THE Cold War it was a political-military struggle between socialism and capitalism led by the Soviet Union and the United States.
This conflagration began after World War II (1939-1945), more precisely in 1947, when the American president Henry Truman delivers a speech to the US Congress, claiming that the United States could intervene in governments not democratic.
This epoch was thus known because both countries never faced each other directly in a military conflict.
The Cold War ends with the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) and the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. The United States was the winner of this peculiar conflict, because its economic situation was superior to the Russian one.
Beginning of the Cold War (1947)
Charge mocking the world divided between the United States and the Soviet Union
In 1947, with the aim of combating communism and Soviet influence, US President Harry Truman delivered a speech to the US Congress. In it, he stated that the United States would position itself in favor of free nations that wished to resist attempts at external domination.
In the same year, US Secretary of State George Marshall launched the Marshall Plan, which proposed economic aid to Western European countries. After all, the left parties grew due to unemployment and the general crisis, and the United States feared losing them to the USSR.
In response, the Soviet Union created the Kominform, the body charged with bringing together the main European communist parties. It was also his task to remove the countries under his influence from US supremacy, generating the “iron curtain” bloc.
In addition, the Comecon was created in 1949, a kind of Marshall Plan for socialist countries.
Expansion of the Cold War
At the end of negotiations between the winners of World War II, Europe was divided into two parts. These corresponded to the limit of the advance of Soviet and American troops during the war.
The Soviet-occupied eastern part became the area of influence of the Soviet Union.
Local communist parties, supported by the USSR, came to exercise power in these countries. Established the calls popular democracies in Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia.
In Europe, only Yugoslavia established a socialist regime independent of the Soviet Union.
On the other hand, the western partthere, occupied mainly by British and American troops, came under the influence of the United States. In this area, liberal democracies were consolidated, with the exception of dictatorships in Spain and Portugal.
The two superpowers sought to expand their areas of influence in the world, intervening directly or indirectly in the internal affairs of these countries.
See too: Iron Curtain and Eastern Europe
NATO and the Warsaw Pact
The Cold War provoked the formation of two political-military alliances:
- the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO);
- the Warsaw Pact.
NATO, founded in 1949, was initially composed of the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Portugal and Italy. Later, West Germany, Greece and Turkey were joined, pitting all of Western Europe against the Soviet Union.
In 1955, in retaliation, the Soviet Union created the Warsaw Pact, to prevent capitalist advance in its area of influence. The year of its foundation included the USSR, Albania, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Romania.
The two pacts had in common the commitment of mutual protection between their members, as they understood that aggression against one of them would affect everyone.
The Warsaw Pact disappeared between 1990 and 1991, as a result of the end of socialist regimes in Eastern Europe. As a result, NATO lost its original meaning.
Cold War Disputes
In the early 60s, the construction of the Berlin Wallin 1961; and the 1962 missile crisis caused international tensions to escalate.
Charge illustrating Nikita Khrushchev (USSR), left, and John Kennedy (USA) arm-wrestling during the 1960s to see which country was stronger
Berlin Wall (1961)
The construction of the Berlin Wall, in 1961, divided the city of Berlin between West Berlin and East Berlin.
The aim was to prevent the departure of professionals and skilled workers who were leaving socialist East Germany in search of better living conditions in capitalist West Germany.
Missile Crisis (1962)
On the other hand, the missile crisis had its origins in the Soviet intention to install bases and launch missiles in Cuba. If this were to materialize, it would be a constant threat to the United States.
The American reaction was immediate, through a naval blockade on Cuba, the only country in America that had adopted the socialist regime. The world held its breath, for at that moment, the chances of a third world war were real.
Negotiations were tense, but the Soviets gave up on placing the missiles in Cuba. In return, the United States did the same at its bases in Turkey six months later.
Space race
Another feature of the Cold War was the Space Race that started in the late 1950s.
A lot of money, time and study were invested by the USSR and the USA to know who would dominate Earth's orbit and space.
The Soviets took the lead in 1957 with the Sputnik satellites, but the Americans caught up with them and made the first man walk on lunar soil in 1969.
The space race was not just about getting people into space. It was also part of the project to develop long-range weapons, such as intercontinental missiles and space shields.
The end of the Cold War (1991)
Historians attribute two important events to the end of the Cold War: the fall of the Berlin Wall, on November 9, 1989, and the end of the Soviet Union, in 1991.
The ideological conflict was only ended thanks to the negotiations established by Ronald Reagan and Mikahil Gorbachev during the 80's.
The fall of the Berlin Wall was the visible milestone that symbolized the end of socialist regimes in Eastern Europe. After their overthrow, socialist regimes fell one by one, and in October 1990 the two Germanys were finally unified.
Likewise, the disintegration of the Soviet Union, in 1991, inaugurated a new period in world history, starting the process of implantation of capitalism in all countries of the world.
Consequences of the Cold War
In economics, the end of the Cold War started the expansion of capitalism to all countries around the globe.
The world abandoned the ideological disputes of previous decades to focus on just one ideology, the capitalist. At this stage, capitalism took on the name of neoliberalism, where the state should intervene as little as possible in the economy.
With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, fifteen new countries emerged. In Europe, we see the separation of Czechoslovakia and the start of the Yugoslav War.
Institutions led by the Soviet Union disappeared. The Warsaw Pact ended between 1990 and 1991, as a result of the end of socialist regimes in Eastern Europe.
NATO itself lost its original meaning and is now a military alliance used to combat terrorism.
Some remnants of the Cold War in today's world are the separation of North and South Korea, the existence of American nuclear warheads at bases in Germany and the tension in relations between Russia and the States United.
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Bibliographic references
VIEIRA, Neide Paiva - Cold War: Challenge, Confrontations and Historiography - Pedagogical Notebook. Maringá: Secretary of Education of the State of Paraná, 2008.
Documentary:
A Century of Wars - The Iron Curtain (Cold War). Production: Nugus/Martin Productions Ltd. UK. Year: 1993. Available on the Museu do Vizao channel. Consulted 06.25.2020.
