The cold war between 1949 and 1955

In a similar vein to the League of Nations after the First World War, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was set up after the Second World War in 1949. Unlike the League, however, NATO’s philosophy was, ‘an armed attack against one or more in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all.’ This had the potential for a more aggressive approach to dealing with other nations outside of this group of countries. In sharp contrast to the League, the United States of America was a committed member along with the following countries, Italy, Portugal, Britain, France, Canada, the Netherlands, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium and Luxembourg. There is no doubt that the atomic power possessed by the USA meant that NATO was a serious force to be reckoned with. Its primary role was to contain Soviet aggrandisement in Europe, and in response the Soviets established a rival body, the Warsaw Pact (in 1955), consisting of the pro-Communist nations of Eastern Europe.

Who was to blame for starting the Cold War?

It is not absolutely clear why or exactly when the Cold War began, but both the West and East blamed the other side for its development, and various historians have disagreed also. The origins of the dispute lie in the rapid breakdown of the American-Soviet alliance at the end of World War Two. Stalin’s Soviet Union accused the West of delaying the attack on France during World War Two, leaving the Soviets to face the powerful German army alone for longer than was necessary. This had led to the destruction of many Soviet towns and cities and created a strong desire among leading Soviet politicians for the country to be better protected once this major military conflict was over. The Soviets also believed that the western powers were seeking to manipulate post-war Germany for its own capitalist interests. These tensions became more evident at Yalta and Potsdam international conferences of 1945.

For its part, the West led by the USA was suspicious of Soviet intentions for the whole of Eastern Europe and its apparent desire to dominate this region with the threatening ideology of Communism. Western political leaders ultimately feared the spread of Communism, and this was a key reason why events such as the Berlin Blockade, the Marshall Plan, the Truman Doctrine and the creation of NATO all took place before 1950 when World War Two had barely ended. Whether such actions of both the USA the Soviet union were defensive or offensive in nature is open to historical debate, but both were clearly motivated by the principles of ‘realism’ or ‘realpolitik’ whereby national interests were the primary factors in determining diplomatic/international actions.

What is much clearer, however, is that at the end of World War Two in 1945, only two nations were in any position to describe themselves as superpowers, and that was the USA and Soviet Union. This dominance was based on ‘the immense economic resources of the Americans and the massive military power of the Russians’ (Joll, 1990, Ch.15, p.422). Former ‘Great Powers’ such as Britain, France and Germany were now politically and economically crippled following the wartime events, and this situation created the conditions for a ‘bipolar’ international power struggle for global dominance to emerge in the following years, with these two nations competing to be the most powerful in the world.

Case Study: The Korean War 1950-1953

When the Japanese surrendered in August 1945 they were in full possession of Korea, a peninsular nation located on the tip of China. In the north, however, they surrendered to the Soviet Union and in the south to the United States of America. Consequently two different governments were set up in this strategically important country: in the south a Capitalist dictatorship, in the north a Communist dictatorship. Civil war broke out when the north attempted to take over the south in June 1950, and United Nations forces were prominent in forcing them back. President Truman of the USA was anxious to contain Communism to the north of Korea, as he felt that if it spread to the south the rest of SouthEast Asia would be vulnerable to Communist takeover.

The United Nations was subsequently given a key role in restoring peace and stability to this region, although the Americans retained a key role in the background. Truman requested that the United Nations should openly disapprove of the invasion as a preliminary to taking further action. This crisis was therefore one of the first major challenges that faced this new international organisation. As a result the UN authorised troops to enter South Korea to push back the Northern Korean army. Despite the fact that UN forces were supposedly fighting the North Koreans, USA made up the bulk of the army and materials. More than 50% of the soldiers were American, 86% of the navy and 93% of the airforce. These forces were led by General MacArthur, who was directly responsible to President Truman rather than the United Nations.

During the course of the war, the UN forces successfully pushed the North Koreans back into their half of the country. They then went further and invaded the North itself. This turn of events angered the Chinese government under Chairman Mao Zedong, who was keen to make an impression in the region under his new Communist regime (he had been in power since 1949). Mao retaliated by sending in Chinese troops to fight the UN troops and push them back into South Korea, and he had formally allied his country to the fellow Communist Soviet Union via the Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance in 1950. This Communist partnership posed some major problems and concerns for the capitalist USA. By 1951, the progress of American troops had stalled and they were indeed pushed back into the South following the Chinese intervention (with some unofficial Soviet support).

China seemed to be boosted by this development, but the situation was now becoming increasingly tense. It was at this point that General MacArthur (left) wanted to escalate the scope of the war and invade China. He had in mind the idea of using an atomic bomb against the Chinese, but President Truman did not want to increase the scale of the Korean War and he was keen to contain it to the Korean peninsula. The war itself was doing horrific damage to each side’s territory, with a million Koreans killed and at least 142,000 American soldiers injured. In 1952 Truman was satisfied with restricting Communism to the North, and by 1953 the relevant parties had agreed to end hostilities, with the American threat of using nuclear weapons against the Chinese a menacing bargaining tool to bring things to a conclusion. The ceasefire left the North-South divide in place (along the 38th Parallel) and resulted in the formation of two separate countries, North Korea and South Korea.

Following this conflict, the United States gave economic aid to South Korea so that it could be restored and rebuilt, and in total $500,000,000 was given in aid in order for it to prevent ongoing Communist encroachment and influence within this region. As a further consequence of this war, in 1954 the USA was also involved in the establishment of SEATO (South East Asia Treaty Organization) – a regional alliance similar to NATO which featured a combination of large western powers and sympathetic countries from this region, e.g. Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan. Philippines and Thailand. This body was ultimately hostile to Soviet and Chinese interests in this region, and its emergence further reflected that the Korean conflict and its aftermath confirmed that the Cold War was not confined to Europe, and it was by this stage a global phenomenon. The UN could take some satisfaction in that its first major test had resulted in a tense situation being controlled and prevented from escalating further, although it could be argued that the UN actions were heavily influenced and dominated by the USA, and also that tensions in this region would remain for some years to come.