6. Cold wars at home

‘Cold wars at home’ highlights the domestic repercussions of the Cold War. The Cold War exerted so profound and so multi-faceted an impact on the structure of international politics and state-to-state relations that it has become customary to label the 1945–90 period ‘the Cold War era’. That designation becomes even more fitting when one considers the powerful mark that the Soviet–American struggle for world dominance and ideological supremacy left within many of the world’s nation-states. The Cold War of course affected the internal constellation of forces in the Third World, Europe, and the United States and impacted the process of decolonization, state formation, and Cold War geopolitics.

7. The rise and fall of superpower détente, 1968–79

‘The rise and fall of superpower détente, 1968–79’ describes how the French term détente served as a convenient shorthand for the more stable and cooperative relationship being forged by the Cold War’s primary protagonists during the 1970s. The United States and the Soviet Union worked to lessen the danger of nuclear war through the negotiation of verifiable arms control agreements and to formulate a core set of ‘rules’ to govern their relationship. Nevertheless, competition continued, especially in the Third World. Each side, moreover, harboured a fundamentally different understanding about the meaning of détente. By the end of the 1970s, those problems had grown so severe that they brought the era of détente to an abrupt close.

5. From confrontation to détente, 1958–68

‘From confrontation to détente, 1958–68’ explores the events and forces that made the late 1950s and early 1960s a period of seemingly perpetual crisis. In the late 1950s, the Cold War entered perhaps its most dangerous phase, the time in which the danger of general nuclear war was highest. A succession of crises, culminating in 1962 with the epochal confrontation between Washington and Moscow over the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba, brought the world perilously close to a nuclear conflagration. On both sides of the superpower divide, risk-taking and shrill rhetoric reached levels not witnessed since the late 1940s. The US involvement in Vietnam, particularly the Vietnam War, is an important part of this history.

8. The final phase, 1980–90

‘The final phase, 1980–90’ recounts how the late 1980s witnessed the most momentous changes in the overall structure of world politics since the 1940s. Why did the Cold War end when it did? How does one make sense of a decade that opens with a rapidly intensifying Cold War and closes with a historic Soviet–American rapprochement, unprecedented arms control agreements, the withdrawal of Soviet power from Eastern Europe, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, and the peaceful reunification of Germany? These questions can be looked at by examining the Cold War’s final phase, including Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s accession as the general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party and the demolition of the Berlin Wall.

1. The Second World War and the destruction of the old order

‘The Second World War and the destruction of the old order’ focuses on the Second World War, the most destructive conflict in human history. The death and destruction precipitated by the war left not only much of Europe and Asia in ruins but the old international order as well. The origins of the Cold War lay in the intersection between a war-shattered world and the conflicting recipes for international order that the United States and the Soviet Union sought to impose on that world. The Soviets and Americans each saw themselves acting out of noble motives—acting to usher humanity into a new age of peace, justice, and order.

2. The origins of the Cold War in Europe, 1945–50

‘The origins of the Cold War in Europe, 1945–50’ traces the origins of the Cold War in Europe. In theory and practice, the Americans and British were reconciled to a Soviet sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. At the Yalta Conference in February of 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin tried to resolve some of the basic disputes while also planning the war’s end game. Within weeks of the conference’s closing sessions, however, the Yalta spirit was jolted by mounting Anglo-American dissatisfaction with Soviet actions in Eastern Europe. The Potsdam Conference in July of 1945 and the Truman Doctrine amounted to a declaration of ideological and geopolitical Cold War.

4. A global Cold War, 1950–8

‘A global Cold War, 1950–8’ examines how the Cold War became increasingly global in scope. The Americans and the Soviets each identified crucial strategic, economic, and psychological interests in the developing nations of the Third World, and sought to gain resources, bases, allies, and influence there. Ironically, the Korean War set in motion forces that helped stabilize US–Soviet relations while institutionalizing the East–West division of Europe in a manner that decreased the likelihood of war between the superpowers. The very idea of a military conflict there became increasingly unpalatable to Soviet and American leaders. The nuclear armaments race between the United States and the Soviet Union was an important event in this period of the Cold War.

3. Towards ‘Hot War’ in Asia, 1945–50

‘Towards ‘Hot War’ in Asia, 1945–50’ discusses how Asia became the second major theatre of the Cold War, considering the US occupation regime in Japan. As many as 6 million soldiers and civilians would ultimately lose their lives in Cold War-related conflicts in Korea and Indo-China. Just as the Chinese civil war became inextricably entangled with the Cold War, so too did the independence struggles in post-war Southeast Asia. It was the outbreak of the Korean War in June of 1950, moreover, that precipitated the first direct military showdown between US and communist forces and, as much as any other single event, turned the Cold War into a worldwide struggle.