The post-war period and the Cold War

"THE POST-WAR PERIOD AND THE COLD WAR"

Content

The Beginning of the War

End of World War II and post-war (1945-47)

Beginnings of the Eastern Bloc

Berlin Blockade and airlift

NATO beginnings and Radio Free Europe

Crisis and escalation (1953-62). Khrushchev, Eisenhower and De-Stalinization

Warsaw Pact and Hungarian Revolution

Sino-Soviet split, space race, ICBMs

Berlin Crisis of 1961

Cuban Missile Crisis and Khrushchev ouster

Nixon, Brezhnev, and dйtente

Second Cold War (1979-85)

Final years (1985-91)

Aftermath

The Beginning of the War

The first use of the term to describe the post-World War II geopolitical <#"center">End of World War II and post-war (1945-47)

The Allies disagreed about how the European map should look, and how borders would be drawn, following the war. Each side held dissimilar ideas regarding the establishment and maintenance of post-war security. The western Allies desired a security system in which democratic governments were established as widely as possible, permitting countries to peacefully resolve differences through international organizations <#"center">Beginnings of the Eastern Bloc

During the final stages of World War II, the Soviet Union laid the foundation for the Eastern Bloc <#"center">Berlin Blockade and airlift

The United States and Britain merged their western German occupation zones into "Bizonia" <#"center">NATO beginnings and Radio Free Europe

Britain, France, the United States, Canada and eight other western European countries signed the North Atlantic Treaty <#"center">Crisis and escalation (1953-62). Khrushchev, Eisenhower and De-Stalinization

In 1953, changes in political leadership on both sides shifted the dynamic of the Cold War. Dwight D. Eisenhower <#"center">Warsaw Pact and Hungarian Revolution

While Stalin <#"center">Sino-Soviet split, space race, ICBMs

The period after 1956 was marked by serious setbacks for the Soviet Union, most notably the breakdown of the Sino-Soviet alliance, beginning the Sino-Soviet split <#"center">Berlin Crisis of 1961

The Berlin Crisis of 1961 <#"center">Cuban Missile Crisis and Khrushchev ouster

Continuing to seek ways to oust Castro following the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Kennedy and his administration experimented with various ways of covertly facilitating the overthrow of the Cuban government. Significant hopes were pinned on a covert program named the Cuban Project <#"center">Nixon, Brezhnev, and dйtente

Following his China visit, Nixon met with Soviet leaders, including Brezhnev in Moscow. These Strategic Arms Limitation Talks <#"center">Second Cold War (1979-85)

term second Cold War has been used by some historians to refer to the period of intensive reawakening of Cold War tensions and conflicts in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Tensions greatly increased between the major powers with both sides becoming more militaristic.

Moscow had built up a military that consumed as much as 25 percent of the Soviet Union's gross national product at the expense of consumer goods <#"center">Final years (1985-91)

By the time the comparatively youthful Mikhail Gorbachev <#"justify">cold war khrushchev eisenhower

Aftermath

Following the Cold War, Russia cut military spending dramatically, creating a wrenching adjustment as the military-industrial sector had previously employed one of every five Soviet adults, meaning its dismantling left millions throughout the former Soviet Union unemployed. After Russia embarked on capitalist economic reforms in the 1990s, it suffered a financial crisis <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Russian_financial_crisis> and a recession more severe than the US and Germany had experienced during the Great Depression <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression>.russian living standards have worsened overall in the post-Cold War years, although the economy has resumed growth since 1999.aftermath of the Cold War continues to influence world affairs. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union>, the post-Cold War world is widely considered as unipolar <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unipolarity>, with the United States the sole remaining superpower. The Cold War defined the political role of the United States in the post-World War II world: by 1989 the US held military alliances with 50 countries, and had 526,000 troops posted abroad in dozens of countries, with 326,000 in Europe (two-thirds of which in west Germany) and about 130,000 in Asia (mainly Japan and South Korea). The Cold War also marked the apex of peacetime military-industrial complexes <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military-industrial_complex>, especially in the USA, and large-scale military funding of science <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_funding_of_science>. These complexes, though their origins may be found as early as the 19th century, have grown considerably during the Cold War. The military-industrial complexes have great impact on their countries and help shape their society, policy and foreign relations.expenditures by the US during the Cold War years were estimated to have been $8 trillion, while nearly 100,000 Americans lost their lives in the Korean War <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War> and Vietnam War <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War>. Although the loss of life among Soviet soldiers is difficult to estimate, as a share of their gross national product the financial cost for the Soviet Union was far higher than that incurred by the United States.addition to the loss of life by uniformed soldiers, millions died in the superpowers' proxy wars <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_war> around the globe, most notably in Southeast Asia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeast_Asia>. Most of the proxy wars and subsidies for local conflicts ended along with the Cold War; interstate wars, ethnic wars, revolutionary wars, as well as refugee and displaced persons crises have declined sharply in the post-Cold War years.aftermath of Cold War conflict, however, is not always easily erased, as many of the economic and social tensions that were exploited to fuel Cold War competition in parts of the Third World remain acute. The breakdown of state control in a number of areas formerly ruled by Communist governments has produced new civil and ethnic conflicts, particularly in the former Yugoslavia. In Eastern Europe, the end of the Cold War has ushered in an era of economic growth and an increase in the number of liberal democracies <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_democracy>, while in other parts of the world independence was accompanied by state failure <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failed_state>.