TheCold War 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 US President Henry Truman gave a speech to the US Congress, stating that the US could intervene in undemocratic governments.
This epoch became so known because both countries never faced each other directly in a war.
The Cold War ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. The United States emerged victorious from this conflict.
Beginning of the Cold War (1947)
In 1947, aiming to combat communism and Soviet influence, US President Harry Truman delivered a speech to the US Congress. In it, he stated that the United States would stand in favor of free nations that wished to resist attempts at foreign domination. The domination he was referring to was the growth of the Soviet Union and its influence in new territories.
In the same year, the American Secretary of State, George Marshall, launched the Marshall Plan, which proposed economic aid to the countries of Western Europe. This plan emerged in a context where left-wing parties were growing due to unemployment and the generalized crisis.
Thus, the United States feared that more and more socialist revolutions would lead Americans to lose areas of influence to the USSR.
In response, the Soviet Union created the Kominform , body in charge of achieving the union of the main European communist parties. It was also his task to remove the countries under its influence from US supremacy, creating the “iron curtain” bloc.
In addition, Comecon was created in 1949, a kind of Marshall Plan for socialist countries.
Cold War Expansion
At the end of negotiations between the victors of the Second World War, Europe was divided into two parts. These corresponded to the limit of the advance of Soviet and American troops during the war.
The eastern part, occupied by the Soviets, became an area of influence of the Soviet Union.
Local communist parties, supported by the USSR, began to exercise power in these countries. They established the so-called people's 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 part, 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 the dictatorships in Spain and Portugal.
The two superpowers sought to expand their areas of influence in the world, directly or indirectly intervening in the internal affairs of these countries.
See also :Iron Curtain and Eastern Europe
NATO and the Warsaw Pact
The Cold War led to 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 joined, opposing all of Western Europe to the Soviet Union.
In 1955, in retaliation, the Soviet Union created the Warsaw Pact to prevent capitalist advance in its area of influence. In the year of its foundation the USSR, Albania, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Romania were part of it.
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 all of them.
The Warsaw Pact disappeared between 1990 and 1991, as a result of the end of the socialist regimes in Eastern Europe. On the other hand, NATO has lost the meaning that gave it birth.
Disputes in the Cold War
In the early 1960s, the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961; and the missile crisis in 1962 provoked an increase in international tensions.
Berlin Wall (1961)
The construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 divided the city of Berlin between West Berlin and East Berlin.
The objective was to prevent the departure of professionals and skilled workers who left socialist East Germany in search of better living conditions in capitalist West Germany.
Missile Crisis (1962)
The missile crisis had its origins in the Soviet intention to install bases and launch missiles in Cuba. If this were to come to fruition, 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 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. Also part of the project was 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 negotiations established by Ronald Reagan and Mikahil Gorbachev during the 1980s.
The fall of the Berlin Wall was the visible landmark that symbolized the end of socialist regimes in Eastern Europe. After their overthrow, the 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, initiating 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 of the globe.
The world abandoned the ideological disputes of previous decades to focus on just one ideology, the capitalist one. 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 beginning of the Yugoslav War.
The institutions led by the Soviet Union disappeared. The Warsaw Pact ended between 1990 and 1991, as a result of the end of the socialist regimes of Eastern Europe.
NATO itself has lost its original meaning and is now a military alliance used to fight terrorism.
Some remnants of the Cold War in the world today are the separation of North and South Korea, the existence of American nuclear warheads on German bases and the tension in relations between Russia and the United States.
Cold War - All MatterRead more :
- World War II.
- Capitalism
- Cold War Questions
- Missile Crisis
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.