Cold war

Cold war term was first used in 1947 by an American diplomat Bernard Baruch and later on Walter Lippmann popularizes
this word.
Definition of cold war given by Florence Elliott: a state of tension between countries in which each side adopts policies
designed to strengthen itself and weaken the others while falling short of actual hot war.
Origin:

 It can be traced from 1917 itself: first communist state was established in form of Russia. The origin is traced there
because when Russia was formed, entire European countries sent their armies to attack communism ad such tension arose
there.

Evolution:

 The reason for this revolution is that when the western powers were involved in the policy of appeasement (British and
France towards Germany) and this policy of appeasement was time and again denied by the Russia and it increased the
gap between western block and the soviet union. Policy of appeasement: when Germany started destroying the treaty of
Versailles and here Chamberlin remained silent and only did verbal remarks.

 Although USSR joined the Second World War, it has different war aims: USSR fought on the sides of the allied powers.
They had different aims as they wished to partition Germany, and after partition it wanted to include one part within itself.
Additionally, Soviet Union wanted to create a group of east European nations which could be friendly to Soviet Union. Such
war aims were always opposed by America because it was feared that such countries would be influence by communism
and entire Eastern Europe would be turned communist.

 Soviet Union’s refusal to open the black sea for international navigation because USSR was very skeptical that
Americans and western power would dominate the navigation route and in order to ward off the capitalistic power it
implemented this treaty. It even feared that it would lead to commercial penetration to the Eastern Europe. [tension between
USSR and US]

 Delay in opening second front: when during the Second World War, operation Barbarossa took place, when Germany
attacked Russia, Russia asked the western power to open the second front and attack Germany from western side which
will thin down the concentration of German troops in Russia but such opening was delayed.

 Manhattan project: atom bomb was developed through this. It was confined between America, France and Britain and
secrecy was maintained for the development of the atom war and Russia was not informed about it. It leads to distrust
between the two powers.

 Russian annexation of Japanese Territory: after the end of the Second World War, Russia started Japanese territory.
Even America dropped the atom bombs to end the war at soon as possible and to stop Russia from such annexations, atom
bomb was dropped. Such annexation created tension between

 American decision to remilitarize Greece: after the withdrawal of Britain from Greece, this decision of America lead
Russia to keep its troops in the Eastern Europe and such actions created tensions between America and USSR.

Formal declaration of the cold war:

 It can be traced in March 1946 speech of Winston Churchill. Here he was delivering a lecture in the
Westminster College in Fulton. This speech is known as the iron curtain speech. He stated that, “a shadow had
fallen upon the sea, so lately lighted by the allied victory. Nobody knows what the soviet Russia intends to do from
Baltic to Adriatic an iron curtain has decanted.” He meant that due to the soviet influence, the eastern countries
are not contacting with the western countries and ideologically they are becoming communist and all kind of
interactions have been sez9ied between the eastern and western Europe.

Developments of cold war

 Marshall Plan (John Marshall): it was part of the Truman Doctrine (Henry Truman, US President). It is a
doctrine of forward policy and it talks about that America should have to end the doctrine of isolation and it should
now actively involve in the world affairs. As part of this plan, the idea of the American was to increase the
influence in the western world and especially the Europe. After the Second World War, Europe was completely
 devastated and in order to recover financially, America drew out Marshall Plan, and under this plan 20 billion
dollar funds were sanctioned by the congress and through this fund Europe had to be rejuvenated. In return, the
Soviet Union brought out a Molotov plan and through this plan, it also offered loans and aids to the European
countries. But it was more concentrated with the eastern countries. Marshall Plan is termed as dollar imperialism
by Russia and Molotov plan is termed as the red imperialism by the America. This further escalated tension
between US and USSR.

 Formation of COMINFORM, 1947: communist international forum: it was this org. which was established by
Stalin. The main motive was to bring together the different communist patties of the Europe so that all the
communists parties should be brought under one head and all should follow only one version of communism, I.e.
Russian version of communism. He wanted to achieve ideological uniformity. Additionally, he wanted to increase
the hold over these satellite sates (eastern European countries). As a result, all contacts by the satellite states
and Russia with the non communists were stopped.

