean Army respectively. Former President of the USA once said “When I was in the White House, I was confronted with the challenge of the Cold War. Both the Soviet Union and I had 30,000 nuclear weapons that could destroy the entire earth and I had to maintain the peace”. This summarises most of the Cold War crises as it shows the power of both nations but the reluctance of either to resort to such power. The USA and the USSR came head to head on many occasions without physically fighting one on one against each other showing that each one knew of their individual capability and was afraid of it and the consequences of coming into conflict with it.

The Berlin Blockade
The first crisis of the Cold War took place in 1948, this was the Berlin Blockade. The agreement after World War II to divide Germany and Berlin into occupation zones, with Berlin located deep in the Russian zone, had come out of the Yalta Conference in February 1945 and had included no arrangements for access to Berlin. Since then, the relationship between the Soviet Union and the West had deteriorated steadily, as reflected in disputes at the United Nations, Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain speech in March 1946, growing emphasis in U.S. foreign policy on containment of Russian expansion, Soviet hostility toward the Marshall Plan, and growing Western commitment to establishing a separate capitalist West Germany. In late 1947, discussions on Germany broke down over Soviet charges that the Allies were violating the Potsdam Agreement, and on March 20, 1948, the Soviets withdrew from the Allied Control Council administering Berlin. Ten days later, guards on the East German border began slowing the entry of Western troop trains bound for Berlin. On June 7, the Western powers announced their intention to proceed with the creation of West Germany. On June 24, arguing that if Germany was to be partitioned, Berlin could no longer be the single German capital, the Soviets stopped all ground travel between West Germany and Berlin. the Truman administration was convinced that losing Berlin would mean losing all of Germany. After a military challenge was considered and rejected, the Berlin airlift was initiated. Over the next 321 days, Western fliers made 272,000 flights into West Berlin, delivering thousands of tons of supplies every day. The effort gained wide public sympathy, and on May 12, 1949, the Soviets, concluding that the blockade had failed, and reopened the borders. However, East and West Germany were established as separate republics later that month. The Berlin Blockade was one of the main crises of The Cold War that affected the World as it brought the USA and the USSR very close to frontline conflict and just on small slipup by either side would have led to war.
The Korean War
Another exigency of the Cold War which affected the World was the Korean War. "If the best minds in the world had set out to find us the worst possible location in the world to fight this damnable war," U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson once said, “the unanimous choice would have been Korea.” Korea had landed in America's lap almost by accident. Since the beginning of the 20th century, Korea had been a part of the Japanese empire, and after World War II it fell to the Americans and the Soviets to decide what should be done with their enemy's mperial possessions. In August 1945, two young aides at the State Department divided the Korean peninsula in half along the 38th parallel. The Russians occupied the area north of the line and the United States occupied the area to its south. The North Korean invasion came as an alarming surprise to American officials. As far as they were concerned, this was not simply a border dispute between two unstable dictatorships on the other side of the globe. Instead, many feared it was the first step in a communist campaign to take over the world. For this reason, non - intervention was not considered an option by many top decision makers. In April 1950, a National Security Council report known as NSC-68 had recommended that the United States use military force to “contain” communist expansionism anywhere it seemed to be occurring, “regardless of the intrinsic strategic or economic value of the lands in question.” “If we let Korea down,” President Harry Truman said, “the Soviet[s] will keep right on going and swallow up one [place] after another.” The fight on the Korean peninsula was a symbol of the global struggle between east and west, good and evil. As the North Korean army pushed into Seoul, the South Korean capital, the United States readied its troops for a war against communism itself. At first, the war was a defensive one–a war to get the communists out of South Korea–and it went badly for the Allies. The North Korean army was well-disciplined, well-trained and well-equipped; Rhee’s forces, by contrast, were frightened, confused, and seemed inclined to flee the battlefield at any provocation. Also, it was one of the hottest and driest summers on record, and desperately thirsty American soldiers were often forced to drink water from rice paddies that had been fertilized with human waste. By the end of the summer, the American’s had decided on a new set of war aims. Now, for the Allies, the Korean War was an offensive one: It was a war to “liberate” the North from the communists. Initially, this new strategy was a success. An amphibious assault at Inchon pushed the North Koreans out of Seoul and back to their side of the 38th parallel. But as American troops crossed the boundary and headed north toward the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and Communist China, the Chinese started to worry about protecting themselves from what they called “armed aggression against Chinese territory.” Chinese leader Mao Zedong (1893-1976) sent troops to North Korea and warned the United States to keep away from the Yalu boundary unless it wanted full-scale war. This was something that President Truman and his advisers decidedly did not want: They were sure that such a war would lead to Soviet aggression in Europe, the deployment of atomic weapons and millions of senseless deaths. In July 1951, President Truman and his new military commanders started peace talks at Panmunjom. Still, the fighting continued along the 38th parallel as negotiations stalled. Both sides were willing to accept a ceasefire that maintained the 38th parallel boundary, but they could not agree on whether prisoners of war should be forcibly “repatriated.” (The Chinese and the North Koreans said yes; the United States said no.) Finally, after more than two years of negotiations, the adversaries signed an armistice on July 27, 1953. The agreement allowed the POWs to stay where they liked; drew a new boundary near the 38th parallel that gave South Korea an extra 1,500 square miles of territory; and created a 2-mile-wide “demilitarized zone” that still exists today. This crisis affected the world as it nearly led to front line conflict between the USA and the USSR and China which would have had a domino effect on nations in Europe.
