COPIED FROM WORLDBOOK:

Highlights of the Cold War

(from the Cold War article)
1946-1948
Communists take over Eastern Europe.
1947
Truman Doctrine announced by United States.
1948-1949
Berlin blockade set up by Soviet Union.
1949
NATO pact signed by 12 countries.
1949
Communists win control of China.
1950-1953
Korean War--first use of UN troops in battle.
1953
Death of Stalin alters Cold War.
1955
Summit conference held in Geneva.
1960
Soviet Union downs U-2 spy plane.
1961
German Communists build Berlin Wall.
1961
Castro announces he is a Communist.
1964
United States bombs bases in North Vietnam.
1975
Communists win Vietnam War.
1979
Soviet Union invades Afghanistan.
1989
Communist rule comes to an end in several Eastern European countries.
1989
German Communists open Berlin Wall.

ARTICLE CONTENTS

Lexile Measure: 1060L

Introduction
The coming of the Cold War

The West holds the line

To the brink and back

New challenges

Easing Cold War tensions

The shifting Cold War battleground

The Cold War in the 1970's

The Cold War after 1980

Highlights of the Cold War

Cold War describes the intense rivalry that developed after World War II
(1939-1945) between groups of Communist and non-Communist nations. On
one side were the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (the Soviet Union) and
its Communist allies, often referred to as the Eastern bloc. On the other side
were the United States and its mostly democratic allies, usually referred to as
theWestern bloc. The struggle was called the Cold War because it did not
actually lead to fighting, or "hot" war, on a wide scale. Still, between 1945 and
1991, millions of people died in the Cold Wars hot theatersthat is, places
where military action occurredmainly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

The Cold War was characterized by mutual distrust, suspicion, and

misunderstandings among the United States, the Soviet Union, and their allies.
At times, these conditions increased the likelihood of a third world war. The
United States accused the Soviet Union of seeking to expand Communism
throughout the world. The Soviets, meanwhile, charged the United States with
practicing imperialism and interfering with other countries. Each bloc's vision of
the world contributed to East-West tension. The United States claimed to want
a world of independent, democratic nations. The Soviet Union, however,
attempted to tightly control areas it considered vital to its national interest.
Such areas included much of Eastern Europe. For a discussion of the
principles of Communism and democracy, see Communism and Democracy.
Although the Cold War did not begin until the end of World War II, relations
between the United States and the Soviet Union had been strained for
decades. In 1917, a revolution in Russia established a Communist dictatorship
there. From 1918 to 1920, the Communists and the anti-Communists in Russia
fought a bloody civil war. Several other countriesincluding Canada, France,
Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United Statessent troops to support the
anti-Communists. Nevertheless, the Communists defeated their opponents.
The Communist government created the Soviet Union in 1922.
During the 1920's and the 1930's, the Soviets called for world revolution. They
wanted the destruction of capitalism, which was the economic system of the
United States. After a slight lessening of tensions, the United States granted
diplomatic recognition to the Soviet Union in 1933.
In 1941, during World War II, Germany attacked the Soviet Union. The Soviet
Union then joined the Western Allies in defeating Germany. For a time in 1945,
it seemed possible that a lasting friendship might develop between the United
States and the Soviet Union. However, major differences remained between
the two, particularly with regard to Eastern Europe.
Two hostile blocs soon emerged. The United States led the Western bloc. By
the early 1950's, this group included Australia, Canada, France, Japan, the

United Kingdom, West Germany, and many other countries. The Soviet Union
led the Eastern bloc, which included Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East
Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. China joined the Eastern bloc
following the Communist take-over of its government in 1949. Neutral nations
those in neither blocincluded Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Yugoslavia, and
many Middle Eastern and African states.

