CHAPTER 5- THE COLD WAR ERA
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5A. BERLIN AIRLIFT
The Berlin Airlift, also known as the Berlin Blockade, is considered to be the moment when the Cold War truly began. The Cold War describes the 40-year period of tension and proxy wars between the United States and Soviet Union.
After Germany’s surrender in World War 2, the Allied nations of America, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union divided and occupied the defeated Germany along with its capital, Berlin.
The US occupied southeastern Germany, Great Britain the northwest, France the southwest, and the Soviet Union the northeast. The capital city of Berlin was also divided. The Soviet Union occupied East Berlin, while the other three nations controlled the western half of the city.
Tensions were growing between the democratic Western countries (US, Great Britain, and France) and the communist Soviet Union. The US prioritized providing economic aid to rebuild Germany. However, the Soviet Union wanted Germany to pay for postwar Soviet recovery.
The Western countries also wanted to stop the spread of communism. In early 1948, the Western democracies met secretly to plan the unification of their occupied zones into “Bizonia,” which would be a single West German state with its own currency, the Deutschmark.
When the Soviet Union found out about these plans, they began issuing their own currency, the Ostmark, into their occupation zones and blocked access to West Berlin.
The Soviet Union blocked all rail and road travel to West Berlin to cripple the city and force the Allies to give up on their plan of creating a unified West German state.The Soviet Union blocked all rail and road travel to West Berlin to cripple the city and force the Allies to give up on their plan of creating a unified West German state.
The other Allies desperately did not want to go to war with the Soviet Union so soon after the end of World War 2. They also did not want to give in and allow their zone to be taken over and forced into communism.
However, their zone of Berlin was entirely surrounded by Soviet forces with no way for much-need resources to get in or out on the ground. It was considered by the democracies to be an important "island of freedom".
To avoid giving up West Berlin or going to war with the Soviet Union, the US and Great Britain delivered supplies, such as food and coal, into West Berlin by air.
Beginning in June 1948, American and British air forces began daily flights from West Germany to West Belin. To save time many flights didn't land in Berlin, instead air dropping parachuted materials onto the airfields.
West Berlin had a large population, so the plan was to drop 3,475 tons of supplies each day.
The Soviet Union believed that there was no way this plan would work and expected to control the entire city within weeks.
The flights were incredibly effective, however. American and British air forces eventually made over 250,000 trips to Berlin. By the spring of 1949, flights were taking off every few minutes and delivering an average of over 12,000 tons of supplies each day.
After months of daily flights, it became apparent that the Western powers were pulling off the impossible: indefinitely supplying an entire city by air alone.
Finally, on May 12, 1949, 11 months after instituting their blockade of West Berlin, the Soviet Union lifted it, realizing that their plan wasn’t working.
Nervous that the Soviets could resume the blockade, the US and Great Britain continued to supply the city by air until September. The Berlin Airlift officially ended on September 30, 1949 after 15 months.
The British RAF and US Air Force delivered over 2 million tons of food, fuel, and supplies to West Berlin during the airlift. Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and South African air crews also assisted the during the airlift.
5B. THE MARSHALL PLAN
The Marshall Plan, officially known as the European Recovery Program, was an ambitious American initiative to help rebuild Western European democracies after the end of World War 2.
The plan was named for Secretary of State George Marshall, who introduced it. He was appointed by President Harry Truman and they wanted a plan that would restore economic and political stability in Europe.
Marshall stated that the plan was “not against any country or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos.”
However, the hope was that the aid would make Europe less susceptible to the Soviet Union’s communist influences.
Many of the industrial and cultural centers of Western European countries had been destroyed in World War 2. Some regions were on the brink of famine, crucial infrastructure had been destroyed, millions were killed in the war, and millions more were left in refugee camps.
Beginning in 1948, the US distributed more than $13 billion in economic aid to 16 European countries, including Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Belgium.
Countries who had fought alongside the Allies during the war received more assistance than those who fought with the Axis powers or remained neutral. The US offered help to the Soviet Union, but it declined, and no aid was given to any of the Eastern European countries under its influence.
The US did not give money directly to European governments. However, it did offer many types of assistance, including American-made goods, grants to purchase US goods and services, loans, and resources for increasing productivity.
In addition to the proactive assistance, the plan also required European countries themselves to invest in their long-term recovery.
As a result of the plan, there was a reliable market for US goods (including food and industrial equipment) transported on US vessels, which benefited both the US and European economies. It also encouraged economic integration and led to greater cooperation amongst the European countries.
By 1952, the countries that had received aid under the Marshall Plan experienced significant economic growth in both agricultural and industrial production beyond pre-war levels.
Although it was initially unpopular in the US and met with skepticism in Europe, the Marshall Plan is regarded as an incredibly successful foreign policy initiative.
