THE Cold War it took place between 1947 and 1991 and marked the polarization of the world into two blocs: one led by the Americans and the other by the Soviets. This polarization generated a political-ideological conflict between the two nations and their respective blocs, each defending its interests and its ideology.
The Cold War never generated a direct armed conflict between StatesUnited (USA) and Unitysoviet (USSR), but the conflict of interests between the two countries resulted in armed conflicts around the world and in a dispute that took place at various levels such as the economy, diplomacy, technology etc.
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What caused the Cold War to start?
Harry Truman's 1947 speech marked the beginning of the Cold War.
The Cold War started shortly after the Second World War, conflict that took place between 1939 and 1945. At the end of this conflict, the US and the USSR came out as the twobig onespotencies and this situation contributed to the emergence of a polarization scenario. The beginning of the postwar rivalry between Americans and Soviets is debated by historians.
It is considered that the Cold War began through a speech made by HarryTruman, in the American Congress, in 1947. In this speech, the American president requested funds to combat the advance of communism in Europe and claimed that it was the role of the American government to combat the advance of Soviet influence.
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With that, the Truman doctrine, an ideology that encompassed the measures taken by the US government to contain the advance of communism in Europe. One of the stages of this doctrine was the Marshall Plan, the recovery plan for war-torn Europe. The purpose of this plan was to increase American influence in Europe, and the Soviets, realizing this, banned their bloc countries from joining the Marshall Plan.
The speech practiced by the Truman Doctrine used a speechalarmist which placed the Soviet government as an expansionist government. The American government, however, knew that the Soviets' posture was a defensive posture, because the country was destroyed by war and sought to guarantee its interests only in its zone of influence.
In addition, another important point is that difficultieseconomical that European countries would face in the postwar period could make room for the advance of communism and that worried Americans. Thus, the Americans developed a Manichean discourse, which was responsible for polarizing the relationship between the two nations.
The Soviets, who at first were only interested in securing control over their zone of influence, ended up incorporating the Manichean discourse, which materialized the polarization that marked the Cold War.
Features
Among the characteristics of the Cold War (1947-1991), the following stand out:
Polarization: through two blocs, one under American influence and the other under Soviet influence, it was the great hallmark of the Cold War. Thus, Americans and Soviets had an aggressive rhetoric against their opponent and had strategic allies. There was an attempt by some countries to carry out an independent foreign policy, without the need for an alliance with either country.
Racearmamentist: the dispute between the two nations and the search to show itself as a hegemonic force motivated both invest heavily in the development of weapons of mass destruction, nuclear bombs and thermonuclear cells.
Space race: the dispute between the two nations also manifested itself in the technological area and, between 1957 and 1975, it focused on space exploration.
Interferenceforeign: the two countries carried out, over the years of the Cold War, a series of interferences in foreign nations as a way to guarantee their interests. Brazil, for example, was the target of this when the Americans supported the 1964 military coup.
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Most important events of the Cold War
The tension generated by the Cold War reverberated in countless ways around the world throughout human history. We will highlight some information from these events below:
chinese revolution
China was one of the places influenced by communist ideology and, since the 1920s, the country was experiencing a civil war waged by nationalists (supported by the US) and communists (supported by the USSR). After the end of World War II, the civil war resumed, and the communists managed to assert themselves and conquered the power of the country in 1949. The advance of communism by China alarmed Americans and caused heavy US investments to go to places like Japan and South Korea.
Korean War
The Korean War was fought between 1950 and 1953 and involved the involvement of American and Soviet soldiers.
This was the first big conflict, after World War II, and took place between 1950 and 1953. This conflict was the result of division of the Korean Peninsula, made by Americans and Soviets, in 1945. The north, ruled by communists, and the south, ruled by a capitalist government.
