Alliances during the Cold War. Briefly cold war
A term that arose after the Second World War, when the imperialists of the USA, claiming world domination, together with other imperialist states began to escalate tension in the international situation, create military bases around the USSR and other socialist countries, organize aggressive blocs directed against the socialist camp, and threaten it nuclear weapons.
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COLD WAR
global ideological, economic and political confrontation between the USSR and the United States and their allies in the second half of the XX century.
Although the superpowers have never entered into direct military clashes with each other, their rivalry has repeatedly led to outbreaks of local armed conflicts around the world. The Cold War was accompanied by an arms race, due to which the world more than once teetered on the brink of nuclear catastrophe (the most famous case is the so-called Caribbean crisis of 1962).
The foundation of the Cold War was laid back during World War II, when the United States began developing plans for establishing world domination after the defeat of the Hitlerite coalition countries.
The upcoming global Pax Americana was to be based on the decisive superiority of the US power in the world, which meant, first of all, limiting the influence of the USSR as the main power of Eurasia. According to F. Roosevelt's advisor, director of the Council of International Relations I. Bowman, "the only and indisputable criterion of our victory will be the spread of our dominance in the world after victory ... the United States must establish control over key regions of the world that are strategically necessary for world domination."
After the end of the Second World War, the US leadership began implementing a "containment" plan, which, according to the author of this concept, D. Kennan, was to establish control over those regions where geopolitical, economic and military power could be formed and consolidated. Of four such regions - Great Britain, Germany, Japan and the USSR - after the war, only the Soviet Union retained its real sovereignty and even expanded its sphere of influence, taking the countries of Eastern Europe under protection from American expansion. Thus, the relations between the former allies on the issue of the further structure of the world, spheres of influence, and the political system of states sharply deteriorated.
The United States no longer concealed its hostile attitude towards the USSR. The barbaric bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, which instantly claimed the lives of half a million civilians, was intended to demonstrate to the Soviet leadership the capabilities of nuclear weapons. On December 14, 1945, the Joint Committee for Military Planning of England and the United States adopted Directive No. 432D, which outlined the first 20 nuclear bombing targets in the Soviet Union - the largest cities and industrial centers.
The myth of the communist threat was implanted in Western public opinion. Its herald was the former Prime Minister of England W. Churchill (1874-1965), on March 5, 1946, he delivered a speech to the students of Westminster College (Fulton, Missouri) about the need to resist Soviet Russia by creating an “iron curtain”. On March 12, 1947, H. Truman's doctrine was proclaimed, which set the task of containing communism. The same tasks were pursued by the "Program for the Reconstruction of Europe", or the "Marshall Plan", which, in the words of its author, Secretary of State J. Marshall, was "military operations carried out with the help of the economy, the purpose of which, on the one hand, is to make Western Europe completely dependent on America, on the other hand, to undermine the influence of the USSR in Eastern Europe and prepare the ground for the establishment of American hegemony in this region ”(from a speech on June 5, 1947 at Harvard University).
On April 4, 1949, an aggressive NATO military bloc was created to provide American military advantage in Eurasia. On December 19, 1949, the United States developed the Dropshot military plan, which involved a massive bombing of 100 Soviet cities with the use of 300 atomic bombs and 29,000 conventional bombs, and the subsequent occupation of the USSR by 164 NATO divisions.
After in 1949 the USSR conducted the first nuclear tests and acquired nuclear sovereignty, the question of a preventive war against the Soviet Union was removed due to its military impossibility. American experts stated: in addition to the "nuclear shield", the USSR has other important advantages - a powerful defensive potential, a large territory, geographical proximity to the industrial centers of Western Europe, ideological stability of the population, enormous international influence ("The Communist Party of the Soviet Union is the most effective replacement for sea power in history," - asserted in the article "How strong is Russia?", published in the magazine "Time" on November 27, 1950).
Since that time, ideological, diplomatic and political influence has become the main form of war. Its nature was specifically defined by the US National Security Council Directives NSC 20/1 (August 18, 1948) and NSC 68 (April 14, 1950).
These documents set for the United States the primary tasks regarding the Soviet Union: the transition of Eastern Europe into the sphere of American influence, the dismemberment of the USSR (primarily the separation of the Baltic republics and Ukraine), and undermining the Soviet system from within by demonstrating the moral and material advantages of the American way of life.
In solving these problems, it was emphasized in NSC 20/1, the United States is not bound by any time restrictions, the main thing in it is not to directly affect the prestige of the Soviet government, which "would automatically make war inevitable." The means of implementing these plans were the anti-communist campaign in the West, the encouragement of separatist sentiments in the national republics of the USSR, the support of emigrant organizations, the conduct of open psychological warfare through the press, Radio Liberty, Voice of America, etc., the subversive activities of various NGOs and NGOs ...
