In 1945, the Soviet Union and the United States had jointly defeated Nazi Germany. After the victory, however, this unusual alliance was quickly over. A long period of international tension began. The great powers fought each other in every possible way, except directly. A bird's-eye view of the period between the end of World War II and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Yalta 1945
It is still difficult to say exactly when the Cold War started. It seems that the first impetus for a divided world was given at the Yalta Conference in February 1945. At that time, Germany had been driven back by the Red Army to just outside Berlin.
Allied leaders — President Roosevelt on behalf of the US, Winston Churchill on behalf of Britain and Josef Stalin on behalf of the Soviet Union — agreed to meet in Yalta, a resort on the Black Sea. Agreements were made about the fate of Germany and about the post-war organization of Europe. The leaders agreed to divide Germany into several occupation zones. Berlin, which would be located entirely in the Soviet zone, was also divided into zones.
Although the leaders worked constructively together, it was clear that Stalin had very different ideas about post-war Europe than Churchill and Roosevelt. Because the Red Army had single-handedly expelled the Nazis from Eastern Europe, Stalin believed he was entitled to a sphere of influence in those countries. This resulted in a curious compromise, of which it is still unclear whether Churchill and Roosevelt were aware of the consequences. The Eastern European states would be democracies, but would have to maintain friendly ties with the communist Soviet Union.
An iron curtain
In the years following the war, it quickly became clear that a new world order based on lasting cooperation between the former allies would be impossible. Stalin demanded a free hand in Eastern Europe to create a series of communist satellite states. In return, he would not interfere in Western Europe. That was a demand that the West had to comply with, because powerful communist parties had emerged in both France and Italy.
- The division of Germany (Historisch Nieuwsblad article)
- “Stalin even more cruel due to brain disease” (Knowledge link article)
- The beginning of the Cold War (Historisch Nieuwsblad article)
- Between Third Reich and German division (Germanyweb)
In response to Stalin's aggressive power politics, US President Harry Truman vowed to fight communism anywhere in the world (containment doctrine).
The American, French and British occupation zones in Germany were transformed in 1948 into a democratic state according to the Western ideal:The Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). A year later, the establishment of the communist German Democratic Republic (GDR) in the Soviet zone completed the division of Germany, thereby completing the division between West and East. In 1961, the East Germans even built a wall to physically separate free West Berlin from the East.
- US had no problem with Berlin Wall (Knowledge link article)
- Fall of the Wall (Knowledge Link Article)
The world as it emerged around 1950 was bipolar. That is, it consisted of two power blocs. On the one hand, the free, capitalist West, safe under the US "nuclear umbrella" and united within the NATO military alliance. Stable democracies with an extensive welfare state developed here in the 1950s and 1960s. On the other hand, the communist dictatorships were led by Moscow. The communist satellite states of the Soviet Union had been militarily united in the Warsaw Pact since 1955.
International conflicts
The Americans had demonstrated their willingness to use an atomic bomb with the destruction of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. The Soviet Union tested its first nuclear weapon in 1949. A few years later, both superpowers tested an even more destructive weapon, the hydrogen bomb. In the late 1950s, both the US and the Soviet Union were so heavily armed that direct confrontation would inevitably lead to mutual destruction.
Due to the arms race and constant atmosphere of crisis, there were regular mass demonstrations during the Cold War.
Because both power blocs wanted to expand their sphere of influence, they did so by supporting various political and military groups in different countries. This mainly happened in countries that did not belong to the West or communism, the so-called Third World.
- Hot music in the Cold War (Knowledge Link Article)
- Bay of Pigs:Many Questions Unanswered (Knowledge Link Article)
- US already supported Mujahideen before the Russian invasion (Historisch Nieuwsblad article)
- After a reign of terror (Knowledge link article)
- The protest songs of the Vietnam War (Knowledge Link Article)
- Vietnam and the war that never becomes history (Spiegel Historiael)
Examples include the Korean War (the US supported South Korea, the Soviet Union and China supported Stalinist North Korea) and the Suez crisis (England and France supported Israel, the Soviet Union supported the Arab countries). ).
Complex chess game
As both superpowers had to defend their interests worldwide, the Cold War became an increasingly complex geopolitical chess game on a large scale. American policymakers such as George Kennan and Henry Kissinger were masters of this. The tense politics regularly led to risky situations. Kissinger tried to put an end to the tense politics by striking a balance of power with the Soviet Union. For this he involved China as the third superpower in the international game. Kissinger also initiated talks (SALT) to further limit the arms race.
- George Kennan, the Abused Visionary (Knowledge Link Article)
- Minutes from a Nuclear War (Knowledge Link Article)
- Architect of relaxation (Knowledge link article)
- Frontline of the Cold War in Asia (Spiegel Historiael)
- The foreign policy of Henry Kissinger (Historisch Nieuwsblad)
However, the period of relative relaxation was short-lived. When the communist revolution in Afghanistan threatened to fail in 1979, the Soviet Union sent its army to that country for what would become a long, hopeless war. This was partly because the Americans gave intensive support to the Mujahideen.
The war in Afghanistan, combined with years of economic decline and misgovernment, exhausted the communist system in the late 1980s. In 1989 the Berlin Wall opened. Two years later, the Soviet Union ceased to exist.
- Fall of the Wall (Knowledge Link Article)
- Fall of the Berlin Wall (History 24)
- Hollywood goes to war (Knowledge Link Article)
- The Cold War (BBC History)
- Cold War, images and sound (History 24)
- Rulers of space (Historisch Nieuwsblad)
Search yourself in Cold War archives:
- Cold War International History Project
- National Security Archive
- Russian Archives Online
- Bukovsky archives (mostly Russian, being translated)