The Origins and Characteristics of the Cold War

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The Origins and Characteristics of the Cold War 1 UB number 22046420 PES4018-B Understanding the International System The Origins and Characteristics of the Cold War

The Origins and Characteristics of the Cold War 2 Introduction From the end of WWII in 1947 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 26, 1991, the United States and the Soviet Union fought a political and economic battle known as the Cold War. The two erstwhile allies of World War II were at odds the whole time. Wars were fought everywhere, from the shady streets of major cities to the thick jungles of Vietnam. The Allies' victory over Nazi Germany, and the meeting between the Red Army and the Allies in Berlin, were pivotal moments. The relationship between the two groups was the glue that held them together despite their many cultural and ideological differences. During that time, Europe was essentially split in half by the Iron Curtain, with one side governed by the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact and the other by America and the members of NATO (Immerman and Goedde, 2013). In the years after WWII, beginning in 1947 and ending with the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 26, 1991, the United States and the Soviet Union fought a political and economic struggle known as the Cold War. The two countries were allies in World War II, but they eventually began fighting one other. Covert espionage in major cities worldwide and all-out jungle warfare in Vietnam was fought. When the Red Army and the Allies finally met in Berlin, it was a watershed moment in the Allied victory over Nazi Germany. The camaraderie among the two groups served as the glue that held them together despite their vast ideological and cultural differences. During that time, Europe was split in two by the Iron Curtain, with one side governed by the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries and the other by the United States and the NATO members (Kwon, 2010). Characteristics of the Cold War

The Origins and Characteristics of the Cold War 3 There was no previous political or diplomatic crisis of comparable magnitude in the years after World War II as the Cold War. It began with the ongoing hostilities between the United States and the Soviet Union after the Russian Revolution in 1917. The Soviet Communist Party, inspired by V.I. Lenin, fancied itself at the forefront of a global uprising against the world's preeminent political powers. When the Allies intervened in Russia in 1918 to aid anti-Bolshevik troops, American soldiers were among those who went. The United States did not officially recognize the Soviet Union in its diplomatic relations until 1933. However, questions remained. But during WWII, the two countries set aside their differences and fought side by side against the Nazi threat (Legvold, 2016). In the aftermath of the war, hostilities quickly returned. The United States hoped other countries would adopt its values of liberty, equality, and democracy. It also sought to avoid making the same mistakes after World War I, when American indifference and economic protectionism were held responsible for helping to give rise to dictatorships in Europe and elsewhere. The postwar world was rife with civil conflicts and collapsing empires, and the country's goal was to provide peace and stability to the region. Advocates of liberal trade in the United States cited the Great Depression (1929–1940). They needed Western European nations to be able to export again so they could begin reviving their economy, and they needed to make sure that their agricultural and industrial exports could find purchasers. U.S. officials believed that reducing trade barriers would help their allies' economies and their own (McMahon, 2021). The Soviet Union had its agenda Russia's tradition of centralized, authoritarian rule stands in sharp contrast to the United States' emphasis on democracy. Marxist-Leninist ideology, repressed by the Soviets throughout

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The Origins and Characteristics of the Cold War 4 the war, became the foundation for Soviet policy. After the war, which resulted in the deaths of 20 million Soviet citizens, the government prioritized rebuilding and strengthening its defenses. Fear of a western invasion was a fundamental cause of unease for the Soviets. They had avoided Hitler's first attack and were determined to prevent him from attempting another. They associated the spread of Communism with the need for "defensible" borders and "friendly" regimes in Eastern Europe, which ran counter to the beliefs of the locals. However, the United States claimed that the primary objective of the war was to assist countries like Poland and Czechoslovakia in regaining their national identities (Rajak, 2014). Harry Truman's leadership Before the end of World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was succeeded by President Harry S. Truman. Truman, a humble man who had previously served as a Democratic senator from Missouri and then as vice president, first feared that he lacked the qualifications necessary to be president. There was a lack of international experience, and he had not discussed post-war challenges with Roosevelt. Ex-worker claims he said, "I'm not big enough for this job." Although, Truman was quick to adjust to new situations. While he might be hasty with little matters, he has always shown a willingness to make significant decisions after carefully considering them. A little sign reading "The Buck Stops Here" was sitting on his desk in the Oval Office. His predictions about the best responses to the Soviet Union significantly impacted the early years of the Cold War (Rawnsley, 2016). Origins of the Cold War Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union escalated throughout the Cold War because of their divergent postwar goals. The eastern part of Poland, which the Soviet