 1948, Yugoslavia attempted to refuse the surrender of their power to Stalin and it was expelled from
COMINFORM in 1948. It forms the non aligned state and further it’s Marshall Tito, along with Nehru and Abdul
Gaffer Nasir became the founding members of the non aligned movement.

 Security alliances

o 1949: north Atlantic treaty org was formed. It was estb. By America to encircle Soviet Union so that it
cannot expand its virus of communism.

o SEATO: 1953-54: south East Asia treaty org: these were laid down due to the US initiative. And
primarily the idea was that through this the Russian communism would be stopped from its influence in
south east nations like Thailand

o MEDO: these were laid down due to the US initiative. Middle East defence org, 1953-54: to curb
down the escalation of communions in the Middle East countries.

o Against these initiatives, the Soviet Union formed WARSAW treaty. And primarily all the east
European countries were part this treaty.

Then, first the American exploded the Hydrogen bomb (thermo nuclear device) and in this form the nuclear war began
during 1950s.
Vietnam War
Longest battle
Indo china (Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam), indo china was under the French occupation right from 19th century.
During the 2nd world war, this region was occupied by Japan
From 1946 to 1954: Independent movement, the people of Vietnamese launched an independent movement against France.
This movement was lead by Vietminh (League for Vietnamese independence), which was formed by Ho Chi Minh.
Ho Chi minh, by ideology was a communist and he had his formal training in Russia.
Under his lead this independence movement was launched and this was the alliance of the all the group as a common
cause was emerged against the France.
Reasons for the French defeat was also the 2nd world war as it had broken the French
Geneva agreement, 1954: what should be the way of withdrawal, regarding this Geneva agreement took place, strong
nations like UK France, USA, China was part of this agreement and the conditions were that:

 Laos and Cambodia will be henceforth declared as independent nation

 Vietnam was divided temporarily (17th parallel)

 North Vietnam would be under the lead to ho chi minh and the Chinese and the soviet union

 South Vietnam would be under the influence of USA

 After some time, election would be held in UNO and as a result of which they would be reunited.

Beginning of the war:

 In south Vietnam, Baodai was made as the ruler, he was held and supported by supporters, in north Vietnam, elections
took place and ho chi minh became the undisputed ruler

 Later on this dividing line remained as it is as America realized that if election took place, the entire Vietnam would be
under ho chi minh and American did not wanted the entire Vietnam to be a communist nation.

 After Baodai, Ngo Diem replaced him and he became unpopular due to his misgovernance.

 Ho chi minh formed a guerrilla unit called Vietcong and theses were involved into the killings of the unpopular leaders
and other such activities in South America. They became very dominant and his indirect involvement of ho chi minh brought
America in the play. Additionally, South Vietnamese even favored ho chi minh. They also murdered the ruler and this was
the immediate reasons for the beginning of the war.

US involvement 1954-1975:

 Eisenhower: 1954-1961: during his period, the prime policy was to support of Vietnam by supplying support and arms
and materials and men. No direct involvement was there.

 1961-1963 John F Kennedy: the Americans adopted a ‘safe village policy’. Vietcong were not wearing any dress and it
was difficult to identify them and due to that Kennedy adopted this policy and by these entire villagers were shifted into a
fortified settlement. The ideas were that if Vietcong was inside such settlements, they could be caught. But the policy was
failure. Till now, American policy was a passive one.

 Lynden Johnson 1963- 1969: during his period, he started the policy of bombing over North Vietnam. The reason was
that America believed that the source of all the evil is North Vietnam only. Trails and passage between north and South
Vietnam were bombed. During his period, he bombed in that intensity which was even more then what Germany faced in
2ndworld war. Despite this, his policy failed. Due to international criticism, this bombing was suspended.

