The+Formation+of+the+Bipolar+World

= = = The Formation of the Bipolar World (1063-1077) = David Zillig, Chris Tussing

The cold war began at the end of World War II, primarily in war torn Europe. The "wartime" alliance between Russia and the United States had already begun to fall apart by the time the Germans surrendered in 1945. The competing ideologies of capitalism and communism where the two main things that shaped the postwar aims of the two emerging superpowers (superpower= the term that came into use during this period to distinguish their supreme global power from the more limited resources of other, merely great powers). The conflicts between the United States and Russia lead to a divided world. Europe (especially Germany) was split into separate blocs and states. The cold war eventually reached a global scale when the superpowers came into conflict as far as Korea and Cuba. (DZ)

The Cold War in Europe (DZ)
The European continent was divided into competing political, military, and economic blocs. One was "dependent" on the United States and the other was "subservient" to the USSR. They were separated by the "iron curtain," as Winston Churchill called it. Basically, each country adopted the political institutions, economic systems, and foreign policies of one of the two superpowers. Nations tied with the United States had parliamentary political systems and capitalist economic systems. They also adjusted their foreign policies to match the U.S.'s vision of the postwar world. The nations tied to Russia were held under the watchful eyes of the USSR's occupation armies and governments of primarily eastern European states adopted Soviet (communist) political and economic institutions. They also supported Moscow's foreign policy goals.

A Divided Germany (DZ)
The divisions of the cols war in Europe could be seen most vividly in Germany. In 19480-1949 The Soviet Union pressured the western powers to give up their jurisdiction over Berlin. After the fall of Hitler and his Third Reich, the United States, Soviet Union, Britain, and France occupied parts of Germany and its capital, Berlin (which were divided into four zones). Tensions rose between Soviet authorities and the U.S. and its allies from 1947-1948 after the western (allies) powers decided to combine their occupation zones into one economic unit and introduce the German mark, a new currency, in their portion of Germany and Berlin. The Soviet Union then blockaded all roads, railroads, and water lines from western Germany to Berlin, claiming that the western powers had violated the wartime agreements (four power administration) and announced that the allies no longer had jurisdiction there on June 24, 1948.

Airlift (DZ)
merica and Britain responded to the blockade by sending an airlift that would keep the citizens alive, warm, and fed. For eleven months, American and British air forces flew around the clock on missions to supply West Berlin with the necessities to keep its citizens alive. Tension was high during the airlift and due to the British and U.S. resolve and embargo act on exports from communist countries, Soviet leaders eventually called of the blockade in May 1949 (the airlift continued until September 1949). In the aftermath of the blockade, the Allies formed the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) in May 1949. In October 1949 the Soviet occupation zone formed the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). Berlin went through a similar process, and East Berlin became the capital of East Germany. The capital of West Germany was moved to a small town called Bonn.

Berlin Wall (DZ)
By 1961, the communist East German state was suffering form the steady drain of refugees that preferred the capitalist West Germany. Between 1949 and 1961, nearly 3.5 million East Germans left for West Germany. In August 1961 Began fortifying the Berlin wall, which began as a layer of barbed wire, into a barrier several layers deep with watch towers,search lights, antipersonnel mines, and border guards. The Allies avoided confronting the Soviets about the wall because they feared it would escalate into a full shooting war. In the years that followed, several thousand East Germans escaped to West Germany ("often by ingenious means"), but hundreds were unsuccessful and payed with their lives.

The Nuclear Arms Race (DZ)
The costly arms race and proliferation of nuclear weapons was a central feature of the cold war world. NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization, 1949) was one of two military blocs formed in the struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union. The other was the Warsaw Treaty Organization (Warsaw Pact, 1955) which was established in response to the rearming of West Germany. Since both sides were to be militarily superior to the other, the U.S. and Soviet Union amassed huge arsenals of thermonuclear weapons and developed many ways to deploy them. By 1970 both the United States and Soviet Union had reached the capacity for "mutually assured destruction (MAD). The balance of terror restrained both sides and stabilized their relationship, with two important exceptions.

Confrontations in Korea and Cuba (DZ)
In the summer of 1950 a breakout of violence arose in the Korean peninsula. The focus of the cold war shifted to east Asia from Europe. At the end of World War II, leaders from the U.S. and Russia divided Korea along the thirty-eight parallel (Soviet North, U.S. South). The two superpowers were not able to agree on a way to reunify Korea so in 1948 they consented to make two Korean states: the Republic of Korea (South) with Seoul and the conservative anticommunist Syngman Rhee as its president. The other state was the People's Democratic Republic of Korea, with Pyongyang as its capital and the revolutionary communist Kim Il Sung as its leader. U.S. and Soviet troops withdrew after arming the two countries and claiming sovereignty over them.

arly on June 25, 1950, the Pyongyang regime sent over one hundred thousand troops across the thirty-eight parallel determined to unify Korea by force and pushed back the South Koreans, taking Seoul on June 27. The U.S. convinced the United Nations to have all members to "provide the Republic of Korea with all necessary aid to repel the aggressors." The U.S. forces were unable to push back the North Koreans and in fact, suffered a series of "humiliating" defeats that summer. The tide turned after a risky but successful amphibious attack near Seoul. U.S. forces went on the offensive and, with the help of the allies, was able to push the North Koreans back to the thirty-eight parallel. The U.S. saw an opportunity to unify Korea and moved into North Korea but China threatened to get involved. Around three hundred thousand Chinese troops crossed the Yalu River into North Korea and pushed the U.S. and its allies back to the thirty-eight parallel. After two more years of fight that ended in a stalemate, the death toll reached three million (mostly Korean civilians). The war intensified the bitterness between the North and South and no peace treaty was make.

