IB History HL Paper 2 Essay: Cold War The British School in Colombo Colombo
Sajiv Sisil Panditha Candidate Code: ctd613 Session No: 001426-035
To what extent was there a thaw in the Cold War after 1953?
The Cold War was a period of fragile hostility primarily between the United States and the Soviet Union. These two nations n ations emerged out of World War II as the only onl y real superpowers, and their clashing ideologies of different social systems had forced them into confrontation. After 1953, the Cold War entered a period coined as “thaw”, referring to the international situation between the two superpowers. By 1954, the Korean War had ended with the signing of an armistice and positive steps followed to ease hostilities and improve cooperation on world affairs between the United States and Soviet Union thereafter. Throughout the 1950s, developments in the Cold War were affected by events ev ents in Asia, the nuclear arms race, changes in American and Soviet Leadership and steps towards establishing better relations between the East and West. Dwight D. Eisenh ower was elected U.S. President in 1952 stood strong against Communism alongside his Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles. During the presidential election campaign, campaign, Dulles promoted his “roll“roll- back” back” policy, which involved liberating East European nations under S oviet control. Eisenhower did not make any an y attempt to carry out this action, and instead introduced the “New Look” policy of containment under his administration. The objective of this policy was to prevent Soviet expansionism out of their current sphere of influence by taking different actions such as: setting up alliances such as SEATO to surround the Soviet Union, protect vulnerable areas with military, assist forces fighting against Communism, use the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) for more covert operations and increase reliance on nuclear nu clear arms. Perhaps the most significant practice of the “New Look” policy was the concept of Brinkmanship, which involved threats of severe retaliation, taunting nuclear war as an instrument of containment a gainst opposing forces. Eisenhower was aware of the dangers of these nu clear arms, and so was willing to hold talks with the Soviet Union, eventually resulting in U.S – U.S – Soviet Soviet Summits between 1955 and 1959. After the death of Josef Stalin I 1953, the Soviet Union not only saw a change in leadership, but also in attitudes attitudes towards the West A power-sharing triumvirate triumvirate was formed between Nikita Khrushchev, George Malenkov and Nicolai Bulganin. Malenkov took charge over the Soviet foreign policy and called for a “New Course” with the West, which was later renamed to “peaceful coco-existence” by Khrushchev when he eventually won the struggle for leadership. The concept of “peacef ul ul co-existence” co-existence” involved a mutual agreement over the existence of Capitalism and Communism by each other rather than attempting to eradicate them through threatening forces. In addition to Eisenhower and Khrushchev, the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill also hoped to avoid nuclear n uclear warfare and supported improved relations between the East and West. The economies of the two Cold War superpowers also helped build closer
IB History HL Paper 2 Essay: Cold War The British School in Colombo
Sajiv Sisil Panditha Candidate Code: ctd613 Session No: 001426-035
bilateral ties. One third of the Soviet economy focused on developing the military while living standards and consumer good levels were low. The American economy was in a better state; however 12% of the Gross National Product was spent on the military alone. By 1954, the Korean War had ended a major source of conflict between the two nations and lead to a relaxed period known as a “thaw”. In April 1955, the Soviet Union and United States signed the Austrian State Treaty which ended the four-power occupation of Austria, creating a neutral state. The Geneva Summit followed in July 1955 and acted as the first meeting of heads of state from major powers since 1945. Hardly anything was achieved as proposals regarding the arms race and the issue of Germany was not cooperated on. Both the Soviet and American proposals met with hostile responses from each other, failing to achieve any significant progress on the issues at the time. Despite the several disagreements in Geneva, the overall atmosphere at the summit was quite genial, improving relations between the powers in trade ex hibitions as well as exchange of culture and scientific information, which came to be known as the “spirit of Geneva” also promoting the peaceful nature of “thaw”. However, tension began to rise again after 1955, when Khrushchev delivered his DeStalinization speech in February 1956. This provoked challenges for Khrushchev in the Eastern Bloc, especially in Hungary while the West faced problems with the Suez Crisis. Furthermore, Soviet influence in the Middle East was growing, and this lead to the introduction of the Eisenhower Doctrine in January 1957. This ne w policy obliged the United States to fight against th Communism in any Middle Eastern nation. On October 4 1957, the Soviet Union launched “Sputnik” – the world’s first artificial satellite. Tension continued to rise as this action worried the United States upon knowledge of the advanced Soviet missile technology. Khrushchev added salt to the wound by reiterating that these arms could practically decimate any American or European city. The U.S. Congress and media later endorsed the concept of a “missile gap”. A top secret investigating committee known as the Gaither Report called for an increase in offensive defenses such as missile advancements, the development of forces able to fight a limited war and the large scale construction of fallout shelters which would protect American citizens from nuclear attacks. However when U.S. Air Force U-2 Reconnaissance spy planes flew ov er the Soviet Union, it was discovered that there w as no missile gap as the American missile force was stronger in numbers. Nevertheless, Eisenhower continued to make efforts in easing public concern by supporting the establishment of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958 which promoted missile development and space exploration. In October 1958, the United States ceased atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons as Eisenhower was now confident of nuclear superiority over the Soviet Union, who followed suit in their termination of nuclear testing. Despite this appreciative action, Kh rushchev once again raised East-West tensions by issuing an ultimatum towards the West, ordering them to withdraw
IB History HL Paper 2 Essay: Cold War The British School in Colombo
Sajiv Sisil Panditha Candidate Code: ctd613 Session No: 001426-035
from Berlin within six months. This was unsuccessful due to the determination o f the West, and by early 1959, tensions surrounding the Berlin Crisis had receded. Another U.S. – Soviet summit was now on the cards as Khrushchev accepted an invitation to the United States in September 1959. This made him the first Soviet leader to visit the United States, where he planned for yet another summit scheduled to be held in Paris in May 1960. Similar to the Geneva Summit, an optimistic outlook was produced despite the lack of any significant actions taken. The atmosphere came to be known as the “spirit of Camp David” referring to Eisenhower’s presidential retreat in Maryland. However, hostilities emerged yet st again with the shooting down of an American U-2 spy plane in Soviet airspace on May 1 1960. Furthermore, the Soviet Union confirmed that this was a photo reconnaissance aircraft and the captured pilot by the name of Gary Powers had confessed to the espionage nature of his task. Eisenhower then also confessed about the U-2 aircraft and took responsibility for the incident. The Paris summit went on to collapse as Eisenho wer refused to apologize, resulting in the cancellation of his scheduled visit to the Soviet Union by Khrushchev. The summit ended with no settlement on the Berlin Crisis nor on the agreement of a test-ban treaty. By 1962, the world edged closer to nuclear war as the United States and Soviet Union encountered their most severe confrontation yet over Cuba and its missile crisis, ending any sort of “thaw” that may or ma y not have been present after 1953. In conclusion, it would be appropriate to state that a “thaw” was only significantly present to an applicable extent around 1955 during the contradictory yet genial atmosphere of the Geneva Summit. Before and after this period, tensions continued to rise as a result of several Soviet and American actions that had a significant impact on the state of world affairs at the time. And so therefore, there was a thaw, only to a fair extent in the Cold War after 1953 due to the continuous surrounding tensions that maintained hostilities between the United States and the Soviet Union.
