Emergence of two power blocs and Cold War

Cold War- Meaning

• The open yet restricted rivalry that developed
after World War II between the United States
and the Soviet Union and their respective
allies is popularly referred to as Cold War.
• The concept stands for struggle for
supremacy and was waged on political,
economic, and propaganda fronts and had
only limited recourse to weapons.
 first used by Bernard Baruch
• The term was first used by the American
financier and presidential adviser Bernard
Baruch during a congressional debate in 1947.
• It has been in use since the Second World War
for denoting the non-military hostility
between the United States of America (USA)
and the former Soviet Union.
• It was a conflict between two ideologies:
Capitalism vs. Communism.
• The bipolar division of World ;
• military alliances like NATO and Warsaw pact.
• The Cold War involved all means of warfare
except direct arm conflict, thereby, pushing
the World in a state of uneasy peace.
Who were principally responsible?
• what precisely caused this war and who were
principally responsible for this conflict has
been a debatable question.
• There are different theories and
interpretations of events leading to the Cold
War.
• Western scholars talk of soviet expansionism,
its occupation of Eastern Europe and their
design to impose communism on nation after
nation to be primarily responsible for
compelling the U.S. to take defensive measures.
• On the other hand, scholars who were
sympathetic to the Soviet Union held American
Scheme of global domination and its
imperialist design to be responsible for it.
• There is a third approach which believes that
both were responsible
• Soviet refusal to allow elections in East
Germany, their refusal to withdraw army from
Iran after the war as to be provocative action.
• US dropping of atom bombs on Hiroshima
……………………………..‘Iron Curtain’ speech of
Churchill(Fulton, Missouri; 5th March, 1946)
 Causes of Cold War

• There is no unanimity among scholars about the origin

and the precise reasons of Cold War. Some of them
have traced its origin to Bolshevik revolution of 1917.
• Bolshevik Revolution
– Once communist revolution took place in Russia, the
Western powers were uncomfortable with this
development. Though they fought together during the
Second World War but the western world always looked at
Stalin /communist ideology as dangerous as Nazism
– This mistrust between the two superpowers was at the
root of all that transpired during the Cold War.
• Question of Second Front
– On the eastern front Soviet Union solely bore the brunt
of fighting Hitler whereas on the western front, the
western powers were jointly dealing with Germany.
– Stalin requested the western powers to join the
Second Front along with Russian army in order to
take the pressure off from Russia.
– However, the western powers turned it down thus
making Stalin quite suspicious about western
intentions and their strategic designs
• Atom Bomb
– It was decided during the war itself that the two
superpowers will together attack Japan.
– US in order to demonstrate its strategic and military
superiority over the Soviet Union dropped and atom bombs
in 1945 on Japan.
– This action was meant to send signal that the U.S.A. would
dictate terms – in the post Second World War world politics.
– Besides this, the U.S.A. had also concealed the research
that was going on during Second World War to develop
nuclear weapons particularly from Soviet Union.
• Germany and Eastern Europe
– The future of Europe in general and Germany in particular
added new dimensions to already existing tensed political
climate
– both the camps were strategizing to enhance their
respective influence and control over Germany.
– Similarly Russia wanted that the Eastern Europe which was
closer to its borders to be communized and by February
1948,
– Stalin succeeded in this endeavour when Bulgaria,
Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland were brought under
Russian security umbrella.
• Churchill’s Foulton Speech
– British former Prime Minister Churchil who
delivered his greatest policy speech at Foulton in
the U.S. Prepared a ground for post war
ideological confrontation of the Cold War.
– During this speech he also used the term ‘Iron
curtain’ to explain how Russia had created
barriers in Europe to protect its sphere of
influence.
 Growth and Evolution of Cold War

• First phase (1947-1950)