Bomb drill

During the late 1940's and the 1950's, Cold War tensions grew. Each side
accused the other of wanting to rule the world. Each side believed its political
and economic systems were better than the other's. Each strengthened its
armed forces. Both sides viewed the Cold War as a dispute between right and
wrong. They saw every revolt and every international incident as part of the
struggle. It was difficult to settle any dispute peacefully through compromise.
Fear grew that a local conflict would touch off a third world war that might
destroy humanity.
The nature of the Cold War began to change in the 1960's. Neither the East
nor the West remained a monolith (united bloc). Communist China
challenged Soviet leadership. France and West Germany often acted
independently of U.S. policies. The Communist take-over of Cuba stirred anti-

American feeling in Latin America. The rapid economic growth of China,

Japan, and West Germany made them important nations in the struggle for
power.
In 1970, Soviet and West German leaders signed a peace treaty. In 1971,
China joined the United Nations (UN). In 1979, China and the United States
established diplomatic relations.
Cold War tensions rose again in the late 1970s, peaking with the Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. In the following years, however, tensions
eased after economic, political, and social reforms within the Soviet Union.
Tensions relaxed further after the signing of a U.S.-Soviet arms-control
agreement and the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.
Beginning with the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, democratic reforms began in
Eastern Europe. In 1991, the Soviet Union broke up into a number of
independent, non-Communist states. These reforms and other developments
marked the end of the Cold War.

The coming of the Cold War

Historians do not agree on exactly when the Cold War began. But most agree
that the Yalta Conference, a meeting of Allied leaders in February 1945,
marked the high point of wartime good will between the United States and the
Soviet Union. Most historians also agree that relations between the two
countries grew noticeably worse within the first year after the conference.

Yalta Conference

The alliance breaks up. With Germany facing defeat in World War II, the
leaders of the Big Three nations met at the Yalta Conference to plan for the
peace that would follow the war. These leaders were President Franklin D.
Roosevelt of the United States, Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United
Kingdom, and Premier Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union. At Yalta, the leaders
agreed to set up occupation zones (areas controlled by the Allies) for
postwar Germany. They also made plans to form the United Nations. In
addition, Stalin promised that the Soviets would go to war against Japan within
three months after Germany surrendered.
The Allied leaders also developed the Declaration on Liberated Europe, in
which they pledged to hold democratic elections in countries freed from the
control of Germany and its allies. The Soviet Union failed, however, to keep
this agreement. At the time it was made, Soviet forces had driven German
troops out of most of Eastern Europe and had established a pro-Communist
government in Poland. Despite the Declaration on Liberated Europe, Stalin
was determined to maintain tight control over Eastern Europe. He especially
felt that control of Poland, which had been used as a route to invade the Soviet
Union, was necessary to Soviet security. The United States felt betrayed by
Stalin's refusal to carry out his promises and by his determination to establish
a "sphere of influence" in Eastern Europe.
Roosevelt died in April 1945, and Harry S. Truman succeeded him as U.S.
president. Germany surrendered in May. The main Allied leaders met for the
final time at Potsdam, near Berlin, in July. Just before the meeting, the British
Labour Party defeated Churchill's Conservative Party in an election. Clement
R. Attlee succeeded Churchill during the Potsdam Conference.
At Potsdam, the Allies agreed that the German people should be allowed to
rebuild their lives "on a democratic and peaceful basis." However, serious
disagreements arose. The United Kingdom and the United States charged that
the Soviet Union was turning Eastern Europe to Communism. Even before
World War II ended, the Soviet Union had taken over the Baltic states of
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania; parts of Finland, Poland, and Romania; and

eastern Czechoslovakia. After the war, Soviet troops occupied a third of

Germany and all of Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. Nevertheless,
the Western nations reluctantly agreed to transfer a large piece of German
territory to Polish control.

Soviet influence in Eastern Europe

The Iron Curtain descends. During 1945 and early 1946, the Soviet Union
cut off nearly all contacts between the West and the occupied territories of
Eastern Europe. In March 1946, Churchill warned that "an iron curtain has
descended across the Continent" of Europe. He made popular the phrase Iron
Curtain to refer to Soviet barriers against the West. Behind these barriers, the
Soviet Union steadily expanded its power.
By 1945, Albania and Yugoslavia had become Communist. In 1946, the
Soviets organized Communist governments in Bulgaria and Romania. In 1947,
Communists took control of Hungary and Poland. Communists seized full
power in Czechoslovakia early in 1948. These countries became
Soviet satellites(nations under Soviet control). See the History section of the
articles on each Communist country mentioned in this section.

The West holds the line

The Containment Policy. In the fall of 1946, Greek Communists revolted

against the Greek government. The United Kingdom had given military and
economic aid to Greece. However, the British told the United States they could
no longer give enough help to the Greeks. The British also warned that they
could not help Turkey resist Communist pressure.

