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Cold War was the term used to describe the idealogical conflict, distrust, competition and tense relationship that prevailed between the two super-powers, USSR (Soviet Union) and United States, from the period 1945 to 1991. |
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Was the Cold War really a war? |
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In diplomatic terms, there are three types of war:
Hot War: This is when two or more countries declare a war on each other. It is actual warfare and the countries and fight it out with each other directly.
Warm War : This is when there is an acknowledged conflict and tension going on between two or countries, but attempts are being made to resolve it through talks, with the hope of a peaceful outcome. However, all armies and defense mechanisms ready and on full alert, waiting for the command to fight, in the event of the talks failing.
Cold War : This term is used, when two or more countries do not fight each other out directly, but use client states and allies to fight for their beliefs, on their behalf. It is an ideological conflict and tension that exists, with no actual combat. They avoid a direct clash with each other, as otherwise, the consequences would prove too appalling for the world.
So the Cold War between United States and Soviet Union was not a conflict in the sense that no outright physical battles took place. However, although the two countries did not engage in military confrontation on Soviet or American soil, cold war military activities did take place in more than thirty countries around the world, where each side supported the enemies of the other side. |
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Who were key enemies in the Cold War? |
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The Cold War world was separated into three groups.
The first group, i.e the West, led by the United States, included countries with democratic political systems and opposed Communism, which was the basis of the Soviet Government. The Soviet Union led the second group, the East. This group included countries with communist political systems and determined to rid the world of capitalism. Many emerging nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America rejected the pressure to choose sides in the East-West competition and resolved to stay out of the Cold War. The consensus reached by these countries culminated with the creation of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1961.
The Cold War dominated the world politics and international scenario for decades. It was also the chief instigating force behind the growth in weapons of mass destruction, on both parts. Many a times, the struggle between the East and West idealogies brought the world tethering on the brink of a World War, made even more dangerous by the possiblity of nuclear confrontation. |
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When did the Cold War start? How long did it last? |
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The Cold War started after the World War Two.
Historians disagree about how long the Cold War lasted. Some believe it ended when the United States and the Soviet Union improved relations during the 1960s and early 1970s. Others believe it ended when the Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989. However, one thing is certain. After 45 years of protracted tension and conflicts - with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the world finally saw the dissipation of one of the super-powers, and with it, an end to the Cold War. |
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How did the Cold War start? |
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The ideological clash between communism and capitalism began in 1917 following the Russian Revolution, when the USSR emerged as the first major communist power. This was the first event to trigger the climate of suspicion and distrust between the United States and the Soviet Union. US’s intervention in Russia supporting the White Army in the Bolshevik Revolution, the separate peace treaty which led to Russia's withdrawal from World War I, the Bolsheviks' challenge to capitalism, the US refusal to recognize the Soviet Union until 1933 only helped in adding fuel to the fire. Other events in the period immediately before World War II also aggravated the situation. The British appeasement of Germany and the German-Soviet Non-aggression Pact are two notable examples.
Following the World War II, it was the United States and USSR who emerged as the only two super-powers. Although the U.S. and the Soviet Union had been allied against Nazi Germany, the two sides differed on how to reconstruct the post-war world even before the end of World War II. Each side followed very different idealogies and clashing political beliefs. Each wanted to play a dominant role in influencing the type of governments and systems that would emerge following the war. The Cold War began because of this struggle for control of the politics of these nations. By 1950s, each possessed enough firepower and nuclear weapons in their arsenal, capable of devastating the world many times over, thus adding yet another dangerous aspect to the Cold War. |
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How did the Cold War end? |
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The Cold War drew to a close in the late 1980s, and finally ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
In 1985, when the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev came to power, the Soviet economy had dwindled to a zero percent growth rate. The military consumed as much as 25% of the Soviet Union’s gross national product at the expense of consumer goods and investment in the civilian sectors. To restructure the economy before it collapsed, Gorbachev announced an agenda of rapid reforms, through the launching of his “perestroika” and “glasnost” policies. He was more concerned about reversing the Soviet Union’s detiorating economic condition than fighting an arms race with the west. Gorbachev’s primary goal was to redirect the country's resources from costly Cold War military commitments to more profitable areas in the civilian sector. As a result, Gorbachev offered major concessions to the United States on the levels of conventional forces, nuclear weapons, and policy in Eastern Europe.
In 1988, the Soviets officially declared that they would no longer intervene in the affairs of allied states in Eastern Europe. In 1989, Soviet forces withdrew from Afghanistan. In December 1989, Gorbachev and George H.W. Bush declared the Cold War officially over at a summit meeting in Malta. In the USSR itself, Gorbachev tried to reform the party to destroy resistance to his reforms, but, in doing so, ultimately weakened the bonds that held the state and union together., forcing the Communist Party to surrender its monopoly on state power. By December of 1991, the union-state dissolved, breaking the Soviet Union up into fifteen separate independent states. |
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The Cold War Legacy |
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The post-Cold War era is characterized by neo-liberalism, globalization, the de-ideologizing of international politics, the resurgence of nationalism and religion, economic and political integration, and the rapid development of technology, especially communications.