The Origins and Characteristics of the Cold War 5 Union invaded and controlled in 1939, served as the first and worst test case. Washington favored a more decentralized administration in keeping with Western ideals, but Moscow insisted on a system beholden to Soviet sway. Regarding Eastern Europe, the Yalta Conference in February 1945 only reached a loose agreement. All participants' voting rights were protected under the contract (Muehlenbeck, 2012). After two weeks in office, Truman met with Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov. The Soviet delegation on implementing the Yalta agreements and backing Polish self- determination. In response to Molotov's "I have never been talked to like that," Truman remarked, "Carry out your commitments, and you will not be spoken to like that." Their capacity to communicate with one another was severely impaired after that (Levering, 2016). During the last months of World War II, Soviet armed troops held sway throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Russia sent soldiers to Eastern Europe to back communist governments and crack down on democratic opposition. Historically, communists have repeatedly been able to seize control of governments. In 1948, a startling coup d'etat shook Czechoslovakia to its core (Leffler and Westad, 2010). As the formal beginning of hostilities, this event marked a turning point in the Cold War's timeline. Since the current capitalist expansion of the global economy, world peace has been unachievable. Truman attended a lecture by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at Fulton, Missouri. It's as if an "iron curtain" had dropped over the continent, from Stettin on the Baltic to Trieste on the Adriatic. British and American cooperation is essential if they are to resist the Soviet menace (Kennedy-Pipe, 2017) successfully.

The Origins and Characteristics of the Cold War 6 In the years after World War II, American policymakers settled on a " containment " strategy in dealing with the Soviet Union. In 1946, George Kennan, a diplomat for the United States embassy, telegraphed the State Department with a detailed proposal for the new strategy. He provided further context and analysis for his findings in an essay for Foreign Affairs, written under a pen name. According to Kennan, the Soviet Union would never return from a conflict because Russia would never give up. 'They are fanatically wed to the belief that there can be no lasting modus vivendi with the United States, that it is desirable and necessary that the internal tranquility of our society be broken,' he continued of Moscow. There needed to be a "strong and deliberate control of Russian aggressive inclinations" to stop Moscow from expanding its sphere of influence (Dalby, 2016). The Middle East and eastern Mediterranean were the first places where imprisonment was used widely. The U.S. demanded and secured the Soviet Union's complete evacuation from northern Iran, which it had occupied since the beginning of World War II. In the summer of that year, when the Soviet Union attempted to grab control of the Turkish straits between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, the United States took a public stance in support of Turkey. Britain's early 1947 notification to the United States that it could no longer afford to maintain the Greek government against a strong Communist rebellion made clear the United States' position on the conflict (Legvold, 2016). An angry Truman addressed Congress, "I think it must be the policy of the United States to help free peoples who are confronting attempted enslavement by armed minority or foreign forces." Reporters were eager to label this declaration as the "Truman Doctrine." The president has requested $400 million in the military and economic help from Congress, the majority of which would go to Greece but will also be given to Turkey (Rajak, 2014). The funds were

