COLD War US and soviet union

At the end of the Second World War, the cold war had begun the world lay divided between two great superpowers the United States and the Soviet Union

it would not be a conventional war with the two sides never directly fighting instead it would be an ideological battle between communism and capitalism, the east first the west and the resulting struggle for ideological influence and power, both sides would stockpile nuclear weapons with questions over how to use control and eliminate them becoming central to the conflict from Stalin to Reagan from the arms race to the Cuban missile crisis from the berlin wall to Vietnam and Korea.

 this is the story of the cold war, at the end of the second world war Europe lay divided between two camps the soviet union the world's leading communist power would rule over what would become known as the eastern block after suffering almost 27 million casualties during the war soviet leader joseph Stalin had been keen to create a buffer zone against the west installing communist governments across eastern Europe as former British prime minister Winston Churchill would famously state an iron curtain has descended across the continent the united states the world's leading capitalist power would also emerge as a post-war superpower their economy was thriving and they had sole control of the most powerful weapon in human history the atomic bomb two of which president harry Truman had dropped on japan to end the war hostilities began when Stalin delayed the removal of soviet troops from Iran and pressured turkey into giving him control over the Turkish straits wanting to stop soviet expansionism.

 president Truman would announce the Truman doctrine sending military aid to Greece and turkey it was a policy aimed at containing the soviet union and would become the basis of American cold war strategy for years to come this policy was known as containment fearing the spread of communism in Europe the united states would also introduce the Marshall plan in April 1948.

It was thought that by improving Europe's economies communism would lose its appeal. The plan provided almost 13 billion dollars of financial aid encouraging economic integration and the promotion of free markets.

Germany was one of the most prominent symbols of the newly divided world having been split in half after the war, the soviets would occupy the east with Britain, France and America occupying the west berlin despite laying 100 miles within the soviet zone was divided in the same way in June 1948.

 Stalin would begin the berlin blockade stopping all ground access to the city in an attempt to drive out the Americans British and French but Truman quickly responded beginning the berlin airlift delivering supplies to the city for 15 months and forcing Stalin to end at the blockade with tensions high the us and its allies would establish an independent west German state the federal republic of Germany.

The soviets would respond the following month by creating the German democratic republic in the east in response to soviet expansion and influence NATO the north Atlantic treaty organization was created in 1949 bringing together the US Canada and most of western Europe in a defensive pact against the soviet union to help stop the spread of communism the cia would be established in September 1947 with the organization growing in size and strength over the coming years from 1949 to 1952 cia personnel would increase tenfold with their overseas bases growing from 7 to 47 and their annual budget increasing from 4.7 million to 82 million dollars.

They would go on to interfere in developing countries where independence movements were often seen as potential paths to communism in 1953 and 54 they would overthrow the leaders of Iran and Guatemala installing highly unpopular dictators in their place earning the organization an infamous reputation events in east Asia would soon turn the cold war into a global conflict in china Mao Zedong had led communist revolutionaries to victory in 1949 establishing the people's republic of china.

 The US would respond by increasing.

Economic support to its new ally japan in an attempt to stimulate economic growth in the region as well as sending aid to French colonial forces in Vietnam, who were fighting against a communist independence movement led by “ho chi minh” in 1950 communist north Korea invaded south Korea with domino theory at the height of political thought the idea that if one nation fell to communism others would as well the united states sent tens of thousands of American troops to push the invaders back north the Korean war would drag on for three years with the armistice of July 1953 leaving it so there was no clear victory for either side the border between the two careers had hardly shifted at all with the loss of life totaling over two million but crucially the Korean war showed that communism could be contained the main thinking behind future conflicts in particular Vietnam.

After Stalin’s death in 1953 nikita Khrushchev had become leader soon creating the Warsaw pact to counter the growing power of NATO but Khrushchev would soon prove to be a provocative and unpredictable leader in November 1956 he would threaten Britain and France with rocket weapons after they invaded Egypt and he was known for his emotional outbursts allegedly banging his shoe on a table at the 1960 united nations general assembly, when a new president john f Kennedy came to power in 1961 Khrushchev made an attempt to secure berlin there had been around 2.7 million defections from communist east Germany since 1949 most of which had escaped through west berlin securing the city was therefore vital to the survival of the German democratic republic with defections usually of the highly trained and educated growing by the day at a 1961 meeting in Vienna Khrushchev gave Kennedy six months to vacate berlin but Kennedy refused now desperate Khrushchev authorized the construction of the berlin wall.

On august12, 1961 creating a physical barrier between east and West Berlin starting as a barbed wire fence it soon turned into a massive concrete block wall 12 feet high and nearly 100 miles long complete with armed guards and minefields it was an embarrassment for communists everywhere.

But Kennedy was having difficulties of his own Cuba had been taken over by communist revolutionaries in early 1959 led by Fidel Castro the revolutionaries began freeing Cuba of its economic and political reliance on the us eventually turning to the soviet union for help not wanting a communist nation so close to home Kennedy attempted to topple Castro from power in the bay of pigs invasion using a group of cia-trained Cuban exiles but it would turn out to be a disaster with the invaders surrendering after just three days it was an embarrassment to Kennedy and convinced Khrushchev that he needed to protect Castro with him sending nuclear missiles to the island in 1962 American reconnaissance aircraft soon spotted the missiles causing Kennedy to begin a naval blockade of Cuba to prevent any further soviet shipments from arriving a hundred and forty thousand US invasion troops were then stationed in Florida and the US alert system was raised to deacon 2 for the first time in history they were preparing for nuclear war as negotiations were underway a confrontation in the Atlantic almost ended in disaster.

