Cold War Reference Library Volume 2 Almanac

247 Pages·2004·4.5 MB·English

by  Sharon M. Hanes

Cold War
Almanac
Cold War
Almanac
Volume 2
Sharon M. Hanes
and Richard C. Hanes
Lawrence W. Baker,
Project Editor
Cold War: Almanac
Sharon M. Hanes and Richard C. Hanes
Project Editor Permissions Product Design
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Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Reader’s Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xi
Words to Know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
People to Know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxix
Cold War Timeline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xxxv
Research and Activity Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xlix
Volume 1
Chapter 1: Origins of the Cold War . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter 2: Conflict Builds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Chapter 3: Germany and Berlin. . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Chapter 4: Dawning of the Nuclear Age. . . . . . . . . 79
Chapter 5: Homeland Insecurities. . . . . . . . . . . .99
Chapter 6: Espionage in the Cold War . . . . . . . . . 125
Chapter 7: A Worldwide Cold War. . . . . . . . . . . 167
Volume 2
Chapter 8: Renewed Tensions. . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Chapter 9: Cuban Missile Crisis . . . . . . . . . . . .213
Chapter 10: Mutual Assured Destruction. . . . . . . .233
Chapter 11: An Unsettled World. . . . . . . . . . . .251
Chapter 12: Home Front Turmoil: The 1960s . . . . . .275
Chapter 13: Détente: A Lessening of Tensions . . . . .297
Chapter 14: A Freeze in Relations . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Chapter 15: End of the Cold War . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Where to Learn More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .lix
vi Cold War: Almanac
Introduction
Sometimes single events alter the course of history; other
times, a chain reaction of seemingly lesser occurrences
changes the path of nations. The intense rivalry between the
United States and the Soviet Union that emerged immediately
after World War II (1939–45) followed the second pattern.
Known as the Cold War, the rivalry grew out of mutual distrust
between two starkly different societies: communist Soviet
Union and the democratic West, which was led by the United
States and included Western Europe. Communism is a political
and economic system in which the Communist Party controls
all aspects of citizens’ lives and private ownership of property
is banned. It is not compatible with America’s democratic way
of life. Democracy is a political system consisting of several po-
litical parties whose members are elected to various govern-
ment offices by vote of the people. The rapidly growing rivalry
between the two emerging post–World War II superpowers in
1945 would dominate world politics until 1991. Throughout
much of the time, the Cold War was more a war of ideas than
one of battlefield combat. Yet for generations, the Cold War af-
fected almost every aspect of American life and those who
lived in numerous other countries around the world.
The global rivalry was characterized by many things.
Perhaps the most dramatic was the cost in lives and public
funds. Millions of military personnel and civilians were killed
in conflicts often set in Third World countries. This toll in-
cludes tens of thousands of American soldiers in the Korean
War (1950–53) and Vietnam War (1954–75) and thousands of
Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan. National budgets were stretched
to support the nuclear arms races, military buildups, localized
wars, and aid to friendly nations. On the international front,
the United States often supported oppressive but strongly anti-
communist military dictatorships. On the other hand, the So-
viets frequently supported revolutionary movements seeking
to overthrow established governments. Internal political devel-
opments within nations around the world were interpreted by
the two superpowers—the Soviet Union and the United
States—in terms of the Cold War rivalry. In many nations, in-
cluding the Soviet-dominated Eastern European countries,
basic human freedoms were lost. New international military
and peacekeeping alliances were also formed, such as the Unit-
ed Nations (UN), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO), the Organization of American States (OAS), and the
Warsaw Pact.
Effects of the Cold War were extensive on the home
front, too. The U.S. government became more responsive to
national security needs, including the sharpened efforts of
the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Created were the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security
Council (NSC), and the Department of Defense. Suspicion of
communist influences within the United States built some in-
dividual careers and destroyed others. The national education
priorities of public schools were changed to emphasize sci-
ence and engineering after the Soviets launched the satellite
Sputnik,which itself launched the space race.
What would cause such a situation to develop and
last for so long? One major factor was mistrust for each other.
The communists were generally shunned by other nations,
including the United States, since they gained power in Rus-
sia in 1917 then organized that country into the Soviet
Union. The Soviets’ insecurities loomed large. They feared an-
other invasion from the West through Poland, as had hap-
pened through the centuries. On the other hand, the West
was highly suspicious of the harsh closed society of Soviet
viii Cold War: Almanac
communism. As a result, a move by one nation would bring a
response by the other. Hard-liners on both sides believed
long-term coexistence was not feasible.
A second major factor was that the U.S. and Soviet ide-
ologies were dramatically at odds. The political, social, and
economic systems of democratic United States and commu-
nist Soviet Union were essentially incompatible. Before the
communist (or Bolshevik) revolution in 1917, the United
States and Russia competed as they both sought to expand
into the Pacific Northwest. In addition, Americans had a
strong disdain for Russian oppression under their monarchy
of the tsars. Otherwise, contact between the two growing pow-
ers was almost nonexistent until thrown together as allies in a
common cause to defeat Germany and Japan in World War II.
It was during the meetings of the allied leaders in Yalta
and Potsdam in 1945 when peaceful postwar cooperation was
being sought that the collision course of the two new super-
powers started becoming more evident. The end of World War
II had brought the U.S. and Soviet armies face-to-face in cen-
tral Europe in victory over the Germans. Yet the old mistrusts
between communists and capitalists quickly dominated diplo-
matic relations. Capitalism is an economic system in which
property and businesses are privately owned. Prices, produc-
tion, and distribution of goods are determined by competition
in a market relatively free of government intervention. A peace
treaty ending World War II in Europe was blocked as the Sovi-
ets and the U.S.-led West carved out spheres of influence. West-
ern Europe and Great Britain aligned with the United States
and collectively was referred to as the “West”; Eastern Europe
would be controlled by the Soviet Communist Party. The Sovi-
et Union and its Eastern European satellite countries were col-
lectively referred to as the “East.” The two powers tested the re-
solve of each other in Germany, Iran, Turkey, and Greece in
the late 1940s.
In 1949, the Soviets successfully tested an atomic
bomb and Chinese communist forces overthrew the National
Chinese government, and U.S. officials and American citizens
feared a sweeping massive communist movement was over-
taking the world. A “red scare” spread through America. The
term “red” referred to communists, especially the Soviets. The
public began to suspect that communists or communist sym-
pathizers lurked in every corner of the nation.
Introduction ix