 Nixon 1969-1974: he adopted the policy of ‘Vietnamization’. This meant that Americans knew that sooner or later they
would withdraw from Vietnam. So before leaving Vietnam, they wanted to train the Vietnams so that they can tackle
Vietcong (military training). Bombings were also started. Vietcong were good in climbing of trees and to remove this they
used chemical weapons and dropped Agent Organ, Napalm Jelly bomb. This was in vain and additionally, lot of American
soldiers even died. Due to this war crime, Nixon had to resign.

 In 1973, ceasefire was declared by the Americans and American troops withdrew. South Vietnam’s capital (Saigon)
and North Vietnam’s capital (Hanoi). In 1975, ho chi minh crossed the border and it was reunited and he became the first
prez.

Why Americans failed?

 The popularity of ho chi minh and Vietcong: they got the support of the common people in ways of logistics, hiding
places and other supports.

 Role of china and soviet union: they supplied arms, ammunition and materials to Vietnam

 Leadership: the more and more bombing were happening, the Vietnamese were more resolved to fight America

 International pressure: due to the use of bombing.

 Domestic pressure: 1000s of American soldiers fought in the Jungle war and as they were not comfortable in fighting in
such conditions, they lost.

Consequences:

 Vietnam was reunited

 The communist celebrated as their victory.

 Laos and Cambodia also became communists

 This Vietnamese war lead to the decline of the American prestige in the world

 It was this war which leads to the escaping of Nixon’s impeachment.

Water gate scandal: water gate was the HQ of the democrats in America. They claimed that they had conclusive evidences
that the Republicans had violated human rights. One day, they found their office disturbed and all such documents were
taken off and burnt. Later on during the investigation, Nixon’s involvement in this scandal was found as direct.

Need for division of Korea.

1945- division- because of US and USSR- the reason was to hasten the surrender of the Japanese forces. An agreement
was signed. By this agreement they decided to divide Korea in two north and south and N was under the control of USSR
and S in the influence of US. This division was not to be permanent.
- election plan- idea came from USA- demography- 2/3 population in South Korea- they believed that Korea united
would be preferred and then the entire Korea would be under the influence of US- USSR couldn’t deny the idea of
elections.
- Agreement- election was held in SK independently and in this, in 1948 and by this election Singnum Rhee was the
president,
- NK no elections took place- USSR appointed Kim u Sung as the president with Xiom Tang as the captain of North
Korea.
- NK- rule under Kim- was authoritarian rule.
No elections, etc.
- After the formation of govt. realized the need to withdraw their troops and in 1949 both withdrew their troops.
- People of Korea had the grievance that there was a promise of reunification but they were separated. They blamed
both USA and USSR for this division.
ACTUAL WAR
- 1950- 53
In 1950, the invasion happened and NK attacked SK.
One year, Kim UN Sung visited Stalin and an entire plan was created for invasion with the aegis of USSR. (1950)
Theories proposed:
Russians have been blamed by the Americans for being instrumental. They were supplying arms and ammunition to NK and
they helped in planning.
Americans have been blamed by the Russians for initiating the war and invaded NK.
NK says that first SK started crossing borders and then NK reacted.
These blame games- the entire onus of this war was with NK, facts suggest the same.
American troops on a base near Japan when invasion happened and with this we can see the involvement of America in the
war.
UNO also passed a resolution after this invasion; it says that NK must withdraw its troops unconditionally from SK. But when
NK refused to agree to this, then UNO sanctioned USA to lead a multi nation forces and send their troops to protect SK.
WAR b/w SK troops along with UNO troops.
This was lead under ten. MC arthunan. Majorly USA, but multinational.
By September of 1950, the troops landed in NK and almost the entire NK was taken over by UN troops.
The first step of the war- the UN troops not only cleared the NK troops but took over NK as well. Including Pres. Territory.
Sea factor of the war- INVOLVEMENT OF CHINA
China got threatened when NK was attacked as there was ill will between USA and China ant they were afraid they will enter
China as well.
to counter this the Chinese sent more than 3 lakh troops and NK with the help, overtook entire SK including Seoul but they
could not take over Busan region.
region of Manchuria, idea proposed to drop Atomic bomb on Manchuria- Truman rejected MC arthur’s suggestion and they
removed Arthur from his position.
what they feared was:
1. Japan has been subject to atomic war once.
2. if they attack, Russia will attack as a reply and the war would turn more ugly.
- More and More troops came from the UN forces and they started sending NK troops back. they overtook the entire
SK till 30th parallel.
- this way peace talks were initiated and 30th parallel was accepted as the dividing line.
 - this was the war.

