PROJECT WORK

OF

POLITICAL SCIENCE

TOPIC:GLOBAL POLITICS AND ORIGIN

AND CAUSES OF COLDWAR

SUBMITTED BY: Syed RenobaNisar

Reg. no.: GU17R0389

Semester: 3rd

SUBMITTED TO: Prof. Amir Mahmood

GLOCAL LAW SCHOOL

CONTENTS:

 What is cold war and its global politics

 Origins of cold war
 Who was to blame for cold war
 Causes of cold war
 Underlying causes
 Immediate causes leading to cold war
 bibliography
The Cold War was a period of tension and hostility between the United States of America and
the Soviet Union from the mid-40s to the late 80s. It began with the end of the Second World
War. It was called the Cold War because there was no active war between the two nations, which
was probably due to the fear of nuclear escalation. There were many indirect conflicts like the
Vietnam and Korea wars. There was the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 which was the closest the
world ever came to a nuclear war. An American U2 spy plane took photographs of Soviet
intermediate ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear payloads. The Soviet Union sent a
total of 42 medium range missiles and 24 intermediate range missiles to Cuba. The US
threatened to invade Cuba over the issue.

The Cold War dominated international relations for over forty-five years (1945–1991). Within a
framework of political relations, economic linkages, and military alliances, the Cold War was
characterized by a high degree of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union; a
costly and dangerous arms race; the polarization of domestic and international politics; the
division of the world into economic spheres; and competition and conflict in the Third World.
Understanding the Cold War is central to understanding the history of the second half of the
twentieth century. The Cold War shaped the foreign policies of the United States and the Soviet
Union and deeply affected their societies and their political, economic, and military institutions.
By providing a justification for the projection of US power and influence all over the world, the
Cold War facilitated the assumption and assertion of global leadership by the United States. By
providing Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and his successors with an external enemy to justify their
repressive internal regime, the Cold War helped legitimate an unrepresentative government and
maintain the grip of the Communist Party on the Soviet Union. In addition to its impact on the
superpowers, the Cold War caused and perpetuated the division of Europe, and, within Europe,
Germany. It also facilitated the reconstruction and reintegration of Germany, Italy, and Japan
into the international system following their defeat in World War II. The Third World especially
felt the effects of the Cold War, which overlapped with the era of decolonization and national
liberation in the Third World. These two momentous processes had a profound and reciprocal
effect on each other.

The Cold War led to the division of Vietnam and Korea and to costly wars in both nations. In
addition, most of the crises that threatened to escalate into nuclear war occurred in the Third
World. Far-reaching and long-lasting, the Cold War gave rise to a multitude of often conflicting
interpretations regarding responsibility for its outbreak, its persistence, and its ultimate demise.
Almost all of these interpretations were themselves shaped by the ongoing Cold War, and many
were profoundly political in that the positions they argued were part of contemporary political as
well as scholarly debates.

The Origins of the Cold War

The Cold War had its roots in World War II, when the repeated delays in opening a second front
in Europe made the Russians suspicious of the Western Allies' motives. Those concerns were
heightened when the United States discontinued lend‐lease aid to the Soviet Union soon after the
war ended. Stalin's commitment at Yalta to allow free elections in Eastern Europe was quickly
broken. To ensure “friendly states” on its western borders, the USSR supported and helped
install Communist‐dominated governments in Poland, Bulgaria, and Rumania (Romania) in the
spring and summer of 1945. Within a year, as Winston Churchill told an American audience, an
“iron curtain” had descended across Europe, separating the “free” democratic nations of the West
from the “captive” Communist nations of the East.

The containment policy and the Truman Doctrine. George Kennan, in a lengthy telegram to
Washington in February 1946, he outlined what became known as the containment policy.
Kennan argued that while the USSR was determined to extend its influence around the world, its
leaders were cautious and did not take risks. Faced with determined opposition (from the United
States, for example), Kennan postulated that the Soviet Union would back down. The policy was
concerned with future Soviet expansion and accepted, in effect, Russian control over Eastern
Europe.

An early test of containment came in Greece and Turkey. In 1946, a civil war broke out in
Greece, pitting Communist groups against the British‐supported government. At the same time,
the Soviet Union was pressuring Turkey to allow it to build naval bases on its northwestern
coast, thereby giving the Soviet Black Sea Fleet easy access to the Mediterranean. When Great
Britain announced it no longer had the resources to help the two countries meet the threats to
their independence, the United States stepped in. Truman asked Congress for $400 million in
military and economic aid for Greece and Turkey in March 1947, citing the United States'
obligation to back free peoples resisting control by an armed minority or outside pressures. This
policy, known as the Truman Doctrine, appeared to work: the Communists were defeated in the
Greek Civil War in October 1949, and the foreign aid helped strengthen the Turkish economy.

