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The Cold War


Research Paper

By: Seth Denmark


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Seth Denmark

The threat of a communist world was displayed after the Cold War. The Post-Cold war

era brought about new communist countries, changing alliances, and cutting-edge military

strategies for use in later wars. Communism was on the rise after the Cold War, and the countries

did anything to spread the idea of communism. This made non-communist and communist

countries have to find allies and enhance their military which would allow them to compete for

what they believed in. Russia was the main Communist country during the post-cold war era.

Communist leaders controlled countries, as Russia did, using inhumane tactics to make

sure Communist laws were enforced. During the Post-Cold War there were many different

Communist countries throughout the world. Some countries followed their own rules and others

followed Russia strictly, such as the eleven Soviet republics which included Ukraine, the Russian

Federation, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan,

Tajikistan and Uzbekistan (“Fall of the Soviet Union”). These countries that followed the ideals

of Communism wished to spread the ideas with or without force, including China whose leader

was Mao Zedong. Zedong was a threat to non-communist countries because he was not afraid to

use force while spreading the ideas of communism (Welling). Joseph Stalin of Russia, was one

of the most barbaric communist leaders to live, he killed 3-60 million people in order to ensure
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that his policies were not challenged. Nevertheless, “once Stalin died in 1953 his policies were

also put to rest, but communism as a whole was still in effect” (Fall of the Soviet Union”). In

order for Russia to have begun the spread of communism, they would have had to take control of

other countries, and the only way to do that was to take them over through war.

Communist countries and non-communist countries went to war many times over their

affiliating ideals on governing. Some countries believed that communism was the ideal form of

government, but others did not. For this reason, “The Us had over 180,000 troops prepared to

fight the war against communism in Asia” (Warren 162). With these new wars, came new

military strategies. Terrorism became a major problem in the world once communism began

spreading. This “21st-century terror war has a number of distinctive attributes that make it

different from old-style fights or even past terror struggles” (Grier), because of this militaries

began to use preempted attacks to stop terrorism before it happened (Grier). The wars that

occurred because of communism were long fought and sometimes ended in a draw as the Cold

War eventually did. During the Cold War, a major conflict that occurred was the Korean War.

The Korean War was fought between South Korea and Communist North Korea. The United

States gave support to South Korea, so that the influence of communism from China and North

Korea, was not forced upon them. After the war was fought out it ended with a draw (Steins 45),

then North and South Korea made an agreement which would allow South Korea to stay as a

democracy. Even though this was agreed upon, tensions between the two countries still remained

high, this is why the United States remained an ally and protected South Korea from

communism.
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Countries such as the United States and South Korea that hadn’t yet became communists,

allied together to protect each other to help end the spread of communism. The United States felt

obligated to give support to the threatened countries because they were often small compared to

the country trying to take them over. This is represented well when South Korea was being taken

over by China and North Korea. Without the support of the United States, South Korea would

have been taken over easily by the two countries and this would also happen to many other

countries throughout the world. Also, South Vietnam was under attack by the main communist

country, Russia, because of the natural resources that they had access to. The military in

Vietnam was very small and needed support if they wanted any chance to fight off Russia, once

the United States began to help “the military advisors in Vietnam increased from around nine

hundred to sixteen thousand” (Warren 156). Even though the military increased in the amount of

people to fight, “the American team stationed there, consisting of both civilians and military

lacked strong leadership and clear direction” (Warren 160). All the problems added up and the

United States wondered if it was worth the sacrifice to help South Vietnam, but they were even

more worried about what would happed if they didn’t help (Warren 168). As a result the United

States began to invest greatly in “spying by agents and other human-intelligence operatives”

(Grier). With all the support being put into South Vietnam to stop communism from taking them

over, this marked the beginning of the American Anti-Communism crusade (Warren 155). With

the United States showing that countries were able to fight against communism, it started a wave

of countries leaving Soviet Union control. The eleven republics that were under direct control of

the Soviet Union met in Kazakh City to announce that they would no longer be part of the Soviet

Union (“Fall of the Soviet Union”). After this vital event, it started a mass amount of revolutions
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in the 1980-90’s in a hope to end the spread of communism (Graubard). Even though mass

revolutions happened throughout the world, communist countries still went to all lengths to

spread communism.

