The Soviet Union
In 1946, George F. Kennan created the policy of containment. He had been the deputy chief of the U.S. mission in Moscow since 1944 and had become worried of Soviet promises and policies. By 1945, Kennan started to believe that the Soviet Union wouldn’t abide by any of the agreements it had signed with the U.S. and Great Britain during World War II. The Soviet Union, therefore, posed a great threat to the Western world.
Source: Library of CongressGeorge F. Kennan, American diplomat and creator of the policy of containment.
In April 1946, Kennan sent his “Long Telegram” from Moscow in which he tried to explain his concerns to the State Department. In the telegram, Kennan outlined a policy of containment of the Soviet Union, arguing that the Soviet Union was an inherently expansionist power that had to be contained by the West, namely the U.S. By 1947, the policy of containment became the official policy of the U.S.
George Kennan’s telegram was published as an article titled “The Sources of Soviet Conduct” in the magazine Foreign Affairs in 1947.
The concept of containment advocates for the U.S. to not only provide countries threatened by Communism with military and economic aid but also surround the Soviet Union with pro-American alliances to prevent it from expanding. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), established in 1949, was a part of the policy of containment.
Coming together in the forming of NATO
The concept of collective security, stating that an attack on one member equals an attack on all members, became the foundation for NATO. The Soviet Union knew that if it tried to expand by subverting or attacking a NATO member, such as Denmark, it would face the might of all the other members of NATO, including the U.S.To back up the idea of collective security, President Truman stationed four U.S. Army divisions in European NATO countries. Collective security worked well; no NATO member was ever attacked by the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union responded in 1955 by setting up the Warsaw Pact, which included all its Eastern European client states. The purpose of the Warsaw Pact was similar to that of NATO.
The goal of U.S. foreign policy was to contain the Soviet Union globally. It established security organizations similar to NATO all over the world. Examples include SEATO in Asia, the ANZUS Pact with Australia and New Zealand, and the Baghdad Pact in the Middle East. Finally, with military alliances with Japan and South Korea, the U.S. was able to complete global containment of the Soviet Union.
Greece and Turkey: the Truman Doctrine
Stalin was emboldened by his successes in Eastern Europe. He then turned to Southern Europe. The Soviet Union began to actively support communist uprisings in Turkey and Greece. President Truman decided that he had to act.For this reason, President Truman addressed Congress on March 22, 1947, and outlined what was to become the Truman Doctrine. The Truman Doctrine called for $400 million in military and economic aid for Greece and Turkey to save the countries from Communism. In addition, President Truman sent U.S. military advisors to both countries to help train government forces fighting Communist rebels. By 1950, the U.S. government had provided $600 million in aid to Greece and Turkey, saving both countries from Communism.
The Truman Doctrine became an official part of U.S. foreign policy and marked a permanent commitment by the U.S. helping foreign countries threatened by Communism. From now on, the U.S. provided non-Communist governments with U.S. aid if threatened by Communism.
Restoring Europe: the Marshall Plan
When World War II ended, Europe laid in ruins. The economies of most countries had been destroyed by the war, and widespread poverty existed. This dire economic situation helped create popular support for Communist parties, which promised to provide for the basic needs of all.In both France and Italy, the Communist Party became the largest party by 1947, and it looked like they could come to power democratically. President Truman knew he had to act. Together with his Secretary of State George C. Marshall, President Truman announced the European Recovery Program, later known as the Marshall Plan, in June of 1947.
The Marshall Plan was both economic and political in nature. The U.S. offered billions of dollars in loans to any European country that applied for it. After receiving U.S. aid, a country had to buy U.S. goods with the money, therefore stimulating the U.S. economy. Later, of course, the loans had to be repaid.
Politically speaking, President Truman knew that U.S. loans would help restore economic prosperity to Europe, which in turn undermined the possibility of Communist electoral successes on the continent. History proved him right. Neither the Italian nor the French Communist Party grew strong enough to come to power in their respective countries.
Between 1947 and 1951, the U.S. provided more than $13 billion in Marshall Plan aid to Europe, undermining Communist parties everywhere on the continent.
Feeding millions: the Berlin airlift
The four victorious allies of World War II — the U.S., the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and France — divided Germany and its capital of Berlin into four zones of occupation. In 1947, the British economy was on the verge of collapse, and Britain found itself unable to care for its zone of occupation. It asked the U.S. for help. The British zone was then fused with the American zone of occupation, creating the Bi-zone.Later, France, in similar bad economic shape, asked the U.S. to fuse its zone with both the British and the American zones, creating what was called Trizonia, which became West Germany in 1949.