The Cold War, dominated the world politics and global issues for over four decades. While it lasted, the Cold War saw an enormous drain of resources on both sides. Trillions of dollars were spent by both parties, over the course of 45 years, on their military expenditures. Millions of lives were lost, fighting wars and battles, intensified by the rivalry of the two superpowers. On the other hand, the Cold War proved to be the impetus for many advanced defense systems such as the intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), nuclear warning devices, as well as lunar landers and space stations. It also gave birth to important inventions like the computer.
The end of the Cold War reassured people around the world who had lived in fear of a nuclear confrontation between the superpowers. Yet the early euphoria over "peace dividends" and a "new world order" proved to be premature. The legacy of the Cold War continues to influence and structure the world affairs till date. Conflicts within and between nation-states are springing up around the globe, challenging world leaders and ordinary citizens to find peaceful means for national, group, and individual self-determination.
The Cold War system was characterized by one overarching feature -- and that was division. The threats and opportunities in the cold war system tended to grow out of which side one was divided from. Post Cold-War, it is globalisation. The globalization system is different. Its main feature is integration. The world has become an increasingly interwoven place, and today, the threats and opportunities increasingly are derived from who one is connected to. This globalization system is also characterized by a single word – Web (the World Wide Web).
The most naturally expected outcome of the end of the Cold War was meaningful disarmament, so that the limited and diminishing resources of this planet could be deployed to augment human welfare and well-being in the twenty-first century. But nothing of this kind happened. The end of the Cold War did not eliminate the dangers faced from nuclear weapons. In many respects, the disintegration of the Soviet Union added new concerns. Where the Soviet Union once existed, there are now many more nuclear actors with nuclear arsenals on their territories. Each still has enough nuclear weapons and is armed to the teeth as before. Moreover, the calculated scaling-down in numbers has been more than offset by the upgradation in sophistication.
The issue of weapons proliferation has also extended beyond nuclear arms. Chemical weapons hold the power of mass destruction, and conventional weapons continue to become more deadly and more expensive. Finally, the development of biological weapons and space-based weapons are adding other chilling dimensions to warfare in the future.
World politics is being configured, re-configured along cultural lines with new patterns of conflict and cooperation replacing those of the Cold War. During Cold War, it was a conflict of idealogies – Communism vs Democracy. Post Cold War - the human psyche has found a new adversary to replace the earlier. That is why, we see an increasing conflict of cultures, civilisations, religions. The Cold War also introduced the world to the concept of Guerilla Warfare. It is this Guerilla Warfare, created by the super-powers to wage their proxy wars and further their own interests, which has now evolved into the monster of international terrorism, as we know it today. (Mujhahideens, Al-Qaeeda, Taliban, PLO, LTTE etc.)
During the Cold War, the so-called "Third World" was often the ideological and military battleground between East and West. Although the Cold War is now over, the developing world still faces significant dilemmas. Some of the economic and social tensions that underpinned Cold War competition in parts of the Third World remain acute. Lack of monetary and military security, the possibility of nuclear proliferation, civil, ethnic and religious conflicts, as well as myriad food and health problems, make nations of the developing world potential hot spots for international crises. The breakdown of state control in a number of areas formerly ruled by Communist governments has produced new civil and ethnic conflicts, particularly in the former Yugoslavia. In some countries, the breakdown of state control was accompanied by state failure, such as in Afghanistan.
But in other areas, particularly much of Eastern Europe, the end of the Cold War was accompanied by a large growth in the number of liberal democracies. |
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Key Events |
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Events contributing to the escalation of crises & tension
- Berlin Blockade & Airlift (1948-49)
- Soviet Control of Eastern Europe
- Korean War (1950-53)
- The Berlin Wall (1961)
- Vietnam War (1959-1975)
- Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
- Soviet-Afghan War (1979-82)
- Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars) (1983)
There were also periods when tension was reduced as both sides sought détente
- Partial Test Ban Treaty
- Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
- Outer Space Treaty
- SALT I & SALT II Treaty
- Biological Weapons Convention
- Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
- Helsinki Accords
- Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty
Other Flashpoints
- NATO (1949)
- The Truman Doctrine (1947)
- Rosenberg Spy Case (1951)
- Hydrogen Bomb (1952)
- Khruschev’s Secret Speech (1956)
- Bay of Pigs (1961)
- Six Day War (1967)
- Sputnik (1957)
- Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989)
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References |
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http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/cold_war.htm
www.coldwarfiles.org
http://www.enotes.com/history-fact-finder/eras-their-highlights/when-did-cold-war-start
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/kbank/timeline/
http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/jel/jfq_pubs/2025.pdf
http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/icas/cold_war.htm
http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/published/topten.htm
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761569374/Cold_War.html
http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/longitudesprologue.htm
http://www.hinduonnet.com/2004/03/22/stories/2004032201701000.htm
http://www.ericdigests.org/1994/war.htm
http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/lepaft.html
http://www.eclac.cl/publicaciones/xml/5/19985/hobsbawn.pdf
http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/educators/study-questions/nuclear-weapons_post-cold-war-study-questions.htm
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