The tension that developed between the two sides between 1945 and 1950 led the North Koreans to invade South Korea. The aim was to reunify Korea under a communist government. The Soviets participated in the conflict in secret, and the Americans entered the conflict as early as 1950. the conflict was closed with no winners and the peninsula remains divided to this day.
Cuban Missile Crisis
the moment of biggervoltage throughout the Cold War it was known as Missile Crisis and it happened in Cuba in 1962. Cuba had gone through a nationalist revolution, in 1959, and a time later allied with the Soviets because of the American embargoes. In 1962, the Soviets decided to install a missile base in Cuba and started the diplomatic crisis.
The missiles installed in Cuba did not pose a serious threat to the Americans, but they damaged the image of President John F. Kennedy. With that, the American government threatened the Soviets of war, if the Soviet missiles were not withdrawn. Two weeks later, the Soviets withdrew the missiles from Cuba and, in return, the Americans withdrew missiles from Turkey.
Vietnam War
THE Vietnam War it took place between 1959 and 1975 and was one of the most tense moments in the US in the Cold War. In this war, North Vietnam and VietnamofSouth they waged a conflict along the lines of what had happened in Korea. The Americans, in aid of the South Vietnamese, invaded the country and began to fight against North Vietnam.
The Vietnam War was expensive for the American economy and cost thousands of lives to its army, which withdrew from the country in 1973, defeated. In 1976, the country was unified under the government of North Vietnam.
1979 Afghanistan War
This is the well-known “Vietnam of the Soviets”. You Soviets invaded Afghanistan, in 1979, in support of the communist government of that country against the Islamic fundamentalist rebels who operated mainly in the Afghan countryside. Over ten years of conflict, the Soviets fought in vain against the rebel forces. Economically exhausted, the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989.
Germany in the Cold War
Germany was an extremely important place during the Cold War, because the polarization was intense there. The country was divided into zones of influence at the end of World War II, and they resulted in the emergence of two Germanys: the Germanywestern, US ally, and the GermanyEastern, ally of the USSR.
This division was also reflected in Berlin which, from 1961 onwards, was divided by a wall built by the East German government in partnership with the Soviet Union. The communists wanted to put an end to population evasion from East Germany to West Berlin. O Berlin Wall it remained standing for 28 years and was a symbol of the polarization caused by the Cold War.
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Political and military cooperation
Over the years of the Cold War, Americans and Soviets sought to ensure their influence over their bloc and for this they created groups that carried out economic, political and military cooperation among their allies.
FlatMarshall and start: the Marshall Plan, as mentioned, was created by the USA to finance the reconstruction of Europe and contain the advance of communism. The Soviets, in retaliation, created the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, the Comecon, which guaranteed economic support to the countries of the communist bloc.
nato and CovenantinWarsaw: the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (nato) was created as a military alliance among the countries aligned with the United States, in 1949. The Warsaw Pact, in turn, created in 1955, aimed to guarantee the security of the countries of the communist bloc.
End of the Cold War
The opening of the USSR took place during the government of Mikhail Gorbachev.**
From the 1970s onwards, the economy of the Soviet Union began to enter into crisis. The crisis was the result of the lack of actions by the Soviet government to boost the country's economy, which already showed to be in technological and economic backwardness in relation to the great world powers, and the country's social indicators began to to fall.
The soaring value of oil created a climate of false prosperity that prevented reforms in the Soviet economy from taking place. The country's involvement in afghan war it's the nuclear accident that happened in Chernobyl, in 1986, contributed to the end of the USSR, as they imposed heavy expenses on a country with an already fragile economy.
The last Soviet president, MikhailGorbachev, began to carry out reforms (Glasnost and Perestroika) of opening the country to the West, especially in the economy, and these led to the dismantling of the Soviet Union. When Gorbachev resigned on December 25, 1991, USSR was dissolved and that marked the end of the Cold War.
Image credits:
*Image Credit: rook76 / Shutterstock
**Image Credit: Kaliva / Shutterstock
By Daniel Neves
Graduated in History