Truman Doctrine

Truman Doctrine

In March 1947, President Truman declared that the United States would help
any free nation resist Communist aggression (attack). Congress granted his

request for $400 million to aid Greece and Turkey. With this aid, both Greece
and Turkey successfully resisted Communism. The new American policy
became known as the Truman Doctrine. Aimed at Soviet expansion in Europe
and the Middle East, the Truman Doctrine developed into the containment
policy. The containment policy was designed to contain (hold back) the
expansion of Communism throughout the world.
The foreign ministers of France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and
the United States met in Moscow in March and April 1947. They tried to draw
up a German peace treaty. But the ministers could not agree on ways to end
the occupation or on how to unify Germany.
The failure of the conference convinced U.S. Secretary of State George C.
Marshall that the Soviet Union would not help Europe recover from World War
II. In June 1947, Marshall proposed giving U.S. economic aid to all European
nations that would cooperate in plans for their own recovery. This proposal
grew into the European Recovery Program, or Marshall Plan, which began in
1948. The United States believed that a strong, stable Western Europe would
block the spread of Communism. Meanwhile, in September 1947, Stalin and
other Communist party leaders set up the Cominform (Communist Information
Bureau), a Soviet-dominated organization of Communist parties in Europe.
Czechoslovakia and Poland wanted to take part in the Marshall Plan, but the
Soviet Union would not let them accept U.S. aid. Instead, the Soviets set up
the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) in January 1949.
This organization was designed to unite the East European satellites
economically and politically.
In June 1948, the Western Allies announced plans to unify their German
occupation zones and establish the West German Federal Republic (West
Germany). West Germany was formally established in September 1949. It had
independence in some of its internal affairs, and it joined the Marshall Plan.

Also in June 1948, the Soviet Union harshly criticized Josip Tito, the
Communist leader of Yugoslavia. Tito then began to develop his own style of
Communism for Yugoslavia, free from Soviet control.

Berlin sectors after World War II

The Berlin blockade was the Soviet answer to the West's plans for West
Germany. In June 1948, Soviet troops blocked all railroad, highway, and water
traffic through East Germany to West Berlin. The city lay 110 miles (177
kilometers) inside the Soviet occupation zone. The Soviet leaders thought their
blockade would force the West to leave Berlin. Instead of pulling out of West
Berlin, the Americans, British, and French set up the Berlin Airlift. For 11
months, they supplied West Berlin with food and fuel entirely by airplanes. The
Soviets lifted the blockade in May 1949, and the airlift ended in September.
The West rearms. Military strength became more and more important in the
late 1940's. During the Berlin blockade, the United States pledged continuing
military aid to Western Europe. The United States, Canada, and 10 Western
European nations signed the North Atlantic Treaty in April 1949. This mutual
defense treaty set up the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a military
alliance. The goals of the alliance included the prevention of Soviet expansion
and the defense of West Germany. In September 1951, the United States
signed the ANZUS mutual defense treaty with Australia and New Zealand.

The nuclear arms race began on Aug. 29, 1949, when the Soviet Union tested
an atomic bomb. Until then, the United States had been the only nation that
knew how to make the atomic bomb.
Communist expansion in Asia. During the 1940's, Communist strength
increased in the Far East. The Soviet Red Army occupied Manchuria just
before the end of World War II. After the army left in 1946, Chinese
Communists took over most of northern Manchuria. The Soviets also set up a
North Korean "people's republic."
In China, Mao Zedong's Communist troops fought the Nationalist armies of
Chiang Kai-shek. The United States gave military aid to Chiang. Late in 1949,
Chiang and his government fled to the island of Taiwan, near the mainland of
China. The conquest of China by Mao's forces put China into the Communist
bloc.

Korean War: Armistice line

The Korean War. At the end of World War II, Soviet troops occupied North
Korea and U.S. forces occupied South Korea. The North Koreans had a strong
army, receiving Soviet military aid even after Soviet troops withdrew late in
1948. The United States withdrew from South Korea in June 1949.
The Korean War began with the North Korean invasion of South Korea on
June 25, 1950. On June 27, President Truman sent U.S. forces to aid the
South Koreans. At the request of the United States, the United Nations
Security Council voted to send UN troops to help South Korea. The Soviet

