Cold war era - overview what is cold war | What is NAM ?

OVERVIEW :- Cold war era - overview what is cold war

This chapter provides a backdrop to the entire book. The end of the Cold War is usually seen as the beginning of the contemporary era in world politics which is the subject matter of this book. It is,

therefore, appropriate that we begin the story with a discussion of the Cold War.

The chapter shows how the dominance of two superpowers, the United States of America and the Soviet Union, was central to the Cold War. It tracks the various arenas of the Cold War in different parts of the world.

What is the NAM?

The chapter views the Non- Aligned Movement (NAM) as a challenge to the dominance of the two superpowers and describes the attempts by the non-aligned countries to establish a New International Economic Order (NIEO) as a means of attaining economic development and political independence. 

It concludes with an assessment of India's role in NAM and asks how successful the policy of non-alignment has been in protecting India's interests.

CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS

In April 1961, the leaders of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) were worried that the United States of America (USA) would invade communist-ruled Cuba and overthrow Fidel Castro, the president of the small island nation off the coast of the United States.

Cuba was an ally of the Soviet Union and received both diplomatic and financial aid from it. Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union, decided to convert Cuba into a Russian base.

In 1962, he placed nuclear missiles in Cuba. The installation of these weapons put the US, for the first time, under fire from close range and nearly doubled the number of bases or cities in the American mainland which could be threatened by the USSR.

Three weeks after the Soviet Union had placed the nuclear weapons in Cuba, the Americans became aware of it. The US President, John F. Kennedy, and his advisers were reluctant to do anything that might lead to full-scale nuclear war between the two countries, but they were determined to get Khrushchev to remove the missiles and nuclear weapons from Cuba.

Kennedy ordered American warships to intercept any Soviet ships heading to Cuba as a way of warning the USSR of his seriousness. A clash seemed imminent in what came to be known as the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The prospects of this clash made the whole world nervous, for it would have been no ordinary war. Eventually, to the world's great relief, both sides decided to avoid war. The

Soviet ships slowed down and turned back.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a high point of what came to be known as the Cold War. The Cold War referred to the competition, the tensions and a series of confrontations between the United States and Soviet Union, backed by their respective allies.

Fortunately, however, it never escalated into a 'hot war', that is, a full-scale war between these two powers. There were wars in various regions, with the two powers and their allies involved in warfare and in supporting regional allies, but at least the world avoided another global war.

The Cold War was not simply a matter of power rivalries, of military alliances, and of the balance of power. These were accompanied by a real ideological conflict as well, a difference over the best and the most appropriate way of organising political, economic, and social life all over the world.

The western alliance, headed by the US, represented the ideology of liberal democracy and capitalism while the eastern alliance, headed by the Soviet Union, was committed to the ideology of socialism and communism. You have already studied these ideologies in Class XI.

WHAT IS THE COLD WAR?

The end of the Second World War is a landmark in contemporary world politics. In 1945, the Allied Forces, led by the US, Soviet Union, Britain and France defeated the Axis Powers led by Germany, Italy and Japan, ending the Second World War (1939-1945).

The war had involved almost all the major powers of the world and spread out to regions outside Europe including Southeast Asia, China, Burma (now Myanmar) and parts of India's northeast.

The war devastated the world in terms of loss of human lives and civilian property. The First World War had earlier shaken the world between 1914 and 1918.

The end of the Second World War was also the beginning of the Cold War. The world war ended when the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and

Nagasaki in August 1945, causing Japan to surrender.

Critics of the US decision to drop the bombs have argued that the US knew that Japan was about to surrender and that it was unnecessary to drop the bombs. They suggest that the US action was intended to stop the Soviet Union from making military and political gains in Asia and elsewhere and to show Moscow that the United States was supreme.

US supporters have argued that the dropping of the atomic bombs was necessary to end the war quickly and to stop further loss of American and Allied lives. Whatever the motives, the consequence of the end of the Second World War was the rise of two new powers on the global stage.

With the defeat of Germany and Japan, the devastation of Europe and in many other parts of the world, the United States and the Soviet Union became the greatest powers in the world with the ability to influence events anywhere on earth.

While the Cold War was an outcome of the emergence of the US and the USSR as two superpowers rival to each other, it was also rooted in the understanding that the destruction caused by the use of atom bombs is too costly for any country to bear.