Alarmed, the Soviet Union decided to punish the Western allies by shutting off all access to West Berlin, which was geographically located within the Soviet zone of occupation. The idea was simple: Prevent food from getting into West Berlin and starve the Germans into submission. President Truman implemented the Berlin Airlift in June 1948 to feed the starving population of Berlin. For the next 11 months, the U.S. flew food to the city, feeding close to 2 million people. During the height of the crisis, an American plane landed in Berlin every minute of the day.
In May of 1949, the Soviet Union caved and ended the blockade, and a new country, West Germany, came into existence. The Soviet Union followed suit quickly and created Communist East Germany.
Going to war in Korea
In June 1950, the Cold War turned into a hot war, when North Korea invaded South Korea. Korea had been divided by American administrators along the 38th parallel, with U.S. troops occupying the Southern part and Soviet troops occupying the Northern part of the Korean Peninsula.By 1950, South Korea was controlled by a pro-Western dictator while North Korea was under Communist control. Open warfare broke out when North Korean forces invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950. The Communist forces advanced quickly, and President Truman decided to act. He sent U.S. troops, later supported by United Nations forces from 15 member countries, to defend South Korea. The U.S. fought back the Communist forces and started to push them back into North Korea.
The U.S. ignored warnings from the Chinese, who asked the U.S. not to invade North Korea. The U.S. crossed into North Korea. China entered the war on the North Korean side. This stopped the U.S. advance. By 1951, prewar borders were restored, and for the next two years, the two sides fought each other to a standstill. President Dwight Eisenhower ended the war in 1953, by threatening North Korea and China with the use of any weapon at his disposal, including nuclear weapons. Within months, the war was over and the prewar borders were restored.
Just talking: the Doctrine of rollback
Dwight Eisenhower became president in 1953 and made changes to U.S. foreign policy. Instead of only containing Communism, Eisenhower wanted to roll back Communism by liberating Communist countries. This new doctrine of rolling back Communism turned out to be mostly rhetorical in nature. The U.S. refused to help the Hungarians, who rose up against Soviet control in 1956, as well as France and Britain during the Suez Canal Crisis In both instances, President Eisenhower wasn’t willing to risk military confrontation with the Soviet Union.Rising up against Communism: the Hungarian Uprising of 1956
Hungary was one of the Eastern European countries dominated by the Soviet Union. A pro-Soviet regime ran the country with an iron fist. In 1956, the Hungarians, led by reformist leader Imre Nagy, attempted to leave the Soviet bloc. Believing that President Eisenhower would back them, they seceded from the Warsaw Pact. Soon, the Soviet tanks rolled in, killing an estimated 50,000 Hungarians in two weeks, while the U.S. did nothing. Hungary remained Communist until 1989.Taking back a canal: the Suez Canal crisis
The Suez Canal crisis of 1956 brought the world close to nuclear war. Both Great Britain and France jointly owned the Suez Canal, located in Egypt, since 1875. In 1956, a new revolutionary government in Egypt took over the canal. Great Britain and France invaded and took the canal back.Egypt at the time was closely aligned with the Soviet Union, which threatened Britain and France. Both of these close NATO allies turned to President Eisenhower for help. He, however, refused, fearing that Great Britain and France would attempt to recolonize the Middle East.
Without U.S. backing, Great Britain and France had to stand down and were forced to withdraw from Egypt. France decided that it needed its own nuclear forces, and General De Gaulle, after becoming President of France in 1958, developed nuclear weapons for France and pulled the country out of NATO. France didn’t fully rejoin NATO until 2009.
Building the Berlin Wall
Since the creation of an East German state in 1949, millions of East Germans had fled the communist country by crossing into West Germany. With no real border fortifications in place in Berlin, thousands left there every day because it was the easiest place to leave the country.By the early 1960s, the number of people fleeing presented a major problem for East Germany. The country’s best educated and most skilled citizens were leaving. East Germany faced a brain drain and a shortage of skilled laborers.
In August 1961, the Soviet Union and the Communist East German government built a wall to close off East Berlin to prevent people from fleeing the country. Border guards received the order to shoot to kill anyone attempting to leave East Germany.
Source: Library of Congress
Building the Berlin Wall in 1961.
Over the next decades, more than 100 people were shot and killed attempting to flee East Germany. The Wall became a symbol of the Cold War, and its fall in 1989 signaled the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe.
