Cold War: Escalation, Formation of Blocks, and Détente
The Escalation of Tensions and the Formation of Blocks
The United States and Britain accused the Soviets of destroying freedom. In March 1947, U.S. President Truman explained in a speech the grounds that became known as the Truman Doctrine: the need to contain the spread of communism, which at that particular time threatened Greece and Turkey. This statement is generally considered the beginning of the break between the two blocs.
The division of Germany into four occupation zones assigned to the Americans, British, French, and Russians also became a source of maximum tension. In protest, the Soviet Union, in whose area the former German capital had also been divided into four sectors, started the Berlin Blockade, whereby all land access to West Berlin was closed for almost a year. In 1949, the Russian zone became the German Democratic Republic. The partition of Germany solidified the division of the world into two blocs: the West, led by the United States, and the East, led by the USSR. In 1949, the Western powers formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and in 1955, the communist countries joined together in the Warsaw Pact.
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)
With the victory in the war, Stalin’s dictatorial power and the cult of personality grew stronger. After Stalin died in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev took control. The most important work of his domestic policy was the process of de-Stalinization, which softened the regime but maintained the Party’s control over institutions, censorship, and the repression of freedoms.
Problems persisted in the economy, such as low productivity, insufficient raw materials, and the ongoing agricultural crisis. Besides the low standard of living, the lack of supply of consumer commodities and the existence of a black market increasingly disillusioned society. After the fall of Khrushchev in 1964, the system was controlled by a gerontocracy, with Brezhnev at the forefront in the seventies. A young man, Mikhail Gorbachev, eventually rose to power.
The People’s Republic of China
- The Great Leap Forward campaign of the late fifties aspired to industrial development and increasing agricultural productivity by mobilizing the peasantry and grouping them into people’s communes. Its failure resulted in a great famine.
- The Cultural Revolution of the sixties militarized Maoist youth, called Red Guards. They imposed the revolutionary principles of Mao’s authority, leading to a purge and prosecution of those suspected of anti-revolutionary or foreign influences.
The Republic of Cuba
In 1959, Fidel Castro took power in Cuba after a guerrilla struggle against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. The new regime transitioned to communism in 1961, expropriating and nationalizing U.S. properties on the island and establishing strong relations with the USSR. Castro established a dictatorial socialist republic. The economic boycott by the United States led to serious deficiencies in supply and a low standard of living.
Reaffirmation of the Blocks
In 1956, two conflicts clarified the dynamics within the blocs:
- Within the communist bloc, there was a rebellion in Hungary in favor of the democratization of the regime. The uprising was suppressed.
- Within the capitalist bloc, the Suez Crisis broke out following the nationalization of the canal by Egyptian President Nasser. The involvement of Israel, France, and the UK failed to win U.S. support, as the U.S. feared that the conflict would explode into a clash with the USSR. The U.S. and the Soviet Union were determined to avoid direct confrontation.
In each bloc, only the will and authority of the relevant superpower mattered.
Peaceful Coexistence
Peaceful coexistence, promoted by Khrushchev’s de-Stalinization policy, implied the USSR’s resignation to export communism and the acceptance of the existence of the other bloc. In 1961, East Germany ordered the construction of a wall that separated East Berlin from West Berlin.
The Missile Crisis
In 1962, the CIA organized and financed an invasion of Cuba by anti-Castro Cubans who landed in the Bay of Pigs. The invasion ended in disaster and enabled a greater rapprochement between Cuba and the USSR. This led to the October 1962 missile crisis, in which President Kennedy ordered a naval blockade of the island, announcing that he would sink any ship that tried to break it. Khrushchev gave the order to withdraw Soviet ships and pledged to dismantle the missile ramps.
Détente
From the Cuban Missile Crisis onward, there was talk of détente. A hotline was established, directly linking the Kremlin and the White House to avoid misunderstandings. The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) led to agreements on nuclear arms limitation.
The Origins of the Conflict in Indochina
The territory of Vietnam was part of the French colony of Indochina. When the French retreated in the fifties, the Geneva Conference of 1954 divided the country along the 17th parallel into two states:
- South Vietnam, with its capital in Saigon.
- The Democratic Republic of Vietnam, a communist regime with its capital in Hanoi, presided over by Ho Chi Minh.