The arms race and Cuban Missile Crisis

ORIGINS OF THE COLD WAR

Although they had been allies during World War II, the two superpowers’ cooperation crumbled during the late 1940s. In the United States, the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan (1948), which allocated funds to rebuild the war-torn nations of Western Europe, were the first steps in a campaign to check the spread of Soviet communism into Western Europe. In 1949, the formation of a Western military coalition, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), further strengthened Western Europe's ability to resist Soviet aggression.

A divided Germany was the site of hostilities between the Soviet Union and the United States throughout the Cold War. Because the West German city of West Berlin was located in Soviet-controlled East Germany, the city was a focus of Soviet aggression. In 1948, the Soviet Union initiated a blockade to prevent the West's access to the city. The United States and Britain responded by airlifting tons of supplies to bypass the blockade and fly in much-needed supplies, thereby maintaining a vital link to the West. The Berlin Blockade and the Berlin airlift signaled that both sides were willing to take strategic actions against one another but were reluctant to go to war.

When Communists led by Mao Zedong took over China in 1949, the United States became concerned that communism would spread throughout the rest of Asia. These fears seemed to be confirmed the following year, when Communist North Korea invaded South Korea. In response, the United States and more than 50 other member countries of the United Nations rushed to defend South Korea. The first armed conflict of the Cold War, the Korean War lasted three years and cost 37,000 U.S. lives.

THE ARMS RACE AND CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS

Early in the Cold War, the United States enjoyed a monopoly on nuclear weapons, a significant advantage that it used to offset Soviet conventional military might. However, the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb in 1949, spurring the United States to accelerate the development of its nuclear weapons program. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet Union and the United States created a host of newer, more sophisticated, and more powerful nuclear weapons and delivery systems. No longer did the nuclear threat consist simply of atomic bombs dropped by plane. Nuclear devices now could be delivered using intercontinental ballistic missiles and sea-launched ballistic missiles. Each nation came to possess the ability to destroy the other at half an hour's notice.

During the early 1960s, the tiny island of Cuba became a flash point in the Cold War nuclear rivalry. Shortly after the Communist regime of Fidel Castro took power in Cuba, the United States began to formulate plans to topple it. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his successor, John F. Kennedy, felt that a communist state so close to the United States was a serious threat to America's national security. In 1961, the United States launched a covert invasion at Cuba's Bay of Pigs in an attempt to overthrow the Castro regime. The failed invasion increased hostilities between the United States and the Soviets, who counted Cuba as a valuable ally.

Tensions came to a head in 1962, when the Soviets began construction of secret missile sites in Cuba. When spy satellite photos revealed the presence of missiles on Cuban soil, U.S. president John F. Kennedy placed an embargo on the island. The action infuriated Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who threatened military action. For several tense days, the world stood poised on the brink of war. In the end, the Soviets backed down and removed the missiles, narrowly averting an armed conflict. The resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis made it clear that the United States would not tolerate the further spread of communism in the Western Hemisphere.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14