Cold War Era: Peaceful Coexistence and Conflicts (1954-1975)
The Cold War Era: Peaceful Coexistence and Conflicts (1954-1975)
New Leaders and the Beginning of Détente
Since 1953, a change of leadership occurred in the two great powers. Eisenhower became president of the United States, and that same year Stalin died, succeeded by Khrushchev. Both leaders seemed more willing to negotiate than their predecessors, which initiated a thaw in relations between the two powers. This new stage in relations between the two blocs is called peaceful coexistence. However, this period was not entirely free of conflict. Talks between the superpowers alternated with periods of great international tension, which, in severe cases, put the world on the brink of nuclear confrontation.
Internal Conflicts Within the Blocs
Dissidents in the Communist Bloc
In several Eastern European countries, popular movements arose against the Soviet Union’s domination of their politics. The most important were the Hungarian revolt of 1956 and the Czechoslovak reform movement known as the Prague Spring of 1968. In all cases, dissent was harshly suppressed, and the Soviet army invaded these countries to quell the riots. Other communist countries were moving away from the USSR. The most important case was China, which, after the death of Stalin, distanced itself from Moscow.
Strains in the West
The most significant case was that of France under President de Gaulle, who advocated for an independent policy equidistant from the two superpowers and developed a nuclear arsenal of its own. The U.S. had a much more expeditious attitude of dissent in the countries of Latin America. There, the United States intervened in governments that deviated from their political principles, sometimes promoting coups and sometimes supporting and training guerrillas and invasion armies. Countries like Guatemala and Chile were affected by continued U.S. involvement.
Conflicts Between the Blocs
The Second Berlin Crisis
Due to its position in East Germany, Berlin had an easy contact point between the two blocs. Many residents fled the German Democratic Republic to the West, attracted by better living standards. In 1961, the East German government began building a barrier to separate the eastern side of the city from the West: the Berlin Wall.
The Cuban Missile Crisis
In 1959, the guerrillas led by Fidel Castro came to power, and the new regime was a threat to Western interests. U.S. opposition to political change on the island brought the Castro government closer to the Soviet Union. The U.S. considered an ally of the USSR only 150 km from its coast dangerous, as it could be a destabilizing factor for Latin America and promote the emergence of revolutionary movements in other countries. The United States sponsored an invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs by Cuban exiles led by the CIA, with the aim of overthrowing Castro. The invasion was a fiasco. Castro’s response was to ask for military aid and protection from the Soviet Union.
In 1962, a more serious conflict broke out. The presence of Soviet nuclear missiles was detected in Cuba. Kennedy ordered a naval blockade of Cuba. Khrushchev finally ordered the withdrawal of the ships and the dismantling of missile ramps. The Cuban crisis was the most dangerous conflict of the Cold War; the world was kept in suspense about the possibility of imminent nuclear war.
The Vietnam War
The next point of friction between the two superpowers was resolved in Vietnam through so-called “local wars.” The Indochina peninsula had been a French colony. France had withdrawn from the area after a long war in which it was defeated. The agreement divided the country into two states: North Vietnam, with a communist regime led by Ho Chi Minh, and South Vietnam, ruled by a pro-Western dictatorship. In South Vietnam, there was a communist guerrilla group, the Viet Cong, supported by the North Vietnamese regime, which threatened to topple the government. The United States decided to support the South Vietnamese regime, fearing that communism would be imposed throughout the country. They wanted to avoid the “domino effect,” meaning that a revolution in one country could serve as an example for the dissemination of pro-Soviet governments in neighboring countries. U.S. armed intervention began in 1964, with troop numbers surpassing 500,000. But it was all in vain; neither the surge nor the technological superiority or chemical weapons attacks managed to dominate an enemy that used guerrilla tactics and had significant popular support. Besides, opposition to the conflict had spread throughout the West, even within the U.S., due to the television images shown.
In 1973, a ceasefire agreement was reached. The U.S. withdrew all its troops and agreed to the reunification of the country. In 1975, the two Vietnams joined, forming the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, which was immediately integrated into the Soviet bloc. Around the same time, the neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia fell into the Soviet orbit. The Vietnam War represented an enormous loss of international prestige for the United States.