The Cuban Missile Crisis
In October of 1962, the U.S. discovered that the Soviet Union was building missile sites for nuclear missiles in Cuba. Cuba, which had gone Communist in 1959, was the ideal site for the Soviets to counter American missiles targeting the Soviet Union in Europe. Instead of invading Cuba, as the military had urged, President John F. Kennedy decided to blockade the country. The U.S. stated that it would intercept any Soviet ship heading for Cuba to make sure that no missiles or missile parts could reach the island. In addition, President Kennedy demanded that all Soviet weapons and bases be removed from Cuba. At the last minute, the Soviet Union decided to back down and recalled its ships heading for Cuba. The U.S., in turn, promised not to invade Cuba or topple the Communist Castro regime. A world war was narrowly avoided.Note: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was removed after backing down during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Staying communist: the Brezhnev Doctrine
In 1968, a reformist government came to power in Czechoslovakia. Its leader was a social democrat who attempted to slowly move Czechoslovakia toward the political center. He was interested in improving the standard of living for his people and wanted closer ties with the West.The Soviet Union saw this as a direct threat to its dominance over Eastern Europe and invaded the country in 1968. The new leader, Alexander Dubček, was removed, a hardline government restored, and Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev stated that from now on the Soviet Union would make sure that any country that had gone Communist would remain Communist. This became known as the Brezhnev Doctrine.
Getting stuck in Vietnam
In 1945, France regained control over its colony Indochina, consisting of what today is Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Indochina had been conquered and occupied by the Japanese during World War II, and a native force organized by Communist leader Ho Chi Minh fought the Japanese while France was focused on the war in Europe. After World War II ended, Indochina was returned to France, which refused to implement reforms, such as local autonomy, demanded by Ho Chi Minh and the Communists. A bitter eight-year war of independence began.Aiding France in Vietnam
The U.S. at first decided to stay out of the conflict. However, after China went Communist in 1949, U.S. policy changed. President Truman didn’t want to see another country go Communist in Asia, so he sent military and economic aid to France to help it fight Communism.Despite increasing levels of American aid, the French forces started to lose ground, and by 1954, the war was lost. In a last-ditch effort, France asked the U.S. for more direct help, including air strikes against the Communist forces.
Instead, the Eisenhower administration pushed for peace talks. At the 1954 Geneva conference, the French agreed to withdraw from Indochina, and Vietnam was divided into a Communist North and anti-Communist, pro-Western South. Elections to unify the country were scheduled for 1956.
Starting military involvement by the U.S.
By 1956, it looked like the Communists might win the elections, so the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese government refused to hold elections. In response, the North started a Communist uprising in the South, and President Eisenhower decided to intervene. He sent military and economic aid and committed military advisors to train the South Vietnamese military.Later, Presidents Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson escalated U.S. involvement by sending troops to aid South Vietnam. When the war began to turn in the North’s favor in 1964, President Johnson issued the Gulf of Tonkin report to Congress in August 1964. The report claimed that North Vietnamese forces in the Gulf of Tonkin had attacked U.S. warships. To punish this obvious act of war by North Vietnam, President Johnson asked for Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which allowed him to escalate the war in Vietnam. Congress passed the resolution, and the U.S. increased its troop presence to 200,000 and started to bomb North Vietnam. In addition, the U.S. asked some of its Asian allies to contribute troops to help out. By the end of 1965, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and the Philippines had committed troops.
By 1967, the war was taking a horrible toll on the U.S. About 15,000 soldiers had died so far, and the war had cost the U.S. $25 billion. The American public and the president were ready to end the war. However, North Vietnam rejected initial peace proposals. Instead of negotiating, North Vietnam launched a major offensive against the U.S. and its allies in January of 1968. The campaign began during the Vietnamese New Year’s celebrations, or the Tet holidays. Every large city and provincial capital in South Vietnam was attacked by the North Vietnamese forces and its South Vietnamese allies, the Vietcong.
Fighting back: the Tet offensive and Vietnamization
American forces fought back the attack, and the Tet Offensive turned out to be a major U.S. victory. Eighty-five thousand Communist troops were killed, which eliminated the Vietcong as a viable fighting force. From then on, the U.S. fought regular North Vietnamese soldiers.By 1968, American troop strength in South Vietnam suddenly reached 500,000. Casualties increased, and after being elected in 1969, President Richard Nixon decided it was time to act. He recalled 90,000 troops by the end of 1969. When he was up for reelection in 1972, only 30,000 American troops remained in South Vietnam. When secret peace talks collapsed, President Nixon decided to bomb North Vietnam back to the bargaining table. The air strikes proved to be the most severe in history to this point, but they did bring North Vietnam back to the bargaining table.
