From Ibstudy

The Cold War was a conflict that threatened to steep the world in a nuclear war.

It lasted from the end of WWII(1945) until the fall of the Soviet Union around 1991.

Contents 1 Factors contributing to the Cold War 1.1 1945 Meetings: 1.2 American Position 1.3 Soviet Position 1.4 Also... 2 Events of the Cold War 2.1 Korean War 2.2 Vietnam War 2.3 Stuff in Eastern Europe 2.3.1 Russian activity 2.4 Berlin Events 2.5 Cuba

Factors contributing to the Cold War

1945 Meetings:

• Yalta:
  • Germany to be split into four zones, Berlin too.
  • Eastern Europe to have free elections
  • U.N. to be created
  • Stalin agreed to join the war against Japan
    • Condition: Japanese-occupied territory given to USSR
• Pottsdam
  • Couldn't agree on what to do with Poland or Germany

American Position

Mainly, suspicion of Russia from a number of sources:

• Kennan's Long Telegram (1946, followed later by the "X Article"):
  • telegram sent by George Kennan, Deputy Chief of Mission (second to the Ambassador) at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, basically said that Russia believed that communism and capitalism could not peacefully coexist, and one would have to make way for the other.
    • See Wikipedia page for more info or the original text on Wikisource
• NSC-68: National Security Council report on Communist aims.
  • Main jist was that the USSR wanted to "impose its absolute authority over the rest of the world."
  • Depicted the USA as "the center of power in the free world."
• During the Russian Civil War, the Bolsheveiks had fought U.S. supported forces and, after winning, renounced all Russian international debts.
• At the end of WWII, Russia appeared to forcefully impose communist governments in Eastern Europe.
  • Free elections did not happen as agreed at Yalta
• These led to the American policy of containment of communism

Soviet Position

Mainly, suspicion of the West from these sources:

• USSR was not well-informed of the development and planned use of the atomic bomb.
• Old tensions from the Russian Civil War
• Russia had been invaded twice in 50 years by Western powers
• The dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan prevented Russia gaining back territory lost in the Russo-Japanese war which they had been offered if they helped defeat Japan
• Therefore Russia wanted border states to prevent future invasions

Also...

• Idealogical differences
• Power vacuum in Europe after the fall of Hitler's regime
• War losses incurred: Russia and many East European countries having great losses
• Recent experience with war: pacifist movements common

Events of the Cold War

Korean War

• 1945: Division along 38th parallel between North Korea (under USSR influence) and South Korea under U.S. influence)
  • UN wanted national elections, U.S. agreed believing the South would outvote the communist North
    • Elections never agreed upon, split stayed

New governments - 1948

South

• Elected capitalist leader Syngman Rhee
  • Became - The Independent Republic of Korea

North

• The popular communist party of Kim Il Sung (supported by the USSR) came to power

Reasons for War

• USA and USSR withdraw occupying troops from Korea in 1949
  • Dangerous situation
    • Artificial imperialist split creates public resentment
    • Both leaders wanted full power in a united Korea

Breakout of War - 1950

• North Korea attacks&invades South Korea
  • Controversy surrounding South Korean troops reportedly in North Korea
• North Korea pushes way down South
  • U.N. responds, U.S. army under General MacArthur leads military against North Korea
    • Interesting diplomacy involved:
      • USA feels that they should take a stand (avoid a repeat of 1930's appeasement of Germany)
      • USSR walked out of the Security Council, forfeiting their Veto power -> resolution passed to first reprimand, then resist North Korean incursion
• North Korean forces driven back to 38th parallel
  • USA then decided to push further. According to some historians, this marks a shift in American policy from containment to roll-back
• North Korea driven back to China by American forces
• China retaliates, pushes back South to the 38th parallel.
• Active fighting ends 1953, no peace treaty to this day

Vietnam War

• Vietnam divided along the 17th parallel, U.S.-backed Ho Chi Minh in South.
• French leave Vietnam at the end of the Indo-China war in the face of popular, strong opposition.
• U.S. gets involved around 1957:
  • advisors
  • then military
  • escalation (under Johnson: "...if I left that war and let the communists take over South Vietnam, then I would be seen as a coward and my nation would be seen as an appeaser and we would both find it impossible to accomplish anything for anybody anywhere on the globe.")
    • max. 500,000 American soldiers in Vietnam (1968)
  • success stories reported, though not altogether connected with reality
    • Tet Offensive was a large coordinated surprise attack by the NLF (Vietnam National Liberation Front)
      • Militarily, it was crushed quickly -> an American victory, but it showed that the NLF was not defeated
• USA withdraws troops beginning in 1969, under strong anti-Vietnam-war public opinion.
• Vietnam falls to communism, 1975

nature of the war:

• American tactics:
  • bombing: firebombing(napalm), chemical defoliants(eg. Agent Orange). A greater mass of bombs were dropped on Vietnam than were on Germany during WWII.
    • Vietnam wasn't industrialized, and so bombing missions had a limited amount of tactical targets.
    • Agent Orange had adverse effects:
  • Setting up "strategic hamlets" or "safe" villages
    • forcibly relocating people to new villages alienated them
• Anti-American tactics:
  • Vietcong and NLF were highly motivated, experts at guerrilla warfare
    • Generally, the guerrilla war couldn't be won by the USA: enemy combatants couldn't be distinguished from civilians until they shot at you. The USA's conventional warfare, even with numbers, funds, and technology, was ineffective.
    • Despite heavy bombing, Vietcong supplies couldn't be stopped on the Ho Chi Minh trail.
  • Vietcong/NLF had military/supply support from China, Russia, North Vietnam.
• NLF had widespread support, even in South Vietnam, because of anti-government, anti-imperialist ideas. America did not recognize this need, and focused purely on military intervention.

Effects

• Victory for the communist world
• Vietnamese costs great
  • 1-2 million civilians dead, 18 million homeless
  • Agent Orange: birth defects
• U.S.A:
  • Detracted attention from domestic reforms
  • Shook the confidence of this new world power
• U.S. soldiers:
  • shunned by an anti-Vietnam-war society
  • many had post-traumatic stress disorder

Stuff in Eastern Europe

• Marshall Plan
  • USA offers economic aid to all European countries. Idea: Europe is in danger of economic recession, and that would affect the USA. Strong European economies are good trading partners for the USA, and will prevent the spread of communism.
    • Billions of dollars spent. Successful in repairing economies of Western Europe (NEED DATA)
    • Churchill called it "the single least selfish move in history" or something like that
  • Countries under Soviet influence were not allowed to accept the aid
    • Led to a difference in quality of life in Eastern and Western Europe.
• Soviet Response: COMECON
  • Unification of economies of countries under Soviet influence. Different industries were assigned to different countries.

Russian activity

• Sets up Cominform to coordinate Communist parties in Europe

Berlin Events

Berlin Blockade 1948-49

• Berlin is within the Russian sector of Germany, but the city is partitioned between the different powers. France, G.B. and the USA each have their own part, but they have unified economic systems and widespread cooperation between the sectors. The USSR's section is isolated.
• Russia cuts off transportation lines in and out of East Berlin, hoping that East Berlin will starve and surrender itself to the USSR.
• American response: the Berlin Airlift. Unprecedented amounts of supplies are airlifted to East Berlin, keeping the city supplied for a year.
  • Result: Soviet embarrassment, psychological victory for capitalism

Berlin wall

Cuba

• Cuban missile crisis