The plan not only provided economic relief during a time of need and opened up trade between Europe and the US, but also unified Europe commercially and politically. Perhaps most important, it also made communism and the Soviet Union much less appealing.
5C. POST-WAR ORGANIZATIONS
While the League of Nations was a failure after World War 1, most developed countries recognized the need for international organizations to maintain peace and promote prosperity after World War 2.
Fifty nations met in spring 1945 and drafted the UN Charter, creating the United Nations (UN). The UN officially began operations in October 1945 with the objective of maintaining international peace, protecting human rights, delivering humanitarian aid, promoting development, and upholding international law.
The UN began with 51 members but today membership stands at 193, representing most of the world.
In addition to peace-keeping efforts, the UN also performs humanitarian and environmental actions, such as vaccinating children, dealing with climate change, and providing food to people in need.
As the Cold War began, democratic nations began talks about an international military alliance focused to prevent communist aggression.
In 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty was signed by the US and 11 other nations: Belgium, Great Britain, France, Luxembourg, Italy, Iceland, Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, and Portugal.
The treaty formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which still exists today.
NATO is a defensive military alliance. Each member country promised to defend other member countries if they were ever attacked by an external threat. NATO has added new members over the years. Other European States are allowed to join as long as they meet certain requirements and complete a multi-step process involving political dialog and military integration.
In response to the threat of NATO, the Soviet Union and its European satellite states signed the Warsaw Pact in May 1955.
This was also a defensive alliance, led by the Soviet Union and included seven other Eastern European socialist nations: Albania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria.
These countries are often referred to as satellite nations because they were under the influence and pressure of the Soviet Union.
There was never a direct military confrontation between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Each side used policies designed to promote their own influence around the world.
The Warsaw Pact came to an end in 1991 after East Germany reunified with the West and the other member states left. The collapse of the Soviet Union came soon after.
The Truman Doctrine, also known as the policy of containment, was President Harry Truman’s foreign policy that the US would provide political, military, and economic aid to democratic countries under the threat of communist influences in order to prevent the expansion of communism.
5D. COMPARING THE VIETNAM AND KOREAN WARS
The Korean War lasted from 1950 to 1953, during which communist North Korea (supported by China and the Soviet Union) fought anticommunist South Korea (supported by the US).
The war began when the North Korean army invaded across the 38th parallel, the line of division between North Korea and South Korea that had been set after the Japanese occupiers were defeated in World War 2.
Under President Truman, the US joined the war to defend South Korea in accordance with the Truman Doctrine. The United Nations also provided support but the US provided 90% of the troops.
After early North Korean success, US forces pushed the North Koreans back across the 38th parallel. When American forces crossed into North Korea, China to send aid to North Korea.
American and South Korean forces were then pushed back before regaining ground.
President Truman did not want to involve the Chinese, fearing a full-scale war, and began peace talks with the North Koreans in July of 1951.
Peace talks concluded in an armistice signed in July of 1953, which suspended hostilities, reinforced Korea’s division at the 38th parallel, and created a 4,000 kilometer-wide demilitarized zone.
Almost five million people had died in the war, with more than 2.7 million Korean civilian casualties and more than 30,000 American casualties.
The Vietnam War began slowly in 1954 and finally ended in 1975, two years after Nixon ordered the withdrawal of US troops
Vietnam had been colonized by the French since 1887. Like Korea, Vietnam had also been occupied by the Japanese during World War 2. After their defeat, the Japanese withdrew from Vietnam with the Soviet Union occupying the north and US in the South.
Ho Chi Minh, a communist political leader, quickly gained control in North Vietnam, while French-backed Emperor Bao Dai retreated to the South. Both sides signed a treaty in Geneva, splitting Vietnam along the 17th parallel, with Ho controlling the North and Bao controlling the South.
Despite the agreement, armed Vietnamese communists, known as the Viet Cong, began attacking the South.
The US was worried about a domino effect, believing that if one Southeast Asian country fell to communism, the others would easily follow. Thus, under the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, the US sent more troops to support South Vietnam amidst Viet Cong attacks.
In August of 1964, the North Vietnamese attacked two US warships in the Gulf of Tonkin, and the US retaliated by bombing North Vietnam and sending more troops to be stationed there.
Unlike the Korean War, which did not get much media attention in the US, the Vietnam War received greater coverage. The military draft sent more young men into the army and the war grew unpopular.
Anti-war protests began in the US, pushing President Johnson to begin peace talks to end the war.
After the 1968 election, President Nixon took over the peace talks and began focusing his attention on “Vietnamization”, which meant withdrawing US troops and providing South Vietnam with the resources needed to continue the war without the US.
In January of 1973, peace talks between the US and North Vietnam concluded with America's complete withdrawal from the war.