delegation wasboycotting (not attending) the council and missed a chance to

veto the decision. Sixteen UN member nations sent troops to help South
Korea. Chinese Communist troops aided North Korea.
Peace talks began in July 1951. They went on for two years while bloody
fighting continued. Finally, in July 1953, representatives of the UN and the
Communists signed an armistice (temporary peace). In 1954, representatives
of both sides met in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss a political settlement.
However, they could not agree on a way to unite North and South Korea.
Today, Korea remains divided.
The Korean War was the first war in which troops of a world organization
fought an aggressor nation. It also marked the first time Americans fought a
"hot war" against Communism. The Korean War extended the containment
policy to the Far East. It also introduced limited warfare as a substitute to alloutand possibly nuclearwar. Each side avoided attacking targets that
could lead to expansion of the war. And each side limited the weapons it used
and the territory in which it would fight.

To the brink and back

The Soviet leader Joseph Stalin died in March 1953, two months after Dwight
D. Eisenhower became president of the United States. Stalins death changed
the character of the Cold War.
The new Soviet rulers governed as a committee at first. Premier Georgi M.
Malenkov and his associates adopted a softer policy toward the Soviet
satellites and the West. For example, they allowed the Soviet wives of U.S.
servicemen to follow their husbands to America. The Soviets also set up a
cultural exchange program with the West. Soviet troops put down a revolt in
East Germany in June 1953, but the Soviet Union took a softer course of
action on other issues.
The arms race continued. The United States tested its first hydrogen bomb in
November 1952, and the Soviet Union set off its first H-bomb in November

1955. Military alliances strengthened during this period. West Germany joined
NATO in 1955. In response, the Soviets and their Eastern European satellites
signed the Warsaw Mutual Defense Pact, a military alliance. In 1955, the
United States announced its support of the Baghdad Pact. The pact, later
called the Central Treaty Organization, was a military alliance of Iran, Iraq,
Pakistan, Turkey, and the United Kingdom that lasted until 1979.

U.S. missiles on parade

In January 1954, the new U.S. secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, had
outlined a new American military policy. The United States, he warned, would
meet Communist aggression by "massive retaliation" with nuclear weapons.
The United States, Dulles said, would strike back "at places and with means of
our own choosing."
Cold War tensions increased in eastern Asia during 1954 and 1955. The
nationalist Vietnamese in Indochina were led by Communists and supported
by China. In the spring of 1954, after years of fighting, they defeated the
French at Dien Bien Phu. The two sides signed a cease-fire agreement in
Geneva in July 1954. It recognized the temporary division of Vietnam and
gave North Vietnam to the Communists. Nationwide elections were to be held
in 1956. However, neither the United States nor South Vietnam signed the
agreement, and South Vietnam refused to hold the elections. The agreement
also established the independence of Cambodia, Laos, and South Vietnam.

In 1954, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States, and
four other nations formed an alliance called the Southeast Asia Treaty
Organization (SEATO). SEATO lasted until 1977. Its goal was to prevent
further Communist expansion in Southeast Asia. After the defeat of France in
Indochina, the United States increased its aid to South Vietnam. The United
States believed that if one Southeast Asian nation fell to Communism, the
others would also topple over, one after another. This belief was called the
"domino theory." But even with U.S. support, South Vietnam could not defeat
the Communist rebels. The rebels, called Viet Cong, were supported by North
Vietnam. In 1955, the United States began sending military advisers to help
the South Vietnamese government.
The United States also increased its support of the Chinese Nationalists on
Taiwan. In September 1954, the Chinese Communists staged air and artillery
attacks against the islands of Quemoy and Matsu. These islands, in the
Formosa Strait (now called the Taiwan Strait), were held by the Nationalist
Chinese. In 1955, Congress voted to let President Eisenhower use armed
force if necessary to protect the Chinese Nationalists.
The spirit of Geneva. In Europe, a thaw in the Cold War began in 1955. The
Western Allies and the Soviet Union signed a peace treaty with Austria in May.
Red Army troops left that country, and Austria became an independent, neutral
nation. That same month, Nikita S. Khrushchev, the Soviet Communist Party
chief, apologized to Josip Tito and resumed trade with Yugoslavia.

Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev

Eisenhower and Khrushchev met in Geneva in July. Both leaders agreed that
a nuclear war would be a disaster for both sides. Political observers began to
write of a "big thaw" in East-West relations and called it the "spirit of Geneva."
After the Geneva conference, the Soviet Union announced a reduction in its
armed forces and in the armies of its satellites.
In February 1956, Khrushchev called for peaceful coexistence, in which the
East and West would compete in technological and economic development but
avoid war. He also began a campaign of destalinization (removal of Stalinist
influences) in the Soviet Union and its satellites. In April 1956, the Cominform
was dissolved.
Unrest in Eastern Europe. The new Soviet policy led the peoples of Eastern
Europe to expect more freedom from Soviet control. In Poland, riots and
strikes broke out in June 1956. The rioters demanded a more liberal
government and an end to Soviet rule. A few months later, the Soviets allowed
Wladyslaw Gomulka, a Polish Communist leader, to rejoin the Polish
Communist Party. The Soviet Union had jailed Gomulka in 1951 for trying to
set up an independent Communist government in Poland. Khrushchev and
other Soviet leaders flew to Warsaw to confer with Gomulka in October 1956.

Faced with further rebellion, the Soviets agreed to relax some controls in
Poland.

Soviet troops and tanks in Budapest

In Hungary, a revolt against Communism began in October 1956. A rebel

government led by Imre Nagy demanded withdrawal of all Soviet troops. Early
in November, Soviet tanks rolled into Hungarys capital, Budapest. The fighting
spread to all parts of the country. The Soviet Union smashed the revolt in
about two weeks. Thousands of Hungarian "freedom fighters" were killed. The
Soviet Union would not allow Hungary to break up the bloc of Eastern
European satellites.
The Suez Crisis. As the Soviets dealt with unrest in Eastern Europe, trouble
stirred in the Middle East. Both the Soviet Union and the West sought Egypt's
support by offering aid for its development plans. Each side offered to help
build the Aswan High Dam. After Egypt courted Communist aid for the dam
and bought Communist arms, the United States and the United Kingdom
canceled offers to help with the project. President Gamal Abdel Nasser of
Egypt struck back by taking over the Suez Canal from international control. He
said Egypt would use profits from operating the canal to build the dam "without
pressure from any nation." But he still accepted Soviet aid.
In October 1956, during the Hungarian revolt, Israel invaded Egypt. The United
Kingdom and France immediately joined in the attack. They wanted to return
the Suez Canal to international control. The United States and the Soviet
Union supported a United Nations resolution demanding an immediate truce.
In addition, the Soviets threatened to send troops to help Egypt. The UN

arranged a truce after a few days of fighting. But the Soviets, by backing Egypt
against Israel, had won friends among the Arab countries of the Middle East.

New challenges
Khrushchev's power in the Soviet Union reached its peak in the late 1950's.
Sometimes his government followed a hard policy, mainly in response to
China's challenge to Soviet leadership of the Communist bloc. At other times,
the Soviets stressed peaceful coexistence, giving special attention to
economic aid and scientific progress. But the Soviet Union continued to
encourage "wars of liberation." As a result, the United States came to regard
"peaceful coexistence" as the Communist effort to conquer countries without a
major war.

Soviet missiles

The missile gap. As the Soviet Union improved its ability to produce nuclear
weapons, the Western bloc feared a missile gapthat is, that Soviet rockets
and other weapons would be superior in numbers and power to those of the
West. In 1957, the Soviets tested the first intercontinental ballistic missile
(ICBM). They also launched the first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik 1. In

January 1958, the United States launched its first Earth satellite. A brief thaw
in the Cold War followed. The Soviets stopped testing nuclear weapons in
March 1958, and the United States halted its tests in October.
The Eisenhower Doctrine, approved by the U.S. Congress in March 1957,
pledged American financial and military aid to Middle East nations that asked
for help against Communist aggression. In July 1958, a revolution ended the
rule of the pro-Western government of Iraq. Nearby Lebanon feared a
Communist revolution and asked the United States for aid. Eisenhower quickly
sent sailors and Marines to help Lebanon. The United Kingdom sent
paratroopers to protect Jordan against Iraqi pressure.
Germany. During the late 1950's, Europe remained the center of the Cold War.
In November 1958, the Soviet Union demanded peace treaties for East and
West Germany. Such treaties would have ended the military occupation, and
Western troops would have had to leave. The United States refused, keeping
its forces in Berlin.

