The Cold War

The Cold War

-Eine Gfs von Marcel Leder-

"A cold war is a war with no direct fighting between the countries involved.

A cold war often involves countries with different ideologies (e.g. USA capitalist and USSR communist).

A war of mistrust, spying, propaganda and deception."

The Iron Curtain

At the end of World War II, the USSR had the largest army, the world had ever seen. But Mother Russia was destroyed just as completely Europe.

27 Mio. Soviets were killed and 70000 Russian villages were burned down.

6 Mio. Jews were killed in concentration camps.

Great Britain became totally impoverished.

20 % of the Polish population were dead.

In contrast to all the negative effects, the USA became the largest industry power in history.

They were for example able to built a cargo ship in less than 3 days and a Bomber in a few hours.

Opposing to the western alliance (which tried to rebuild Germany) , the Soviets ruthlessly exploited their occupation zones. They tried to take every chance to disarm and dismantle Germany. It was a kind of revenge.

The Soviets were attacked 3 times from Europe in the last 150 years. So their destiny was that no European country should be able to attack Russia in future. Therefore they attached so called satellite states. To reach this, Stalin replaced the governments under his influence by communists and created a communist bulwark. With this aggressive and provocation tactics, Stalin risked a open confrontation with the West. So Washington saw, not longer than 6 months after the War, a potential enemy in Russia!

So what to do? The communism seemed to spread over Europe like a Virus.

The answer was a "Containment Policy" developed by the USA. The destiny was to answer the aggressive way of Russia with political and financial cleverness. For example by giving credits to Western Europe and stop giving credits to the Soviets.

Comments by Stalin in early 1946, that capitalism and imperialism made future wars inevitable, set off alarm bells in the West. George Kennan, a career U.S. diplomat in Moscow, was asked by the State Department for his view on Soviet motives and intentions. His famous cabled response warned there could be no permanent, peaceful coexistence with the Soviet Union.

As Stalin refused to call his troops back from Northern Iraq, the world wide oil resources were in danger. The reaction was that Churchill announced what everybody knew before:

"An Iron Curtain is pulled over the whole continent from Stettin to Triest !"

1946, Moscow demanded free access to the Mediterranean through the Dardanelles. But Turkey denied their demand. So Soviets stationed 12 divisions at the coast of the Dardanelles. The answer: the USA sent out warships and the Soviets gave up.

The winter came (46/47) and it was one of the hardest winters, mankind had ever seen. Britain was near a huge catastrophe. They had to shorten their Expenditures and give up the eastern Mediterranean. The situation began to get out of control, because the eastern Mediterranean was about to fall under Russian control and therefore under communistic reign.

Marshall-Plan 47-52

In February 1947, Britain informed the United States that London is ending aid to Greece and Turkey. U.S. President Harry Truman then seized the moment. Truman successfully authorized $400 million in aid for Turkey and Greece.

He also established the Truman Doctrine -- a clear distinction between the capitalist and communist worlds.

During George Marshall's (Minister of foreign affairs since 21.1.47) journey through Europe, he recognized the hopeless situation of Europe. He saw the sorrow with his own eyes and so mentioned the "Marshall-Plan" on his Doctor speech.

The Marshall Plan offered billions of dollars in U.S. aid to European countries -- including those under Soviet occupation. Stalin ordered his foreign minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, to pull out of a Paris conference. As Molotov left Paris, he accused the West of working to divide Europe into two hostile camps.

Stalin saw the Marshall-Plan as a seed of the captitalism and refused to accept the money. He also forbid all the countries under his influence to accept the financial help.

Berlin 48-49

Berlin after World War II : Nearly everything was destroyed, not one house to see which wasn't damaged by the bombs. At night it was bombed by GB, at day by USA. Berlin was divided into 4 zones. A British, French, Soviet and American. The only place where capitalist and communist forces came into direct contact. To integrate Germany into the western world, USA planned to introduce the "Deutsche Mark". It was realized on June the 18^th '48. The Soviets immediately closed all borders. All routes to Berlin were cut off.

The USA had the innovative idea to overwhelm soviet blockade by supporting West-Berlin with an airlift.

The Berlin airlift brought a new mindset to the Western Allies, who started thinking of West Germany as an ally, rather than an occupied territory. In West Berlin, the airlift brought people sustenance and hope.