• The formal beginning of the Cold War was made with the
initiation of the Truman doctrine, which put Cold War in action.
• Truman’s ‘Policy of Containment’ was based on its assessment
of the Soviet Union as inherently hostile to western interests
and which is hell bent on expanding its area of influence.
• The Truman doctrine was accompanied by a strategy known as
the ‘Marshall Plan’.
• This plan was meant for economic recovery and reconstruction
of Europe.
• In fact Marshall Plan was the economic version of the policy of
containment propounded through the Truman doctrine.
• In reaction to these measures, Stalin
reactivated com inform to co-ordinate the
activities of its allies. It was meant to tighten
Soviet’s control over the Eastern Europe.
• The Berlin blockade (1948)was the first
indication of a confrontationist political climate
• creation of NATO in 1949
• Chinese civil war led to victory of the
communists. ……
• Second Phase (1950-1953)
• Korean crisis which also took the Cold War
outside the borders of Europe.
• It globalised the containment policy as well as
the cold war.
• Meanwhile ,Soviet Union …..exploded its
atom-bomb in August 1949…. and attained
strategic party with the U.S….
• Third Phase (1953-1957)
• Death of Stalin in 1953.
• There was also a change in Presidency in the U.S., as Eisenhower
replaced Truman.
• US shifted its policy from simple containment to massive
retaliation, to liberate people from communist dictatorship.
• Khrushchev….opened possibility of some mitigation in the
hostility. But ….Cold War was transported to another part of Asia
i.e., Indo-China and
• Vietnam.
• signing of Warsaw Pact ,1955
• formal division of Germany into East and West.
• Khrushchev policy let loose reformist forces in the Eastern
Europe. Though Poland was controlled but situation in
Hungary became worrisome for the Soviet Regime. In
1956, Soviet intervention in Hungary led to blood shed
and heated up the Cold War temperature.
• The Soviet intervention in Hungary coincided with an
attack on Egypt by Britain, France and Israel, which was
precipitated by Colonel Nasser’s seizure of Suez Canal.
• Suez crisis took the Cold War politics to the Middle East,
which was smoldering since the founding of the state of
Israel in 1948.
• Though both the USA and the USSR had
supported the creation of a Jewish State. But
in 1950’s, the Soviet foreign policy supported
Arab nationalism.
• Fourth Phase (1957-1962)
• The crisis over Cuba in 1962 was the most dangerous moment is
the Cold War.
• The superpowers, perhaps, for the first time, stood in eye ball to
eye ball confrontation.
• But both
• American President Kennedy and the Soviet President
Khrushchev became anxious to reach at a diplomatic
settlement.
• Finally Khrushchev decided to withdraw the missiles, which he
has installed is Cuba in return of assurance that America would
not invade Cuba.
• Fifth Phase (1962-1969)
• period was marked by the new realization that nuclear
weapons were not good for peace and humanity. Hence
Partial Test Bar Treaty (PTBT) was negotiated in 1963, which
banned testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere.
• Simultaneously, the growing concern over the spread and
proliferation of nuclear weapons culminated into the
negotiation of Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treat (NPT) in 1968.
• Khrushchev talked of peaceful coexistence and carried it
forward by visiting America.
• Sixth Phase (1969-1978)
• This phase is remembered for ‘Détente’ which was cessation of
tensions.
• Interestingly, whereas the USSR and the USA began a new era of
cooperation.
• Rift started between two ideological friends and partners – the
USSR and China.
• They meddled in local conflicts, as for e.g, Indo-Pak war of 1971 .
• The American president Nixon and his adviser Henry Kissinger
were instrumental in the
• US-USSR ‘Détente’ as well as the Sino-American rapprochement.
• Seventh Phase (1979-1987) : The New Cold War
• The new Cold War started with Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in
1979 as it marked the end of the period of ‘Détente’. The new cold
war phase witnessed massive arms race and it also reached the
outer space which was done through American President Reagan’s
‘Star-war programme’.
• Soviet forces occupied Afghanistan is 1979 ………….considered to be
the beginning of the second cold war.
• The subsequent strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), which become
popular as “Star Wars” and which was defence related research
programme designed to explore the possibility of space based
defence against missiles, was the immediate fall out of the second
cold war.
• Mikhail Gorbachev became president of the
USSR in 1985.
• His new thinking and reformist approach in
foreign policy ….
• His policy of Glasnost (openness) and
Perestroika (restructuring) unleashed forces
for change……….Disintegration of USSR, 1991
• END OF COLD WAR