Cold War Overview and Superpower Rivalry

Cold War ideological rivalry (1946-91)

US under capitalism vs Soviet Union under communism; US believed post-WW2 rebuilding of Europe lay in free markets and self-determination, USSR focused on Soviet security and promoting communism

Marshall Plan

$15 billion US plan to rebuild Europe post-WW2 through free markets and self-determination

Huntington quote on US-USSR rivalry

"Different cultural entities"

Soviet Union's first atomic bomb

August 1949 - heightened the arms race

Combined US-USSR nuclear arsenal by mid-1970s

70,000 nuclear warheads

Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)

Both sides deterred from delivering a first strike because of the threat of retaliation; nuclear warfare remained a potential reality

Cuban Missile Crisis

October 1962 - moment where nuclear warfare was a potential reality despite MAD

Tom Lehrer song about nuclear war

1959 song "We Will All Go Together When We Go"

US proxy war interventions to contain communism

Korea (1950-1953), Iran (1953), Vietnam (1965-1973)

Soviet proxy war intervention

Afghanistan (1979); also cracked down on democratic reform attempts in Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968)

Domino theory

Eisenhower's belief that China's communism would spread to neighbours such as Laos and Cambodia

Brezhnev Doctrine

Assured Eastern bloc leaders of regional security through USSR intervention if democratic or market reforms occurred

Germany as a Cold War theatre

US wanted to rebuild a strong Germany as a vital component of Europe's economic recovery; USSR wanted Germany permanently weak to avoid a repeat of war

Berlin Blockade

1948 - Stalin ordered a blockade of Berlin in response to the US arguing for reunification

Detente

Relaxation of tensions 1962-1979

Causes of detente

China's entry into the nuclear club in 1964 established a multipolar world order; the Sino-Soviet Split; US resuming diplomatic relations with China in 1972

Ostpolitik

West German leader Willy Brandt's policy of building closer economic ties with East Germany

Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT)

1972 - limited nuclear missiles

End of detente

Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979), a reaction to the Iranian Revolution to stop Islamic fundamentalism spreading to communist Afghanistan

Reagan and the 'evil empire'

Elected 1981; opposed the USSR through the Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars program) that aimed to build a missile defense shield