For a long time, these actions had almost no effect. In the 1940s and 1950s. the world authority of the USSR as the winner of fascism was very high, no one believed that the "country of widows and invalids" with a half-destroyed economy posed a real threat to the world. However, thanks to the erroneous policy of N. Khrushchev, who was extremely unrestrained in his foreign policy statements and actually provoked the Caribbean crisis (the installation of our missiles in Cuba almost led to an exchange of nuclear strikes between the USA and the USSR), the world community believed in the danger of the USSR.
The US Congress significantly increased appropriations for subversive activities and authorized an arms race that was exhausting for the Soviet economy. Significant support from anti-Soviet circles in the West was enjoyed by dissidents (from the English dissident), whose "human rights" activities were aimed at undermining the moral authority of the USSR.
The slanderous book by A. Solzhenitsyn "The Gulag Archipelago" (1st ed. - 1973, YMCA-Press) was published in huge circulations in Western countries, where the data on repressions during Stalin's rule were overstated hundreds of times, and the USSR was presented as a concentration camp country, indistinguishable from Nazi Germany. The expulsion of Solzhenitsyn from the USSR, the presentation of the Nobel Prize to him, and his worldwide success gave rise to a new wave of the dissident movement. It turned out that being a dissident is not dangerous, but extremely profitable.
A provocative step from the West was the presentation in 1975 of the Nobel Peace Prize to one of the leaders of the "human rights" movement, nuclear physicist A. Sakharov, author of the brochure "On Peaceful Coexistence, Progress and Intellectual Freedom" (1968).
The United States and its allies supported activists of nationalist (Chechen, Crimean Tatar, Western Ukrainian, etc.) movements.
During the Brezhnev leadership, many steps were taken along the path of disarmament and "relaxation of international tension." Strategic arms limitation treaties were signed, and a joint Soviet-American flight into space "Soyuz - Apollo" (July 17-21, 1975) took place. The culmination of detente was the so-called. The "Helsinki Accords" (August 1, 1975), which enshrined the principle of the inviolability of the borders that emerged after World War II (thus the Western countries recognized the communist regimes in Eastern Europe) and imposed a number of obligations on the countries of both blocs to build confidence in the military field and on human rights issues.
The softening of the position of the USSR in relation to dissidents led to the intensification of their activities. Another aggravation in relations between the superpowers occurred in 1979, when the Soviet Union sent troops into Afghanistan, giving the Americans a reason to disrupt the process of ratification of the SALT II Treaty and freeze other bilateral agreements reached in the 1970s.
The Cold War unfolded on the fields of sporting battles: the United States and its allies boycotted the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, and the USSR boycotted the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The Reagan administration, which came to power in 1980, proclaimed a course towards ensuring a decisive superiority of the US power in the world and establishing a "new world order", which required the removal of the Soviet Union from the world arena. Released in 1982–83. The directives of the US National Security Council NSC 66 and NSC 75 determined the methods for solving this problem: economic war, massive clandestine operations, destabilization of the situation and generous financial support of the "fifth column" in the USSR and the Warsaw Pact countries.
Already in June 1982, the CIA funds, the structures of J. Soros and the Vatican began to allocate huge funds to support the Polish trade union Solidarity, which was destined to play in the late 1980s. a decisive role in organizing the first "velvet revolution" in the socialist camp.
On March 8, 1983, speaking before the National Association of Evangelicals, Reagan called the USSR an "evil empire" and declared the fight against it his main task.
In the fall of 1983, a South Korean civilian airliner was shot down by Soviet air defense forces over the territory of the USSR. This "asymmetrical" response to an obvious provocation from the West prompted the deployment of American nuclear missiles in Western Europe and the development of a space anti-missile defense (SDI, or "Star Wars") program.
Subsequently, the bluff of the American leadership with this technically dubious program forced M. Gorbachev to make serious military and geopolitical concessions. According to the former CIA officer P. Schweitzer, the author of the famous book “Victory. The role of the secret strategy of the US administration in the collapse of the Soviet Union and the socialist camp ”, there were 4 main directions of strikes against the USSR:
1. Poland (provocations, support of the Solidarity dissident movement.
2. Afghanistan (provocation of conflicts, support of militants with modern weapons).
3. Technological blockade of the Soviet economy (including sabotage and distracting technological information).
4. Decrease in oil prices (negotiations with OPEC to increase oil production, as a result of which its price fell on the market to $ 10 per barrel).
The cumulative result of these actions was the actual recognition by the Soviet Union of its defeat in the Cold War, which was expressed in the rejection of independence and sovereignty in foreign policy decisions, the recognition of its history, economic and political courses as erroneous and requiring correction with the help of Western advisers.
With a displacement in 1989-90. Communist governments in a number of countries of the socialist camp implemented the original setting of the NSC 20/1 Directive - the transition of Eastern Europe into the sphere of American influence, which was supported by the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact on July 1, 1991 and the beginning of NATO expansion to the East.
The next step was the collapse of the Soviet Union, "legalized" in December 1991, the so-called. "Belovezhskaya agreements". At the same time, a more ambitious goal was set - the dismemberment of Russia itself.