Two years later, South Vietnam fell to North Vietnam, and Vietnam was unified under communist control. As a result of the war, there were approximately two million Vietnamese casualties and almost 60,000 American casualties.
5E. PERSPECTIVES ON THE VIETNAM WAR
The Vietnam War was the first war to be highly publicized with graphic images in newspapers and live coverage on television.
As the war dragged on for years longer than expected and Americans watched first-hand the struggles that their troops suffered in Vietnam, the country became divided.
The American public was largely split into two camps: people who wanted to end the war, known as “doves” and people who supported America remaining in the war until it was won, or “hawks.”
The doves organized and participated in numerous anti-war protests, which included marches on Washington DC and other cities, college campus protests, and a variety of newspaper and magazine articles condemning the war.
During these protests, some men publicly burned their draft cards as an act of defiance against both the war itself and the draft’s compulsory military service for young men.
The doves were largely younger people, especially college students and those of draft-eligible age.
Doves preached messages of peace and love. In their eyes, the war was unjust and was killing thousands of young American men only to help the profits of US companies.
They saw the involvement of US corporations like the Dow Chemical Company as immoral. Dow produced weapons of war like napalm and Agent Orange, both of which led to painful deaths for both civilians and military forces in Vietnam.
They also felt that the war, in dense jungles on the other side of the globe against a committed enemy, was unwinnable.
These feelings grew after American troops' forced withdrawal after the Battle of Khe Sanh, and again after the Tet Offensive surprise attacks in 1968.
The doves believed that the hawks were supporting this unjust war and untenable foreign policy goal at the cost of American lives.
Hawks were more likely to be older and Republican or Southern Democrats. They wanted President Johnson to use all of America’s manpower and firepower to win the war.
The hawks felt that America needed to be involved in Vietnam to defeat communism and protect America's way of life.
They believed anticommunist South Vietnam needed to be defended and worried about a possible domino effect and threats to America if communism were allowed to expand.
In the eyes of hawks, the doves were weak hippies, and their opposition to the war and widespread protests were contributing to the US losing the war by reducing public support.
5F. TIMELINE OF THE COLD WAR ERA
The Cold War was a long period of international tension between the United States and Soviet Union. Both superpowers had allies, with most Western democratic nations supporting the US and communist nations supporting the Soviet Union.
It is called a "cold" war because there was never any large-scale fighting between the two superpowers. However, proxy wars were fought where each side supported an ally in the fight.
Here are some of the major events from a timeline of the Cold War:
The Yalta Conference
As World War 2 was coming to an end, three Allied leaders (President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the US, Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain, and Premier Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union) met at the Yalta Conference in February of 1945. The leaders knew that the war in Europe would result in an Allied victory, but each leader had different goals for the meeting.
The US wanted the Soviet Union to participate in the Pacific War and be a part of the United Nations. Great Britain wanted to ensure the establishment of democratic governments with free elections in Eastern and Central Europe. The Soviet Union wanted greater control over Eastern Europe.
Following the conference, the meeting was hailed as a success. Despite their differences, the Allied leaders had compromised on many things. The Soviet Union would keep part of Poland that they annexed, but Poland would gain its independence and have a free, democratic government.
The Soviet Union also agreed to become a member of the United Nations. The allies also agreed to demilitarize and partition Germany and its capital, Berlin, into four occupation zones.
The Korean War
In June 1950, communist North Korea (supported by China and the Soviet Union) invaded across the 38th parallel into South Korea. In accordance with the Truman Doctrine to stop the spread of communism, the US joined the war against communist North Korea.
After strong advances and subsequent retreats by both sides, the war came to a stalemate at the 38th parallel.
President Truman did not want to go to war with China, who was supporting North Korea and the two sides agreed to an armistice in 1953.
The armistice ending the Korean War maintained Korea’s division at the 38th parallel and created a demilitarized zone (DMZ) between the two sides.
Within the larger picture of the Cold War, the Korean War was a proxy war between the US and the Soviet Union because they fought each other indirectly by supporting opposing sides in the war.
Army-McCarthy Hearings
Senator Joseph R. McCarthy was a Wisconsin Republican senator who rose to public attention in 1950 when he began accusing people in the Truman administration, federal agencies, Congress, and other public figures of being Communist.
McCarthy conducted an excessive number of hearings and aggressively grilled witnesses and suspects. Most felt that he had no evidence and was making up the accusations to boost his political career.
In 1954, Sen. McCarthy turned his accusations towards the US Army. In nationally televised Army-McCarthy hearings, McCarthy tried to accuse the army lawyer, Joseph Welch, of having Communist ties. In response, Welch asked him, “Have you no decency?”
With this famous question, Sen. McCarthy’s popularity and political career disappeared. On December 2, 1954, the Senate voted to censure McCarthy, which is a formal statement of disapproval. Though his witch-hunting came to an end, anticommunist crusading didn’t end with him.