Kitchen debate

The spirit of Camp David. Another temporary thaw in the Cold War began in
the spring of 1959. The foreign ministers of France, the Soviet Union, the
United Kingdom, and the United States met in May. In July, U.S. Vice
President Richard M. Nixon visited the Soviet Union and met with Khrushchev.
Two months later, Khrushchev visited the United States, meeting with
Eisenhower at Camp David in Maryland. Khrushchev was so friendly that

observers spoke of the "spirit of Camp David," recalling the earlier "spirit of
Geneva." Eisenhower and Khrushchev planned a summit (top-level)
conference to be held in Paris in 1960. The president accepted Khrushchev's
invitation to visit the Soviet Union after the summit meeting.
The U-2 incident abruptly ended the thaw. An American U-2 spy plane was
shot down in Soviet territory in May 1960. The Soviet Union captured the pilot,
Francis Gary Powers, who confessed he was a spy. Eisenhower accepted
personal responsibility for the flight. He admitted that U-2 planes had been
taking photographs over the Soviet Union for years. After the Paris conference
began on May 15, Khrushchev demanded that Eisenhower apologize for the
U-2 incident. Eisenhower refused, and Khrushchev angrily canceled his
invitation for the president to visit the Soviet Union.
Africa. In July 1960, Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba of Congo, now the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, asked the UN to mediate a revolt in his
newly independent nation. He accused Belgium of aiding rebels in Congos
Katanga Province, where Belgium had access to rich natural resources. The
Soviet Union sided with Lumumba against the rebels. The UN became
involved in the dispute, preventing outside military intervention. A military coup
led by pro-Western Joseph Dsir Mobutu (later called Mobutu Sese Seko)
then ousted Lumumba. Army forces imprisoned Lumumba and later
transferred him to Katanga, where Katangan forces assassinated him. The
Soviets accused the United States of backing the coup, and the UN of favoring
the West. The Congo crisis was the first of several Cold War clashes in newly
independent African states.

Castro and the Bay of Pigs

The Bay of Pigs. In 1961, the Cuban government led by Fidel Castro became
increasingly Communist. Castro condemned the United States and began to
receive military aid from the Soviet Union and other Communist countries. The
Cuban government seized millions of dollars' worth of American property in
Cuba, prompting the United States to end diplomatic relations. In April, Cuban
exiles sponsored by the United States invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, on the
south coast. They intended to overthrow Castro, but the attack failed badly.
The unsuccessful invasion strengthened Castro's control of Cuba and
damaged the reputation of the U.S. government.

Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall. In 1961, amid increasing tensions between the Soviet Union
and United States, growing numbers of East Germans fled to West Germany.
To stop this flight, the East German Communists built a wall of cement and

barbed wire between East and West Berlin. They also erected walls and other
barriers around the rest of West Berlin. In response, the United States sent
additional troops and tanks to West Berlin. Some East Germans were able to
escape after the wall was built. Others, however, were killed by Communist
border guards.
The space race. The Cold War rivalry between the U.S. and Soviet space
programs became known as the space race. In 1957, the Soviets had
launched the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth. Then, in April 1961, the
Soviets sent the first human being into space. The Soviet pilot Yuri Gagarin
completed one orbit of Earth in a flight lasting 108 minutes. Just weeks later,
Alan Shepherd became the first American in space. In 1969, U.S. astronauts
won the space race by being the first to land on the moon.

Cuban missile crisis

The Cuban missile crisis. In October 1962, the United States learned that
the Soviet Union had secretly installed missiles in Cuba, about 90 miles (140
kilometers) from Florida. The missiles could have been used to launch nuclear
attacks on American cities. United States President John F. Kennedy
demanded that the Soviets remove the missiles. He also ordered a naval
blockade of Cuba. For a time, it appeared that the United States would invade
Cuba to destroy the missiles. Experts believed that such an invasion would
probably mean warmost likely nuclear warwith the Soviet Union.

After a week of extreme tension, Khrushchev and Kennedy reached an

agreement. The Soviets agreed to remove the missiles after Kennedy
promised not to invade Cuba and to remove U.S. nuclear missiles from Turkey.
The Cuban missile crisis was one of the most serious incidents of the Cold
War. It brought the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of war.

