ORIGIN,CAUSES,AND EFFECTS OF COLD WAR

The Cold War

was a period of confrontation that took place between 1945 and 1990 although some International scholars held the idea that the Cold War started in 1917 Russian revelation nevertheless,  it was  between the USA and its allies mainly the Western countries and the Eastern bloc spearheaded by the USSR however, the two powers did not fight or used weapons against each other, it was fought through Nuclear Arms race, proxy wars, ideological influence and propaganda war and therefore had a great impact on the world. This essay will examine ways in which the Cold War affected international relation between 1945 up to its end. This essay is going to explore its impacts and how those impacts affected the world

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ORIGIN OF COLD WAR

The beginning of the war is linked with the post dam conference in the summer of 1945 the intention of the meeting was to discuss the realignment of post war in Europe; however discussion broke down into threats. USA and USSR agreed upon the division of Berlin, but the Soviet under the leadership of Joseph Stalin wanted to acquire Poland as the buffer against future attacks

President Harry Truman rejected Stalin’s demand citing the right of self-determination in the case of Poland, Truman he revealed his master card: the atomic bomb upon learning of the destructive weapons Stalin ordered a crash program to commerce in order to spend arms development and counter the atomic 

CAUSES OF COLD WAR

Ø  Ideological: The United States and the Soviet Union represented two opposing systems of government. In the United States, the government was elected by free elections unlike the Soviet Union. The people could form political parties to voice their political opinions.

Ø  Economic: The United States wanted to encourage free trade throughout the world. The Soviet Union wanted to shield off her own sphere from international commerce. These differences led to much ill feeling between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Ø  Power rivalry: After the Second World War, with the decline of Europe, power was largely shared between the Soviet Union and the United States. As one wanted 'to dominate the other, conflicts were inevitable.

Ø  Incipient conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States began at the peace-time conferences. Their conflict was intensified after President Truman declared the Truman Doctrine and launched the Marshall Plan in 1947.

Ø  Extension of Russian influence in Europe: Even before the end of the war, the Soviet Union had gradually extended her influence in Europe. As the war was drawing to a close in May 1945, the Soviet Union quickly consolidated her control of Eastern Europe. The Red Army began by influencing the post-war elections. Although the non-communists could still gain some votes, most of the votes went to the communists. In late 1946, the French and Italian Communists were becoming the most powerful parties in France and Italy.

Ø  The reactions of the United States: Despite the increasing Russian influence in eastern and central Europe, many politicians in the United States were optimistic about the chances of co-operation with the Soviet Union after the war and did not advocate strong resistance against Russian expansion. But from May 1945 onwards, the situation was changed. The U.S. government favored a policy of strong resistance against Russia.

Ø  Poor relations between the United States and the Soviet Union: The deteriorating relations between the Soviet Union and the United States were reflected in two minor incidents in the year. Land-Lease was abruptly terminated by the United States and the Russian request for American economic aid for the purposes of post-war reconstruction was ignored by the government of the United States. (During the Second World War, the U.S. supplied much war material to the Allied nations through a Lend and Lease programme. As the Lend and Lease programme was suddenly stopped, the war-ravaged Soviet Union could not obtain American material support to help her post-war economic reconstruction.)

Ø  The poor relations between the East and West were also reflected in a speech by Churchill. In March 1946, Churchill made a speech at Fulton, Missouri in which he said, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent .... Behind that line lie all the capitals of the central and Eastern Europe - all are subject in one form or another not only to Soviet influence but also to a very high and increasing control from Moscow." The Fulton speech increased the American suspicion of Soviet aggressive designs in Europe. (Funfront.net, 2010)

Ø  The two superpowers often jockeyed for position in the third world, supporting proxy wars in which they typically supplied and advised opposing factions in civil wars. The alignments were often arbitrary. For instance, the US backed the Ethiopian government and the Soviets backed next-door rival Somalian the 1970s; when an Ethiopian revolution caused the new government to seek Soviet help, the US switched to support Somalia instead (Goldstein, 2008).

Ø  The United States became alarmed with the growing of communism in Europe and set up the Marshall Plan in order to counteract the spread of communism. The Marshall Plan was an economic support program funded by the United States. They gave relief money to the war torn democratic countries in order to rebuild their economy. They did not give money to the Soviet Union and any of its satellites. The Unites States' motivation for doing this was to provide themselves with trading partners and to economically exclude the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union also formed an exclusive economic federation between all the states in the Soviet Union called COMECON. This restricted trade to within the Soviet Union. These measures to isolate the enemy and set up economic barriers helped to provoke the Cold War. The Soviet Union and the west also formed political alliances to combat the other side. Western Europe and the United States formed NATO, a military pact. The Soviet Union created a similar pact, the Warsaw Pact, between the states within the Soviet Union.