In mind, that the airlift might get impossible some time, President Truman accepted NSC-30, a plan of a nuclear attack and stationed 60 B-29 Bombers in GB.But the B-29 were not needed. The Nato was founded in April 49 and the airlift worked better than ever before. On May the 12^th, soviets gave up their blockade.

This was the end of the cold war .

.Many people thought, but on a routine flight, a B-29 bomber recognized a high level of radiation over the North Pacific. The Soviets got the bomb!

Korean War

The surrender of Japan at the end of World War II also meant an end to 35 years of Japanese occupation in Korea. As they had in Germany, Soviet and U.S. troops liberated Korea -- and agreed to divide the nation along the 38th parallel as a temporary measure. But as both sides withdrew their troops, they also set up rival governments, creating the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the North, and the Republic of Korea in the South.

Meanwhile in China: Mao-Tse-Tung, leader of the communists won the upper hand over Tschiang Kai-scheck, the leader of the Anti-communists and so the People's Repuplic China was proclaimed. A new ally of the USSR!

After Stalin gave his O.K. to Kim Il Sung, Sung risked a rapid assault into South Korea. The South Korean troops of Rhee were clearly too few and not prepared. Therefore North Korea rushed over the South. Stalin did not expect Truman to react with a war on foreign ground but he lay wrong. The USA immediately reacted and announced that they will not bear this aggression.

After a spectacular landing in Inchon (comparably with the D-Day) the U.S troops were confronted with the Korean troops in Seoul and encountered hard resistance. 50000 civilians left their lifes. But this was just the first step. Rhee and the USA wanted to complete their campaign and conquer the North.

But they made their bill without China. China intervened and U.S troops had no chance. They fled from the overwhelming masses. On their way they left everything in debris and ash.With a new commander in chief, the troops dared a last raid and reached the 38. degree of longitude.

In November of '52 Dwight D. Eisenhower became President and in March '53, Stalin died. These new governments were able to lead negotiations and on July the 23th, the War was over.

Time to show the result:

USA: 54000 dead 100000 injured

South Korea: 415000 dead

North Korea: 1 Mio. dead

China: official 112000 dead, unofficial 500000!

Winner.? Perhaps Japan with an economic upswing.

Loser: - The Korean people with 5 Mio. homeless in the South and innumerable dead.

- The whole world at the edge of a second Hiroshima.

The hydrogen bomb and the nuclear age

In August 1949, the United States found itself shocked to discover the Soviet Union has broken Washington's atomic monopoly. The new Soviet bomb was developed quickly, thanks to the acquisition of U.S. atomic secrets by Soviet agents. The bomb also signaled the start of the nuclear arms race between the Cold War rivals.

The consideration to build a bomb with unlimited explosive yield, fascinated and shocked U.S. scientists at the same time and splitted them up into 2 groups. On January the 31th (1950), Truman decided to develop the "super bomb". After 2 years and 9 months, the bomb (82t) was completed and it was time to test it at the eniwetok-atoll near the bikini-atoll. Scientists were accommodated on ships with a distance of 50km to the detonation. The explosion was so huge and mighty, that temperatures where reached which were higher than in the middle of the sun. The explosion was 1000 times harder than Hiroshima. 9 months later, the Soviets had the H-Bomb, too.

1953, John Foster Dulles announced, that the USA will follow the line of massive retaliation so that whenever the USA or an ally would get attacked, they will strike back with all their mighty.

The nuclear race / contest got more and more abstract. The next level was that the USA constructed an h-bomb with Lithium. This means that the bomb was not needed to be cooled any longer less weight ability to carry with a plane

1954, Soviets detonated a 20kt bomb and occupied the radioactively contaminated area to show that they are prepared for a nuclear war. At the same time in the USA: scientists are presently working on rockets, carrying small nuclear warheads.Nuclear backpack of the USA: 1950: 298 A-Bombs 1955: 2422 A-Bombs 1962: 27100 A-Bombs, more than enough to destroy the whole earth.

May 1957: The Soviets have the first intercontinental missile (ICBM)

The citizens of America reacted on the international arms race with a fear of World War III. In school, pupils had to learn, how to "effectively" protect yourself. You had to duck and cover. Also, a new industry branch came up: The sale of family shelters. 2395 dollars the piece. The era after the Korean War was an era of technological and nuclear race as well as reproaches of a missile-gap.