President Nixon’s strategy was called Vietnamization. It called upon South Vietnam to do more of the fighting so that the U.S. could withdraw its troops. In addition, President Nixon proclaimed what became known as the Nixon Doctrine, which stated that Asian countries fighting Communism could only expect military and economic aid from the U.S. in their fight against Communism — the U.S. wouldn’t send any more troops and would begin to recall troops from Vietnam. The objective was to make sure that countries would fight Communism without the help of American troops.
Coming to a close
President Nixon finally settled the conflict in 1973 with the Treaty of Paris, which returned Vietnam to its divided prewar status.The two Vietnams broke the agreement shortly thereafter, and the war dragged on for two more years. Without U.S. support, the South Vietnamese army collapsed, and on April 30, 1975, the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell. The war was over, and the country unified under Communist control. At its height, more than half a million American soldiers fought in Vietnam, and more than 50,000 of them wouldn’t return.
President Bill Clinton finally reestablished diplomatic relations with Vietnam in 1996, and today the two countries enjoy a cordial relationship.
Invading Afghanistan
In 1979, the Soviet Union for the first time during the Cold War used its own troops to invade a country that was not a part of the Warsaw Pact. This shocked the world and resulted in both Europe and the U.S. to begin a process of rearmament to fight off Soviet aggression.After the fall of the Afghan monarchy in 1973, Afghanistan was taken over by the Communist Party, which established a pro-Soviet government. By 1979, the ruling Communists in Afghanistan were fighting an anti-Communist insurrection and decided to leave the Soviet sphere of influence. Using the Brezhnev Doctrine, the Soviet Union invaded in late 1979. President Jimmy Carter felt that he had to act. He boycotted the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow and imposed a grain embargo against the Soviet Union.
In addition, the U.S. began to support freedom fighters in Afghanistan, called the Mujahedin, who were fighting against the Soviet Union. The U.S. soon supplied advanced weaponry to the Mujahedin. The deliverance of Stinger missiles especially hurt the Soviet Union, because the Afghanis could shoot down Soviet aircraft. This took air superiority away from the Soviets.
For the next decade, the Soviet Union fought a battle against Western-supported Afghan freedom fighters. After losing close to 15,000 men and wasting billions of dollars, the Soviet Union finally withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989. The Soviet military was demoralized and Afghanistan was in shambles, with more than 1 million dead and 5 million displaced.
Destroying an empire
In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became the new leader of the Soviet Union. Young and energetic, he was ready for change. So, he altered Soviet foreign policy. Gorbachev realized that his country was in decline and that only peaceful relations with the West could assure Soviet survival. Therefore, he not only renounced the idea of world Communism but also started to pursue arms control and disarmament negotiations with the U.S.To save much-needed resources, Gorbachev decided to end Soviet involvement in Afghanistan. He ordered the pullout of all Soviet troops from Afghanistan by 1989. After the Soviet Union had fully withdrawn, a bitter civil war broke out in Afghanistan between a Communist puppet government and various Mujahedin factions, including the Taliban who consolidated power by 1996.
Gorbachev further cut support to Soviet-dominated regimes and militant groups all over the globe. Within months, many pro-Soviet regimes either collapsed or changed their policies, suddenly becoming friendly to the U.S. and the West. Examples include Mozambique, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Angola, and Cambodia. Only Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and China chose to continue to pursue the Communist path.
By 1988, Gorbachev was ready to let Eastern Europe go free. Starting with Hungary and Poland, most of Eastern Europe went democratic by 1989. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Germany even unified by 1990. Soviet dominance over Eastern Europe was now over.
At home, Gorbachev ended the monopoly of power of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), allowing for multiparty elections by 1990, and was ready to implement a new mix of socialism and capitalism. He even allowed for Glasnost, or intellectual and cultural openness, which included freedom of the press, and allowed for freedom of dissent.
This new freedom of expression stimulated nationalism within the Soviet republics. By 1990, the three Baltic States — Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia — proclaimed their independence; after a failed coup by hardliners against Gorbachev in the summer of 1990, the President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, began to dismantle the rest of the Soviet Union, resulting in the collapse of the Soviet Union in late 1991. The Soviet Union was replaced with 15 independent countries, the largest and most powerful being the Russian Republic. The Cold War was finally over.