The Berlin Wall
On August 13, 1961, East Germany erected the Berlin Wall, dividing the city in half. The massive concrete wall they called the “Antifascistischer Schutzwall,” or “antifascist bulwark" was nearly impenetrable.
Though East Germany claimed that the wall was to prevent West Germans from entering East Germany, the actual purpose was to prevent East Germans from defecting to the democratic west.
The Bay of Pigs Invasion
After Fidel Castro led a successful revolution in Cuba and established a communist dictatorship in 1959, the Eisenhower administration began planning a covert operation to overthrow the regime.
The plan was for a group of CIA-trained Cuban exiles, armed with American weapons, to rally the Cuban citizenry and together overthrow Castro.
After taking office, President Kennedy approved the plan and the invasion took place in April 1961 at the Bahía de Cochinos or Bay of Pigs.
The invasion failed nearly immediately because Kennedy did not want to provide American air support. Castro gained popularity and grew closer to the Soviet Union.
The Vietnam War
The Vietnam War began slowly in 1954 but dragged on and grew more intense for 20 years before finally coming to an end in 1975.
Similar to the Korean War, the conflict saw the US supporting the pro-Western, anticommunist South Vietnam against communist North Vietnam. American politicians were fearful that Vietnam falling to communism would trigger a domino effect in which other Southeast Asian countries would follow.
The war was difficult for the American troops, whose training and resources were suited for a conventional war. Most of the Vietnam War was fought as a guerilla war in dense jungles.
This meant that North Vietnamese forces, the Viet Cong, used tactics such as underground tunnels, deadly booby traps, ambushes of American forces, and taking full advantage of their knowledge of the terrain.
Meanwhile, American forces found it difficult to navigate the jungles and rice paddies of Vietnam and also to distinguish who was their enemy and who were civilians.
On January 31, 1968, the North Vietnamese began the Tet Offensive, a series of coordinated surprise attacks against major South Vietnamese cities and military camps.
Even though the operation was eventually a defeat for the North, the highly publicized attacks greatly undermined American morale, especially because the attacks came after President Johnson had informed the American public that the war was ending soon.
Johnson had hoped the Paris Peace talks opened that year would end the war. However, Richard Nixon, running for president on a campaign against the war had an aide convince the South Vietnamese to abandon the peace talks.
It would not be until 1973 that the Paris Peace Accords were signed ending the war. Then-President Nixon's policy of Vietnamization promoted South Vietnam taking over responsibility for its defense.
Nixon Visits China
On February 21, 1972, President Nixon visited the People’s Republic of China (PRC), which was a first for a US president. Since the communist revolution in China in 1949, the US had not acknowledged the PRC.
However, Nixon felt that building better relations with the PRC might help with resolving the Vietnam War and would allow the US to leverage that relationship when dealing with the Soviet Union in the Cold War.
This decision came at a strategic time when the relationship between the Soviet Union and the PRC were also deteriorating due to rising tensions and border disputes.
Glasnost and Perestroika
In 1986, President Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union announced that he would be implementing two new major policies: perestroika and glasnost.
Perestroika, meaning “restructuring”, allowed some free market and independent economic activity for the first time. It was meant to transform the economy by increasing economic productivity and growth. It loosened the central command on the economy and moved towards a free market.
Glasnost, meaning “openness”, was part of Gorbachev’s plan to allow more free speech, freedom of the press, and transparency in political elections.
Though perestroika and glasnost were introduced to transform and strengthen the Soviet Union, it did the opposite. Because the government suddenly stopped setting prices and subsidizing production, prices skyrocketed.
Moreover, because many of the reforms were neither fully communist or fully free market, Gorbachev faced criticism from both camps, who were newly empowered to criticize the government. Many historians agree that both perestroika and glasnost hastened the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Fall of the Berlin Wall
On November 9, 1989, East Berlin’s Communist Party announced that travel restrictions would be eased between East and West Berlin. Thousands of Germans took to the streets to celebrate and began taking sledgehammers to the Berlin Wall.
Confused guards at the wall were unsure what to do and let the crowd overtake the wall, which had symbolized the ideological divide of the Cold War for so long.
That weekend, more than 2 million people crossed into West Berlin to celebrate the news.
Collapse of the Soviet Union
Soviet leader Gorbachev's reforms inspired many of the Soviet Union's satellite states to push for their own independence.
Protests began in the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Each had been under Soviet rule since the end of World War 2.
Estonia declared its sovereignty in 1988, followed by Lithuania in 1990. In 1991, the rest of the Soviet republics broke away and declared independence, including Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and others.
A coup was attempted within the Soviet Union along with mass protests. In December 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved. Gorbachev resigned as General Secretary, and was replaced by Boris Yeltsin, the first President of Russia.