The Marshall Plan and the Berlin airlift. Two years after the end of World War II, much of
Europe still lay in shambles; European countries struggled to rebuild their devastated
infrastructures, and the continuing hardships people faced contributed to the growing electoral
strength of the Communist parties in France and Italy. The United States recognized that
bolstering the economies of the European states would not only undercut Communist influence
but would also provide markets for American goods. Consequently, Secretary of State George C.
Marshall announced a massive commitment of financial assistance to Europe in June 1947.
Between 1948 and 1951, more than $13 billion was funneled to 16 countries through the
Marshall Plan, contributing significantly to the reconstruction of Western Europe. The United
States was also ready to provide help to the USSR and Eastern Europe, but the Soviet Union
flatly refused to participate in the aid program.

The first direct confrontation between Russia and the West came over Germany. In 1948,
Britain, France, and the United States began to merge their zones of occupation into a unified
state. The Soviet Union responded by blocking all access to Berlin in June 1948. With the
blockade, Stalin hoped to force the Western powers to either relinquish Berlin to the
Communists or end the plan to unify West Germany. Truman avoided a direct confrontation with
the USSR by ordering a massive airlift of supplies to the two million residents of West Berlin.

The president also sent B‐29 bombers, the only planes that could carry atomic bombs, to bases in
Britain as a clear warning to the Soviet Union about how far the United States was prepared to
go. Seeing that the Berlin airlift could continue indefinitely, the Russians ended the blockade in
May 1949.

Another factor in ending the Berlin crisis was the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty in April
1949. Under its terms, the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France, Italy, Belgium, the
Netherlands, Luxembourg, Portugal, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland agreed that an attack
against one country would be treated as an attack against all. The North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) was created in the following year to integrate the military forces of the
member states in Europe. NATO was expanded in 1952 to include Greece and Turkey, and the
admission of West Germany in 1955 caused the Soviet Union to establish a counterpart to the
alliance through the Warsaw Pact.

In 1948, the Korean Peninsula, which had been occupied by the Russians and the Americans
since the end of World War II, was split Democratic into two separate countries — the
Communist‐run People's Democratic Republic of Korea, north of the 38th parallel, and the U.S.‐
supported Republic of Korea in the south. In June 1950, the North Korean army invaded South
Korea. Truman brought the matter to the United Nations Security Council, which called on
member states to provide South Korea with all possible aid to resist the aggression. The Security
Council was able to take action because the Russian representative was not present to exercise
the Soviet Union's veto. (The Russians were boycotting the Council because of the United
Nations' refusal to admit the People's Republic of China.) Although 16 countries sent troops, the
Korean War was largely a United States operation, loosely under U.N. auspices.
Who was to blame for the Cold War?

Russian historians blamed Churchill (the British Prime Minister) and Truman (the American
president, 1945-1953). They said Truman and Churchill wanted to destroy the USSR, which was
just defending itself.

The Traditional View: At first, western writers blamed Russia. They said Stalin was trying to
build up a Soviet empire.

The Revisionist View: Later, however, some western historians blamed America. They said
Truman had not understood how much Russia had suffered in the Second World War.

The Post-Revisionists: Later still, historians think BOTH sides were to blame – that there were
hatreds on both sides.  

Most recently, historians agree that the Cold War was primarily a clash of beliefs – Communism
versus Capitalism. (Johndclare.net)
Causes of the Cold War

 The Soviet Union wanted to spread its ideology of communism worldwide, which
alarmed the Americans who followed democracy.
 The acquisition of atomic weapons by America caused fear in the Soviets.
 Both countries feared an attack from each other.
 The Soviet Union’s action of taking control over Eastern Europe was a major factor for
US suspicions.
 The US President had a personal dislike of the Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
 America was annoyed by the Soviet Union’s actions in the part of Germany it had
occupied.
 The Soviets feared that America would use Western Europe as a base to attack it.

Underlying Causes

Ideological: The United States and the Soviet Union represented two opposing systems of
government. In the United States, the government was elected by free elections unlike the Soviet
Union. The people could form political parties to voice their political opinions.

(ii) Economic: The United States wanted to encourage free trade throughout the world. The
Soviet Union wanted to shield off her own sphere from international commerce. These
differences led to much ill feeling between the United States and the Soviet Union.

(iii) Power rivalry: After the Second World War, with the decline of Europe, power was largely
shared between the Soviet Union and the United States. As one wanted ‘to dominate the other,
conflicts were inevitable.
Immediate Causes Leading to the Cold War

Incipient conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States began at the peace-time
conferences. Their conflict was intensified after President Truman declared the Truman Doctrine
and launched the Marshall Plan in 1947.

Extension of Russian influence in Europe: Even before the end of the war, the Soviet Union had
gradually extended her influence in Europe. As the war was drawing to a close in May 1945, the
Soviet Union quickly consolidated her control of Eastern Europe. The Red Army began by
influencing the post-war elections. Although the non-communists could still gain some votes,
most of the votes went to the communists. In late 1946, the French and Italian Communists were
becoming the most powerful parties in France and Italy.

The reactions of the United States:

Despite the increasing Russian influence in eastern and central Europe, many politicians in the
United States were optimistic about the chances of co-operation with the Soviet Union after the
war and did not advocate strong resistance against Russian expansion. But from May 1945
onwards, the situation was changed. The U.S. government favored a policy of strong resistance
against Russia.