Within the soviet states there were again and again hard crises so that more and more citizens tried to flee from the DDR. To stop this tide of refugees, the government seizes the drastic measure to built (against the will of the NATO) a wall, between east and west Berlin on August the 13^th 1961.Many in the East, meanwhile, risked death to flee across the Wall. Within the first year, 50 Germans died trying to cross to the West. One of them, 18-year-old Peter Fechter, bled to death in the no-man's land between East and West, in front of outraged West Berliners.Yet for the next three decades, the Wall remained a symbol of the Cold War's cruelty and Europe's division. Its message was a bitter one: Whatever happened beyond that line, the West might lament, but would not interfere.

Cuba

Throughout the 1940s and '50s, the Caribbean island of Cuba had been a playground for the United States. Cuban land and industry were almost entirely owned by U.S. corporations. But after years of guerrilla fighting against the dictatorship of Cuban leader Fulgencio Batista, revolutionary forces headed by Fidel Castro entered Havana in January 1959.

Castro made U.S. industries on Cuba in the value of 1 Mia. Dollars to his own. Eisenhower therefore stopped e.g. all exports of Cuban sugar into the USA. But on every punishment Eisenhower chose, the Soviets knew the right answer (e.g. they took the sugar which America didn't take). So Cuba became more and more communist. That was a condition, America could not bear. So they developed a plan to release a revolution in Cuba. When America's new president John F. Kennedy gave his O.K., everything went wrong. Only 6 bombers supported the revolt and damaged, believe it or not, 3 jets! 1500 trained Cubans landed in the "bay of pigs". 100 died, 14 have been rescued and there was no revolt. It was an embarrassing disaster.

During a walk at the bay of Warna, Chrustchew recognized, that over the Black Sea, rockets are stationed in Turkey, which would be able to eliminate Minsk, Kiew and Moskow. So why shouldn't he do exactly the same with America? Cuba would be the perfect location. This would make it possible to protect Cuba against American aggressions and secure an atomic equilibrium.

The rockets were placed under strictest secrecy and not even the Soviet Ambassadors didn't know of it.

Kennedy founded the ExComm (Executive Comitee of the National Security Council) which had the task to solve the Cuban Problem as fast as possible. All possibilities were considered (for example an massive air strike) and a sea-blockade was decided.

On October the 22nd, 7.00pm, the whole world watched Kennedy's speech on TV. In this speech, Kennedy requested Crustchew to withdraw his missiles from Cuba.

The U.S army was set on Defcon-2. Defcon-1 would mean World War III. 25000 Marines were pulled together and 100000 soldiers were stationed in Florida. 2 huge aircraft carrier were moved to Cuba. The beginning of an invasion.

On October the 27^th the world was "a push of a button" away from a Nuclear World War. An U2-jet was shut down over Cuba and the standard plan would be a retaliatory strike. But Kennedy did nothing. This was the first step for peace. Few hours remained and although Kennedy's advisors were ready for war, he took the next step for peace and accepted Crustschew's offer: If America would pull back their missiles in Turkey and cancel the sea-blockade, the USSR will pull back their missiles in Cuba.

Cruschtschow commentated this act as a victory of the common sense.

The world wasn't only at the edge of a war, mankind was on the edge of an Armageddon! If there had not been such intelligent and deliberated presidents, cold war would possibly have turned into a hot war.

The first step out of the cold war.

Vietnam

For eight years, Vietnam was a colonial battleground -- as France fought a nationalist movement led by Ho Chi Minh. Despite financial backing from the United States, the French lost control of Vietnam in 1954 -- after a Vietnamese force captured the French outpost at Dien Bien Phu. An international peace conference in Geneva temporarily divided Vietnam into a communist-led North and non-communist South

To unite Vietnam, the guerrilla organisation "Vietcong" came into existence. But due to the rising displeasure about the commanding regime of Diem, he got killed by his own soldiers.

3 weeks later, Kennedy got killed on his fateful journey through Dallas. Lyndon B. Johnson, his Vice, became President.

In August '64 there was a fire exchange between a destroyer of America and a torpedo boat of North Vietnam. President Johnson got authorized to help South Vietnam in war.

The brutality of America was incredible. Alltogether they dropped 70 Mio. l herbicide, chemical, cancer causing, arms and more bombs than in World War II.

At the end of '65 there were already sent 183000 soldiers to Vietnam.

The war was shown live in TV and millions of Americans became witnesses of massacres and demonstrative self-burnings of Buddhists.

Also under the new president Nixon, the war continued 5 years.