Communist countries like Russia went to all lengths to spread their ideal of a communist

world, going as far as going to war with other countries they wanted to take over. Russia was the

main communist country which all the others followed, this is why the communists were often

referred to as “Reds” because of their allegiance to the soviet flag (“Red Scare”). Most of these

countries were very large which is why allies were made, without the help of larger countries the

smaller countries would be easily taken over and most of the world would be turned to

communism. It also went the other way, larger communist countries like China and the Soviet

Union were sided with North Korea (Steins 40). The wars between the communist and

noncommunist countries were mainly fought by a larger ally rather than the two counties which

created the fight in the first place. This is much like what happened in Vietnam when North

Vietnam was trying to take over South Vietnam, but in the long run, the US fought for the South

and Russia for the North. Therefore countries would use their own power against the much

smaller countries they were fighting. As a result, it seemed that communism was spreading out

of control in Asia (Welling). This can be emphasised “through Chamberlain’s own words, that

‘communist political and economic methods have prevailed over a vast Eurasian landmass, from

China to Czechoslovakia,’ and that ‘approximately one-third of the population of the globe lives

under some form of communist rule’ (Graubard). In spite of much of the world being some form

of communists, “years were wasted thinking communism would be reformed” (Graubard). Many

countries didn’t want to become communist in the first place but they were forced into it, this
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made some of them eventually go corrupt. For example, the communist government in China

was inefficient and hopelessly corrupt (Welling). This further shows that even though many

countries converted or were forced into communism, it still wasn’t the most effective form of

government out there. The spread of communism was started by the Soviet Union, even they did

not want to be communist in the first place but instead “the Soviet Union was supposed to be ‘a

society of true democracy,’ but in many ways it was no less repressive than the czarist autocracy

that preceded it. It was ruled by a single party, the Communist Party, that demanded the

allegiance of every Russian citizen ("Fall of the Soviet Union"). Hence the beginning of

communism spreading throughout Asia and other parts of the world. With the spread of

communism and wars because of it, many countries were at a threat of communism because they

weren’t communist yet.

Threats to countries could come from other nations, by trying to take another over or

from within their own governments because some would execute people who did not agree. A

threat could be anything that could harm your country, for example a larger communist country

looking to take yours over. One of the most influential threats posed by other countries was the

making of the nuclear bomb, these bombs could do devastating damage to a country (Steins 45).

What concerned people so much was the country that had access to these weapons which was the

main communist country, Russia. In 1949, the Soviet Union successfully tested a nuclear bomb

and communist forces led by Mao Zedong took control of China” (“Red Scare”). Since the

Soviets had access to these weapons it put many countries at risk, even the United States

(Graubard). If a country as large as the United States was at risk to these weapons, the smaller

countries would be push overs to communist rule. While it is true that the threat of nuclear
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weapons was a large problem, new laws on arms control were put into effect in 1989 which

made it less of a threat than others (Graubard). Another threat to countries was because of what

they possess, which was mainly the natural resources which could be used for fuel, industry, and

trading. This made the middle east extremely vulnerable to communism because it contains large

amounts of oil which Russia could easily use (Welling). This is one of the reasons why the

Vietnam war started, Russia wanted to get their hands on the resources in Vietnam.

Consequently, Russia took over Vietnam and turned them into a communist nation. This in turn

made the government in Vietnam grow corrupt very quickly, also there were many lootings of

tax coffers (Warren 156). Lastly the threat posed on a country could come from within their own

nation, even larger nations were faced with this threat. In particular, Russia had faced a threat

that was sanctioned by it’s own leader, Joseph Stalin. Stalin was a major communist leader in

Russia who executed forty-three million of his own people who did not support the way he

governed the country. But threats within a country do not have to come from government

officials, they can also come from concerned or impaired citizens. In fact the use of illicit drugs

during the post-war time period caused a number of incidents in which officers were shot and

killed by their own men (Warren 166). This period of threats posed to countries is know as the

‘Red Scare’, it is named this because of the red color scheme of the Soviet flag (“Red Scare”).

Equally important, with the the nuclear bombs that are being introduced, caused a need for new

weapons altogether.

New types of weapons came after World War Two when the world entered the nuclear

age, changing the way wars were fought. The term nuclear age got it’s name because of the

nuclear bombs that were beginning to be made in countries like Russia and the United States.
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These new weapons were far more powerful than the tomahawk missiles that were used in the

Cold War, so the Cold War Era weapons would no longer be effective in future wars (Grier).

Consequently, the Soviet Union “engaged in a costly and destructive ‘arms race’ with the United

States while exercising military force to suppress anti communism and extend its hegemony in

Eastern Europe" (“Fall of the Soviet Union”). This would create further tensions between

communists and non-communists because there would now be another competition between the

two that would have devastating consequences if the weapons made were released on the world.