The Globalization of Containment (DZ)
Besides the physical damage and human loss the Korean war brought, it also encouraged the globalization of containment. The United States viewed the North Korean offensive as part of a larger communist conspiracy to conquer the world and eventually created the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO, the Asian counterpart to NATO). By 1954, President Eisenhower accepted the "domino theory," and extended the policy of containment throughout Central and South Asia, Africa and Asia.

Cuba: Nuclear Flashpoint (DZ)
The Cuban missile crisis of 1962 brought the superpowers dangerously close to nuclear exchange and underscored the risks of extending the cold war throughout the world. The U.S. declared the western hemisphere off-limits to the Soviet Union, and that ended up being where the cold war confrontation that came closest to unleashing nuclear war took place. In 1959 Fidel Castro Ruz overthrew Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar who strove to maintain the traditional relationship with the U.S. Castro purged the Batista supporters and seized foreign properties and businesses. He also accepted assistance form the Soviet Union, which strengthened U.S. fears about his communist leanings. The United States cut off Cuban sugar imports to the U.S. market and imposed a severe export embargo of U.S. goods on Cuba. Officials in the Eisenhower administration cut diplomatic relations with Cuba and began to plan an invasion of Cuba. The Soviet Union seized the opportunity to support Castro by purchasing sugar and sending military aid, technicians, advisers, and diplomatic personnel. Castro then declared support for the USSR's foreign policy dramatically in a four and a half hour speech at the UN General Assembly on September 26th, 1960.

The Bay of Pigs (DZ)
President John F. Kennedy launched the invasion of Cuba that was planned by the previous administration to overthrow Castro and his supporters. In April 1961, 1,500 anti-Castro Cubans (trained armed and transported by the CIA) landed on Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, but Dofailed to provoke any internal uprising and no American support came. After three days, Castro's army wiped out the entire invasion force. This diminished U.S. prestige (especially in Latin America) and strengthened Castro's position. In December Castro announced that he was a Marxist-Leninist. The CIA launched "Operation Mongoose," to assassinate Castro and destabilize Cuba but failed.

The Cuban Missile Crisis (DZ)
President Kennedy went on national television to inform the public about the U.S. discovery of offensive nuclear missiles and launch sites in Cuba and to frame the nation's response to this crisis on October 22nd 1962. The USSR aimed to protect the Castro government, and give the USSR greater leverage to undermine the U.S. credibility in the region and gain more influence in Latin America. The missiles would have been able to reach the United States within a matter of minutes, and the U.S. considered this threat unacceptable. Under pressure, President Kennedy delivered his public ultimatum, which called the Soviet leadership to withdraw all missiles form Cuba and stop arming Cuba. Kennedy also imposed an air and naval quarantine. For a week the world held its breath as negotiations continued. Nikita Khrushchev understood the risk of a nuclear showdown and agreed to Kennedy's demands. Kennedy also withdrew U.S. missiles in Turkey. Khrushchev announced to the public the end of the crisis on October 28th on global television. The crisis emphasized the the dangers of the bipolar world.

Domestic Containment and Female Liberation (CT)
Social and political leaders in the United States believed that families provided the best defense against communist infiltration in their nation. Women didn't need to work, as women did in the Soviet Union, because their husbands made enough money to support their family in suburban splendor and because a mother's most important job was keeping the family happy and loyal. Many people such as politicians, FBI agents, educators, and social commentators, warned of communist spies who were trying to undermine the institutions of U.S. life, and Senator Joesph McCarthy became infamous in the early 1950s for his unsuccessful quest to expose the communists in the U.S. government. He supported any radical or liberal cause, or behaving in any odd way, subjected citizens of the United States to suspicions about their loyalty. ==Thousands of citizens-especially those who were or once had been members of the Communist Party-lost their jobs and reputations after being deemed risks to the nation's security. Staying safely protected in the family life meant avoiding suspicion and ignoring some of the more anxious elements of the cold war as waged by the United states particularly in the atomic peril. Women were most affected by its restraints, even though the domestic containment fell on all members of the family. Married women in the U.S. worked in larger numbers during the cold war than during WWII, many of them felt shame or guilt for not living up to the domestic ideals being showcased on the new and widely viewed television shows that sustained the U. S. public during the cold war. U.S. women rejected cold war norms and agitated for their own equal rights. After women had to return home after WWII, European and North American societies expressed a new found understanding of their oppression at the hands of men. Feminists provided one signal that not all was well within the capitalist orbit. When student radicals objected to U.S. policies in Vietnam it became clear that cold war policies had broken down. Women adopted the language and terms of Marxism and anticolonialism.==