Hungarian Uprising
The Hungarian Uprising was another dilemma of the Cold War that affected the World. Hungary in 1956 seemed to sum up all that the Cold War stood for. The people of Hungary and the rest of Eastern Europe were ruled over with a rod of iron by Communist Russia and anybody who challenged the rule of Stalin and Russia paid the price. The death of Stalin in 1953 did not weaken the grip Moscow had on the people of Eastern Europe and Hungary, by challenging the rule of Moscow, paid such a price in 1956. From 1945 on the Hungarians were under the control of Moscow. All wealth of whatever nature was taken from Hungary by the Russians who showed their power by putting thousands of Russian troops and hundreds of tanks in Hungary. The Hungarian leader, Rakosi, was put in power by Stalin of Russia. When Stalin died in 1953 all people in Eastern Europe were given some hope that they might be free from Soviet (Russian) rule. In February 1956, the new Russian leader Khruschev made a bitter attack on the dead Stalin and his policies and in July 1956 in a gesture to the Hungarians, Rakosi was forced to resign. In fact, the Hungarians had expected more but they did not get it. This situation, combined with 1) a bad harvest 2) fuel shortages 3) a cold and wet autumn all created a volatile situation. On October 23rd 1956, students and workers took to the streets of Budapest and issued their Sixteen Points which included personal freedom, more food, the removal of the secret police, the removal of Russian control etc. Poland had already been granted rights in 1956 which had been gained by street protests and displays of rebellion. Hungary followed likewise. Imre Nagy was appointed prime minister and Janos Kadar foreign minister. They were thought to be liberal and in Moscow this was felt to be the best way to keep happy the "hooligans" as the Moscow media referred to the protesters. As a gesture, the Red Army pulled out and Nagy allowed political parties to start again. The most famous man to criticise the Russians was released from prison - Cardinal Mindszenty. On October 31st, 1956, Nagy broadcast that Hungary would withdraw itself from the Warsaw Pact. This was pushing the Russians too far and Kadar left the government in disgust and established a rival government in eastern Hungary which was supported by Soviet tanks. On November 4th, Soviet tanks went into Budapest to restore order and they acted with immense brutality even killing wounded people. Tanks dragged round bodies through the streets of Budapest as a warning to others who were still protesting. Hundreds of tanks went into Budapest and probably 30,000 people were killed. To flee the expected Soviet reprisals, probably 200,000 fled to the west leaving all they possessed in Hungary. Nagy was tried and executed and buried in an unmarked grave. By November 14th, order had been restored. Kadar was put in charge. Soviet rule was re-established. President Eisenhower of USA said "I feel with the Hungarian people." J F Dulles, American Secretary of State, said "To all those suffering under communist slavery, let us say you can count on us." But America did nothing more, firstly because of the geographic location of Hungary, how could you actually help without resorting to war? Both sides in the Cold War were nuclear powers and the risks were too great. Any economic boycott of the Soviet Union would have been pointless as Russia took what it needed from the countries it occupied, and secondly because The Suez Crisis, which took place at the same time, was considered far more important and of greater relevance to the west than the suffering of the Hungarians. This is why Britain, France and America concentrated their resources on this crisis. This was a major crisis that affected the World as it showed the aggressiveness of the USSR and the reluctance of the USA to come into frontline conflict with the USSR.