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The Origins and Characteristics of the Cold War 7 authorised after a dispute reminiscent of that which occurred between interventionists and isolationists in the years before World War II. Truman's containment strategy was met with criticism from the left, the Soviet danger of winning public approval. As a result, anti- Communist hysteria spread widely after his comments. This is not out of the question. One would object that this line of thinking fails to account for the likelihood of a reaction if, for example, Greece, Turkey, and other nations had come under Soviet domination with no pushback from the United States (Muehlenbeck, 2012). The proponents of containment want massive postwar financial assistance to help reconstruct Western Europe. The United States was concerned that communist parties backed by Moscow would utilize their histories of fighting Nazism during World War II to seize power in the region's economically and politically weak nations. Secretary of State George C. Marshall once said, "The patient is drowning while the physicians dilly-dally." In the middle of 1947, under Marshall's leadership, Europe's weaker countries established a policy not against any one government or ideology but rather against hunger, poverty, despair, and instability (Leffler and Westad, 2010). After being asked for economic data and agreeing to Western supervision of aid distribution, the Soviets boycotted the first planning session. Seventeen billion dollars, to be paid out over four years, was the sum agreed on by the other 16 countries. In 1948, Congress authorized the "Marshall Plan," which provided funding for Western Europe's economic recovery. The vast majority of experts agree that this diplomatic effort by the United States was a huge success (Levering, 2016).

The Origins and Characteristics of the Cold War 8 Post-war Germany has its unique challenges to overcome. Central to the Soviet sector was the former German capital of Berlin (split into four zones). United States, Soviet Union, British, and French forces occupied separate portions of the land. When he heard that Western countries were trying to combine their zones into a federal state, Stalin replied by closing off his own. The Berlin Blockade began on June 24, 1948, when Soviet soldiers effectively blocked Western access to the city (Dalby, 2016). American leaders feared that Germany and Europe would collapse if they lost Berlin. Therefore, the Allies' air forces took to the skies, delivering supplies to Berlin as part of a triumphant display of Western commitment known as the Berlin Airlift. The United States, France, and Britain airlifted some 2,250,000 tonnes of supplies, including food and coal. As soon as 231 days and 277,264 flights had passed, Stalin removed the prohibition (Immerman and Goedde, 2013). Even before the fall of the Czech Republic to Soviet authority, there was significant worry among Western Europeans about the Soviet Union's expanding influence in Eastern Europe. The Europeans also formed a military alliance to support their economic containment measures. According to Norwegian historian Geir Lundestad, such an empire was "by invitation only." The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was founded in 1949 by the United States and eleven other nations (NATO). When one was attacked, it was treated as if they had been attacked, and a proper response had to be implemented. During times of relative calm, the United States and a coalition of nations outside Europe and North America formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) (Leffler and Westad, 2010).

The Origins and Characteristics of the Cold War 9 The following year, the United States laid its military plans in full. U.S. foreign and military strategy has been evaluated thoroughly by the National Security Council (NSC), a forum for the President, Cabinet members, and other members of the executive branch to discuss problems of foreign and military policy. The following report, NSC-68, represented a significant departure from traditional American security beliefs. The United Nations declared its intention to aid friendly nations all over the globe that seemed threatened by Soviet invasion, alleging that "the Soviet Union was engaged in a frenzied endeavor to take control of all governments wherever conceivable." In light of the outbreak of the Korean War, Truman reluctantly signed the agreement. Because of this, the United States government has significantly increased military expenditure (Levering, 2016). Conclusion Throughout the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union were in political and economic warfare. It was in operation from its inception in 1947 until the end of the Soviet Union on December 26, 1991. Wars ranged from covert espionage in significant cities to all-out combat in the Vietnamian jungles. In the wake of World War II, the United States and the United Kingdom collaborated to prevent a repeat of the mistakes committed during World War I, when American apathy helped build dictatorships. His administration's policy toward the Soviet Union in the early stages of the Cold War was crucial. The Middle East and eastern Mediterranean were the first places where imprisonment was used widely. When President Truman requested $400 million in help from Congress for Greece, Turkey, and other European countries, he was asking for military and economic support. To assist Western Europe in recovering from the war, those in favor of "containment" advocated for massive aid payments. The "Marshall Plan" was a four- year financial aid program that helped revive economies throughout Western Europe.