Poor relations between the United States and the Soviet Union: The deteriorating relations
between the Soviet Union and the United States were reflected in two minor incidents in the
year. Land-Lease was abruptly terminated by the United States and the Russian request for
American economic aid for the purposes of post-war reconstruction was ignored by the
government of the United States. (During the Second World War, the U.S. supplied much war
material to the Allied nations through a Lend and Lease programme. As the Lend and Lease
programme was suddenly stopped, the war-ravaged Soviet Union could not obtain American
material support to help her post-war economic reconstruction.)

The poor relations between the East and West were also reflected in a speech by Churchill. In
March 1946, Churchill made a speech at Fulton, Missouri in which he said, “From Stettin in the
Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent …. Behind
that line lie all the capitals of the central and Eastern Europe – all are subject in one form or
another not only to Soviet influence but also to a very high and increasing control from
Moscow.” The Fulton speech increased the American suspicion of Soviet aggressive designs in
Europe. (Funfront.net, 2010)

The two superpowers often jockeyed for position in the third world, supporting proxy wars in
which they typically supplied and advised opposing factions in civil wars. The alignments were
often arbitrary. For instance, the US backed the Ethiopian government and the Soviets backed
next-door rival Somalian the 1970s; when an Ethiopian revolution caused the new government to
seek Soviet help, the US switched to support Somalia instead (Goldstein, 2008).

The United States became alarmed with the growing of communism in Europe and set up the
Marshall Plan in order to counteract the spread of communism. The Marshall Plan was an
economic support program funded by the United States. They gave relief money to the war torn
democratic countries in order to rebuild their economy. They did not give money to the Soviet
Union and any of its satellites. The Unites States’ motivation for doing this was to provide
themselves with trading partners and to economically exclude the Soviet Union. The Soviet
Union also formed an exclusive economic federation between all the states in the Soviet Union
called COMECON. This restricted trade to within the Soviet Union. These measures to isolate
the enemy and set up economic barriers helped to provoke the Cold War. The Soviet Union and
the west also formed political alliances to combat the other side. Western Europe and the United
States formed NATO, a military pact. The Soviet Union created a similar pact, the Warsaw Pact,
between the states within the Soviet Union.
These military coalitions put a greater threat behind the growing conflicts by involving more
countries. These military alliances were supplemented by two edicts set by the Soviet Union and
the United States. The United States issued the Truman Doctrine, which stated that they would
support those countries resisting communism. Likewise, the Soviet Union later issued the
Brezhnev Doctrine which decreed that the Soviet Union would intervene with force in order to
protect communism in its satellites. One of the main issues that strained relations between the
Soviet Union and the west was the threat of nuclear war.

Both the Soviet Union and the United States knew how to make nuclear weapons. This
knowledge made the consequences of their actions much more cautious. This helped to cause the
war during the Cuban Missile Crisis where the Soviet Union planted nuclear missiles at the
United States from Cuba for a time. The Cold War was brought about by many factors caused at
the end of World War II. The ideological differences, economic barriers, political and military
alliances, and nuclear weapons all contributed to creating the Cold War. These differences
caused the mounting tension between the Soviet Union and the west at the end of World War II.
(Essays.cc, 2010)

The Cold War was the result of a clash between communism and capitalism, two opposing
world-views. Another cause of the build up to the Cold War was the intransigent attitude of both
sides. The Soviet Union was extremely concerned about its security after having been invaded
twice in the twentieth century. In 1945 America created and used the atomic bomb against Japan
and the USSR was determined to create one of its own. Both the USSR and the USA built up
huge arsenals of Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs). The United States tested a
hydrogen bomb in 1952 and in November 1955, the USSR developed one too. After that the
USA moved its bombers into Europe. In 1955 West Germany was allowed to re-arm and join
NATO. Russia responded by forming the Warsaw Mutual Defense Pact with its buffer zone
neighbors.
In 1957 the Soviets used a missile to launch Sputnik 1 into orbit around the earth. The arms race
evolved into a space race as the United States rushed to launch its own satellites. The space race
was an opportunity for the two nations to show their technological superiority. The Soviet Union
launched Sputnik I, the first orbiting satellite, on October 4, 1957. On November 3, they
launched Sputnik II with the first living creature, a dog, named Laika. (Essortment.com, 2010)

In the ’80s President Ronald Reagan of the US dubbed the Soviet Union as an “evil empire” and
predicted that it would be consigned to the ash heap of history. He announced a major weapons
buildup and the SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) also dubbed “Star Wars”. The Soviet Union
was too economically enfeebled to reply in kind. In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader
of the Soviet Union. He adopted a conciliatory attitude towards the Americans and many arms
reduction pacts were signed. In 1989 there was a Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan and in
1990 the Soviets agreed to the reunification of Germany. Movements against communist
governments in Eastern Europe followed this. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 marking the
end of the Cold War.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Websites referred:

 www.googlescholar.in
 www.google.in
 https://www.ukessays.com