The Cold War (1945-1991)

The Cold War (1945-1991)

Beginning of the Cold War

The Cold War began in 1945 and ended in 1991. It was after World War II that the United states (US) and the Soviet Union, which were on the same side in World War II, stood against each other. The Soviet Union and the United States were never "best friends", not even when they were allies, but it was after WWII it all really broke out.

The United States had a democratic government and the ideology was that every individual should be allowed to govern themselves and live their lives in the way they wanted to. In the Soviet Union the ideology was that everyone should be equal and no one should be treated differently. There were also many other thoughts on how a country should be run, both politically and economically, which were very different.

The embattled areas and the Marshall Aid

During the Cold War the Soviet Union made sure that Eastern European countries were ruled by Soviet governments or Soviet friendly governments. On the other hand, the United States had the greatest influence in Western European countries. This clear, and famous distinction between Eastern and Western Europe, was called « The Iron Curtain ».

After World War II, many countries in Europe struggled to recover financially. Poverty and the lack of food began to put their mark on the people and communism began to emerge I different countries. To counteract this, Marshall, the US secretary of state, presented an economical plan to help Europe with these difficulties. All European countries were offered this help. Everyone country which accepted the help had to go along in an economic organization, now called OECD. The Soviet Union protested, and they refused all countries behind the Iron Curtain to receive the Marshall Aid. Because of this, the Marshall Aid reinforced the rift that separated Europe in to two parts.

One of the most important things for the United States was to make Europe strong enough to defend themselves against communism. During four years, the United States gave 13 million dollars to 16 European countries. The countries that got the most money were Britain and France. Norway also received this help.

Berlin Blockade

After World War II Germany was divided into four occupation zones, which eventually became two zones: The western part, politically “leaning” towards the United States and the free world, which was democratic, and the Soviet Friendly East Side, which was communist. It was better livelihoods in the western part of Germany, so there were many inhabitants who fled there from the eastern part. To prevent this, the Soviet set up a blockade around West Berlin so that the city became enclosed and separated from the free world. This became very easy because Berlin was in the middle of a Soviet occupation zone.

This blockade prevented Berlin to obtain raw materials, food and fuel. The two million people who lived in West Berlin were in immediate need of goods that they earlier had imported from abroad, or from other places in Germany. This crisis was resolved by the Western powers by flying supplies into Berlin by plane. To keep the population alive they had to transport 450 tons of goods to west Berlin. During the year from 1948 to 1949 200.000 flights was made by the US, British, Canadian, Australian, South American and the New Zealand air forces. This was called the Berlin Airlift. This whole episode is called the Berlin Blockade and was in 1948.

During the war itself

The development of nuclear weapons was the start of a new fase of the cold war. The United States got the opportunity to show the whole world that they had power. This started a hectic period of the Soviet Union who also had to obtain this super weapon. When the Soviet Union finally got the nuclear weapons, it created arms race between the Soviet Union and the United States. It was propaganda in both countries, so it was difficult for people to know what actually happened. After a while the two superpowers had so much nuclear weapons that they really could have destroyed the world many hundreds of times each, but the arms race continued. In the end, the two superpowers had so much weapons each so it didn't matter who had thebmost anymore. Instead, both sides feared the consequences of a bomb attack, which meant that none of them dared to attack. This created a "balance of terror».

Twenty four hours a day people flew bombers and just waited for a message which said that they could drop the bombs. This also made the situation among the civilians on the ground very tense. Knowing that they could get a nuclear bomb in their head anytime was very stressful.

Cuba crisis

This picture shows the location of the missiles in Cuba. America discovered Soviet medium-range missiles in Cuba, less than 160 kilometers from America, in 1962. This meant that the Soviets had the opportunity to make a quick attack on the United States.

Instead of attacking from the air or invade Cuba, President Kennedy decided to put a ship's blockade around the island. If the Russians continued the military buildup on the island, it would have meant serious consequences for them. The excitement was great because of the two Soviet cargo rocket equipment continued towards Cuba. Just before they broke the American blockade, the ships turned.

The crisis was resolved by that the Soviet missiles were removed from the island, against that the United States promised not to invade the island. Unofficially the Americans gave a promise to remove their missile bases in Turkey within six months. Khrushchev had a strong desire that these bases should be removed. USA refused to be "pushed" in official, but unofficially they gave a promise that they would remove the bases. This was a big reason for the Cuba crisis not ending in a great disaster.

After the Cuban crisis it became a short relaxation. Kennedy and Khrushchev agreed a deal prohibiting nuclear tests in the atmosphere and the oceans. But this relaxation did not last long: a new conflict broke out, this time in Asia.

The end of the Cold war

The costs of the arms race, which started from the late 1980´s, started to take its toll on the Russian economy and this together with other struggles made the people of Russia demand reforms. The problems in their own country made Russia loosen their control over eastern Europe and the end of the cold war was closing in.

Gorbachev introduced Glasnost and in 1987 he and Ronald Reagan signed the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Some years later the Berlin Wall was teared down and the borders in East european countries were opened. Europe was reunited and the cold war was over.

There are currently around 30,000 nuclear weapons in the world today. These weapons are enough to kill 30 billion people or five times that of Earth's population.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_cold_war

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_East_Germany

http://mrkscoldwarb.wikispaces.com/End+of+Cold+War

http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cold-war-history

http://www.ushistory.org/us/52a.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reykjav%C3%ADk_Summit

http://www.historytoday.com/vladimir-batyuk/end-cold-war-russian-view

http://americanhistory.si.edu/subs/history/timeline/end/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Blockade

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