World Politics in a New Era
Chapter 4
World Politics and Economics:
The Cold War
Causes of the Cold War
• It was Moscow’s fault
– Soviet aggression and expansionism
– Domestic-level argument
• No, it was Washington’s fault
– Expand overseas markets
– Use of atomic bomb
– Domestic-level argument
• Ideological conflict
– Capitalism versus communism = inevitable conflict
– Domestic-level argument
Causes of the Cold War
• Leadership
– Truman and Stalin
– Individual-level argument
• Bipolarity
– Realpolitik and the security dilemma
– Systemic-level argument
• It was all a misunderstanding
– No hostile intentions but rather misinterpretation
– Systemic-level argument
Heating Up the Cold War
• Initial confrontation: Iran
– Soviets refused to withdraw but eventually backed
down
– United States determined that standing firm was best
way to deal with USSR
• The “Iron Curtain” descended
– Churchill warned that an "Iron Curtain" was dividing
Europe
• Britain conceded leading role in world affairs to
United States
Early U.S. Policies
• Truman Doctrine (1947)
– Persuade Congress to authorize aid to Greece and Turkey
– Aid to states attempting to resist communist insurgencies
– The “declaration of the Cold War”?
• Marshall Plan (1947)
– Massive program of economic aid to the war-demolished
nations of Europe
– Three lasting effects
• Revitalized western European economies
• Thwarted communist influence in western Europe
• Facilitated European economic and political integration
Containment
• U.S. strategic doctrine throughout Cold War
• Prevent communist/Soviet expansion
• George Kennan – “Long Telegram”
– Application of counterforce
• Novikov Telegram
– United States striving for world supremacy
• Both telegrams demonstrated lack of trust
Berlin Blockade (1948-1949)
• Closed all land access routes to the Westernoccupied sectors
• The United States responded by organizing a
massive airlift of basic necessities
• Reinforced the USSR's aggressive reputation in
the West
• The USSR and the Western Allies took
independent steps to set up governments in
their occupied zones of Germany
NATO and the Warsaw Pact
• Creation of NATO in April 1949
– Role of Berlin Blockade
– Nations of western Europe plus the United States
and Canada
– The first alliance the United States had entered
into in peacetime
• Creation of Warsaw Pact in 1955
– Soviet client states in eastern Europe
Transformation of the
World Economy
• The United States emerged as hegemon
– Dominated the world in terms of production
– A massive increase in U.S. GNP
– Increase in international trade and investment
– Improvement in living standards
• The Bretton Woods system (1945)
– Designed to facilitate economic cooperation
– Created IMF and the World Bank
– In 1947, GATT sought to open world markets and
increase trade
Chinese Revolution
• Struggle between communists and
Nationalists
• Declining strength and popularity of the
Nationalist Kuomintang, led by Chiang Kaishek
• In 1949, Chinese communists led by Mao
Zedong won the civil war
• Established the People's Republic of China
• The Nationalists retreated to Taiwan
NCS-68
• Communist victory in China and the USSR's
test of an atomic bomb
• The National Security Council prepared a
controversial plan
• NSC-68 called for the increase of U.S. armed
forces
• Rejected initially due to fear that the high
military spending would ruin the U.S.