CONSEQUENCES
1. korea was devastated in terms of infrastructure, human resource- more than 40 million died and more than 5 million
became homeless
this war sowed seeds of suspicion b/w NK and SK, now both as hostile towards each other and are suspicious of each
other’s ambition.
2. communism was contained because USSR had the plan to take over the entire Korea and this war stopped the spread of
communism from NK to SK and it stayed in NK only.
3. UNO directly involved in the conflict- UNO acted directly- it enhanced it’s prestige and showed it as a world government.
later on, UNO took part in a lot of search operations and est. itself as an efficient global organisation.
4. china- new born nation- by this, and china’s active role- image of china as that of a great power. china impacted the
unification of korea, prevented it. Showed china in the new light, light of a great power.
5. US China relation further got strained. after this war, the relations further detoriated.
6. America wanted to encircle china and started building bases around China. Nato also played an important role.
7. SEATO treaty signed- initiated by NK- signed- meant to increase the influence of Americans in the Indian Ocean region.
They wanted to curb the spread of communism in south east asia.
SEATO or military treaty.

read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War

Detente
Détente: during a cold war period, this period lead to the lessening of the tension between the nations. This was an 8 -9
period from 1968-1969s to 1975-76.
How this happened?

 Vietnam War: this collapsed the prestige of USA. So it was desperately in the need of something by which it gain
regains its powers. So it stared disarmament. SALT – I and II (Strategic arms limitation treaty) and START I and II (Strategic
arms reduction treaty) were signed, through this, both USA and USSR agreed on reduction of the stock of the arms and
nuclear weapons. Now they will approximately reduce the maintenance of the nuclear weapons and many could have been
saved. So, 15-20% of the nuclear weapons had to be destroyed.

 China was also the country in the cold war. Earlier china was anti American in 1950s, immediately after the Korean
War. After 1960s, the scenario was changing, USSR and china start going on sides.

o Though they both were communists but their ideologies were different. Russian wanted to enforce
Russian version in China and there china named Russia as revisionists. Revisionists are someone who
suck into the parliamentary politics of a country and completely curb the chances of revolution. [check
out]

o Order conflicts: there were exchange of fire and troops were crossing border and many allegation
started. This opportunity was seized was USA and the relation between USA and china became cordial.

 Lot of joint space mission took place. Soyuz mission of Russia and Apollo mission of America joined together for the
joint exploration of the space.

 Head of the states visited each other’s city and many treaties and agreements took place. Like technological
exchanges. Like Nixon visited Russia and same was done by the Russian Counterpart who visited America.

 Both had to maintain their status quo and the idea of dominance was gone as it was very costly. A friendly ambiance
was emerging due to this.

How from this era of Détente, world entered into the era of new cold war? 1978-79 onwards:

 Soviet intervention in Afghanistan: Taliban’s literal meaning is disciples. All the madarsas were brought together by
USA and it was teaching them as to how to tackle USSR. Afghanistan was ruled by Daud at that time. Earlier it had good
relations with USSR and since it was proximate to USSR. Saudi Arabia and Iran convinced Daud to shift toward USA and
make alliance with America. Gradually Daud got convinced and when USSR knew about this, USSR sent troops and took it
under control.

 Middle East region: MEDO and as a result of this, Americans had a strong influence on the Middle East. But by this
time, USSR started having influence in the Middle East.

 Jimmy Carter: his policy was assertive in nature.

o Blamed USSR for gross human rights violation under the soviet regime.

o Cruise missiles: it had a pin point accuracy which was not there in other missiles. Americans made this
and it started a new arm race. It could be launched from any place like submarines, planes etc.

 Sino-US relations: earlier there was a Sino-USSR relation for 100s of years. Naturally it affected rise of cold war.