The logic is simple yet powerful. When two rival powers are in possession of nuclear weapons capable of inflicting death and destruction unacceptable to each other, a full-fledged war is unlikely. In spite of provocations, neither side would want to risk war since no political gains would justify the destruction of their societies.

These pictures depict the destruction caused by the bombs dropped by the US on Hiroshima (the bomb was code-named 'Little Boy') and Nagasaki (code-named 'Fat Man'). Yet, these bombs were very small in their destructive capacity (measured in terms of kiloton yield) as compared to

the nuclear bombs that were to be available in the stockpiles assembled by the superpowers.

The yield of Little Boy and Fat Man were 15 and 21 kilotons respectively. By the early 1950s the US and the USSR were already making thermonuclear weapons that had a yield between 10 and 15 thousand kilotons. In other words, these bombs were a thousand times more destructive than the bombs used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

During much of the Cold War, both the superpowers possessed thousands of such weapons Just imagine the extent of destruction that these could cause all over the globe.

In the event of a nuclear war, both sides will be so badly harmed that it will be impossible to declare one side or the other as the winner. Even if one of them tries to attack and disable the nuclear weapons of its rival, the other would still be left with enough nuclear weapons to inflict unacceptable destruction, This is called the logic of deterrence': both sides have the capacity to retaliate against an attack and to cause so much destruction that neither can afford to initiate war.

Thus, the Cold War - in spite of being an intense form of rivalry between great powers -remained a 'cold and not hot or shooting war. The deterrence relationship prevents war but not the rivalry between powers.

Note the main military features of the Cold War. The two superpowers and the countries in the rival blocs led by the superpowers were expected to behave rational and responsible actors. They were to be rational and responsible in the sense that they understood the risks in fighting wars that might

involve the two superpowers.

When two superpowers and the blocs led by them are in a deterrence relationship, fighting wars will be massively destructive. Responsibility, therefore, meant being restrained and avoiding the risk of another world war. In this sense the Cold War managed to ensure human survival.

THE EMERGENCE OF Two Power BLOCS

The two superpowers were keen on expanding their spheres of influence in different parts of the world. In a world sharply divided between the two alliance systems, a state was supposed to remain

tied to its protective superpower to limit the influence of the other superpower and its allies.

The smaller states in the alliances used the link to the superpowers for their own purposes. They got the promise of protection. weapons and economic aid against their local rivals, mostly regional neighbours with whom they had rivalries.

The alliance systems led by the two superpowers, therefore, threatened to divide the entire world into two camps. This division happened first in Europe. Most countries of western Europe sided with the US and those of eastern Europe joined the Soviet camp. That is why these were also called the 'western and the 'eastern' alliances.

The western alliance was formalised into an organisation, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), which came into existence in April 1949. It was an association of twelve states which declared that armed attack on any one of them in Europe or North America would be regarded as an attack on all of them.

Each of these states would be obliged to help the other. The eastern alliance, known as the Warsaw Pact, was led by the Soviet Union.

It was created in 1955 and its principal function was to counter NATO's forces in Europe. International alliances during the Cold War era were determined by the requirements of the superpowers and the calculations of the smaller states.

As noted above, Europe became the main arena of conflict between the superpowers. In some cases, the superpowers used their military power to bring countries into their  respectivea Soviet intervention in east Europe provides an example.

The Soviet Union used its influence in eastern Europe, backed by the very large presence of its armies in the countries of the region, to ensure that the eastern half of Europe remained within its sphere of influence.

In East and Southeast Asia and in West Asia (Middle East), the United States built an alliance system called — the Southeast Asian Treaty Organisation (SEATO) and the Central Treaty Organisation (CENTO).

The Soviet Union and communist China responded by having close relations with regional countries such as North Vietnam, North Korea and Iraq.

The Cold War threatened to divide the world into two alliances.

Under these circumstances, many of the newly independent countries, after gaining their independence from the colonial powers such as Britain and France, were worried that they would lose their freedom as soon as they gained formal independence. Cracks and splits within the alliances were quick to appear.

Communist China quarrelled with the USSR towards the late 1950s, and, in 1969, they fought a brief war over a territorial dispute. The other important development was the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which gave the newly independent countries a way of staying out of the alliances.

