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International
Relations-PSC 201
VU
LESSON
21
THE
COLD WAR AND ITS IMPACTS
(CONTINUED)
Cold
War in Europe
The
October Revolution of 1917
had sowed the seeds of
Communism in Europe. The
Soviet Union's
ambitions
were checked by the rise of
fascism in Italy and
Germany.
The
Soviets agreed to join
France, Britain and the US to
check the power of the fascists during
WWII. At
the
end of WWII however, tensions
grew between the former
Allies over dividing the
spoils of war. The
Soviets
were reluctant to grant Poland independence
and did not want to vacate
their troops from
eastern
Germany.
Communism spread to Poland and led to
East Germany.
The
Cold War intensified in the
next few years and the
Soviets managed to install Communist
regimes in
Bulgaria,
Hungary and in Romania. Thereafter,
Albania, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia
also came under
the
influence of the Soviets and Finland's
coalition government was also dominated
by the Communists.
Europe
was thus divided into
two blocks: the Eastern
block controlled by the Soviets
and the Western
block
backed by the US. The
post-WWII outbreak of conflict in Greece
between the government and the
Communist
guerillas was a turning
point in US foreign policy, when
President Truman vowed to check
the
Soviet
influence and to actively protect its
foreign interests
abroad.
Truman
Doctrine
The
Truman Doctrine was meant to
fill the vacuum in power politics
created by the weakening of Britain
so
as
to prevent the global domination of
Communism.
The
Truman Doctrine offered direct
assistance to Greece and to
Turkey to check Communist influence
and
bypassed
even the UN mechanism (a trend
which was to reoccur in later
years).
Marshal
Plan
The
Marshal Plan (named after the US
Secretary of Defense) was an
extension of the Truman Doctrine
to
protect
(western) Europe from
economic collapse and
communist domination.
Aid
under the Marshal Plan was used to
reconstruct war ravaged
Europe and it became the
basis for lending
for
development to newly independent countries in Africa,
Asia and Latin
America.
Expansion
of the Cold War Arena
Communism
also spread to China with the
initial backing of Soviets.
The disposed Chiang Kai
Sek
government
was exiled to Formosa, which is
now Taiwan. The spread of
Communism to China also
lent
support
to North Korea, where the US backed the
South Koreans. Soviet support to the
North Vietnamese
led
to more serious US engagement in the
conflict, due to the fear
that Cambodia, Laos, Burma
and
Thailand
could also become Communist. Despite
sending up to 600,000 troops to
Vietnam by 1965, the
North
Vietnamese won the battle with
support of China and the
Soviets.
In
the M.E, the US provided active
support to the Israelis but the
Soviets were not able to
influence the ME
conflict
to its advantage. In Latin America, the
Soviet influence in Cuban and Nicaragua
made the US very
nervous
and it supported brutal regimes
like that of Pinochet in Chile to prevent
its fall to communist
influence.
The
Congo, Ghana and Gold Coast
got military and financial
aid from the Soviets, which
also led the US to
take
counter measures in Africa. In South
Asia, besides Indian leaning
towards the Soviet and the
Pakistani
inclination
towards the US, the invasion of
Afghanistan became a major Cold
War arena for a proxy
war
between
the Superpowers.
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International
Relations-PSC 201
VU
Relevant
Vocabulary
Exiled:
expelled,
being thrown out of a
country
Regime:
government
Counter
measures: measures
taken in reaction to those of the
opponent
Fascist:
totalitarian,
dictatorial (for e.g. Italy
and Germany around the WWII
period)
Bypass:
to
sideline or ignore
Suggested
Readings
Students
are advised to read the
following chapters to develop a better understanding
of the various
principals
highlighted in this hand-out:
Chapter
6 in `"A Study of International
Relations" by Dr. Sultan
Khan
Internet
Resources
In
addition to reading from the
textbook, please visit the
following web-pages for this
lecture, which
provide
useful and interesting
information:
The
Cold War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War