 SALT II: this was signed between Carter and Brezhnev in 1979. After singing this, America witnessed that Soviet
brigades in Cuba and America asked Russia to immediately withdraw it but Russia refused. So jimmy carter withdrew from
this treaty. In 1980, Moscow Olympics took place and this was boycotted by the Americans.

 Shah Issue: in 1979, Shah was the ruler in Iran and was an ally of America. His regime was overthrown and it was an
act of USSR. The new head of the state, since then Iran - American relations were not that good and America was not able
to get cheap oil and adequate oil supplies.

 NATO: it was created to encircle the communism. It got power to deploy cruise missiles. They were around china and
USSR. Through NATO, America was insulting Russia and cruise missiles were being placed near the soviet territories on
the already deployed bases.

Difference between old and new cold war:

Old
Alliance partner NATO, SEATO, MEDO: USA
Warsaw Pact: USSR
Arms At every point of time, nuclear
weapons were possessed, and
then even conventional weapons
were prominent. Americans were
at the lead in these weapons
Perception regarding the nuclear They are not to be used but they
weapons are only the weapons of
deterrence
new
No alliances or they were
negligible. It was only USA vs.
USSR
Arms race was in terms of
nuclear race. The Russians had
almost equal weapons with USA.
The perception was changed and
it was realized that nuclear war
could be fought and can even be
won. Therefore, it was more
dangerous than the old. The
perception changed because: new
technological innovations (early
warning systems were developed
which can predict the
advancement of the weapons
from the other side); more
sophisticated weapons got
developed like cruise missile;
they developed the interceptors
through which they can intercept
the other country’s missiles.
Leadership vs. Parity It was for global leadership as It was just a search for parity and
both had the desire for global they wanted only balance of
dominance power and equality.
Ideology Played significant role. Only due More concentrated on the
to this NATO was formed strategies like national interests.
End of the cold war:

 Yalta Summit, 1945:

 Malta Summit, 1989: held between the premiers of both the nations. Bush and___. They realized that there was not
purpose for more fighting and it was followed by Washington summit of 1990 and by this cold war ended. Both the powers
realized the feudality of involving in the conflicts.

 Why this happened:

o The changed strategic perception of both the powers: any use of the nuclear weapons would be
suicidal and due to this there was no use of the nuclear weapons.

o Economy: both the country’s economy was serious declining. Russians suffered the most and the
value of their currency was falling. Russian economy was more in strain. They had to maintain large
number of military bases in the world and they could not find any benefit in doing so. When they
performed the cost benefit analysis, they found that this is causing more loss to them and therefore,
maintaining the bases and securing them and maintain the nuclear troops was ended.

Consequences:

 Disintegration of the Soviet Union: the entire part of the Eastern Europe got disintegrated.

 Berlin wall: the fall of the Berlin wall, it was created in 1960s to divide Germany. The fall of the Berlin wall is called as
the virtual end of the cold war. After this the provinces of USSR became independent.

 There was a general perception emerging of the feudality of the wars. Everyone realized that nothing could be realized
by war and that things can be achieved from negotiations. Realist school believed that everything could be solved by wars
but liberalist believed the opposite and liberalists prevailed.

 Non-aligned movement: the relevance was being questioned. In the world which is uni-polar, where only America had
dominance, it became it more relevant as it to check that no country could dominate other. NAM was initially joined by
countries who did not want to join any group, either westerns or eastern

 Change in the Indian foreign policy: we were very close to USSR and were untouchables to America. It was a policy of
non alignment. But now, relation with USSR became cold and had better relations with America.

 US – pak relations: after the cold war, pak lost its utility and American dumped pak. This continued only for 10 years.
But again after 9/11, Pakistan against lost its relevance. During 1990-2000, it lost its relevance as it was used as America’s
base and now they left it.

 Russian policies: it completely reversed. Earlier it had good relation with third world counties, but now it had better
relations with western countries as it badly needed foreign investments to rejuvenate the economy.

US china relations: the good relation which America had with china was getting lost. America
started blaming china for huge weapon stocks