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The Origins and Characteristics of the Cold War 10 Reference Dalby, S. (2016). Creating the Second Cold War: The Discourse of Politics . [online] Google Books . Bloomsbury Publishing. Available at: https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=- EjqDAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=cold+war+&ots=jylW616UAn&sig=T9G6cZVCzv2in9 r8gvwFyaMEUsk [Accessed 14 Jan. 2023]. Immerman, R.H. and Goedde, P. (2013). The Oxford Handbook of the Cold War . [online] Google Books . OUP Oxford. Available at: https://books.google.co.in/books? hl=en&lr=&id=UZdpAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=cold+war+&ots=IQVHTjFrkn&sig=rj -LGmm2AJIzuL31C08GAFQpBn4 [Accessed January 14 2023]. Kennedy-Pipe, C. (2017). The Origins of the Cold War . [online] Google Books . Bloomsbury Publishing. Available at: https://books.google.co.in/books? hl=en&lr=&id=SiBHEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR1&dq=cold+war+origins&ots=sM7YuWjr- 6&sig=gvvB9nNjY0_qvD8DAzx3Qui0U5E [Accessed January 14 2023]. Kwon, H. (2010). The Other Cold War . [online] Google Books . Columbia University Press. Available at: https://books.google.co.in/books? hl=en&lr=&id=ezM5Jce0exMC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=cold+war+origins&ots=FHorRnH2qD& sig=GHCvFrRTQynJcnXiqds4GmW1Deg [Accessed January 15 2023]. Leffler, M.P. and Westad, O.A. (2010). The Cambridge History of the Cold War . [online] Google Books . Cambridge University Press. Available at: https://books.google.co.in/books? hl=en&lr=&id=x1U52FjcIOYC&oi=fnd&pg=PR8&dq=cold+war+&ots=gyc2Q6Sn3E&sig=LM Z16WxDnrciSPBuJPe49HY8Qzo [Accessed January 14 2023]. Legvold, R. (2016). Return to Cold War . [online] Google Books . John Wiley & Sons. Available at: https://books.google.co.in/books? hl=en&lr=&id=nEsPDAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT5&dq=cold+war+&ots=28MFhCK- df&sig=kEGyui-KQF4JQHpYNnkKZ9GYUNc [Accessed 14 Jan. 2023]. Levering, R.B. (2016). The Cold War: A Post-Cold War History . [online] Google Books . John Wiley & Sons. Available at: https://books.google.co.in/books?

The Origins and Characteristics of the Cold War 11 hl=en&lr=&id=vSjdCQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP9&dq=cold+war+&ots=g_WVbUSCO_&sig= is0PrMoiaZbEjEJOHe_SqNckT-o [Accessed January 14 2023]. McMahon, R.J. (2021). The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction . [online] Google Books . Oxford University Press. Available at: https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=L- AeEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=cold+war+origins&ots=LH- zpnBgSz&sig=vxixArqqB97WW_qIu46iJr9Xjqo [Accessed January 14 2023]. Muehlenbeck, P.E. (2012). Religion and the Cold War: A Global Perspective . [online] Google Books . Vanderbilt University Press. Available at: https://books.google.co.in/books? hl=en&lr=&id=ytEC2bOstFUC&oi=fnd&pg=PP2&dq=cold+war+&ots=bQUlx7lvCf&sig=RHL Tf6Qr6fbcllAVIjQb8w5hMFQ [Accessed January 14 2023]. Rajak, S. (2014). No Bargaining Chips, No Spheres of Interest: The Yugoslav Origins of Cold War Non-Alignment. Journal of Cold War Studies , [online] 16(1), pp.146–179. Available at: https://direct.mit.edu/jcws/article-abstract/16/1/146/13586 [Accessed January 15 2023]. Rawnsley, G.D. (2016). Cold-War Propaganda in the 1950s . [online] Google Books . Springer. Available at: https://books.google.co.in/books? hl=en&lr=&id=OEC_DAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=cold+war+&ots=eJ78XyTuIm&sig= qHqUZ995ssIGkcos86ZHzNJro_M [Accessed January 14 2023].

The Origins and Characteristics of the Cold War

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