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   East-West  Communism – capitalism  Soviet Union – United States Minor cold wars (examples):  US-Iran: 1979-…  US-Iraq:  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: 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 : 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 ( ): 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

The Russian Civil War: Communist poster urging people to volunteer for the Red Army

World War 2: The crisis of capitalism The rise of the Left in Europe and Asia, fears of new revolutions The Great Depression, 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 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 mln. dead (36 mln. in combat) Global capitalism shattered even more than by WWI The 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) – 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 Left Use of force Cooptation Rebuilding a global capitalist economy based on US dominance Ideological wars: liberal democracy vs. communist dictatorship Construct a world order Alliances International organizations International 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 dimension The 2 giants never had a significant direct armed conflict between them They fought wars by proxy (Korea, Vietnam, Angola, etc.) But they prepared for total military confrontation Nuclear arms Conventional armies and navies Military alliances – NATO, the Warsaw Pact Spy wars New structures of militarism The military-industrial complex The 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 ( ), 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