Mutual Assured Destruction

The fundament of the cold war was to live in a peace, assured by the knowledge that each side was able to eliminate the other. So it seemed to be a never ending armament. The arms-potential meanwhile was so high, that mankind could be eliminated with the push of one button. 12 B-52 circled over the Atlantic for 24 hours the day and 365 days the year ready to attack immediately. 182 Intercontinental rockets (at the time of the Cuba Crisis) of the type "Titan II (150t)" were ready to get shot off. 144 Polaris Rockets, which could be fired from submarines were all set. On October the 16^th 1964, even China got into the circle of the nuclear powers. Now 5 countries got "the bomb".

The soviet leaders knew of the superiority of America and so concentrated on the deployment of a defence system. ABM missiles were constructed, able to destroy intercontinental rockets.

Now American scientists were faced an huge task. They developed MIRV Rockets, able to carry up to 10 warheads. Meanwhile each party, America and USSR, spent up to 50 Mio Dollar THE DAY for nuclear armarment.

On May the 26^th 1972 Nixon and Breschnew subscribed SALT I which declared a disarmament in few sections. The first step to a détente.

100 warheads were needed to destroy the other side. To this time, there were 40000. Everyone more than 100 times harder than Hiroshima!

Détente and Freeze

By the end of the 1960s, the United States and Soviet Union faced a choice: slow down their Cold War competition -- a process that would be called détente -- or continue an arms race that could end in all-out war.

In 1969 a new U.S. president, Richard Nixon, came to power. Nixon had new ideas about how to make the Cold War less dangerous. He was ready to accept the Soviet Union as America's nuclear equal. In Moscow, Communist Party chief Leonid Brezhnev wanted to relax Cold War tensions with America in a policy that would be called détente.

Meanwhile, Willy Brandt improves the relationship between East and West Germany. He was the first chancellor who visited East Germany, Moscow and Poland.

Brandt's actions eased tensions between the two Germanys -- but they also worried the United States, which feared it would lead to German nationalism.

Two weeks after Nixon's return from Moscow, men working for his re-election campaign were arrested for breaking into the Washington headquarters of the Democratic Party. It was the start of a major scandal: Watergate. In August 1974, facing impeachment over the Watergate scandal, Nixon resigned as U.S. president and was replaced by Gerald Ford. The Soviet leadership was astounded by Nixon's downfall. By April 1975, the remaining Americans in Saigon fled.

Despite differences over human rights, an agreement was signed and U.S.-Soviet détente was under way. The most public symbol of the new relationship between the rival superpowers was the Apollo-Soyuz project. In space, cooperation was replacing years of Cold War confrontation.

But when Jimmy Carter became President the détente was on its way to stand still. He was an very unsure politician without any experiences in foreign affairs. He was led by his advisors.

When the Soviets replaced their old SS-4 rockets through SS-20 rockets, the USA became nervous and therefore dealed with the NATO to enlarge their expenditures for defence systems. Throughout disturbances in Afghanistan, a drunken Brezknev decided to intervene in Afghanistan. Carter saw this as an aggressive provocation and threatened with intervention.

Soviets lowered their troops in Afghanistan and the crisis disappeared.

The End

In December 1988, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev met with outgoing U.S. President Ronald Reagan and his successor, George Bush. Gorbachev had decided that the Cold War must end -- and that Soviet control over the Communist bloc nations must be loosened. He told the peoples of Eastern Europe that they had the right of self-determination. But his listeners -- including those in the United States -- were skeptical of the Soviet response if non-Communist leaders were elected.

In East Germany, Erich Honecker refused to admit there was anything wrong with his system -- but in reality, the country was rotting away. Pollution poisoned the air and water. The economy was running down. The police state provoked mass suspicion and stifled all initiative.

A protest rally was planned for two days later in Leipzig. The East German army was on alert, and the city was in a state of emergency. As the demonstration began, 70,000 people were on the streets. Alarmed, the Soviet ambassador telephoned the commander of Soviet forces in the region -- and ordered them not to interfere. Local Communist Party leaders begged the opposition to talk. Then, without higher orders, officials pulled back the police and troops. The demonstration went off peacefully. For East Germans, this was the turning point.

When Honecker was voted out of power, East of Germany was on the verge of disintegration.

Restrictions on travel to the West were lifted. East Berliners flew to the West and West Berliner demolished the Wall. Germany would be reunited.

Due to a revolution, Gorbachev was overturned ( He was against the abscission of a few Republics ) and replaced through Boris Yelzin. The U.S.S.R was history.

And

The Cold war - was over.