Meagan Hightower
2-26-09
Cold War
From 1947 to 1991, the Cold War had dominated international relations. Sparks of animosity flew between the Soviet Union and the United States as this standstill clashed back and forth. Fear was widespread as the western world thought that communism began to spread. Economic policies were shaped by fear. Military actions were determined by this fear. Diplomatic relations were forced by fear. Psychological propaganda played to this fear.
The Truman Doctrine was one of the policies of this era of fear. President Truman appealed before a joint session of Congress for 400 million dollars for military and economic assistance to Greece and Turkey. Both Greece and Turkey were warring against Communist rebels and the Soviet Union’s demands. The United States wanted to contain Communism in one central location so that it would not spread to more places in the world.
Another attempt of containing communism was the failed and unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion. The United States had wanted to over throw the government of Fidel Castro. However, it had failed when the Cuban government had defeated the recruitments and the army that was sent to eliminate the communists. The Bay of Pigs was to free the Cubans from the grasps of communism as many Americans at the time wanted communism to be contained in Eastern Europe. Communism had interfered in the daily lives of Americans as it was common knowledge that communists could be inside the United States and could be planning to destroy the country by its very ideas and population. The Americans did not want anything to do with communism as it was viewed as controlling.
As if the Truman Doctrine and the Bay of Pigs invasion were not enough, there also was the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan was created in order to keep the European countries economy from collapsing from the end of the war. The Plan was to rebuild the war torn parts of Europe in order to aid them to building a better world as the notion of goodwill and free trade in order to preserve the prosperity of the United States was quite promising at the time. This plan had become the best solution to the containment of Soviet ideal influence.
The Soviet Union, on the other hand, had established military alliances with Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Rumania in 1955. This is known as the Warsaw Pact, which had greatly helped the Soviets control its allies in case of a threat in warfare. The Soviets had wanted their allies to be entirely faithful to its government, however. When Hungary had tried to leave this pact, it was crushed completely by the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union had even invaded Czechoslovakia after it had displayed signs of so-called “imperialistic tendencies.” This pact had made the Soviet Union a powerhouse of Eastern Europe, and as a result almost all the power was controlled by the Soviet Union. This pact had made the Soviets extremely powerful in influence as it had forced Poland and Czechoslovakia to reject the Marshall Plan. Stalin had wanted the Eastern European countries to entirely rebuild the war-torn countries with the limited technology and resources available as he feared that the United States would impose their ideas to a vulnerable and weakened economy. The Soviet Union had wanted to limit and exploit the countries that it had under its control.
The buildup of weapons had also shaped how the Cold War had been established. Weapons were the key defensive maneuvers of the battlefield. Both the United States and the Soviet Union did not want the other to be dominating in the Cold War. The Soviet Union had built their version and tested of the atomic bomb in 1949. After the Soviet’s atomic bomb test, the United States was in complete shock. However, the United States had gone on to build an M65 Atomic Cannon in order to have a weapon that could fire a nuclear device. Many various types of weapons were built as other wars were being fought.
One of these wars was the Korean War. The Korean War was started when the North Koreans, with their Soviet Union supplied tanks and bazookas, had invaded the South Koreans. The north had overwhelmed the south in a blaze of war. The United States had shortly intervened as the causalities had amounted to a devastating number. Many weapons were used throughout the war as tanks were rendered useless due to poor roads. Soviet MiG-15s were primarily used and to combat this, the United States was forced to make do with F-86 Sabres as warfare had taken to the sky. This war had primarily used the helicopter in combat in order to move soldiers, and advancements were made. The war was the first official battlefield for the Cold War, and both sides were unwilling to lose this battle. The war was at a standstill for almost three years until there was a signing of an armistice; however it had only ended this war.
Another war that was fought during the Cold War was the Vietnam War. Vietnam was originally divided at the 17th parallel and had been formally colonized. This war had started when the communist Northern Vietnam and the Southern Vietnam had clashed in guerilla warfare. The north had often used conventional warfare, while the south along with aid from the United States had relied heavily on air strikes and search-and-destroy tactics. This was a war for containment as Americans had wanted the communism to only stay in Eastern Europe. This war was one of the longest wars that the United States had fought in; many believed that the superior military forces of the United States would be able to contain the communist ideas and hostility within its borders. However even with a peace treaty, the Vietnam War was a complete and epic failure as communism had taken over and controlled Vietnam completely with no end in sight.
The Cold War had brought many changes to how the government operated. Hostility and fear were the primary motivation to the Soviet Union and the United States. The Cold War had brought out nothing but violence and brutal warfare. The battlefield of the Cold War had changed many times during different wars in various countries. The Soviet Union had ended the Cold War when it had collapsed in 1991. The Cold War had started almost immediately after the end of World War II when the peace talks during that time had begun. Tension had built up until there was nothing else to do but fight. Fears were common place as propaganda had filled people’s minds with nothing but the worst.
