Introduction
The Cold War was the repercussion of World War II following the emergence of two key supremacy blocs in Europe one of which was subjugated by ideologies of the democracy of the capitalist America. The other one was led by communism and the Soviet Union ideologies.
The two blocs never involved themselves in actual battlefields. In 1947, Baruch, an adviser to Harry Truman, popularised the term Cold War. Baruch used the words Cold War while addressing the legislature of South Carolina State on 16 April 1947 (Baruch and Melly 425). One can trace the origins of the Cold War back based on the relations that existed between the United States, Soviet Union, France, and Britain between 1945 and 1947 as the paper reveals.
Pre-World War II Economic Differences
The revolution that occurred in Russia in 1917 to form the Soviet Russia forms the basis of the Cold War based on the big differences of ideologies and economic positions that arose between the western powers and the capitalist nations. This was happening at a time when Russia was isolated by other major nations in matters of global diplomacy (Lee and Josey 59). There existed variations in economic and political organisation in Russia.
The western powers took advantage of this situation to predate Russia. In 1918, the United States of America sent its troops to Russia to assist the anti-Bolsheviks during the civil war in Russia. This was the first major source of suspicion of the Soviet concerning the Capitalist America (Gaddis and Lenny 570). At this point Russia had differed with the western powers due to its decision to become part of the democratic capitalist economy of the world during the 19th century.
Russia therefore became determined “to break from this dependence through a radical pull out from the economic system of the world that was dominated by the capitalist” (Tucker and Carlos 34). This formed the basis of the mistrust that ensued later on between the two blocs and hence the Cold War. This fuelled the gap between America and Russia further through fear and mistrust.
The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact
Another foundation of the Cold War is the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. This followed the signing of a trade pact by Germany and the Soviet Union (Ericson 57). This agreement was to allow the exchange of civilian and military equipments from Germany for industrial raw materials from the Soviet Union (Shirer 1990, p.668).
This was known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. However, this agreement had a hidden side where Germany and Russia agreed to control the eastern part of Europe and Poland by themselves (Day et al 405). This was followed by the invasion of Poland by Germany just a week later (Tearsy and Kennedy 82). However, this agreement was broken by Germany in 1941 due to a series of aggressions.
The two powers continued to trade especially through the Soviet Union acquiring weapons from Germany in exchange of rubber, oil, and manganese. This was a foundation of the relationship between the two powers before the World War II. However, the “Soviet Russia found itself isolated from international diplomacy” (Tearsy and Kennedy 82). With the Soviet Union unsatisfied with this, other countries suspected that the Soviets could decide to attack them any time when they were unaware and hence the war.
The World War II Differences
When Germany invaded Russia, the soviet united with the western European countries and with America. This was aimed at winning against Adolf Hitler who was their seemingly common and major enemy. This war changed the balance of power in the world. Europe became weaker while the United States and Russia became super powers.
These super powers had a great strength of the military. The alliances formed at this point were war based. They did not live long since, by the beginning of 1943, every side of the alliance was looking at its own interest of the war. For example, Russia took control of many parts of the Eastern Europe where she intended to install her ideologies in the countries in a bid to shield them from the influence of the capitalist.
Regardless of complains from the other members of the alliance, Russia continued with her efforts to impose its communist ideologies on what they conquered. Russia was so powerful to the point of leaving the other members watching her impose her ideologies on large parts of Eastern Europe, Balkans, and even Poland. After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, “the Soviet under Stalin immediately protested since Tuman gave it minimal influence of occupying Japan” (Tucker and Carlos 35).
Immediately after the Second World War ended, the United States of America embanked on shipping of materials to the United Soviet Socialist Republic from America. This indicated that the relationship between the two nations was only formed for winning the war with nothing else to bid it. The two nations differed on this and began a quick competition between them in order to determine who was superior to the other hence the Cold War.
Period of distrust between Capitalist and Communist
After the end of the Second World War, there existed a variation of perceptions between the United States and the Soviet Union. Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union assumed that he would be assisted by America in reconstructing his country after the war in a bid to make Russia a good market for her industrial goods.
