Hegemony of the political conflict after the dead end of the vehement World Wars witnessed the emergence of diplomatic games through the Cold War involving the Eastern Block comprising the Soviet Union and its allies and the Western Block led by USA and the NATO states. The Cold War lasted for a time period between 1947 till the year 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed and Russia was formed. Cold War did not involve any large scale World Wars but the diplomatic clashes entailed some regional wars that disturbed the contemporary global peace. Prominent events during the particular time included the Korean War, Vietnam War, Chinese civil war, decolonization of the countries in Asia and Africa and many more such events.
As mentioned earlier the Cold War had no such exact date of beginning but experts assume the time period to be between the years 1947 and 1991. It is believed that the announcement of the US foreign policy (Truman Doctrine) to lend helping hands to the countries threatened by Soviet Union was eyed on by. The main difference lay between the ideologies of the two blocks. The Soviet Union was a communist block and followed a communist ideology of government with a leader at the helm of all affairs whereas USA being a democratic country believed in democratic capitalist ideologies. Though popular sources believe that the origin of the Cold War has been mainly due to the tensions between the Soviet and the USA, new sources have revealed that the race for nuclear armament also instigated such a long term war. The Western powers considered Soviet to be a greater threat compared to the rising powers of Hitler and Mussolini before the brink of World War II. There was a belief in the minds of the Western Bloc that communism was a great threat to the world than Nazism and Fascism. The ideology of communism to control the whole world threatened the power of USA and its allies and thus they were concerned over the rise of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was slowly gaining political grounds in controlling the freed states of Yugoslavia and other Baltic countries in spite of protests from the Western Bloc. They also started penetrating into the Middle East Nations and started controlling large parts of territories in the area to slowly establish their supremacy in Asia.
There were many issues that happened during the Cold War era, and all of them were no less in importance than the others. The issues varied from small to large and almost led to the start of the Third World War.
Foreign Policies and Propaganda- The Americans and Soviet Union both accused each other to have forcefully spread their thoughts and conquer the entire world. They were often involved in altercations against each other for different reasons. The acquisitions claimed that they were trying to bring the globe under their control by using the leaders of different countries as baits.
Alliance System- As mentioned earlier the Cold War segmented most of the global countries into two halves with two main leaders, namely the Western Bloc led by USA and the Eastern Bloc led by the communist Soviet Union. Decolonization of majority of Asian and African countries led to a fierce race by the two superpowers to establish their control over them.
Race for Gathering Weapons- The race for procuring arms and ammunitions was at the highest level during Cold War. Both the superpowers tried hard to make sure that they do not fall behind in the race for arms. There was a huge rise in the production and gathering of missiles, biotechnological weapons, conventional weapons, submarines, tanks and many other destructives. The small countries (LDCs) also started assembling such different weapons to counter any possible threats from the superpowers.
Espionage- The countries appointed spies and other secret services to gather intelligence report on the enemy countries. The advancement in technology helped the countries to make their military more agile and technically advanced in comparison to the other countries. There was a severe economic crisis in both the blocs as because the countries were too much dedicated to fund their resources on espionage and military activities neglecting the plight of the common man.
Different Wars- As mentioned earlier, there were no large scale wars during the Cold War era but a number of small wars involving civil strife’s or neighboring nations were fought, which was a key factor that led to the extension of the conflicting period. 1947 Berlin crisis was one such event where the US and the Soviet came face to face to support East Germany and West Germany. The Korean War involving North Korea and South Korea was another such instance where USA and China came face to face. Middle East wars fought during the time of late 1950’s or the late 1960’s saw the soviets supporting the likes of Syria and Iraq while USA supported Israel. However one of the most important events during the era was the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 which almost created the possibility of a 3rd World War.
According to Noam Chomsky, the Cold War system was highly functional for both the superpowers as because they wanted to build a framework to mobilize the public opinion supporting them to start military action against any powers that may try to intervene within their area of control. Mr. Chomsky has severely criticized the USA on the various military interventions they did during the Cold War. This includes overthrowing the reformist government in Guatemala, invasion of Vietnam, funding and arranging terror programs against Cuba, lending helping hands to different middle East countries, supporting South Korea during the Korean War. Chomsky also severely criticizes Soviet Union on its invasion of Czechoslovakia or Afghanistan. He describes the acts of both the countries to be sarcastic as because both of them cites that they were defending the sovereignty of the countries, however the main cause was that they were in a desperate race to extend their control over different countries of the world.
Chomsky further describes that the conventional view of the Cold War was a conflict between two superpowers of the world namely the USA and the Soviet Union. USA described their stand as trying to protect the world from the Soviet aggression. Soviet interventions in Budapest, East Berlin and different Baltic countries and most importantly the invasion of Afghanistan was the steps taken by Soviet to establish their supremacy while US on the other side was trying to establish their supremacy over the whole world. Both the superpowers experienced a growth in the rise of the high-tech industries which enhanced their development. In other words both the countries were supposed to have adopted a tactical strategy where the US conducted different wars against the third world countries and enriched its resources while the Soviet Union kept a strong grip over the different countries where they dictated.
There are a lot of debates regarding Cold War. Different Experts have different opinions to focus on. Chomsky has been termed as an intellectual whose works have suffered sclerotic hardening. The following section of experts believes that Chomsky sees the events of Cold War in such a way that has led to a downfall of his works. His works has been termed as very simple and to the standards of a young teenager.
Eric Altman and Christopher Hitchens are two regular writers of The Nation Magazine. The writers were supportive of Chomsky until the time of Chomsky’s comments against USA accusing the country of military vengeance against Afghanistan comparing them with the destruction of the twin towers. However
Conclusion
Cold War was an unofficial yet diplomatic war between two superpowers and it ultimately came to an end in the beginning of the 1990 with the dismantling of Soviet Union and the movement Glasnost Perestroika. The states like Czechoslovakia and Ukraine got their freedom from USSR. The world hopes for a safer and peaceful existence, harmony amongst the different communities. The essay has highlighted all the key issues of Cold War era along with the concepts and controversies. The presentation of the essay with different examples has helped it to become more compact.
References
Nye Jr, J.S. and Welch, D.A., 2016. Understanding global conflict and cooperation: an introduction to theory and history. Pearson.
Cockroft, E., 2013. Abstract expressionism, weapon of the Cold War.
Shaw, T. and Youngblood, D.J., 2014. Cinematic Cold War: The American and Soviet struggle for hearts and minds. University Press of Kansas.
Betts, R.K. ed., 2017. Conflict after the Cold War: arguments on causes of war and peace. Taylor & Francis.
Davis, L.E., 2015. The Cold War Begins: Soviet-American Conflict Over East Europe. Princeton University Press.
Gilfillan, S. and Xidias, J., 2017. We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History: Rethinking Cold War History. CRC Press.
Ullrich, W., 2013. George F. Kennan: an American life..
Bernstein, B.J., 2014. Considering John Lewis Gaddis’s Kennan Biography: Questionable Interpretations and Unpursued Evidence and Issues. Revue européenne des sciences sociales, 52(1), pp.253-275..
Mikhail, J., 2017. 11 Chomsky and Moral Philosophy. The Cambridge Companion to Chomsky, p.235.
“Chomsky Explains Cold War In 5 Min – Youtube.” YouTube. N.p., 2017. Web. 21 July 2017.
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