Test Ban Treaty

Easing Cold War tensions

After the missile crisis in Cuba, Cold War tensions again eased. In July 1963,
the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom approved a
treaty to stop the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, in outer
space, and under water. In August, the United States and the Soviet Union
installed a hot line, a direct communications link between the White House
and the Kremlin (the Soviet seat of government) to reduce the risk of nuclear
war. Also in 1963, Kennedy approved a plan to sell the Soviets $250 million
worth of American wheat. The two nations also agreed to cooperate in some
space projects. Lyndon B. Johnson, who became president after Kennedy was
assassinated in November 1963, continued to work for peaceful coexistence.

The shifting Cold War battleground

The character of the Cold War changed again in the mid-1960's. The United
States and Soviet Union each had large numbers of nuclear weapons. Each
had an antimissile defense system. But both powers realized that there would
be no victor in an all-out nuclear war. As a result, the two sides sought greater
stability and cooperation in their relationship. Also, conflicts within both the
Eastern and the Western blocs changed the two-sided nature of the balance of
power.
The great blocs split. By 1960, the Soviet Union and Communist China were
quarreling bitterly and openly. The Soviet Union cut off technical aid to China.
After China attacked India in 1962, the Soviets supported India. The Soviet
Union again backed India when Pakistan and India fought in 1965. China
threatened India and aided Pakistan.
In 1966, China launched a "cultural revolution to eliminate all Soviet and
Western influence from China. The Chinese accused the Soviet Union of
betraying world Communism and secretly allying with the United States. The
Chinese threat to the Soviet Union became more serious after China exploded
its first hydrogen bomb in 1967. In 1969, a border dispute led to Soviet and
Chinese troops fighting on an island in the Ussuri River. This river formed the
border between Chinese Manchuria and Soviet Siberia, including Vladivostok,
an important port on the Pacific Ocean. The fighting soon ended, but the
border controversy remained unsettled.
Some Soviet satellites also shifted their loyalties. Albania sided with China in
1961. Yugoslavia remained independent. Josip Tito called for "national
Communism"the idea that each country should achieve Communism in its
own way, free of Soviet influence. Other Communist nations, including
Romania, Poland, and Cuba, loosened their ties with the Soviet Union.
Differences also sharpened among the Western nations. French President
Charles de Gaulle challenged the leadership of the United States and the

United Kingdom. France established diplomatic relations with China in 1964.

France also criticized U.S. policy in the Vietnam War. At de Gaulle's request,
NATO moved its military headquarters from Paris to Brussels, and the French
reduced their troop commitment to the alliance. France also blocked the
United Kingdom's entry into the European Economic Community (EEC), a
forerunner of the European Union. France then sided with the Arabs against
U.S.-backed Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.
The growing strength of Europe was another factor in the changing nature
of the Cold War. More than 20 years after the end of World War II, the nations
of Western Europe had prospered. The EEC, also called the European
Common Market, had become a powerful economic force. Western European
nations gradually increased trade with Communist countries.
Soviet-American relations in the 1960's reflected the changing nature of the
Cold War. In 1966, the Soviet Union and the United States agreed to permit
direct air service between Moscow and New York City. In January 1967, they
and 60 other nations signed the first international treaty providing for the
peaceful exploration and use of outer space. In June, Soviet Premier Aleksei
Kosygin met with President Johnson to discuss the Vietnam War, the ArabIsraeli dispute, and arms control. Kosygin also addressed the UN General
Assembly in New York City.
In August 1967, the Soviet Union and the United States began working on a
treaty to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. The treaty also provided for
international inspection and controls. The U.S. Senate approved the
agreement in 1969. The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
went into effect on March 5, 1970, after being ratified (formally approved) by
the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, and more than 40
other nations. In 1969, Soviet and U.S. representatives began a series of
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) to control the production of nuclear
weapons.

Czechoslovakia. Hopes for an easing of Cold War tensions in Europe

suffered a setback in August 1968, when Soviet and Warsaw Pact troops
invaded Czechoslovakia. The invasion halted the Prague Spring, a popular
movement calling for greater freedom in Czechoslovakia. Soviet troops forced
Czechoslovakia to remain a Soviet satellite.
The Vietnam War heated up the Cold War. During the early 1960's, the United
States stepped up its support of South Vietnam against the Communist Viet
Cong forces. The United States blamed the struggle on Communist North
Vietnam and viewed the conflict as "aggression from the north." Many
Vietnamese, however, saw the conflict as a fight for liberation from foreign
domination begun against France and then continued against the United
States.