economy
The Korean War
• Korea divided after World War II
• Rigged election in the North brought Kim Il-Sung
to power
• Both the USSR and the United States withdrew
their occupation forces by 1950
• In June 1950, North Korean forces attacked the
South, attempting to unify the country by force
• The Security Council authorized intervention into
the war by a U.S.-led coalition
The Korean War
•
•
•
•
The U.S.-led UN intervention saved South Korea
The Chinese intervened on the Northern side
Stalemated along the 38th parallel
Turning point in the Cold War
– Adoption of NSC-68 and a large buildup of forces
– U.S. involvement in Asia was increased
– U.S.-Soviet and U.S.-Chinese conflicts heightened
– The global U.S.-Soviet conflict worsened
– Set a precedent for limited war
The Third World
• The USSR established ties with newly
independent nations in Asia and Africa
• The United States sought to limit Soviet influence
in these developing countries
– U.S.-engineered coup in Iran
– CIA-backed coup in Guatemala
– Suez Crisis
• Nonaligned movement
– Assert independence
– Play superpowers off one another
Berlin
• In 1958, the Soviets demanded the Western
Allies' withdrawal from Berlin
• In 1961, the Berlin Wall was erected
– East German authorities sealed off West Berlin
with barbed wire and concrete barricades
– An effort to stop the flow of refugees
– Western sectors of Berlin were surrounded by the
Berlin Wall, but West Berlin remained in Allied
hands
Cuban Missile Crisis
• Soviet medium-range nuclear missiles
detected by U.S. intelligence
• The resulting crisis was the most acute of the
Cold War
– The United States instituted a blockade
– The USSR agreed to withdraw the missiles in
exchange for U.S. concessions
Cuban Missile Crisis
• Results
– Relaxation of Cold War tensions
– Agreement on a limited nuclear test ban treaty
– Establishment of the Moscow-Washington
"hotline"
– The USSR began building up its nuclear forces at
tremendous cost
– Americans became overconfident and now
underestimated the difficulties of containing
communism in the Third World
The Vietnam War
• 16,000 U.S. military advisors in South Vietnam
• In 1965, U.S. combat forces in Vietnam to
forestall a communist victory
• By 1968 the United States had more than
500,000 soldiers fighting in Vietnam
• U.S. troops, military aid, and bombing campaigns
failed to defeat the Vietcong
• The United States could not strengthen the
corrupt South Vietnamese regime
• Vietnam fell to the communists in 1975
The Apparent Decline of U.S. Economic
Hegemony
• Growth of economies of Europe and Japan
• The United States developed a currentaccount deficit
• The “Nixon Shock” occurred in 1971
• In 1973, the fixed exchange rate system was
ended
• International economic relations took on a
more multilateral cast
Detente
• In February 1972, U.S. President Nixon visited
China
• Visit signaled new flexibility in U.S. policy
• Nixon and Kissinger also sought to improve U.S.Soviet relations
– Acknowledged the USSR's superpower status and
attainment of strategic parity with the United States
• Moscow Summit
– SALT I
– Economic and trade agreements
Tensions in Detente
• The United States and USSR had different
goals and expectations for detente
– The United States hoped to avoid confrontations
and challenges to each other’s vital interests
– The USSR expected the Cold War competition to
continue
• The Arab-Israeli War of 1973
– An alert of U.S. nuclear forces
– Arab oil embargo against the United States
The End of Detente
• Carter emphasized interdependence, economic
factors, and human rights
– Carter and Brezhnev signed SALT II in 1979
– Soviet belief that the United States would not oppose
Soviet expansion in the Third World
• Invasion of Afghanistan
– Attempt to install a more strongly pro-Soviet regime
– Widely denounced in the West and Third World
– Economic sanctions and withdrawal of the U.S. team
from the Moscow Olympics in 1980
Reagan and the
Reagan Doctrine
• More assertive form of containment
• Reagan labeled the USSR the “evil empire”
• Reagan Doctrine: increased U.S. support for
anticommunist insurgencies in the Third
World
• Examples: Angola, Cambodia, El Salvador,
Guatemala, and Nicaragua
• Controversial and expensive improvements in
U.S. military forces
The Gorbachev Era
• Policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika
(economic restructuring)
• USSR refused to prop up communist regimes
• Mass uprisings resulting in the collapse of
communist regimes
• Abortive coup by hard-line communists in the
USSR failed in 1991
• Discrediting of Soviet regime
• Disintegration of Soviet Union by end of 1991
Why Did the Cold War End?
• The Gorbachev factor
– Gorbachev's leadership and policies
– “Great-man” theory
– Individual-level explanation
• The failure of communism
– Internal changes in Soviet policy and society
– Triumph of capitalism over communism
– Domestic-level explanation
Why Did the Cold War End?
• End of the evil empire
– Soviet Union became too weak to challenge the
United States and ultimately collapsed
– Variant: economic and military competition with the
West
– Essentially a systemic-level explanation
• Decline of bipolarity
– Real "winners" of the Cold War
– Unipolarity or multipolarity?
– Systemic-level explanation