You may ask why the superpowers needed any allies at all. After all, with their nuclear weapons and regular armies, they were so powerful that the combined power of most of the smaller states in Asia and Africa, and even in Europe, was no match to that of the superpowers.

Yet, the smaller states were helpful for the superpowers in gaining access to 

(i) vital resources, such as oil and minerals,

(ii) territory, from where the superpowers could launch their weapons and troops,

(iii) locations from where they could spy on each other, and

(iv) economic support in that many small allies together could help pay for military expenses.

They were also important for ideological reasons. The loyalty of allies suggested that the superpowers were winning the war of ideas as well, that liberal democracy and capitalism were better than socialism and communism, or vice versa.

ARENAS OF THE COLD WAR

The Cuban Missile Crisis that we began this chapter with was only one of the several crises that occurred during the Cold War.

The Cold War also led to several shooting wars, but it is important to note that these crises and wars did not lead to another world war, The two superpowers were poised for direct confrontations in Korea (1950-53), Berlin (1958-62), the Congo (the early 1960s), and in several other places. Crises deepened, as neither of the parties involved was willing to back down.

When we talk about arenas of the Cold War, we refer, therefore, to areas where crisis and war occurred or threatened to occur between the alliance systems but did not cross certain limits. A great many lives were lost in some of these arenas like Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan, but the world was spared a nuclear war and global hostilities.

In some cases, huge military build-ups were reported. In many cases, diplomatic communication between the superpowers could not be sustained and contributed to the misunderstandings.

Sometimes, countries outside the two blocs, for example, the non-aligned countries, played a role in reducing Cold War conflicts and averting some grave crises, Jawaharlal Nehru - one of the key leaders of the NAM – played a crucial role in mediating between the two Koreas.

In the Congo crisis, the UN Secretary-General played a key mediatory role. By and large, it was the realisation on a superpower's part that war by all means should be avoided that made them exercise restraint and behave more responsibly in international affairs.

As the Cold War rolled from one arena to another, the logic of restraint was increasingly evident However, since the Cold War did not eliminate rivalries between the two alliances, mutual suspicions led them to arm themselves to the teeth and to constantly prepare for war. Huge stocks of arms were considered necessary to prevent wars from taking place.

The two sides understood that war might occur in spite of restraint. Either side might miscalculate the number of weapons in the possession of the other side. They might misunderstand the intentions of the other side.

Besides, what if there was a nuclear accident? What would happen if someone fired off a nuclear weapon by mistake or if a soldier mischievously shot off a weapon deliberately to start a war? What if an accident occurred with a nuclear weapon? How would the leaders of that country know it was an accident and not an act of sabotage by the enemy or that a missile had not landed from the other side?

THE COLD WAR TIMELINE

What is the timeline of Clod War?

1947 American President Harry Truman's Doctrine about the containment of communism

1947 - 52 Marshall Plan: US aid for the reconstruction of the Western Europe

1948 - 49 Berlin blockade by the Soviet Union and the airlift of supplies to the citizens of West                      Berlin by the US and its allies

1950-53 Korean War

1954 Defeat of the French by the Vietnamese at Dien Bien Phu Signing of the Geneva Accords         
         Division of Vietnam along the 17th Parallel Formation of SEATO

1954-75 American intervention in Vietnam

1955 Signing of the Baghdad Pact, later CENTO

1956 Soviet intervention in Hungary

1961 US-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba Construction of the Berlin Wall

1962 Cuban Missile Crisis

1965 American intervention in the Dominican Republic

1968 Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia

1972 US President Richard Nixon's visit to China

1978 - 89 Vietnamese intervention in Cambodia

1979 - 89 Soviet intervention in Afghanistan

1985 Gorbachev becomes the President of the USSR, begins the reform process

1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall; mass protests against governments in eastern Europe

1990 Unification of Germany

1991Disintegration of the Soviet Union End of the Cold War era.

In time, therefore, the US and USSR decided to collaborate in limiting or eliminating certain kinds of nuclear and non-nuclear weapons. A stable balance of weapons, they decided, could be maintained through 'arms control'.

Starting in the 1960s, the two sides signed three significant agreements within a decade. These were the Limited Test Ban Treaty, Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

Thereafter, the superpowers held several rounds of arms limitation talks and signed several more treaties to limit their arms.