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From World War I through the Cold War
What is a cold war? An intense, prolonged political confrontation between
countries, involving all spheres of relations (a war) But without a direct armed clash (cold) – though it may
escalate into a “hot” war The Cold War
1946-1991 East-West Communism – capitalism Soviet Union – United States
Minor cold wars (examples): US-Iran: 1979-… US-Iraq: 1991-2003 US-North Korea: 1953-… India-Pakistan: 1960s-2000s Soviet Union-China: 1960s-1980s
The historical context the Cold War was the third period of the era of
global warfare which started in 1914 The summer of 1914 marked a watershed in world
history: For the first time ever, a world war began Since 1914, we’ve lived through 4 world wars And, they are connected with each other – like links
of a chain Historian Eric Hobsbawm: 4 stages of one world
war, which has already gone on for 90 years, and there’s no end in sight yet
What made world wars possible: 1. An integrated world – globalization 2. Struggle for power within countries acquires
international dimensions 3. Availability of economic resources 4. Development of military technologies 5. The culture of war New rationalizations of war The idea of total war
World War I: 1914-1918
Resulted from: - -Rivalries between states (Germany-Britain, France-
Germany, Russia-Austria, Russia-Turkey, etc.)- -Social tensions within states- -Nationalist struggles against empires
The war for power and influence inside the global capitalist system
Expected to be brief The reality: a bloody 4-year stalemate Ended by revolutions in Russia (1917) and Germany (1918) 15 mln. deaths, incl. 9 mln. combat The flu pandemic of 1918-1919: 20-40 mln. deaths: a direct
environmental effect of “the Great War”
EUROPE, 1914
Australian World War I poster
WWI: British soldiers blinded by poison gas
Russian soldiers pledge allegiance to the Tsar: World War I
The Russian Revolution, 1917
WWI triggered off a global crisis of capitalism and a search for alternatives to world war
Radical alternative (Russia) Created a base for world revolution – Soviet Russia (the
Soviet Union, USSR) Created new cultures of mass political violence:
communism and fascism The Russian Civil War (1917-1922): 9 million deaths, of them
7 mln. civilians
Liberal alternative (USA) Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points ( a democratic peace),
creation of institutions of global governance (League of Nations), first disarmament treaties
Set the stage for WW2
Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Communist Revolution in Russia
Woodrow Wilson, US President in 1913-1920
The Russian Civil War: Communist poster urging people to volunteer for the Red Army
World War 2: 1939-1945 The crisis of capitalism The rise of the Left in Europe and Asia, fears of new
revolutions The Great Depression, 1929-1933 Rise of fascism Renewal of imperialist rivalries: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy,
the Japanese Empire challenge Britain, France, USA But also: the idea of destroying communism Hitler could have been stopped The Global Right confronting the Global Left and the Global
Centre 50-80 mln. dead (36 mln. combat) Global capitalism was shattered even more than by WWI The stage is set for WW3
September 1, 1939: Nazi Germany invades Poland
German troops in occupied Poland, 1939
Fascist dictators: Hitler and Mussolini in Munich, June 1940
Japanese attack on US Navy at Pearl Harbor, Dec.7, 1941
Nazi propaganda poster: SS forces kill the Red beast of communism
German soldiers celebrating success in “Lightning War” against Russia, 1942
German reign of terror in occupied Russia
Defenders of Moscow, October 1941
The turning point of WWII 1943: German army’s defeat at Stalingrad, Russia
German POWs, Russia, 1944
German POWs outside Moscow, 1944
The victorious Allies: British PM Churchill, US President Roosevelt and Generalissimo Stalin at Yalta Conference, Russia, Feb.1945
The Red Army takes Berlin, May 1945
Buchenwald concentration camp, 1945: Survivors of Hitler’s “Final Solution”
World War II losses, military and civilian
50-80 mln. dead (36 mln. in combat)Global capitalism shattered even more than by WWIThe stage is set for WW III
The war took all nine of her sons
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, 1953, upon release from prison camp
WW3 (the Cold War) – 1946-1991
The three dimensions of the war: ideological (global capitalism challenged by the
Global Left) Geopolitical (competition between states) Military (wars and arms races)
In late 1940s, conflicts in the three areas converged to produce a rapid shift from the peace of 1945 to a 45-year-long period of confrontation
The ideological dimension:
global conflict between the two political-economic systems, capitalism and communism
The Three Worlds of the Cold War The capitalist West, the communist East, and the
Third World (now called the Global South) East-West conflict:
Will capitalism survive – or will be replaced by some forms of socialism or communism?
In the Third World, massive struggles for national independence from Western colonial domination
The Global Left consisted of: Communist states (the Soviet Union, People’s
Republic of China, and others) Communist parties around the world, most of them
supported by the USSR (Italy and France having the biggest)
Moderate Left forces (social democrats, labour movements, movements for democracy, etc.)
Anti-colonial forces in the 3d world
Red dictators: Russia’s Stalin and China’s Mao, 1950
First American Cold War President: Harry S. Truman (in office from 1945 to1952)
George Kennan, American diplomat, architect of the policy of Containment of Communism
The US acted as the global force to save and rebuild capitalism
To defeat the Global LeftUse of forceCooptationRebuilding a global capitalist economy based on US dominance Ideological wars: liberal democracy vs. communist dictatorship
Construct a world orderAlliancesInternational organizationsInternational law
The geopolitical dimension
The end of WWII saw
the rise of the two superpowers:
USA and USSR
A bipolar world – something unique in world history
Challenging each other
Containing each other
Trying to control other states to follow them
But also: cooperating with each other to keep their power
Each needed the other as “The Other”
But both wanted to survive
The Berlin Wall, symbol of the Cold War division of Europe
The military dimensionThe 2 giants never had a significant direct armed
conflict between themThey fought wars by proxy (Korea, Vietnam, Angola,
etc.)But they prepared for total military confrontation
Nuclear armsConventional armies and naviesMilitary alliances – NATO, the Warsaw PactSpy wars
New structures of militarismThe military-industrial complexThe national security state
Several moments when the world was within a few steps from nuclear war
Nuclear weapons: can you use them to win a war?
War-fighting vs. deterrence
The balance of terror
The nuclear stalemate
From an uncontrolled arms race to arms control and disarmament
The era of arms control began in 1963 with the US-Soviet-British treaty to ban all, except underground, tests of nuclear weapons
A system of treaties was developed in the 1960s-1990s to make nuclear war less likely
Losses in the Cold War (estimates): - Over 20 mln. died in local wars, mostly between
the Global Left and the West - Victims of totalitarian regimes in the Soviet Union
(1929-1953), Communist China (1950s-1970s), other communist states : 60 mln. people died as a result of policies of forced
modernization and political repression Total: 80 mln. lives 80% of the human losses were civilian Massive waste of resources Unprecedented growth of technologies of
destruction The degradation of natural environment Stymied democracy and economic development
Korea, 1950: US forces in battle with Communist troops
1960, the Cuban revolution: Fidel Castro challenges the US
1972, Vietnam: Communist soldiers
1972: Vietnamese villagers massacred by American GIs
Sept.1973: General Augusto Pinochet overthrows a socialist government in Chile and establishes a military dictatorship
Soviet helicopter gunships over Afghanistan, 1980
Afghan mujahid fighter against Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, 1980s
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