U.S. Marines in Vietnam

The U.S. military effort gradually increased. Large-scale bombing of North

Vietnam began in 1965. By 1968, the United States had over 500,000 troops
in Vietnam. The Viet Cong and North Vietnamese received war materials from
the Soviet Union and China.
The fighting spread throughout Indochina. Cambodia and Laos, both of which
bordered South Vietnam, tried to stay neutral. But Communist forces used
both countries as bases for raids into South Vietnam, and the two nations were
drawn into the war. Thailand backed the West in the struggle. The United
States used bases there for bombing raids on North Vietnam.

In 1969, the United States began reducing its troop numbers while training the
South Vietnamese to take over the fighting. In 1973, the United States
withdrew the last of its ground forces. Communist troops conquered South
Vietnam in 1975, ending the war. Different Communist groups then took power
in Cambodia and Laos. The defeat in Vietnam dealt a blow to the reputation of
the U.S. government and its military.

The Cold War in the 1970's

The loosening of ties among members of both the Communist and Western
blocs led to new international relationships in the 1970's. Several Communist
and democratic nations developed friendlier relations, helping ease tensions.
In 1970, West Germany and Poland signed a treaty to reject the use of force
and to recognize the boundaries created in Europe after World War II. West
Germany and the Soviet Union ratified a similar treaty in 1972.
The status of West Berlin had long been a major Cold War problem. In 1971,
France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States signed
an agreement stating that West Berlin was not part of West Germany. The
agreement also allowed free movement of traffic between West Germany and
West Berlin. In 1973, after the pact took effect, East and West Germany joined
the UN.
Also in 1973, the United Kingdom finally entered the economically powerful
European Community, as the European Union was then called. At the same
time, Japans prospering economy allowed it to adopt a more independent role
in international relations.
China's relations with the West improved in the early 1970's. Canada and
several other Western nations established diplomatic relations with Communist
China for the first time. China was admitted to the UN in October 1971. In
February 1972, U.S. President Richard Nixon met with Chinese Premier Zhou
Enlai in China. The two agreed to increase contacts between their two
countries. In 1979, the United States and China established diplomatic

relations. As part of the agreement, the United States ended diplomatic ties
with Taiwan.
In 1972, Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev signed two agreements,
together known as SALT I. SALT limited the production of U.S. and Soviet
nuclear weapons. In 1979, a second pact, SALT II, was meant to limit longrange bombers and missiles. But the United States backed away from SALT II
after Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan in late 1979 and early 1980.

Ronald Reagan speaking in Berlin

The Cold War after 1980

Cold War tensions increased in the early 1980's. The renewed friction resulted
in part from the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. It also came from continued
American fear of Soviet and Cuban influence in the Middle East, Southeast
Asia, Africa, and Central America. United States President Ronald Reagan and

his administration adopted a policy they called linkage, tying U.S. arms
agreements to the threat of Soviet expansion.
Meanwhile, the United States, concerned about Soviet military power,
increased its defense budget. Many observers thought the United States
defense build-up would lead to a more dangerous nuclear arms race. But
events in the late 1980's led to a sharp reduction in U.S.-Soviet tensions.

Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev

In 1987, Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed a treaty to

eliminate many nuclear missiles of both nations. In 1988 and 1989, Soviet
troops withdrew from Afghanistan. Also in the late 1980's, the Soviet Union
began to reduce its conventional military forces in Eastern Europe. Within the
Soviet Union, Gorbachev worked to reduce government control over the
countrys economic system. He allowed more democracy and freedom of
expression. He encouraged similar actions in Eastern Europe.

Unification of East and West Germany

Beginning in 1989, Communist rule came to an end in a number of Eastern

European countries, including Poland, Hungary, East Germany, and
Czechoslovakia. In addition, East Germany began to allow its people to pass
freely to West Berlin through the Berlin Wall. The wall was torn down in 1989.
East Germany reunited with West Germany in 1990.
In 1991, the Soviet Communist Party lost control of the Soviet government.
Later that year, the Soviet Union dissolved, and the republics that made up the
country became independent states. Russia was by far the largest of these
states. In 1992, Russian President Boris Yeltsin and U.S. President George H.
W. Bush formally declared that their countries did not regard each other as
potential enemies. These events marked the end of the Cold War.
Contributor:

Michael E. Donoghue, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of History,

Marquette University.

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