The Cold War 1946-1991.

What was it? This was a conflict between the U.S. and Russia (also called U.S.S.R.) about their economic and political systems. They wanted other countries to follow their ideas only so they tried to take over other countries by giving one group weapons. The two systems are: democracy/capitalism AND communism. The Cold War also involved building up nuclear weapons to see which superpower is the strongest. Democracy-political system- right to choose the leader (voting); right to free speech (being allowed to disagree with ideas); right to practise religion egs. Canada, U.S., England, France, Taiwan, Thailand, Australia

Capitalism- economic system- it is up to each person to find a job, to work, to make money and the gov’t only helps a little; a person can have their own business but they have to compete against othersCommunism-economic system-the gov’t controlled all the money, industries, jobs for the people; the gov’t chooses your job for you; the gov’t plans all the businesses; people could not choose their own job; all jobs got the same money eg. China from 1949-1980’s (Deng Xiopeng); Russia (1917-1991)

Communism-political system-it is very strict and there are no elections; army can attack people eg. Tiannamen Square massacre-university students tried to protest against Deng so about 1000 were killed in June 4, 1989; Russia-the leader was so strict, about 50 million people died from 1929-1953 under StalinThe Cold War involved many countries turning into hot wars because one group of people supported democracy/capitalism and the other group supported communism so they fought. Eg. North (communism)vs. South (capitalism) Korea, Vietnam, Angola, Laos, Cambodia, Chile, El Salvador. The biggest events during the Cold War were:

  1. Igor Gouzenko in Canada- a Russian embassy worker tried to show to Canadian police that Canadians were trying to help the Russian gov’t get nuclear secrets; 8 Canadians were arrested for spying
  2. North/South Korean War 1950-1953- Canada, the U.S., S.Korea and the U.N. fought against N.Korea and China; there never was a peace agreement
  3. Suez Crisis of 1956- there was almost WW3 in Egypt when the U.S. supported Israel and the USSR supported Egypt over the Suez canal; Lester B. Pearson had the idea to have other countries separate those two groups by having United Nations peacekeeping forces and he won the Nobel Peace Prize.
  4. Cuban missile crisis- 1961-Russia sent nuclear missiles to Cuba near Florida (US) as a threat- the US and Russia almost went to war as the US told Russia to get rid of the missiles; finally Russia sent back the missiles to avoid WW3
  5. Vietnam War-1965-1975- the U.S. supported S.Vietnam while China supported N. Vietnam; the US lost this war so Vietnam became communist
  6. Afghanistan War 1979-1989-Russia attacked Afghanistan so the US helped the Afghans including Osama bin Laden; Russia lost so Afghanistan did not become communist
  7. Mikhael Gorbachev, the Russian leader allows more freedom for the people in the late 1980’s including capitalism
  8. The Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the wall that separated East Berlin (communist) from West Berlin (capitalist) so communism began to fail in Europe

How did the Cold War end?

There were many different processes that took place near the end of the Cold War that contributed to its ending. It officially ended with the ending of communism in the U.S.S.R. and the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. itself in 1991. However none of these events from the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 to the final days of communism would have happened without the leadership change of Mikhael Gorbachev starting in 1986.

Previous to his leadership, almost all leaders of the USSR were very strict and pure communists who only in a few instances attempted to make peace with the United States such as with Brezhnev in the 1970’s. The Cold War rhetoric was especially strong from 1946 until 1962 with Joseph Stalin as the leader who was responsible for millions of deaths with his strict laws and hate for capitalism. He died in 1953 so the USSR was taken over by Nikita Khruschev. The Cuban missile crisis of 1961 occurred when Russia sent nuclear missiles to Cuba which meant Russian missiles were now closer to the U.S. than ever before, about the same distance as Scarborough to Niagara Falls. This initiated a crisis in the world as the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. threatened each other with nuclear weapons at their disposal and the possibility of nuclear war. Fortunately Russia sent back their missiles and the crisis was averted.

By the early 1980’s there were two much older leaders of the USSR who died in quick succession so that in 1986 Gorbachev was voted in by the members of the communist party (the general population has no vote). Gorbachev was younger at the age of 56 years and began two major policies called glasnost (meaning to have more economic competitiveness in the world by slowly allowing some capitalism) and perestroika (to have more openness with the people by allowing them to express their views without going to jail for it). These two ideas opened up the way for the Russian people and of the Soviet republics to become more integrated with the political and economic system after so many years of strict rules. Gorbachev also started to influence the other eastern European countries by suggesting to them to ease up on their strict rules as well such as in East Germany where Berlin is located. People were very excited to feel more free which encouraged them to speak out even more which they did in East Germany and Russia. The people of other communist countries followed these ideas with protests against their governments in the late 1980’s leading to people power revolutions. These revolutions helped to bring down other communist governments leading to the ending of the Cold War.

Another major part of the ending of the Cold War were the talks between Gorbachev and the U.S. president Ronald Reagan in 1989 when they agreed to reduce nuclear weapons in both countries and ease up their tensions. Although it was still a communist state, the republics with the USSR started to declare their own independence including Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Georgia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Armenia and many others leading to the dissolution of the USSR in 1990.

Finally in 1990 there was a coup where Gorbachev was taken hostage by strict communists who hated that Russia was losing control of communism and the deputy leader, Boris Yeltsin stepped in to power while Gorbachev was out of power for a few days in August 1991. Once he was let go, Yeltsin gained control of the Russian parliament where the more moderate members voted to get rid of communism as a political and economic system and turn the economy into capitalism and the political system into a democracy for the first time since 1917. With this the Cold War was over as the U.S. no longer had to contend with a superpower trying to impose the opposite ideology after decades of threatening each other.

As a direct result of Russia getting rid of communism and the republics becoming independent, the United States became the only superpowerwhich by 1991 had more control over other countries than ever before. Nuclear weapons were dismantled in Russia making them weaker militarily while the US. was not weakened. The U.S. no longer had an equal country to compete with to promote its own interests since Russia was then going through a process of political and economic change which made it weaker than it had been all through the Cold War. Since 1991 the U.S. has been able to use its military, political and economic power to have even more influence in the affairs of other countries than ever before. Its original version of Manifest Destiny really occurred since this idea which originated in the early 20th century meant the U.S. would have the ability to take over or heavily influence the affairs of many countries as if it had the right to do so. Until today their influence is not rivalled including how they can often manipulate the United Nations with certain actions or inactions such as the Rwandan genocide of 1994 when the U.S. strongly urged the UN not to interefere with the genocide. Today many conflicts can be related directly or indirectly to the events of the Cold War and the results of it.