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Cold War conflict
By Ron Anderson, Scotch College
Introduction
These notes are in two main sections. The first section focuses on the difficulty of generalising about the nature of the Cold War, before discussing the problems associated with generalising about Cold War conflicts.
The Cold War and Cold War conflicts
1. Generalising about the Cold War
While the concept of the Cold War as a single period is valid, it distorts and covers as much as it elucidates.
It is true that the period of about 1945-90 shows intense rivalry between the US and the USSR, and that this rivalry often took the form of significant levels of conflict. However this emphasis on the essential unity of the period obscures some of the differences which were clearly manifest during the Cold War.
Conventional histories of the Cold War often divide it into a series of smaller phases or sub-periods
Phase I 1945-49
The Cold War originates and focuses largely on a struggle for influence in Europe. The conflict over Berlin (the Berlin Blockade of 1948) typifies the conflict of this period.
Phase II 1949-62
In this period the Cold War intensifies as USSR became nuclear capable in 1949, ending the US nuclear monopoly. After 1949 the conflict was now a nuclear conflict, with the consequence of vertical nuclear proliferation - the development of larger weapons (H-bombs) and more varied and accurate weapons delivery systems. The typical form of nuclear conflict here was the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The second change was the globalisation of the conflict against communism, after the communists were victorious in China in 1949. Apart from the nuclear conflict, typical conflicts of this period centred on Korea (the Korean War 1950-54) or the Vietnam conflict. (This conflict is more properly called the Indo-Chinese War and occurred in two phases 1945-1954 and 1958-1974).
Phase III 1962-78 - The era of dŽtente
The dŽtente era is more accurately descriptive of the 1970s, but during the 1960s, partly as a result of the Cuban Missile Crisis, there was a range of arms control agreements begun (ban on atmospheric nuclear testing, nuclear non-proliferation treaty). The main era of dŽtente occurred in the 1970s, when pressure for arms control (SALT I and SALT II) combined with changes in the international power balance with the emergence of China from isolation.
Phase IV 1978-79 - The Second Cold War or the New Cold War
From 1978-79, as a result of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the instability associated with the emergence of militant Islam, and pressures over the development of 'Star Wars', led to a renewal of intense conflict.
This brief summary indicates the necessity of some significant qualifications to the concept of a single uniform Cold War.
The remainder of this 12-page article includes the following subheadings:
- Changing temperatures
- Changing power relationships
- the emergence of China, and the split in communism
- the development of economic strength of Japan and Germany
- growth of Islam as a factor in international politics.
- Other developments on the international agenda - The importance of decolonisation in Asia and Africa after WW II
- Periods of cooperation
2. Generalising about Cold War conflicts
- Are Cold War conflicts caused by Cold War tensions?
- Other Cold War aspects of conflict
- Berlin Blockade
- Korean War
- Cuban Missile Crisis 1962
- The intensity of the conflict
- Resolution of the Conflict
- Significance and Effects
- Conclusion
- Vietnam War
- Afghanistan 1978-1987
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