Surely there would need to be a way to figure out who was “winning” the arms race, so countries

began spying heavily on each other in order to find out how successful their new-found nuclear

technology programs have become. Therefore the countries created new technology for this very

reason “but these have limits, as recently demonstrated by the CIA’s failure to detect

preparations for the Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests” (Grier). This shows that technology may

not suit the needs for a country to be ahead on the nuclear weapon crisis that is sweeping the

world, this can further be emphasized by Stephen Sloan who is a terrorism expert at the

University of Oklahoma, he says, "The key is very effective intelligence and analysis, and that

calls for more of a focus on human intelligence ,we have relied too heavily on technical

intelligence." Along with nuclear bombs, unorthodox weapons also had a great impact on the

amount of deaths during the post-war era. For example, booby traps were responsible for ten

percent of deaths of the fifty-eight thousand suffered by the United States during the Post-Cold

War era (Warren 166), because of this, booby traps are now against the rules of war. In order for

these weapons to be put to use, a war between countries must occur which could limit or further

extend the spread of communism.


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Wars could end in communist favor which would then spread communism towards new

parts of the world, or they could lose and then be pushed out of that area. Most of the wars that

occurred because of communism often had involved the United States, who were strongly

against the spread of communism throughout Asia and the Middle East. In fact, by “the end of

1965, more than 180,000 American troops were in Southeast Asia; combat was on the upswing,

and the United States was once again in a hot war against communism” (Warren 162). One war

in which the United States played a major role in to fight against communism was the Korean

War, which was fought during the nuclear age (Steins 45). The Korean War was mainly fought

in order for communist North Korea to push their influence onto democratic South Korea, which

would further spread the ideals set by communism. North Korea had the support of communist

China and South Korea eventually gained support from the United States which would help them

fend off communism and allow them to stay a democratic nation (Welling). This long fought war

eventually ended in a draw (Steins 45), which would split Korea along the thirty-eighth parallel

keeping the communists in the North and democrats in the South. Along with the Korean War,

another major communist war occurred in Vietnam where a similar situation happened, the North

was communist and the South was not. The United States inherently supported the

non-communist nation but unlike the Korean War they faced a new attack strategy which would

make the fight much more difficult in the long run. Usually the United States is the powerful and

unstoppable force in wars against small communist nations, but the attack strategy shown by the

Vietcong proved that even the small can bring a fight to the larger nation. As an illustration "The

Vietcong preferred to launch surprise attacks on U.S. units and then disappear into the jungle

rather than to press the fight and run the great risk that U.S. artillery would zero in on their
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position and decimate their ranks. (Warren 162). This warfare is known as guerrilla warfare,

which are surprise attacks launched by a group and are then followed by quick retreats. The

United States had become aware of the Vietcong using this attack strategy so they sent in a group

of soldier called the Green Berets who were also highly trained in the art of guerrilla warfare

(Warren 156). With war comes casualties, which was a major issue in the Vietnam war, so much

so that some South Vietnamese officers began to turn away from the fight because they feared

losing their lives (Warren 157). The United States started to wonder if they should continue to

fight or not, but eventually they came to the realization that “they are not going to achieve a

spectacular victory overnight, if they even achieve a victory at all” (Greir). They kept fighting in

Vietnam and the rest of Asia because they believed that communism should not be spread onto a

country that should be able to choose which type of government they wish to be under rule.

The end of communism was never the goal of the countries that were fighting it, but the

goal was to keep it from spreading to other countries in the world. Countries undoubtedly need a

form of leadership, government, in order to keep them in line. Hence the ideas of things like

democracy, monarchy, and communism. Countries like the United States that were fighting off

communism wanted countries to be able to pick their government for themselves and didn’t

believe it should be forced upon them. The wars to end communism would create tension but

like the Korean War where both sides are now negotiating towards reunification (Steins 42), and

the Vietnam War. They all had one thing in common and that was communism wasn’t ended but

only stopped from spreading. Furthermore "the climate of fear and repression linked to the Red

Scare finally began to ease by the late 1950s” (Red Scare) because of the efforts by

non-communists like the United States. Therefore the end of communism was never the focus of
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the United States and others, but only to give countries the ability to chose for themselves the

type of government they wanted.

All in all during the post-Cold War era, new tactics and weapons were able to be used in

later wars. Also the threats caused by the Cold War began to ease after the United States began

to help fight off communism through wars between multiple countries that had different ideals of

government. This sparked the need for new military advancements that would allow both sides to

compete. These wars ended with communism not being a major issue in the future but was still

there because the focus of the fights was never to end communism but just stop it from being

forced onto countries.


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This map shows the leaders of countries during the post-Cold War era and which countries are

communists. Also it shows the percentage of the world by government type.

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