Cold War
Overview
The USS Nautilus cuts through the water in 1955. Reactor plants gave submarines
unlimited range and ability to operate virtually without detection. The combination of
endurance, stealth, and ballistic missile launch capabilities eventually shifted most of
America's strategic deterrence force to the Navy. [Naval Historical Center]
The Cold War was as much an ideological battle as it was a military struggle. Although
the origins of the conflict can be traced as far back as the November 1917 Russian
Revolution, the Cold War began to take form in late 1945. It did not formally end until
December 1991. Simply put, the Cold War can de defined as a state of mutual hostility,
distrust, and rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. This contest soon
pitted the capitalist West—and its allies around the world—against the communist-
controlled East and its allies throughout the world. A large part of the Cold War "battle"
involved competing political and economic ideologies. The capitalist West generally
represented popularly elected, multiparty governments that supported individual rights
and a free-market economy in which government control was limited. The emphasis was
on individual initiative, personal and collective rights, and private property. While some
pro-Western governments were in reality not very democratic, they usually subscribed to
some form of capitalism. The communist East advocated vastly different governmental
and economic systems. Nearly all communist regimes were controlled by a single
political party, which exercised strict control over individual rights and political
participation. Communist economies were tightly regulated by the central government,
and most private property was forbidden. The idea of individual initiative was alien.
Instead, the emphasis was on collective collaboration among the population. Thus, the
Cold War symbolized two completely different ways of life.
Hot Wars Within the Cold War
Although the Soviet Union and United States never engaged in direct military action
against one other, the Cold War was marked by a series of both small and large wars.
These conflicts were fought in almost every corner of the world. In most cases, the West
backed one side while the East supported the other. In addition to the many small wars,
the Cold War featured three major and prolonged conflicts: the Korean War (1950–
1953); the Vietnam War (1946–1975); and the war in Afghanistan (1979–1989). The
Cold War was also a period that witnessed a massive arms race and the rise of permanent
and powerful defense industries. Many historians have pointed out that the Cold War
"militarized" everyday life in both the East and the West. The world's major powers spent
trillions of dollars on large standing armies and advanced weaponry. And unlike more
conventional conflicts, which have fairly distinct beginning and end points, the Cold War
endured for more than four decades. Each side was therefore obliged to arm itself to fight
a large-scale, worldwide war for a seemingly indefinite period of time. Perpetual military
readiness became a Cold War watchword.
Both national and international politics were affected by the Cold War. In many
industrialized Western nations, the politics of anticommunism resulted in periodic civil
liberty violations and overzealous attempts to suppress or outlaw communist or leftist
organizations. As such, political freedom was sometimes diminished. Oftentimes,
Western nations—particularly the United States—supported repressive and undemocratic
governments abroad so long as they were anticommunist. This was especially the case in
the developing world (particularly Latin America, Africa, and Asia). In the communist
nations, the insistence on a singular political-economic philosophy brought with it
periodic crackdowns against those who dared to think or act differently. Sometimes this
manifested itself as internal repression, as was the case during the Cultural Revolution in
the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the late 1960s. At other times it brought external
repression, as was the case when the Soviet Union crushed the 1956 Hungarian
Revolution and the Prague Spring of 1968. Finally, the process of decolonization was
profoundly influenced by Cold War politics. Conflicting ideologies forced many newly
independent countries to choose one system or the other—capitalism or communism.
Doing so could cause political instability, economic crisis, and even civil war in these
fledgling nations.
Economics
In economic terms, the cost and consequences of the Cold War are almost impossible to
calculate. The arms race and the need to maintain large, permanent military
establishments cost trillions of dollars. Money spent on defense and weaponry was
money taken away from social welfare programs, education, health care, and housing. As
the arms race accelerated and defense budgets ballooned, inflation and economic
stagnation became problematic in the West. In the East, periodic consumer goods and
food shortages plagued many communist countries. The Vietnam War seriously harmed
the American economy. And the Soviet war in Afghanistan contributed to an economic
crisis and, ultimately, to the fall of the Soviet Union.
