Third World Confrontations During the Cold War
Third World Confrontations
Overview
The Cold War superpowers (U.S. and Soviet Union) supported opposing sides in conflicts within Latin America and the Middle East.
These regions continue to experience political, economic, and military conflicts.
Key Terms and Names
Third World: Developing nations, often newly independent, not aligned with either superpower.
Nonaligned nations: Independent countries forming a "third force" to avoid involvement in the Cold War.
Fidel Castro: Leader of the Cuban Revolution.
Anastasio Somoza: Nicaraguan dictator supported by the U.S.
Daniel Ortega: Leader of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua.
Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini: Leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran.
Setting the Stage
Post-WWII world divided into three "worlds:".
First World: Industrialized capitalist nations (e.g., U.S. and allies).
Second World: Communist nations led by the Soviet Union.
Third World: Developing, nonaligned nations.
Third World became an arena for competition between the Cold War superpowers.
Fighting for the Third World
Third World nations were located in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, and were often economically poor and politically unstable due to colonialism as well as ethnic conflicts along with a lack of technology and education.
They needed to choose a political and economic system: Soviet-style communism or U.S.-style free-market democracy.
Cold War Strategies
The U.S., Soviet Union, and China used various techniques to gain influence in the Third World.
Backed wars of revolution, liberation, or counterrevolution.
Intelligence agencies (CIA and KGB) engaged in covert activities.
The U.S. provided military aid, built schools, combatted poverty, and sent volunteer workers.
The Soviets offered military and technical assistance, mainly to India and Egypt.
Association of Nonaligned Nations
Developing nations needed assistance and became important in the Cold War competition.
Not all Third World countries wanted to be involved in the Cold War.
India and Indonesia tried to remain neutral.
The Bandung Conference (1955) formed a "third force" of nonaligned nations.
Some nations took sides or played competing sides against each other.
Major Strategies of the Cold War
Foreign Aid: Superpowers gave financial aid to win allies, such as Soviet aid to Egypt for the Aswan High Dam.
Espionage: Spying on each other, such as the Soviet downing of a U.S. U-2 spy plane in 1960.
Multinational Alliances: Forming alliances like NATO and the Warsaw Pact.
Propaganda: Using propaganda to gain support, such as Radio Free Europe broadcasts.
Brinkmanship: Going to the brink of war to force the other side to back down, exemplified by the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Surrogate Wars: Fighting indirectly by backing opposing sides in smaller conflicts.
Confrontations in Latin America
Rapid industrialization, population growth, and inequality led Latin American nations to seek aid from both superpowers after WWII.
Many countries alternated between democracy and military rule.
U.S. businesses backed leaders who protected U.S. interests, but often oppressed their people.
Communism and nationalism inspired revolutionary movements, which gained Soviet support.
The U.S. provided aid to anti-Communist dictators.
Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution
In the 1950s, Cuba was ruled by Fulgencio Batista, an unpopular dictator with U.S. support.
The Cuban Revolution, led by Fidel Castro, overthrew Batista in January 1959.
Castro implemented social reforms and improved the economy but was a harsh dictator who suspended elections, jailed opponents, and controlled the press.
Castro nationalized the Cuban economy, taking over U.S.-owned sugar mills and refineries.
Eisenhower ordered an embargo on all trade with Cuba, leading Castro to seek economic and military aid from the Soviets.
Nuclear Face-off: the Cuban Missile Crisis
The failed Bay of Pigs invasion (April 1961) convinced Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev that the U.S. would not resist Soviet expansion in Latin America.
In July 1962, Khrushchev secretly began building 42 missile sites in Cuba.
In October, an American spy plane discovered the sites.
President John F. Kennedy demanded their removal and announced a naval blockade of Cuba.
Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles in return for a U.S. promise not to invade Cuba.
After the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, Soviet aid to Cuba ended, crippling the Cuban economy.
Civil War in Nicaragua
The U.S. had supported the Nicaraguan dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza and his family since 1933.
In 1979, Communist Sandinista rebels toppled Somoza’s son.
Both the U.S. and the Soviet Union initially gave aid to the Sandinistas and their leader, Daniel Ortega.
The Sandinistas gave assistance to Marxist rebels in El Salvador.
The U.S. supported Nicaraguan anti-Communist forces called the Contras to help the El Salvadoran government fight the rebels.
The civil war in Nicaragua lasted more than a decade, weakening the country’s economy.
In 1990, President Ortega agreed to hold free elections and was defeated by Violeta Chamorro.
Confrontations in the Middle East
The oil-rich Middle East attracted both superpowers.
The oil industry wealth fueled a clash between traditional Islamic values and Western materialism.
Religious and Secular Values Clash in Iran
After WWII, Iran’s leader, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, embraced Western governments and oil companies.
Iranian nationalists, under Prime Minister Muhammed Mossadeq, resented these alliances and nationalized a British-owned oil company, forcing the Shah to flee in 1953.
The U.S. helped restore the Shah to power, fearing Iran would turn to the Soviets.
The United States Supports Secular Rule
With U.S. support, the Shah westernized Iran.
Millions of Iranians lived in poverty.
The Shah weakened the political influence of Iran’s conservative Muslim leaders, ayatollahs, who opposed Western influences.
Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, living in exile, spurred Iranians to riot in 1978.
The Shah fled Iran in 1979, and Khomeini established an Islamic state which heightened tensions between Iran and its neighbor and territorial rival, Iraq..
Khomeini’s Anti-U.S. Policies
Hatred of the United States was at the heart of Khomeini’s foreign policy due to U.S. support for the Shah.
In 1979, Islamic revolutionaries seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking over 60 Americans hostage and demanded the United States force the shah to face trial.
Most hostages remained prisoners for 444 days before being released in 1981.
Khomeini encouraged Muslim radicals to overthrow their secular governments and heightened tensions between Iran and Iraq.
War broke out between Iran and Iraq in 1980.
The United States secretly gave aid to both sides because it did not want the balance of power in the region to change.
The Soviet Union, on the other hand, had long been a supporter of Iraq.
A million Iranians and Iraqis died in the war before the UN negotiated a ceasefire in 1988.
The Superpowers Face Off in Afghanistan
Following WWII, Afghanistan maintained independence from both the Soviet Union and the United States.
In the 1950s, Soviet influence increased.
In the late 1970s, a Muslim revolt threatened to topple Afghanistan’s Communist regime, leading to a Soviet invasion in 1979.
The Soviets were unable to subdue the mujahideen rebels, who were supplied with American weapons.
President Jimmy Carter stopped U.S. grain shipments to the Soviet Union and ordered a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics to protest the invasion.
Mikhail Gorbachev withdrew Soviet troops by 1989, and internal unrest and economic problems were tearing apart the Soviet Union itself.
The Taliban
The Taliban, Islamic religious students, were among the mujahideen rebels who fought the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
In 1996, one group of the Taliban seized power and established an Islamic government.
They imposed a repressive rule and gave sanctuary to international Islamic terrorists.
In 2001, an anti-terrorist coalition drove them from power.