The need for assistance arose because industrialisation and marketing of industrial goods had enabled the United States get out of the great depression. Therefore, Stalin envisioned the urgent America’s need for market (William 63) though this did not materialise.
When World War II ended in 1945, there were two bloc divisions in Europe. Armies from western part of America occupied one side while armies from Russian east occupied the other bloc. The two blocs, capitalist America and communist Russia, had two opposing aspirations for Europe. The capitalist America wanted Europe to be democratic with no influence from communism while Russia sought after a non-capitalist Europe where it subjugated.
At the beginning, Joseph Stalin of Russia believed that capitalism would easily collapse due to the in fighting of its leaders (Wettig and Haron 24). However, with time, the leaders became more organised and powerful. This intensified the rivalry. The west feared that Russia would invade them. On the other hand, Russia feared that the capitalists would make atomic bombs.
Russia also feared that the west would dominate the world’s economy while the capitalists feared that their economy would collapse due to this competition. The two blocs also differed in ideas of how the world order should be directed. The Soviets also feared that Germany might rearm herself and cause havoc in the world again. Winston Churchill, as Tucker and Carlos 34 confirm, “referred this fear (Cold War) and division of the west and the east as the Iron Curtain in 1946”.
The Marshall plan and Economic Division in Europe
When the threat of global destabilisation by the Soviet Union became more apparent, America responded through enactment of the containment policy. To begin with, in 1947 March12, the United States’ congress commenced an action to bar the Soviet Union from expanding its interest further with the aim of disrupting its status as a super power.
In 1947, the communist expansion seemed to expand with an alarming rate. For example, in Hungary, the government got into the hands of a true communist party that entrenched the idea of one-party communism rather than democracy while the Czech Republic was taken over by a communist government that got into power through a coup.
The bitterest part of these dynamics was that these two nations were determined to exist as neither communist nor capitalist. Secondly, the western European nations were still struggling to come out of the economic devastation by the impact of the Second World War.
This made the United States believe that countries that sympathised with these Soviets would be influenced by their deteriorating economies (Galley 242). This made the United States initiate the Marshall Plan. This was an economic order of economic aid, which was aimed at developing markets for both agricultural and industrial goods from America. It was also aimed at furthering the impact of the containment policy.
The Marshall plan was carefully presented to countries in both west and east. However, this plan was met with utmost rejection from soviet inclined countries due to the influence of Joseph Stalin. This confirmed the earlier doubt of its acceptance by the United States and hence the Cold War.
The Marshall plan was a great counter plan by the United States. The plan bore fruits for example when the communist coalition members were driven out of the government in France due to the impact of economic aids on America. America gave out foreign economic aids worth 13 billion dollars to 16 western nations from 1947 to 1952.
This made the economies of these nations better, at the same time widening the gap between the nations and the soviets. The Marshall plan also created a clear economic partition between the soviets communist and the capitalist. This division became so as evident as the economic divide that existed earlier on. Joseph Stalin countered the Marshall plan through the formation of the Commission for Mutual Economic Aid (COMECON). This was for all the communist member countries.
This would exaggerate trade relations between communist member countries. In addition, he formed an organisation that united the communist countries from all parts of the world with the sole aim of making communism a world order (Caley 78) against the wish of the majority. On the other hand, the United States continued with its containment efforts. In 1947, it was able “to impact on the election result of Italy using money to ensure that a Christian Democratic party defeated the communist party” (Tucker and Carlos 34).
The Berlin Wall
Following the impact of the 1947 political and economic outwits on the communist and the capitalist nations, Europe became a victim with one side, the capitalist being supported by America while the other side, the communist, was supported by Russia. East Germany was made a soviet satellite kind of state (Wetting 96). Germany now became a political and an economic battlefield for the two powers. Four powers namely France, Britain, Russia, and even America occupied parts of Germany.
The capital of Germany fell under the Russian soviet side. However, it was divided. Joseph Stalin made a physical blocade that separated the side of Berlin City in order to compel the Allies to halt their move to divide Germany (Miller and Galley 25). To counter the effects of the Berlin wall, the Allied powers turned to physical airlifts of supplies to Berlin.
