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The Cold War was a conflict of values and ideologies between the United States and the United Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR). Western countries wanted the liberated states of Eastern Europe to be ruled with a democratic government and a capitalist economy. Joseph Stalin felt entitled to rule the Eastern European countries it occupied in World War II. Stalin wanted these countries to be used as a buffer to protect USSR boarders. Communist governments in these Eastern European countries would be under the control of the USSR thereby protecting it. The Russian army, ready to attack Berlin was halted so that the Yalta Conference between the?
Big Three? (Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt) could determine the wars end. The purpose of the Yalta Conference was to re-establish the countries destroyed and conquered by Germany. Poland and Yugoslavia were given their own governments; Germany was to be divided into zones to be controlled by each of the four countries (US, Great Britain and France and USSR). Berlin was promised to the USSR as part of the eastern half of Germany upon its surrender and Russia agreed to join the war against Japan when the war in Europe was over. Roosevelt was harshly criticized and was said to have?
given away? Eastern Europe. Stalin reneged on his promises and did not allow for democratic elections in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria. Communist governments were established and democratic supporters were suppressed. The US, still fighting Japan did nothing to stop Stain. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki not only ended the war, but also demonstrated the superiority of the United States over Russia.
This demonstration of superiority established fear in the Russian government and pushed the Soviet government towards nuclear technology and militarization. The stage was set for the Cold War. For the next fifty years, America? s policy would be one of containment while the Russian objective was to expand their sphere of influence. Russia wanted to spread communism to other countries while the United States fought to prevent its spread. Each country believed they were right.
Separation of Berlin, Germany The first real conflict of the Cold War started in the divided Berlin. The country was divided into four zones, where each superpower controlled a zone. In 1946, after reparation agreements broke down between the western and Soviet zones, the west wanted to merge the British, French and American zones. The west wanted to stimulate the German economy and unite all of West Germany as one. The Soviet Union opposed this since it would give one combined zone more power than its own.
When the western powers introduced a new currency into their zones, the Soviet Union responded by ordering the blockade of West Berlins? roads and railways, cutting off all travel by land into the sea. A twenty-mile wide air corridor was the only access to West Berlin. The United States, did not want to relinquish West Berlin; as part of the Marshall Plan, the Berlin Airlift delivered enough goods into West Berlin over 320 days to support the city; airplanes landed on an average of every three minutes. The Soviets tried to distract the airplanes with spotlights and balloons and successfully caused a few crashes. Stalin backed down on May 12, 1949 and West Berlin remained allied with the west until the unification of 1989.
West Germany had an economic boom and East Germany gradually rebuilt its economy under the Soviets however, a shortage of skilled workers in West Germany lured many East Germans to flea to the west. East Germans were able to use public transportation to West Berlin and automatically receive West German citizenship. To prevent its citizens from fleeing to the west, in August 1961, Khrushchev built the Berlin Wall physically dividing the country into Eastern communism and Western democracy. The Arms Race 1945 - 1960 The Arms Race epitomized the Cold War.
Both the United States and the Soviet Union spent huge amounts of money in militarization. The idea that the United States and the Soviet Union had the power to destroy each other in the event of an attack was known as mutually assured destruction (MAD). The theory was based on three ideas; 1) Each country had enough weapons to destroy the other; 2) Each nation would be able to detect a first strike before it arrived; 3) Both countries were able to respond adequately before being hit by a first strike. MAD had its roots with the invention of the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM).
Each country sought to decrease the response time in their nuclear defense system. It was essential to place missiles as close to the other country as possible. The United States put missiles in Turkey and the USSR tried to place missiles in Cuba. A backup solution came with the invention of the SLBM (Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile). This weapon was able to fire a missile from an undetected location off shore of the enemies coast line arriving at its target in only minutes, it would eliminate enemy response. Spy planes were used by the US over Russia to photograph missile sites.
After World War II, a U- 2 spy plane was shot down in Russia. The pilot, Gary Powers was taken prisoner. In the late 1960? s the U- 2 was replaced by the SR- 71, a spy plane that could fly higher and faster than any surface to air missile. Supposedly, the plane was used to fly extremely high along Russia? s borders while using high-powered photography equipment.
The idea of deterrence was effective since neither country seemed willing to destroy itself over a particular issue. The fear of nuclear missiles was in their misuse since it was possible that one could be accidentally fired. Fast attack submarines were developed to search and destroy nuclear missile subs hiding in the ocean. Anti-Missile systems such as the Star Wars Laser built to reduce the number of missiles that could reach ground zero. Fear was the motivating factor in both countries militarization.
Governments used all available technology to try to defend itself against their perceived enemy. Cuban Missile Crisis Wanting to expand their sphere of influence, the Soviet Union supported Fidel Castro? s dictatorship in Cuba. Nuclear War was avoided within a matter of minutes.
In 1962, JFK discovered that on October 16 Khrushchev was placing offensive nuclear missile sites in Cuba. These missiles had the capacity to destroy targets in America with very little advanced notice. A navel blockade of Cuba was set up and the Soviets were warned that no Soviet ships were permitted into Cuba until the missile sites were dismantled. Khrushchev had to decide.
He could either back down or test President Kennedy by running through the blockade. Wanting to avoid the possibility of a nuclear attack, Khrushchev ordered the ships to return. However, a communication breakdown occurred and the Soviet ships continued with their previous orders to attack any aggressors. Luckily the Soviet ships passed between the American blockade ships undetected. Thus, the missile crisis ended and the missile silos in Cuba were removed. In an unpublicized agreement, JFK agreed to Khrushchev condition of the removal of US missiles in Turkey and Greece.
The United States and Russia each removed their missile positions near the others borders. While trying to increase their Spheres of Influence the United States and Russia inched closer to a nuclear confrontation, however each were simply trying to be bigger and better than the other. The insecurity of both nations gave momentum to this competition. Soviet Union in Egypt In 1954 the United States created the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO), and in 1955, the Baghdad Pact. This was an attempt by the United States along with NATO and its military ties in the Far East (S. Korea, Japan, Taiwan) to contain the Soviet Union.
The intent of the Baghdad Pact was to be a Middle Eastern alliance comprised of Arab states and led by the United States and Great Britain. Iraq was the only Arab state that joined. In March 1955, Egypt? s Gamal Abdel Nasser created an Arab alliance including Syria and Saudi Arabia to counter the west?
s influence in the Middle East. Nasser felt this would establish his independence from the west. This act of defiance was perceived as anti-western. The United States responded by withdrawing it?
s funding for the Aswan Dam on the upper Nile. Nasser approached the Soviet Union to help complete the dam. The Soviet Union and Nasser had already completed an arms agreement by this time. Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, which had been controlled by the British since 1887. In 1956, France and Britain joined Israel in an attack on Egypt; a Third World country had been drawn into the Cold War. Until 1953, Stalin had not challenged the west outside the confines of his own empire.
After Stalin? s death in 1953 the Kremlins foreign policy began to change. Nikita Khrushchev who was first secretary of the party led this change. He argued in favor of a more aggressive foreign policy. Prime Minister Malenkov and Foreign Minister Molotov warned against involvement in the Middle East, since British and US navies controlled the Mediterranean. However, Khrushchev and his allies prevailed and began secretly arming Nasser in 1955.
Consequently the Soviet Union had an ally in the Middle East. This established a foothold for the Soviet Union beyond the Communist world. The West was being challenged in what was in its monopoly of the Third World.
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Research essay sample on Eastern European Countries World War Ii
