The Cold War: Causes and Consequences

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The post World War II world emerged as an arena between its victors. United States, which sustained the minimal damage during the apocalyptic war, was elevated to the status of the savior of the new world in the west whilst mighty Soviet Union whose winters not only mercilessly massacred the Nazi hordes but showed no mercy to even her native inhabitants, took command of the free east. What ensued afterwards marked the dawn of new breed of warfare that was garbed in diplomatic smiles and technological race.

The Cold War is among one of the most important chapters in the history of the United States. It wasnt just a mounting conflict between two powerful and egotistic nations, but titanic collision between two ideologies and lifestyles. Many saw it as a conflict between two rival nations, utilizing all their resources to prevent another 3^rd Reich. That mutual hostility between both nations was based on half a century worth of warfare and revolutions and both were unwilling to give each other a chance to step forward and lead the free world.

But the Cold War didnt only affect the rival states; it also created turmoil within the both nations. In the east, the newly painted red Soviet Union, absolutely drunk on power and freedom became the flame tongued preacher of communism. With Stalin as the impeccable leader of the Soviet regime, a form of tyranny and totalitarianism prevailed in Soviet Union where freedom was crushed and restricted in the name of Leninism. Same way, United States underwent an anti-communist frenzy that had its political and social ramifications as the frenzy started to gnaw on the pillars of the state from within. The anti-communism frenzy that came to be regarded as McCarthyism was not only used as propaganda tool, but also as an instrument for political gains.

The World War II came to an end in 1945 when an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, thus ending the pacific war. Under the leadership of President Truman, United States had ushered the world into an era of freedom, but in doing, had garnered an adversary in the form of an independent and very red Soviet Union. The immediate difference became stark right after the end of war when Stalin and Truman got off on the wrong foot regarding economic co-operation.

The socialist-capitalist schism suddenly evident and silent waves of hostility surged form both Kremlin and White House. The fear was mutual. The Soviets, in the words of Whittaker Chambers, a rouge communist spy, believed that the Western civilization was doomed to collapse or revert to barbarism (Chambers-Truman, 1). On the other hand Truman was facing conflicts at home just as well and rallying against the nuisance of communism sounded like an adequate elusive tactic.

To further deteriorate the situation, in August 1948, Whittaker Chambers, a senior editor in Time magazine and a defrocked former soviet spy made a testament before House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in which lodged allegations against some really high State Department officials including Alger Hiss, advisor to the former President Roosevelt and on of the leading names in the establishment of United Nations, of being communists. Even though the allegations were without any concrete evidence, they planted an incipient spy scare throughout the whole Washington.

This atmosphere of anti-fascist cooperation, anti-capitalist conviction, and lax security precautions enabled a small number of Washingtonians to lead dual lives as professional bureaucrats and devoted communists. (Chambers-Truman 54).

Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy used it as a political weapon and started rallying against the Truman establishment. This not only tarnished Trumans reputation but also coined the term McCarthyism which meant hatred towards everything red. Whilst United States was vehemently opposing communism, Soviet Union was on the cusp of Stalins Great Purge and Eastern Bloc was being dominated by the sickle and hammer. President Truman on the insinuation of his advisors in 1947 issued Truman Doctrine thus parting the gulf between east and west further. The term Cold War appeared first in an American newspaper in 1946, which Truman dabbed as war of nerves (Chambers-Truman essay, 30).

Ironically a war that itself was made up of an oxymoron was tearing the Truman establishment apart. As Soviet Union tested its first nuclear weapon in 1949, panic spread throughout the corridors of White House. The Soviet nuclear testing was a harbinger of an epoch where the world was rent apart into bipolarity. Truman blew the trumpet of war using the pretext that communism would swipe away the capitalist markets. By doing so, Truman managed to scare the hell out of congress (Holsti 214). He even fired Henry Wallace, the ex vice-president and the then Secretary of Commerce because he rejected Trumans anti-Soviet policy.

The Cold War entered a new phase after President Truman when Eisenhower took the Oval office in 1953. As for the East, Nikita Khrushchev became the ultimate Soviet leader and the war took a new form. Khrushchev intended to take the war from the battlefield to the space laboratories and economic fortifications, hoisting the banner of peaceful coexistence (Gaddis 70) yet flagrantly threatening the west with nuclear resistance. The Warsaw Pact of 1955 widened the gap further. The Soviet block, imbibed by the spirit of proletariat revolution also instigated many other oppressed and agitated nations to gain freedom under the red banner.

United States, the vanguard of Democracy and the scourge of tyranny had to do a number of objectionable acts so as to save many potentially explosive states from falling into the communist lap. The toppling of Irans democratically elected government in 1953 through Operation Ajax is one of the examples. The Development of ICBMs and the race to reach the moon or own the limitless space shows how much friction both rival nations generated. The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 literally left the both USA and USSR on the verge of a nuclear war.

The cold war may have ended by the disintegration on USSR in 1991, but the truth is, the war wasnt so cold for the states that were forced to pick sides in a two sided world. Korea, Vietnam, Czechoslovakia, Afghanistan, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, all was the collateral damage. Caught between the crossfire of two giants who were hell bent on sustaining superiority over the other. Both USSR and USA had never had to face each other during the war, instead, pawns were moved and sacrificed resulting in the checkmate of USSR.

Works Cited

Holsti, Ole (1996). Public Opinion and American Foreign Policy. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press. p21.

Gaddis, John Lewis (2005), The Cold War: A New History, Penguin Press p70. The Truman-Chamber Essay.

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The Cold War: Causes and Consequences

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