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