Cold War

The Cold War (Russian: Холодная Война Kholodnaya Voina) refers to the protracted geostrategic, economic and ideological struggle that emerged after World War II between the global superpowers of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States of America, supported by their respective and emerging alliance partners. The Cold War endured over four decades, from circa 1947 until the decline and eventual collapse of East European and Soviet state communism in the late 1980s. The disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 is generally considered to mark the end of the conflict.

Consistent allies of the Soviet Union during the Cold War period included Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany and other members of the Warsaw Pact and Comecon in Eurasia, together with the nations of Mongolia, North Korea, Cuba and Vietnam further afield. Erstwhile close Soviet allies, the People's Republic of China and Albania promoted their own versions of Communism and either opposed or adopted alternatives to many key Kremlin policies from 1960 onwards.

Consistent allies of the United States during the Cold War period included the United Kingdom, France, West Germany and other members of NATO (the so-called "Western Alliance"); the members of CENTO, SEATO, and ANZUS; and the nations of Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Beyond these broad groupings, many other countries—including such strategically-important states as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Austria, India, Sweden and Finland—conspicuously maintained their neutrality during the conflict by participation within the Non-Aligned Movement.

The struggle was widely called the "Cold War" on the grounds that it did not involve direct armed conflict (by contrast, a so-called "hot" war) between the primary contestants of the Soviet Union and the USA. The Cold War was instead prosecuted by varied means that included diplomatic maneuvering, economic pressure and selective aid, economic and technological rivalry, intimidation, propaganda, assassination, and indirect proxy wars. Importantly, although lacking direct conflict between the superpower protagonists, the Cold War period also simultaneously witnessed the largest arms race (both conventional and nuclear) in history, leading to widespread global fears of a potential nuclear war, ultimately unrealised.

Historical overview

Legacy

Despite the rapid collapse of Communism in the former Soviet Union and eastern Europe in the period 1989-1991, several countries (primarily in east and south-east Asia) retain Communist identities to the present day, espousing Marxism-Leninism as a fundamental political philosophy and retaining a one-party political structure in which institutions of the party and the state remain intimately interconnected. In order of longest existence, these countries (and their ruling parties) are:

• the People's Republic of China (since 1949); Communist Party of China
• the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) (since 1948); Korean Workers' Party
• the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Vietnam) (since 1976), previously, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) (since 1950; Communist Party of Vietnam
• the Republic of Cuba (Cuban Revolution in 1959, socialist state declared in 1961); Communist Party of Cuba
• the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Laos) (since 1975); Lao People's Revolutionary Party

While these countries share a similar system of government and political philosophy, each has adopted highly divergent economic policies over the past 15 years, several even incorporating elements of capitalism within their state economies. It is widely perceived, however, that the more purist of these states have retained a Cold War outlook of continuing antagonism with, and suspicion of, the West; North Korea and Cuba are commonly understood to be fulfilling this role, compounded by both diplomatic and geopolitical isolation (whether externally- or self-imposed). China retains an ambivolent approach to engagement with the West and with its capitalist neighbours; many observers view its apparent rise to superpower status in the early twenty-first century as eventually threatening a new Cold War, based on its projected economic and military rivalry with the United States of America.

Further reading

• Gaddis, John Lewis, The Cold War, Allen Lane, 2006. ISBN 0713999128 (hbk)

External links

• the Cold War Museum