The Suez Crisis
Another emergency of the Cold War that affected the World was the Suez Crisis. The catalyst for the joint Israeli-British-French attack on Egypt was the nationalization of the Suez Canal by Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser in July 1956. The situation had been brewing for some time. Two years earlier, the Egyptian military had begun pressuring the British to end their military presence in the canal zone. Nasser's armed forces also engaged in sporadic battles with Israeli soldiers along the border between the two countries, and the Egyptian leader did nothing to conceal his dislike toward the Zionist nation. Supported by Soviet arms and money, and furious with the United States for reneging on a promise to provide funds for construction of the Aswan Dam on the Nile River, Nasser ordered the Suez Canal seized and nationalized. The British were angry with the move and sought the support of France, which believed that Nasser was supporting rebels in the French colony of Algeria and Israel which needed little provocation to strike at the enemy on its border in an armed assault to retake the canal. The Israelis struck first, on October 26, 1956. Two days later, British and French military forces joined them. Originally, forces from the three countries were set to strike at once, but the British and French troops were delayed. Behind schedule, but ultimately successful, the British and French troops took control of the area around the Suez Canal. However, their hesitation had given the Soviet Union--also confronted with a growing crisis in Hungary--time to respond. The Soviets, eager to exploit Arab nationalism and gain a foothold in the Middle East, supplied arms from Czechoslovakia to the Egyptian government beginning in 1955, and eventually helped Egypt construct the Aswan Dam on the Nile River after the United States refused to support the project. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev railed against the invasion and threatened to rain down nuclear missiles on Western Europe if the Israeli-French-British force did not withdraw. The response of President Dwight Eisenhower’s administration was measured. It warned the Soviets that reckless talk of nuclear conflict would only make matters worse, and cautioned Khrushchev to refrain from direct intervention in the conflict. However, Eisenhower also issued stern warnings to the French, British and Israelis to give up their campaign and withdraw from Egyptian soil. Eisenhower was upset with the British, in particular, for not keeping the United States informed about their intentions. The United States threatened all three nations with economic sanctions if they persisted in their attack. The threats did their work. The British and French forces withdrew by December, Israel finally bowed to U.S. pressure in March 1957. This was also another Crisis that affected the World as it weakened Britain and France as Superpowers and showed that the USSR were willing to consider the use of nuclear power.
The Berlin Wall
Another dilemma of the Cold War was the Berlin Wall Crisis. After the Berlin Airlift, the unification of the three zones controlled by the western allies occurred in 1949. This formed the German Federal Republic, better known as West Germany. Stalin responded by making his Eastern controlled section of Berlin the German Democratic Republic (better known as East Germany). This also took place in 1949. West Germany was always the more prosperous of the two newly created states. Stalin had forbidden Eastern Europe access to Marshall Aid whereas the new West Germany did have access to it. The difference in lifestyles between the two peoples who lived in the two new states was clear. East Germans suffered from poor housing, food shortages, low wages and with 25% of her industrial output going to the Soviet Union, East Germany could not see any obvious evidence that the situation would improve as the 1960's approached. Many East Germans simply left and went to West Germany to share in the growing prosperity of that state. The East German government had tried to stop the flow west in 1952 by building a fortified border. But there remained one place where any East German could go to and move to the west of Berlin, in the heart of East Germany itself. By 1961, around 3 million people had done this. This was a major coup for the west as these people were leaving the communist system that supposedly looked after its workers and families and looking for a better life in the capitalist west. Among these 3 million people were highly qualified men who were of little value to the west but were skilled workers that East Germany could not afford to lose. By 1961, the number of refugees fleeing to the west represented about one-sixth of East Germany's population. On August 12th 1961, a record 4,000 people made their way to West Berlin to start a new life in the west. This pushed the communist authorities into doing something. In the early hours of August 13th 1961, "shock workers" from East Germany and Russia shut off the border between the Soviet and western sectors of Berlin using barbed wire. The west was taken by surprise but their protests to the Russians were not listened to. By August 16th, the barbed wire was being removed and replaced with a wall of concrete blocks. Within days, West Berlin was surrounded by a wall four meters high and 111 kilometres long. The Wall had 300 watch towers manned by selected border guards and 50 bunkers. By the end of August, the Wall seemed all but impossible to cross. The East German authorities tried to explain away the Wall by claiming that the West was using West Berlin as a centre for spying and that the Wall was for keeping out spies. They called the Wall "the anti-fascist protection barrier". People from East Germany still tried to cross into West Berlin. 190 people were shot dead on the eastern side of the Wall. The west called the Berlin Wall the "Wall of Shame" and it served to remind those who lived in Berlin that those in the Soviet controlled east lived far inferior lives to those who lived in western Berlin. The Berlin Wall was a crisis that affected the World as it grew tension between the two superpowers, the USSR and the USA, as both increased testing of Nuclear bombs. The West also became more anti – Communist and the wall became a symbol in the West of Communist tyranny.