Ø  These military coalitions put a greater threat behind the growing conflicts by involving more countries. These military alliances were supplemented by two edicts set by the Soviet Union and the United States. The United States issued the Truman Doctrine, which stated that they would support those countries resisting communism. Likewise, the Soviet Union later issued the Brezhnev Doctrine which decreed that the Soviet Union would intervene with force in order to protect communism in its satellites. One of the main issues that strained relations between the Soviet Union and the west was the threat of nuclear war.

Ø  Both the Soviet Union and the United States knew how to make nuclear weapons. This knowledge made the consequences of their actions much more cautious. This helped to cause the war during the Cuban Missile Crisis where the Soviet Union planted nuclear missiles at the United States from Cuba for a time. The Cold War was brought about by many factors caused at the end of World War II. The ideological differences, economic barriers, political and military alliances, and nuclear weapons all contributed to creating the Cold War. These differences caused the mounting tension between the Soviet Union and the west at the end of World War II. (Essays.cc, 2010)

Ø  The Cold War was the result of a clash between communism and capitalism, two opposing world-views. Another cause of the build up to the Cold War was the intransigent attitude of both sides. The Soviet Union was extremely concerned about its security after having been invaded twice in the twentieth century. In 1945 America created and used the atomic bomb against Japan and the USSR was determined to create one of its own. Both the USSR and the USA built up huge arsenals of Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs). The United States tested a hydrogen bomb in 1952 and in November 1955, the USSR developed one too. After that the USA moved its bombers into Europe. In 1955 West Germany was allowed to re-arm and join NATO. Russia responded by forming the Warsaw Mutual Defense Pact with its buffer zone neighbors.

Ø  In 1957 the Soviets used a missile to launch Sputnik 1 into orbit around the earth. The arms race evolved into a space race as the United States rushed to launch its own satellites. The space race was an opportunity for the two nations to show their technological superiority. The Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, the first orbiting satellite, on October 4, 1957. On November 3, they launched Sputnik II with the first living creature, a dog, named Laika. (Essortment.com, 2010)

Ø  In the '80s President Ronald Reagan of the US dubbed the Soviet Union as an "evil empire" and predicted that it would be consigned to the ash heap of history. He announced a major weapons buildup and the SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) also dubbed "Star Wars". The Soviet Union was too economically enfeebled to reply in kind. In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union. He adopted a conciliatory attitude towards the Americans and many arms reduction pacts were signed. In 1989 there was a Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan and in 1990 the Soviets agreed to the reunification of Germany. Movements against communist governments in Eastern Europe followed this. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 marking the end of the Cold War.

EFFECTS OF COLD WAR

The Cold War has affected international relations in different ways first and for most the Cold War divided the world in to three distinct camps, the NATO camp, the Warsaw camp, and the nonaligned the first two camps were armed with nuclear weapons.  The rivalry between the two super powers quickly spread to the rest of the world.

The Cold War led the division of Europe in general and Germany in particular it also as pointed by Cornwell (2001) made possible the modernization and “reintegration” of the defeated powers of Germany Italy and Japan (Cornwell, 2003) Its impact was felt especially in Africa where as further stated by Painter ( 2001) made possible the emergence and creation of new nation states, as the colonial masters no longer able to sustain those colonies.

The Cold War increased tensions within international community because of the actions of the two super powers; they pursued political and ideological goals some of which were ever more opposing with the objectives of the other for example, the Soviet believed that America is an imperialist power and therefore committed in spreading capitalist ideology with the intention of dominating the rest of world, on the other hand the USA saw the Soviet as an ideologically motivated and “antagonistically” expansionist evil empire that is committed to the spread of communism (Painter, 2001).

OTHER EFFECTS

Ø  Both the United States of America and the Soviet Union built up huge arsenals of atomic weapons and ballistic missiles.

Ø  The military blocs, NATO and the Warsaw Pact were formed.

Ø  It led to destructive conflicts like the Vietnam War and the Korean War.

Ø  The Soviet Union collapsed due to economic weaknesses.

Ø  The Berlin Wall was demolished and the two German nations were unified.

Ø  The Warsaw Pact disintegrated.

Ø  The Baltic States and some former Soviet Republics achieved independence.

Ø  America became the sole superpower of the world.

Ø  Communism collapsed worldwide.

In conclusion, the cold war divided the world into two nuclear armed camps and one neutral one, it maintained the status quo that existed in Germany, and it also paved the way the emergence of new nation states, the rise of those newly born states attracted the intention of the two powers, and super rivalry was played out in order to keep and maintain sphere of interest. With end of bipolarity a period of peace and stability and balance of power has ended, and left the US the only hegemony power in the world. The question is, will United States respect the fragile peace that the world has now; or because of the absence of another super power will it keep invading other countries?

PREPARED BY MICHAEL CHAINA