Cold War: Development of the Events

NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.

NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.

Table of Contents

Abstract
Introduction
The beginning of Cold War, 50-ies – 60-ies
60-ies – 70-ies
70-ies – 80-ies
80-ies – 90-ies
Conclusion
References

Abstract

The paper is focused on the great historical event which had a great impact on the history of both countries – the USA and the USSR. Cold War had great political, cultural, and economic results for both countries. The paper shows the development of the event with every decade.

Introduction

After the Second World War, the world was actually divided into spheres of influence of two blocks with different social systems. The Soviet Union sought to expand and strengthen the so-called «socialist camp»; Western countries led by the U.S. tried to destroy the camp, incorporating the socialist countries in the zone of influence, which has helped create favorable conditions for activities on their territory private corporations and their increasing influence in the world. Despite this difference between the two systems, the basis of their conflict, lying, and general features. Both systems were based on the principles of industrial society, which required industrial growth, and thus increase the consumption of resources. The global struggle for resources of the two systems with different principles of regulation of industrial relations could not but lead to clashes.

The beginning of “Cold War,” 50-ies – 60-ies

On the 5^th of March in 1946, speaking in the presence of U.S. President Truman in Fulton, W. Churchill accused the Soviet Union of the deployment of global expansion and the attack on the territory of “the free world.” Churchill called the “Anglo-Saxon world,” ie, the U.S., Britain, and their allies to resist the Soviet Union. So, the speech in Fulton became a declaration of “Cold War.”

But the front of the “Cold War” does not lie between the countries but within them. Nearly a third of the population of France and Italy supported the communistic Party. The poverty of war-torn Europe was a breeding ground for the success of the Communists. In 1947 U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall stated that the U.S. is ready to provide material assistance to the countries of Europe for economic recovery. Initially, even the Soviet Union engaged in negotiations for the provision of assistance but soon discovered that American aid would not be provided to countries where communists are in power. The U.S. demanded political concessions in exchange for economic assistance: the Europeans had to withdraw from their Communist governments. Under pressure from the United States, it was excluded from the Communist governments of France and Italy, and in April 1948, 16 countries signed the Marshall Plan to provide them with the assistance of 17 billion dollars in 1948-1952. Eastern European countries did not participate in the plan, creating a group of the socialist system. In January 1949, most Eastern European countries united in the economic union – the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Gaddis, 2006, p54).

Rivalry USSR and the USA would inevitably lead to an arms build-up of the two blocks. Opponents sought to achieve superiority in nuclear weapons and their means of delivery. Soon such means, in addition to bombers, have become missiles. Start of the race, missile and nuclear weapons, which led to the extremely tense economy of both blocks. To ensure the needs of defense created a powerful association of public, industrial, and military – the military-industrial complex. They need to leave the huge funds, the best scientific forces. Initially, the leader of the “race” was the U.S., which have atomic weapons. USSR makes every effort to create its own atomic bomb, worked on the task of Soviet scientists and explorers. Several engineering solutions have been obtained by means of the secret American intelligence agencies, but these data can not be used if the Soviet scientists at that time did not come close to creating nuclear weapons themselves. The creation of atomic weapons in the USSR was a matter of time, but this time was not; therefore, data exploration was of great importance. In 1949 the Soviet Union tested its own atomic bomb. The presence of bombs in the Soviet Union kept the U.S. from the use of atomic weapons in Korea, although this possibility has actually been discussed and senior U.S. military (Sewell, 2002, p130 – 131).

The first clash of the two systems took place in China. The second major clash of the two systems in Asia occurred in Korea. After the Second World War, the country was divided into two zones of occupation – the Soviet and the American.

“Cold War” resulted in both “camps” turned to repression against dissidents and people who advocate cooperation and rapprochement between the two systems. In the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, people were arrested on charges of “cosmopolitan” (lack of patriotism, cooperation with the West).

But by that time and the USSR could make an impression on the United States and the world for its achievements in the field of high technologies, and above all – in space exploration. The system of state socialism allowed concentrating more resources on solving one problem at the expense of others.

60-ies – 70-ies

In 1960 relations between the USSR and the U.S. have deteriorated again.

New U.S. President John Kennedy had attempted to overthrow the communists regime of Fidel Castro in Cuba. This operation has been prepared by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) – the main intelligence service of the U.S. – even with the Eisenhower. The Americans had hoped to overthrow Castro’s hands of Cubans, but the planting of counter-revolutionaries in Cuba ended their complete defeat.

By the time the Soviet Union was surrounded on all sides by the U.S. military bases, where there were nuclear weapons (Gaddis, 2006, p60).

As a result of the crisis, which brought the world to the brink of rocket and nuclear holocaust, a compromise was reached: the Soviet Union removed its missiles from Cuba, and the U.S. withdrew its missiles from Turkey and Cuba to guarantee non-interference of the military.

Caribbean crisis learned a lot like the Soviet and American leadership. The leaders of the superpowers realized that might lead people to death. Having reached a dangerous point, the «Cold War» slowed down. USSR and the USA first started talking about limiting the arms race (Warren, 1996, p99).

70-ies – 80-ies

In 1976 the Soviet Union began to modernize its medium-range missiles in Europe. They could easily reach targets in Western Europe. As a result of the modernization of disturbed balance of nuclear forces on the continent. In the case of the war, these missiles could be in a few minutes to destroy the USSR’s largest cities, while the U.S. at the time would remain invulnerable.

