The Wars that Happened During The Cold War

THE WARS THAT HAPPENED DURING THE COLD WAR

     Cold War was a war  between USA with liberal-capitalism ideology and Soviet Union with their communism. During Cold War, also happened some incident like International politic propaganda or military competition power. Like Berlin Air lift, Korean War, Cuban Crisis and many others. Those incidents could not be separated from the struggle for hegemony between USA and Soviet Union as the major powers.

A. Berlin Air Lift ( 1948-1949)

This video below may give brief sight what happened during The Berlin Air Lift:

    
      As the World War II was about to be ended in 1945, four major countries had conference at Yalta and Potsdam to talk the partitioning of Germany. Those four are USA, Great Britain, French, and USSR. They agreed to divide East Germany for Soviet, and the western part of it was occupied by USA, Great Britain, and French. Berlin - the capital city of Germany at that time- was Soviet's occupied zone. However, Berlin as in the agreement was also divided into west part (occupied by USA, Great Britain, and French) and eastern part of Berlin (USSR). 

Add caption

       At that time, Soviet Union was managing plan to destroy The Allies hegemony over West Berlin by building blockade between East and West Berlin. Soviet seemed to wipe out Western influence over West Berlin, as The Russian worried West Berlin would be a serious threat for their influence. They also argued that if there was a chance for West Germany to be self-sufficient as a country, the capital would not be Berlin. Hence, the blockade began on June 15, 1948 along the border. All accesses entering West Berlin was closed, electricity was shut down, and many Berlin people was frustrated with this unpleasant situation. Then The Allies argued if they withdrew their power, it would be likely Soviet hegemony and communism influence became rampant and stronger. On the contrary, if The Allies were about to strike back, it would be even worse - a sign for the real war would be raised then. After discussing, they decided to supply West Berlin by dropping the food, fuel, and other goods from the air.

    In 1949, Soviet had realized that the blockade turned into failure, because the influence of The Allies was not getting weaker, but other way around as they help West Berlin. The intention to make West Berlin rejecting The Allies also failed. Therefore, on May 12, 1949, Soviet reopened the highway, rail road, and other access to West Berlin.

B. Korean War ( 1950-1953)

     During Second World War Korea was conquered by Japan, after Japan gave up in 1945, the war territories has been the target as two victorious powerful countries which are USA and his allies (liberalism) and Soviet Union (communism) wanted to influence them (South and North Korea). Based on the U.S. containment policy, USA and Soviet had talks to split Korean based on 38 degrees north latitude which caused the northern part of Korea was under the influence of the Soviet Union and southern Korea were under the influence of America States.
       

In June 1950, about 135.000 North Korea soldiers attacked cross the border of North and South Korea. They attacked by declaring that South Korea soldiers broke the restriction area first. This aggression caused North Korea had power over Seoul in the end of 1950. However, USA who supported South Korea reacted after the attack; Truman ordered McArthur (The USA Army commander in Japan) to help South Korea, as well as he (Truman) went to UN headquarter for asking other countries support, and on June 27 some Western countries supported USA to kick North Korea away from South Korea. On July 5 1950 the war began between USA troops against North Korea, Mc Arthur as the commander did Incheon Operation to attack North Korean troops on September 1950 which in result Pyongyang was taken over by The Allies. However, ROC then joined the battlefield under the command of Prime Minister Zhou Enlai who deployed 270,000 army on October 25 which made U.S. troops retreated at the end of November 1950, and Seoul returned North Korea in January 1951. Finally, negotiation was initiated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Agreement was reached on July 27, 1953 in 2 points. First, the 38th parallel as the border of North Korea and South Korea. Second, the prisoners of war returned to their respective country.

C. Vietnam War (1954 - 1975)

  Vietnam War was about the internal conflict in Vietnam, and also known as the second Indochina war, actually there had been fighting in Vietnam for decades before Vietnam war began. The Vietnamese had suffered under French colonial rule for 6 decades when Japan invaded portions of Vietnam in 1940. It exactly in 1941, the communist leader Vietnamese revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh, he established a headquarters in a cave in northern Vietnam and also established the Viet Minh, in order to get rid Vietnam from the French and Japanese occupiers. On September 2 1945 in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh declared the independence of Vietnam with new government called the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, however the French did not give up their colony easily and they decided to fight back.

