Cold War

(1945 – 1989)
Prepared by: Allysa Marri D. Pabalan
Department of Development Studies
• As WWII ended, it was unclear what world would emerge from the wreckage.

• Though no one knew the answers, most realized everything depended on whether the US and Soviet
Union would be able to build cooperative relationship established during the war.
• During the war there were indications of future trouble. One can look to the U.S. atomic bomb
program, the Manhattan Project, for one sign of problems to come.
• Britain and US decided not to share the project to Soviet Union, though Stalin certainly knew about
the project from spying.
• Keeping the atomic secret was only one sign that the Soviet Union was not viewed as an ally in the
same sense as Britain.
• Another sign of trouble was disagreements about the postwar fate of Eastern Europe.

• The military reality was that at war’s end Soviet Union would control Eastern Europe.

• The US insisted that Stalin hold free elections in Eastern Europe after the war. Stalin signed the
Declaration on Liberated Europe, which called for free and open elections.
• Stalin wanted governments friendly to Soviet Union; this was a reasonable demand to protect Soviet
security in the future.
 The Cold War Begins
• US-Soviet Union relations deteriorated rapidly after the war.

• The impossibility of reconciling the Western desires for free elections in Eastern Europe with Soviet Union
expectations of friendly regimes became obvious as Stalin moved to impose communist governments.

• Stalin had no intention of abiding by the democratic provisions of the Declaration on Liberated Europe.

• On 1946, Winston Churchill gave a speech declaring that an "iron curtain" had descended across Europe,
pointing to efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the West.

• Iron curtain – a term used to describe the boundary that separated the Warsaw Pact countries and NATO
countries from 1945 until 1991.

• George Kennan (American Diplomat) argued that the US needed to understand the expansionist nature of
Soviet policy and the threats it imposed to US interests.

• The only immediate option available to US was a policy of containment.

 containment – the US state’s policy of resisting the expansion of Soviet influence during the Cold War.

• The US needed to use its power (political, economic, military) to prevent further expansions of Soviet Union
influence.
• Because of political pressure to bring American troops home from Europe, many feared military
threat from Soviet Union.
• Those who are less concerned with a direct military attack worried that postwar economic
hardship would provide fertile ground for communist parties loyal to Soviet Union to come to
power.
• Everyone agreed that the economic reconstruction of Western Europe was vital to its security.
• Primary instrument for recovery: Marshall Plan.
• Marshall Plan – the program of economic assistance to rebuild the nations of Western Europe
in the after-math of WWII.
• The Marshall Plan offered economic aid to all countries of Europe devastated by war (including
Soviet Union). The Soviet Union refused the aid because some of the conditions were
incompatible with its socialist economy.
• In the end, Marshall Plan was a success.
• US also became concerned about a civil war in Greece.
• British informed US that they could no longer give assistance to the Greek government
combating a communist insurgency.
• Truman Doctrine – announced by Pres. Harry Truman, this policy is committed the US to assist
foreign governments threatened by communist forces. It represented an expansive vision of
policy of containment.
• By the end of 1947, the hope for a cooperative superpower relationship was dead. The Cold War
begun in earnest.
• Cold War – the conflict between US and Soviet Union from the late 1940s until the late 1980s
(fall of Berlin Wall) or early 1990s (the collapse of Soviet).
The Cold War Expands

• The Fall of China to the Communists in 1949, and the North Korean attack on South Korea in
1950 would have the effect of expanding the scope of containment beyond Europe.
• US decided to take military action under the support of UN to prevent communist expansion in
South Korea.
• Korean War – lasted for 4 years (which involved China).
• The net effect of Korean War was to globalize containment.
• Domino Theory – The belief (and fear) that the spread of communism to one country almost
automatically threatened its expansion to neighboring countries.
• Korean War also shifted the emphasis of containment: threat and response were seen in
military terms, with one result being the creation of a military alliance in Europe, the NATO.
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) – the Cold War alliance, including US, Canada,
Belgium, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United
Kingdom against Soviet Union and its allies.
• Vietnam War – Vietnam was divided between communist North (supported by China and Soviet
Union) and noncommunist South (supported by US).
• Warsaw Pact – Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and mutual assistance. Response to NATO
Treaty. Founding members were Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary,
Poland, Romania, East Germany.
Easing the Cold War
• Richard Nixon and his chief foreign policy adviser, Henry Kissinger, embarked upon a policy of
détente toward the Soviet Union.
• détente – a policy and period of relaxed tensions between the US and Soviet Union during
1970s.
• Soviet Union sought recognition as a power on par with the US and greater opportunities to
trade. In return, US wanted greater respect for human rights and restraint in support for
communist governments and insurgencies in Third World.
• Détente was based on the assumption that these different interests of two powers could be
linked to create a relationship based not only in conflict but by cooperation.
• The promised benefits of détente failed to materialize, as Soviet Union continue to expand
influence in the Third World and Latin America.
The Resurgence and End of Cold War
• Soviet Leadership was in a state of transition during Reagan’s first term. Leonid Brezhnev, in
power since 1960s died in 1982, followed by Mikhail Gorbachev.
• Mikhail Gorbachev – Leader of Soviet Union from 1985 until its dissolution in 1991.

• Gorbachev reformed the stagnant Soviet system through his twin policies: perestroika and
glasnost.
• Perestroika – (restructuring) was intended to loosen government control over the economy and
move it in a market-oriented direction.
• Glasnost – (openness) was designed to open Soviet political system to greater discussion of the
problems that plagued over Soviet society.
• Gorbachev faced a dilemma: glasnost was a success, perestroika was a failure.
• The result, as David Reynolds explains “as the economy collapsed, freedom to protest grew.
Reconstruction became destruction.”
• When Gorbachev visited East Germany in October 1989, crowds chanted “Gorby”.
• Within weeks, opposition to Erich Honecker’s regime (leader of East Germany) led to his ouster
and desperate attempts to prevent an outright revolution.
• By the end of November 1989, Honecker’s regime was gone and the Berlin Wall was torn down.
• Although Gorbachev did not order the wall torn down, he did not prevent it.
• By 1991, Soviet Union joined the list of former communist nations when Boris Yeltsin
(successor of Gorbachev) declared communism dead and the Soviet Union disintegrated.
The Curious Peace of Cold War
• In thinking about what one scholar has called the long peace, a variety of explanations have
been put forward.
• Long peace – the “peace” or absence of war between the US and Soviet Union during Cold
War.
• John Mearsheimer highlights 2 factors: the presence of two major powers (bipolarity) and
nuclear weapons.
• The chances of a war increases when there are more than 2 major powers because this
increases the number of avenues through which war might break out.
• The fact that the two countries had enough nuclear weapons to annihilate each other made
them cautious in dealings with each other.
• John Mueller argues that conventional war had become so destructive that this alone was
enough to make the two powers extremely hesitant to risk war.