Cold War Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

This example Cold War Essay is published for educational and informational purposes only. If you need a custom essay or research paper on this topic please use our writing services. EssayEmpire.com offers reliable custom essay writing services that can help you to receive high grades and impress your professors with the quality of each essay or research paper you hand in.

The term cold war is often given to the period of rivalry and confrontation between the United States (and its allies) and the Soviet Union (and its allies) from the end of World War II (1939–1945) until relations thawed in the late 1980s, when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev undertook reforms. Writer George Orwell used the term cold war, and Bernard M. Baruch, an adviser of U.S. president Harry S.Truman, in April 1947 said, “Let us not be deceived—we are today in the midst of a cold war. Our enemies are to be found abroad and at home.” Baruch himself credited the phrase to Herbert B. Swope, the former editor of the New York World, and that same year the writer and journalist Walter Lippman also used the term.

Origins

There is debate over the cold war’s precise start: Some scholars identify its origins as predating 1945, but the period’s initial years are often associated with the immediate post–World War II period. By 1945, the United States and Soviet Union had emerged as the two leading powers (they were frequently called the superpowers), and by 1947 a general East (Soviet)West (American) division of states was developing. The West believed the Soviets sought to undermine democracy and establish “puppet” communist regimes in Eastern Europe, thus increasing influence in their zone of occupation in Germany. The Soviets defended their actions in terms of establishing broadly based antifascist governments friendly towards them. Other conflicts emerged elsewhere, and both states increasingly denounced each other. Events symbolic of the cold war’s early years include the Berlin blockade (1948–1949), when the Soviets blocked access to West Berlin, and the 1949 Communist victory in China over the American-supported Nationalist government.

International Tensions

Tensions continued in the 1950s, and their impact was felt globally. This was particularly the case as both countries had nuclear weapons—the United States from 1945 and Soviet Union from 1949—and built alliances. These included the West’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization, established in 1949, and the Soviet-Communist European Warsaw Pact (1955–1991). The Korean War (1950–1953) began in June 1950 when Soviet aligned North Korea sent forces across the 38th parallel of latitude dividing the Korean peninsula and invaded South Korea. This led to U.S. and United Nations deployment of forces and China’s involvement. Fighting ultimately ended along the original 38th parallel with an armistice agreement in July 1953. Soviet domination over Eastern Europe during this time was graphically illustrated by the crushing of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.

Tensions increased in the early 1960s. In 1961, the Soviets constructed the Berlin wall separating East Germany from West Germany, and the following year the Cuban missile crisis occurred. This is generally regarded as the cold war’s most dangerous event, with the superpowers coming close to a nuclear war. In October 1962, a U.S. spy plane photographed missile sites being built by the Soviets in Cuba. U.S. president John F. Kennedy established a naval blockade to prevent the arrival of additional Soviet military supplies, demanding the removal of the missiles and the destruction of the sites. For thirteen highly tense days, there was uncertainty over how the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev would respond to the naval blockade and U.S. demands. Khrushchev ultimately ordered Soviet ships to turn back and agreed to dismantle the weapon sites; in return, the United States agreed not to invade Cuba. In a separate, unpublicized deal, the United States agreed to remove its nuclear missiles from Turkey.

Cold war tensions decreased after the Cuban missile crisis, with a period of détente emerging. In 1963 the hot line was installed to provide direct communications between the superpowers, and the Partial Test Ban Treaty outlawing nuclear testing in the atmosphere was concluded. Preliminary discussions to limit long-range missiles and bombers began in 1967, but ended after the Soviets suppressed the 1968 Czechoslovakian Revolution. In 1969, the discussion resumed under the name of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) and concluded in 1972. The numbers of strategic launchers (missiles or bombers) were frozen for five years, although modernization and increases in the number of warheads carried by launchers were allowed. Relations between the United States and China improved, and in 1979, the SALT II Treaty, focusing on the total numbers and explosive power of warheads, was negotiated. Although it remained unratified after the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the superpowers largely continued to follow the treaty limits until the conclusion of the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START). Despite these events, conflict between the superpowers continued, especially in Africa and the Middle East. Moreover, the United States was involved in the Vietnam War, beginning in 1959 and lasting until the 1975 fall of South Vietnam to the Communist North.

Final Decade

The early 1980s witnessed increased cold war rivalry until tensions declined during the decade’s later years. The invasion of Afghanistan, Polish martial law from 1981 to 1983, the 1983 U.S. invasion of Grenada, and the Soviet destruction of a Korean airliner the same year set the context of a renewed arms race. U.S. president Ronald Reagan and British prime minister Margaret Thatcher strongly denounced the Soviet Union. Tensions began to ease after Gorbachev took power in 1985 and undertook reforms. The 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty required the destruction of the parties’ ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of between 500 and 5,500 kilometers (approximately 310–3,818 miles), their launchers, and associated support structures and support equipment. The Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, and the first START talks concluded in 1991. These required reductions in each state’s long-range launchers and warheads along with further limitations, especially on land based missiles. During the late 1980s, Soviet domination over Eastern Europe fell, as symbolized by the 1989 fall of the Berlin wall. The Soviet Union itself collapsed in 1991.

There are various interpretations of the cold war, its origins, and why it ended. Factors often associated with the period include: the continuation of great power rivalry for domination and strategic advantage; the result of misperceptions of motives causing the alliance that defeated fascism to collapse and spur an arms race; events largely promoted by those standing to benefit from them, such as the military-industrial complex; and an ideologically driven conflict between capitalism and communism, or between democracy and totalitarianism.

Bibliography:

British Broadcasting Corporation. “Word Wars: The Cold War.” BBC News: World Wars in Depth. www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/coldwar/.
Bealey, Frank. The Blackwell Dictionary of Political Science. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999.
Comfort, Nicolas. Brewer’s Politics: A Phrase and Fable Dictionary. London: Cassell, 1995.
Gaddis, John. The Cold War: A New History. New York: Penguin Books, 2005.
Halliday, Fred. The Making of the Second Cold War. London: Verso, 1986.
Hanhimaki, Jussi, and Westad, Odd. The Cold War: A History in Documents and Eyewitness Accounts. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. “The Cuban Missile Crisis.” John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Historical Resources. www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/JFK+in+History/ Cuban+Missile+Crisis.htm.
McLean, Iain. Oxford Concise Dictionary of Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Robertson, David. A Dictionary of Modern Politics, 3rd ed. London: Europa Publications, 2002.
Walker, Martin. The Cold War: A History. New York: Holt, 1994.
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. “Cold War International History Project. ”The Wilson Center. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/program/cold-war-international-history-project?fuseaction=topics.home&topic_id=1409.