The final relaxation buried the invasion of Soviet troops in Afghanistan in 1979. “Cold War” resumed. In 1980-1982 the United States against the Soviet Union entered a series of economic sanctions. In 1983, U.S. President Reagan called the Soviet Union “Empire of Evil.”

By the middle of the 80 countries of “socialist” entered into a crisis. A bureaucratic economy could no longer ensure the growing needs of populations, wasteful use of resources has led to a significant reduction in the level of social consciousness of people has grown so much that they began to understand the need for change. The country was increasingly difficult to bear the burden of the “cold war,” to support allied regimes around the world, to wage war in Afghanistan. All the more prominent and dangerous was the technical backwardness of the USSR capitalist countries (Powaski, 1997, p87).

In these circumstances, the U.S. president decided to «push» the USSR is estimated to weaken the Western financial community; the foreign exchange reserves of the USSR accounted for 25-30 billion dollars.

In 1983, U.S. President Ronald Reagan put forward the idea of “the Strategic Defense Initiative” (SOI), or the “Star Wars” – space systems that could protect the U.S. from nuclear attack. The program is conducted in circumvention of the ABM Treaty. In the USSR, there were no technical possibilities to create a similar system.

Together with the external, internal factors significantly undermine the system of socialism. The economic crisis in which the Soviet Union put on the agenda the question of “savings in foreign policy.” Although the possibility of such savings was exaggerated, which began in the Soviet Union, reforms have led to the completion of the “cold war” in 1987-1990.

80-ies – 90-ies

In 1985-1986 Mikhail Gorbachev proclaimed a policy of broad reforms, known as the «adjustment.» There were plans for the improvement of relations with capitalist countries on the basis of equality and openness (new thinking).

In November 1985, Gorbachev met with Reagan in Geneva and offered significantly reduce nuclear weapons in Europe. However, after a meeting in Geneva, relations between the USSR and the USA once again deteriorated. USSR supported Libya in its conflict with the United States. U.S. refused to abide by an agreement on SALT, which was carried out even during the years of confrontation, 1980-1984. That was the last burst of the “Cold War” (Walker, 1995, p165).

In 1986, the U.S. administration abandoned its frontal attack on the USSR, which had ended in failure. However, it was that financial pressure on the Soviet Union, the United States, in exchange for various concessions, persuaded the Saudi authorities to dramatically increase oil production and lower world oil prices. Revenues Soviet Union depended on oil prices, which began to fall steeply in 1986. The Chernobyl accident has further undermined the financial equilibrium of the USSR. It is difficult to reform the country’s “top” and led an initiative to encourage more active bottom.

But by that time, the methods of pressure on the Soviet Union had changed. In 1990, to power in most countries of Eastern Europe came early supporters of “Westernization,,” ie the restructuring of society according to Western models. The reform, based on “neoliberal” ideas that are close to the Western neo-conservatism and neoglobalizm. The reforms were carried out in haste, without a plan and preparation, resulting in painful breaking society. They are called «shock therapy» because it was believed that after a short «shock,» it is easing. Western countries have provided some financial support to these reforms, in the end in Eastern Europe succeeded in creating a market economy on the western model. Entrepreneurs, middle layers of the young people have benefited from these changes, but a large part of society – workers, servants, and pensioners – have lost, and Eastern European countries have been financially dependent on the West.

Conclusion

Almost the exact completion of |”cold war” and the collapse of the Soviet Union led the world in the debate about the relationship between these phenomena. Perhaps the conclusion of the “cold war” is the result of the collapse of the Soviet Union and, consequently, the U.S. won that “war.” But by the time of the collapse of the USSR, the “cold war” has ceased – for a few years before that event. Given that the 1987 missile crisis was resolved, in 1988 an agreement on Afghanistan, and in February 1989 the Soviet troops were withdrawn from the country, disappeared in 1989 the socialist government in almost all countries of Eastern Europe, the talk of continuing the “cold war” after 1990 are not accounted for. There were removed the problems that caused the escalation of international tensions, not only in 1979-1980 but in 1946-1947. Such propaganda does not remove the fact that in 1990-1991 signs “cold war” is already gone. Completion of the “cold war” and the disintegration of the Soviet Union have a common cause – the crisis of state socialism in the USSR.

References

Gaddis John Lewis (2006). The Cold War: A New History, Penguin.

LaFeber Walter (2006). America, Russia and the Cold War 1945-2006, McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages; 10 edition.

Levering Ralph B. (2005). The Cold War: A Post-Cold War History (The American History Series), Harlan Davidson; 2 edition.

Powaski Ronald E. (1997). The Cold War: The United States and the Soviet Union, 1917-1991, Oxford University Press, USA.

Sewell Mike (2002). The Cold War, Cambridge University Press.

Westad Odd Arne (2007). The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times, Cambridge University Press.

Walker Martin (1995). The Cold War: A History, Holt Paperbacks.

Whitfield Stephen J. (1996). The Culture of the Cold War (The American Moment), The Johns Hopkins University Press; 2nd edition.

Warren James A. (1996). Cold War: The American Crusade Against World Communism, 1945-1991, HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

Click Here To Order Now!