The Cold War was also witness to a world in which dozens of relatively small "proxy
wars" were fought by surrogates of the United States and the Soviet Union. These
conflicts resulted in constantly shifting national borders and changes in global and
regional balances of power. They also resulted in millions of deaths and injuries. In spite
of international bodies like the United Nations (UN), the constant push-pull of Cold War
geopolitics often impeded international cooperation. This meant that economic
development efforts, disease eradication programs, antidrug campaigns, and even nuclear
nonproliferation initiatives were weakened, stalled, or halted completely.
Society and Culture
Cultural and social trends were far from immune to Cold War influences. Cold War
themes were not just the subjects of movies, plays, novels, and television shows; they
also gave birth to new genres of cultural expression. Spy thrillers, for example, were born
of the Cold War. Science fiction moved into entirely new areas as it dealt with the
political and technological consequences of the period. Even music and art reflected Cold
War values. Music especially became linked with various Cold War peace movements, as
demonstrated during the Vietnam War. At the same time, both sides in the Cold War
engaged in propaganda through cultural expression. And censorship of "nonconforming"
art forms was routinely practiced in both the East and the West, although it was far more
prevalent in the East. The Cold War touched religion as well. Most communist regimes
tried to stamp out organized religion by banning it or persecuting its followers. However,
conservatives in both the Christian and Muslim faiths sought to fight atheistic
communism by becoming more politically active. Some even became militant, sparking
internal and external armed conflicts. In some Muslim nations, the advent of theocracy—
or religiously imposed government—began during the last quarter of the Cold War.
Ethnic lines tended to blur as a result of the Cold War, especially in the communist bloc.
Nations like the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia in particular insisted on artificially
incorporating many different and diverse ethnic groups. They were therefore forced to
deemphasize or even abandon their languages, customs, and centuries-old traditions. Not
even gender escaped the impact of the Cold War. In the United States during the 1950s,
for example, women and men were encouraged and even expected to fulfill very specific
social roles in the belief that this would "immunize" the nation from communist
influences. Women were expected to become ideal mothers and housewives and to forgo
careers outside the home. Men were required to develop a career beyond the domestic
sphere as the solitary breadwinner.
Military and Technology
Nuclear power, a byproduct of World War II, came into its own during the Cold War. On
the positive side, nuclear technology revolutionized health care, electrical power
generation, and many of the sciences. On the downside, nuclear weapons, numbering in
the tens of thousands by the end of the period, threatened the world with complete
destruction. Nuclear power made all-out war among the major world powers suicidal. In
that sense, some historians have argued, these weapons may have prevented World War
III. By the late 1950s, nuclear-powered submarines had revolutionized naval warfare and
fundamentally altered defense strategies.
Rocket, satellite, and guided-missile technologies were also Cold War inventions. But
they were also a mixed blessing. They provided for space exploration and gave rise to the
so-called space race but also made a nuclear war possible with the push of a button. This
greatly increased the odds of an accidental nuclear exchange. As such, modern warfare
became entirely impersonal and had the potential for unleashing a global holocaust in a
matter of hours.
Computers, another Cold War technology, were used almost exclusively in military and
medical applications just 25 years ago. By the end of the conflict, however, they had
become common household appliances. In that sense, a technology originally designed
for governmental and military purposes revolutionized human existence in less than one
generation. Related to this, computerization and other electronic advances emerging from
Cold War applications ushered in the era of instant communication. This development
empowered the media (television in particular) to reach every corner of the globe in just a
few seconds.
The Cold War waxed and waned over its 46-year history. From 1945 to the early 1970s,
the Cold War world was said to be bipolar. That is, the global balance of power was split
rather evenly between the Western bloc, dominated by the Americans, and the Eastern
bloc, led by the Soviets. As more nations decided to forge their own geopolitical
strategies, however, the Cold War world became multipolar by the mid-1970s. As such,
American and Soviet predominance weakened and global power became more diffuse.
Moreover, East-West relations were marked by periods of relaxed tensions. These
occurred in the late 1950s, the 1970s, and again in the mid-to-late 1980s. Although a
major world war was averted, nothing better exemplifies the danger that was always part
of the Cold War than the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when the two superpowers came as
close as they ever did to a full-blown nuclear war.
Paul Pierpaoli
Citation:
Pierpaoli, Paul. "Cold War (Overview)." United States at War: Understanding
Conflict and Society. 2008. ABC-CLIO. 5 Aug. 2008