US ships had used signaling depth charges to alert a soviet submarine that it had strayed too close to the blockade thinking they were under attack the submarine's captain ordered nuclear torpedoes to be launched but the decision required the approval of all three onboard officers one of the officers vastly arkipov refused to go through with the launch single-handedly preventing the outbreak of a nuclear war the very next day on October 28th Kennedy and Khrushchev were able to come to an agreement Kennedy promised not to invade Cuba and Khrushchev removed the soviet missiles it was the closest the world has ever come to nuclear war and it significantly impacted the outlook of both powers with a hotline being installed between the white house and the kremlin to provide better communication if another crisis occurred the next major crisis would occur in Vietnam where the US had been supporting the south in their struggle against the communist north for almost a decade after Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 his vice president Lyndon b Johnson was left to deal with Vietnam believing America would look weak on the international stage if he allowed the south to fall to communism Johnson chose to rapidly increase US military involvement but the war was deeply unpopular and in 1968 protests would break out across the western world the largest would be seen in America where a politicized youth demonstrated against a war they thought unjust and unwinnable the scale of discontent proved too much for Johnson who decided not to seek re-election the war would last for another five years before the us decided to withdraw with the communist north then taking over the south more than 58 000 Americans had died as well as 250 000 south Vietnamese soldiers over a million north Vietnamese soldiers and Vietcong gorillas would also perish as well as over 2 million civilians from both the north and the south and thousands more from Laos and Cambodia while containment had worked in Korea.

It had proven ineffective in Vietnam by 1964 the soviet union had been going through several internal difficulties Khrushchev had been deposed and replaced by leonid Brezhnev whose reign was marked by nepotism corruption and economic stagnation standards of living within the soviet sphere were deteriorating and disillusionment was growing with the Brezhnev doctrine suppressing dissidents throughout the region with military force this would lead Brezhnev to seek a more stable soviet American relationship facing large protests over Vietnam and Cambodia president Richard Nixon was also looking to stabilize relations in late 1969 he began talks with Brezhnev about a strategic arms limitation treaty or salt which would freeze the existing number of intercontinental ballistic missiles on both sides.

 it was the beginning of a period of detente a French term that refers to the easing of tensions between nations distant would lead to a tense but relatively stable decade during which both sides would attempt to control their nuclear arsenals and avoid proxy conflicts but it would ultimately prove unsuccessful when Ronald Reagan assumed the presidency in 1981 the conventional wisdom of how to deal with the soviet union was falling apart Dayton was not working in 1977 the soviets had placed ss-20 ballistic missiles in eastern Europe and had invaded Afghanistan in 1979 fiery speeches would become a trademark of Reagan with him describing the soviet union as an evil empire and declaring that democracy will leave Marxism Leninism on the ash heap of history but Reagan’s view on nuclear weapons was clear he wanted to see a world in which they did not exist and where nations were free from the threat of total annihilation the only way he saw to achieve this was to force the soviets into a new arms race they would lose pressuring them to accept an arms reduction agreement as Reagan stated their choice is to break their backs to keep up or to agree to reductions this policy would be called peace through strength the cornerstone of this policy was the strategic defense initiative or sdi nicknamed star wars by the media the project aimed at creating a radical new missile defense system using lasers and space-based missile systems that could defend against a nuclear attack Reagan knew that the soviet union was lagging far behind in computer technology and could never hope to match the program leaving them dangerously exposed this policy worked as predicted with the soviets soon forced to negotiate meeting with the US in a 1985 summit to discuss the ongoing nuclear arms race.

But this time Reagan would meet with a new soviet leader Mikhail gorbachev who would prove to be one of the most important figures of the entire cold war facing years of economic stagnation and growing discontent in eastern Europe gorbachev knew things had to change he would introduce perestroika or restructuring to reform the economy and glasnost or transparency to address corruption and political unrest he knew that the arms race was crippling the soviet economy and that the only way forward was to negotiate with the united states gorbachev would meet with Reagan on five separate occasions between 1985 and 1988 with each meeting building trust and respect between the two Reagan happily negotiated with such an open and cooperative soviet leader with the two signing the intermediate nuclear forces treaty on 8 December 1987, banning all short and intermediate range missiles within three years the treaty had led to the destruction of over two and a half thousand nuclear weapons with each side allowing access to their nuclear sites to check compliance.

It was a momentous agreement being the first time both sides had pledged to eliminate an entire class of nuclear missile but soon gorbachev reforms would begin to unravel the soviet union itself in December 1988 he would make a speech to the united nations vowing to cut the soviet ground force commitment in eastern Europe by half a million men signaling that the Brezhnev doctrine would no longer be enforced realizing that they would not be crushed by the soviet military reformers began to emerge across eastern Europe and in 1989 a string of democratic revolutions would see nearly every communist government ousted from power on November 9th the most symbolic monument of the cold war the berlin wall would come down and Germany itself would be reunited the following year the soviet union would collapse in 1991 dissolving into 15 independent states a surprisingly quick and bloodless conclusion to the cold war a conflict which had dominated international relations for over 40 years.