Vietnam War
Another confrontation of the Cold War was the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War began in 1959, five years after the division of the country by the Geneva Accords. Vietnam had been split into two, with a communist government in the north under Ho Chi Minh and a democratic government in the south under Ngo Dinh Diem. Ho launched a guerilla campaign in South Vietnam, led by Viet Cong units, with the goal of uniting the country under communist rule. The United States, seeking to stop the spread of communism, trained the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and provided military advisors to help combat the guerillas. In August 1964, a US warship was attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. Following this attack, Congress passed the Southeast Asia Resolution which allowed President Lyndon Johnson to conduct military operations in the region without a declaration of war. On March 2, 1965, US aircraft began bombing targets in Vietnam and the first troops arrived. Commanded by General William Westmoreland, US troops won victories over Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces around Chu Lai and in the Ia Drang Valley that year. Following these defeats, the North Vietnamese avoided fighting conventional battles and focused on engaging US troops in small unit actions in the sweltering jungles of South Vietnam. In January 1968, the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong launched the massive Tet Offensive. Beginning with an assault on US Marines at Khe Sanh, the offensive included attacks by the Viet Cong on cities throughout South Vietnam. Though the North Vietnamese were beaten back with heavy casualties, Tet shook the confidence of the American people and media who had thought the war was going well. As a result of Tet, President Lyndon Johnson opted not to run for reelection and was succeeded by Richard Nixon. Nixon's plan for ending US involvement was to build up the ARVN so that they could fight the war themselves. As this process of “Vietnamization” began, US troops started to return home. The mistrust of the government that had begun after Tet worsened with the release of news about US soldiers massacring civilians at My Lai (1969), the invasion of Cambodia (1970), and the leaking of the Pentagon Papers (1971). The withdrawal of US troops continued and more responsibility was passed to the ARVN, which continued to prove ineffective in combat, often relying on American support to stave off defeat. On January 27, 1974, a peace accord was signed in Paris ending the conflict. By March of that year, American combat troops had left the country. After a brief period of peace, North Vietnam recommenced hostilities in late 1974. Pushing through ARVN forces with ease, they captured Saigon on April 30, 1975, forcing South Vietnam’s surrender and reuniting the country. This was a crisis of the Cold War that affected the World as again it brought the American democratics and the USSR communists face to face as they supported the South Koreans and North Koreans respectively.
The Cuban Missile Crisis
Another emergency of the Cold War was the Cuban Missile Crisis. Prior to the crisis the United States had attempted to overthrow Fidel Castro and the current government of Cuba with the Bay of Pigs invasion. The invasion failed, but it served as a warning to Fidel Castro. Also, the United States had installed several nuclear missile sites in Turkey and Italy with the range to strike Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union. As a result, the Soviet Union felt they needed missile sites that could strike at the United States. At the same time the Cuban government wanted protection from the United States. They decided to work together and have the Soviet Union put nuclear missiles in Cuba that could strike most any portion of the USA. On October 14, 1962 an American U-2 spy plane flying over Cuba captured pictures of long range Soviet missiles in Cuba. This was a crisis like never before. These missiles could reach any point of the United States with nuclear warheads causing mass destruction. President Kennedy called a meeting with his main security advisors. They considered a number of options from diplomacy to a full scale attack and invasion on Cuba. The Joint Chiefs of Staff voted to invade. They felt this was the only viable option. However, Kennedy was concerned that this would start World War III between the US and the Soviet Union. He opted to set up a naval blockade. Kennedy announced his plan on October 22, 1962. He showed the world the missile bases and said that the United States would be putting Cuba under "quarantine". This meant that no offensive weapons would be allowed to enter Cuba. He also said that any attack on the West from Cuba would be considered an act of war from the Soviet Union. Over the next several days the crisis became more intense. The Soviet Union said they would not back down. By the 24th, Kennedy believed the US would have to invade Cuba. Although the Soviet Union was publicly saying they would never back down, they were secretly negotiating with the United States. Eventually the two sides reached an agreement. The Soviet Union would remove the missiles from Cuba as long as the United States agreed to never invade Cuba again. In secret, the US also had to agree to remove their nuclear missiles from Turkey and Italy. The crisis was over. This was a crisis of the Cold War that affected the World as it brought the World to the brink of nuclear destruction.
Conclusion
The Cold War was characterized by both the USA and the USSR’s reluctance to come into full scale conflict with the other. The Berlin Blockade showed us the USA’s determination not to let the Soviets spread Communism. The Korean and Vietnam War showed us the USA were prepared to go beyond their policy of “containment” and start a policy of “Roll Back” to deal with Communism. Finally, The Cuban Missile Crisis showed us how close these two superpowers were capable of bringing the World to the brink of nuclear destruction. During 1989 and 1990, the Berlin Wall came down, borders opened, and free elections ousted Communist regimes everywhere in eastern Europe. In late 1991 the Soviet Union itself dissolved into its component republics. With stunning speed, the Iron Curtain was lifted and the Cold War came to an end. The Crises of the Cold War showed us that the policy of “containment” and aggression against Communism can prosper in the long run.