This Berlin Airlift went on for about eleven months. Worse still, the airplanes that were airlifting supplies to Berlin had to fly over the soviet air space, an act that would have provoked Stalin to order for their shooting for violating their airspace. However, due to the fear of the occurrence of another war, the communists did not provoke war, as they realised that their earlier move of constructing the Berlin Wall did not work. Stalin opened the wall in 1949. In Berlin, Germany, the Cold War foundations almost led to real battle.
The two major blocs openly provoked each other with physical insults. The communist built a blocade to physically block the capitalists from supplying aids to their regions while the capitalist flew their supply airlift planes over the communist territory with an open will that, if they shoot on their planes, the battlefield war would emerge immediately.
The formation of (North Atlantic Treaty organisation) NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was a military alliance that was formed in 1949 by the signing of the NATO treaty. This treaty was signed by western powers in Washington. At this time, the Berlin wall was still in enforcement by the soviets. The NATO was formed for the purposes of offering defense to the capitalists in case the soviets assaulted them within the ensuing competitive conditions.
In retaliation, Russia intentionally detonated her first homemade atomic bomb in 1949. This was aimed at deterring the speed that America was taking by diverting her attention to the eventuality of a nuclear war if Russia tried to assault the soviets. Following this act, the NATO members decided to rearm to include western Germany into NATO. In 1955, West Germany became a member of the NATO.
To counter the impact of the formation of the NATO and the inclusion of West Germany into it, the eastern countries formed their own military alliance. The Warsaw Pact was formed just one week after West Germany became a member of the NATO. The Warsaw pact became the military wing of the soviets led by a soviet commanding officer. Their counterpart, the capitalists, put this military team in place to offer defense to members of the communist bloc in case of an assault.
Differences between the two major blocs
Following the above discussion, it is evident that, by 1949, two distinctive blocs were already formed in the world. These power blocs were opposed to any idea that came from their counterparts. The Soviet Union believed that the United States and her allies were a real threat to their existence and the existence of their ideologies. At this point, the two blocs never involved themselves in any traditional forms of warfare. Their attitude towards each other became sour every day.
It was almost evident that the third World War was on the offing especially with the Berlin blocade by the communist and the counter blocade strategies by the capitalist. The nuclear competition and standoff between the two major blocs and the widening ideological gap became a cause of worry to the whole world. There emerged the historical Red Scare especially in the United States.
On the other hand, there was a crush of dissent on the side of Russia. The Cold War did not just develop because of the happenings in Europe and America. By 1947, it had spread beyond the European boundaries to the global arena. For example, China joined the communist bloc (Harry 66) while Korea and Vietnam became capitalists after the intervention of America in their wars.
The Cold War was also perpetrated to a great effect by the show of might in nuclear weapons by the two major powers, the United States of America and Russia. The United States created its thermonuclear weapons of mass destruction in 1952. On the other hand, the United Socialist Soviet Republic (USSR) also created thermonuclear weapons of mass destruction in 1953. This changed the world order since, at the end of the Second World War, only the US had atomic bombs. The Soviet Union would not have posed any threat to it.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Cold War was a war of ideologies, economic, and military competition that existed between the two major blocs that emerged after the Second World War. This war did not involve the actual battlefield war that could have been regarded as hot war. The Soviet Union led the communist bloc while the United States led the capitalist bloc. This war also involved other states. It was even fought on foreign grounds.
Later, following the intensified fear and tension created by this war when America and Russia began making thermonuclear weapons, the war ended with the collapse of the USSR in 1990s. These weapons would result to more expansive destruction of the world than even the two bombs dropped at Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the Americans airplanes during the Second World War.
Prevalence of these weapons of mass destruction in the hands of opposed blocs almost assured the world of a total destruction in the eventuality of another world war. However, this tension and standoff in nuclear weapons made the world safe in the sense that neither the USSR nor the US could provoke the other into a battlefield war since any actual war ‘hot’ war would result in total destruction of the world.
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