    In 1954, after getting a decisive defeat at Dien Bien Phu, the French decided to yield of Vietnam. At the Geneva Conference of 1954, a bunch of nations met to determine how French peacefully withdrew the colonialized area. With the help from United States, South Vietnam did the election only in South Vietnam rather than countrywide. And the winner of that election was Ngo Dinh Diem. On July 1954 Vietnamese and French agreed to divided Vietnam into two parts, they were North Vietnam (Comunist) and South Vietnam (Capitalist). 

Cold War - The "Ideology Export"

The History of Cold War

      Cold war is a term used to refer a period (1947-1991) where the conflict and competition happened between USA (United Nation of America) and USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republic) with their own respective alliances. The beginning of Cold War was triggered by the victory of USA and USSR as the super power countries in the Second World War. This “ideology” war began after USA defeated Germany (Nazi) in the Second World War, and remained those big countries with different ideology, economy, and military weapon power. It was named as Cold War since USA and USSR did not seem doing physical combat, even though both had a massive power of military. 

        The “Cold War” term was firstly introduced by English Journalist, George Orwell in his essay after the end of the Second World War. However, the battle actually was not yet ended since in fact those major powers still competed in spreading their influence through their soft powers (particularly culture) towards the other countries around the world especially the non-aligned one. Both countries brought up their own influence; USA with liberalism-capitalism and USSR with communism. Capitalism emphasizes on freedom to create any kind of strategy in order to earn more profit. Besides, communism emphasizes on abolishing the social class to create the same level of people.

            In spreading the influence, USA and USSR applied different plans. Here below were some ways how USA was eager to spread its ideology:

• Marshall Plan was a widespread economic help for the Europe and some Asian countries whose economic got collapsed after the Second World War.
• Truman Doctrine was an economic and military help for Greek and Turkey to avoid Soviet’s communism. Truman Doctrine was enacted by Harry S. Truman (the president of USA at that moment).
• On April 4^th 1949 NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was formed in Washington by USA as a defensive pact with some Western Europe countries (England, Ireland, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg, French, Portugal, and Canada).
• SEATO (South East Asia Treaty Organization) was formed on September 8^th 1954 in Manila, Philippine.

USSR also did creating counter attack toward USA. Some major actions were:

• Warsaw Pact on May 14^th 1955 led by Soviet Union with Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Albany, and Bulgaria.
• Comminteren Economic; was an agreement to rebuild the economic crisis among Eastern Europe countries.
• Molotov Plan; helping/rebuilding the collapsed countries in Eastern Europe which were the aftermath of the Second World War.
• Comminform was an international communist network which worked as propaganda to rival the capitalism spread.

Besides competing to influence other countries with ideology, USA and USSR also competed in many aspects, such as military forces, space exploring, doing espionage toward each other, up to competing in some Olympiad games. USA and Soviet Union also built a sophisticated weapon, such as ballistic missile and WMD. The competition was not stopped at that point; they also competed to show their power and ability as they launched their own rocket to explore the outer space.

Here, below is a video that show what happened during Cold War:

There were some different theories that explained how Cold War ended as written below:
1. Soviet Union spent 11% of GNP on military expenditures until 1980. Soviet Union also provide and spent large cost for its satellite countries.
2.    In 1989, USA and Soviet Union declared to do ceasefire as exposed to the public through press conference on Soviet ship, Maxim Gorky. Both agreed to reduce their respective army and military weapon in Europe.
3. In December 8^th 1991, three leaders from Soviet Union Boris Yeltsin (Russia), Leonid Kravchuk (Ukraine), and S. Shushkevich (Belarus) gathered and raised an agreement in Belovezkhaya Pusha without Gorbachev presence. In December 24^th 1991 Gorbachev officially resigned from his position (President) of Soviet Union;hence, Soviet Union also dismissed. 

Introduction to International Relations

Hi there! We are a group consist of three from School of International Relations, Law and Communication President University batch 2013, Muhammad Akbar Charisma (016201300102), Muhammad Arif (016201300169), Muhammad Qaisz Kenang Nugraha. We'd like to post and discuss the material about Cold War, and miscellaneous events about it. Wish all shots we'll post may help you guys who wonders what Cold War is, not Brisk nor The Freezing War :D