Black Nationalism and Civil Rights (CT)
A cross fertilization between domestic and foreign policies and between European, American, and decolonizing societies took place throughout the early cold war years. Bob Marley's song "Get Up Stand Up" gave African Americans nationalism because they all stood up together to fight for their rights and freedom. Another black nationalist was Marcus Garvey, who advocated that U.S. blacks seek repatriation in Africa. Kwame Nkrumah familiarized himself with the works of Garvey and later went on to lead Ghana to independence from colonial rule. Moderate civil rights leaders in the U.S. also adopted the ideas and strategies of other nationalist leaders fighting for independence. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. relied openly on Mohandas K. Ghandi's examples of passive nonresistance and boycotting. Since the cold war and the modern civil rights movements coincided the Soviet Union used the conditions of African Americans to show the weaknesses of the capitalist system. Almost every southern state institutionalized segregation, which African Americans contended with. Rosa Parks accelerated a civil rights revolution that resulted in major advances for blacks in the United States when she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man as required by law.

Cold War Consumerism (CT)
The United States fell short in cold war ideological battles in its treatment of African Americans, but the Soviet Union had difficulty matching the United States in the provision of material wealth, leisure, and consumer goods. The Soviet Union and its satellites had achieved success with military and scientific endeavors, but didn't give their people with their dream items such as automobiles, Hollywood movies, record albums, supermarkets, or month long vacations. European and North American people suffered atomic anxiety and the insecurity of living in the cold war world. The contrasting economic and social conditions of western and eastern Europe after WWII demonstrated the different lifestyles that emerged in Europe during the cold war. the western European government leaders rebuilt their nations by encouraging economic growth and by providing social services that outpaced those in the U.S. Including over time, and the guarantee of a thirty day paid vacation.

The Space Race (CT)
While Soviet and eastern European societies could not compete with the abundance of consumer goods available in the U.S. and western Europe, they could take pride and some comfort from the technological triumphs enjoyed by the Soviet Union in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The Soviet Union showed their superiority by launching the first satellite into space, Sputnik, on October 4, 1957, and by testing a workable intercontinental ballistic missile in the late 1950s. Then the panic in the U.S. began to happen and it intensified when the Soviets launched Yuri Gagarin into space, where he became the first man to orbit the earth. Then the U.S. launched their first satellite into space in 1958, Explorer I, and sent astronaut John Glenn into orbit in 1962. John F. Kennedy focused himself on NASA and tried to make sure that the U.S. was the first to have a man land on the moon. We did that on July 20, 1969 when Apollo 11 gently sat down on the moon's Sea of Tranquility and thereby ensuring that Americans were the first to make this "great leap for mankind". The moon landing reassured U.S. citizens of their world status, but the earlier years of the cold war .left them insecure about missile gaps and diminished scientific ingenuity in a society relentlessly devoted to consumerism.

Peaceful Coexistence (CT)
After the war, Stalin imposed Soviet economic planning on governments in east Europe and expected the people of the Soviet Union and eastern Europe to conform to anticapitalist ideological requirements in their cultural productions. Rebellious artists and novelists found themselves silenced and this affected government workers, writers, and filmmakers in the United States in the same years. After Stalin's death in 1953 when Khrushchev took over there was a relaxation of economic and cultural dictates. Khrushchev emphasized the possibility of peaceful coexistence between different social systems and the achievement of communism by peaceful means. The peaceful coexistence that Khrushchev fostered with the United States appeared to apply to domestic Soviet and eastern European societies also. There were limits to this Soviet liberalization though: Soviet troops cracked down on Hungarian rebels in 1956, and soviet novelist Boris Pasternak, author of Dr. Zhivago, was not allowed to receive his Nobel Prized for literature in 1958. Societies in the Soviet Union and the United States may have resembled one another in some ways such as in their domestic censorship policies, in their space racing, in their pursuit of nuclear superiority, and in their quest for cold war supremacy, but they also resembled one another in their basic humanity: a fact that may have prevented the ultimate tipping of the balance of terror. Khrushchev visited the U.S. and became the first Soviet leader to step foot on U.S. soil. Despite some tense moments, Khrushchev's tour of the Untied States contributed to a thaw in the cold war even though it was brief. In his September 1959 travels, which included stops in New York, California, and Iowa, him getting to see Disneyland because of security concerns, watching him talk with U.S. farmers, and listening as he thanked his U.S. hosts upon his departure for their hospitality. This encounter between a Soviet leader and a United States audience suggested the ever shifting possibilities for peace in the perilous cold war world. The search for peace and security in a bipolar world was revamping societies in the Euro-American world and beyond. When peace remained elusive, however, the superpowers confronted challenges on many fronts, some coming from their own allies an others from small nation seeking freedom from superpower interference.

Additional Sources:

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