In 1995, in a speech to the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, US President B. Clinton said: “Using the blunders of Soviet diplomacy, the excessive arrogance of Gorbachev and his entourage, including those who openly took a pro-American position, we have achieved that was going to make President Truman by means of the atomic bomb. True, with a significant difference - we received a raw material appendage, not destroyed by the atom ... However, this does not mean that we have nothing to think about ... Several tasks must be solved simultaneously ... the dismemberment of Russia into small states by means of interreligious wars, similar to those that we organized in Yugoslavia , the final collapse of the military-industrial complex and the army of Russia, the establishment of the regime we need in the republics that have separated from Russia. Yes, we allowed Russia to be a power, but now only one country will be an empire - the United States. ”
The West is diligently trying to implement these plans through the support of the separatists of Chechnya and other republics of the Caucasus, through the whipping up of nationalism and religious intolerance in Russia through the Russian, Tatar, Bashkir, Yakut, Tuvan, Buryat and other nationalist organizations, through a series of "velvet revolutions" in Georgia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, attempts to destabilize the situation in Transnistria, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan.
The Bush administration has essentially reaffirmed its commitment to the ideas of the Cold War. For example, at the NATO summit in Vilnius in May 2006, US Vice President R. Cheney made a speech very reminiscent of the notorious "Fulton" speech in content and general mood. In it, he accused Russia of authoritarianism and energy blackmail of neighboring countries and voiced the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating a Baltic-Black Sea Union, which would include all the western republics of the former Soviet Union that cut Russia off from Europe.
The West continues to use the methods of the Cold War in the fight against the newly gaining political and economic weight of Russia. Among them - support for NGOs / NGOs, ideological sabotage, attempts to interfere in political processes on the sovereign Russian territory. All of this indicates that the United States and its allies do not consider the Cold War over. At the same time, talk about the defeat of the USSR (and in fact, Russia) in the Cold War is a symptom of defeatism. The battle is lost, but not the war.
Today the old methods (and most importantly, the US ideology) are no longer successful and are not capable of producing an effect, as at the end of the 20th century, and the US has no other strategy.
The moral authority of one of the victorious countries, the "country of freedom," which was the main weapon of the United States, was seriously shaken in the world after the operations in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc. The United States appears to the world as a "new evil empire" pursuing its own interests and not bringing new values.
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Cold war - the global geopolitical, military, economic and ideological confrontation in 1946-1991 between the USSR and its allies, on the one hand, and the United States and its allies, on the other. This confrontation was not a war in the international legal sense. One of the main components of the confrontation was the ideological struggle - as a result of the contradiction between the capitalist and what in the USSR was called socialist models.
After the end of the bloodiest war in the history of mankind - the Second World War, where the USSR became the winner, the preconditions were created for a new confrontation between the West and the East, between the USSR and the USA. The main reasons for the emergence of this confrontation, known as the "cold war", were ideological contradictions between the capitalist model of society inherent in the United States and the socialist model that existed in the USSR. Each of the two superpowers wanted to see themselves at the head of the entire world community and to arrange life, following their ideological principles. In addition, the Soviet Union, after the Second World War, established its dominance in the countries of Eastern Europe, where communist ideology reigned. As a result, the United States, along with Great Britain, was frightened by the possibility that the USSR could become a world leader and establish its dominance, both in the political and economic spheres of life. America did not at all like the communist ideology, namely the Soviet Union stood on its way to world domination. After all, America got rich during the Second World War, it had to sell its manufactured products somewhere, so the countries of Western Europe, destroyed during the hostilities, needed to be restored, which was proposed to them by the US government. But on condition that the rulers - communists in these countries will be removed from power. In short, the Cold War was a new kind of competition for world domination.
First of all, both countries tried to enlist the support of other countries in their course. The USA supported all the countries of Western Europe, while the USSR supported the countries of Asia and Latin America. In fact, during the Cold War, the world was divided into two confrontational camps. Moreover, there were only a few neutral countries.
If we consider the chronological stages of the Cold War, then there is a traditional and most common division:
the initial phase of the confrontation (1946-1953). At this stage, the confrontation takes shape almost officially (with Churchill's Fulton speech in 1946), an active struggle for spheres of influence begins, first in Europe (Central, Eastern and Southern), and then in other regions of the world, from Iran to Korea. The military parity of forces becomes obvious, taking into account the presence of both the United States and the USSR of atomic weapons, military-political blocs (NATO and the Internal Affairs Directorate) appear that support each superpower. The first clash of opposing camps at the "training ground" of third countries - the Korean War;
the acute stage of the confrontation (1953-1962). This stage began with a temporary weakening of the confrontation - after the death of Stalin and criticism of the cult of his personality on the part of Khrushchev, who came to power in the USSR, there were opportunities for a constructive dialogue. However, at the same time, the parties increased their geopolitical activity, which is especially obvious for the USSR, which thwarted any attempts by the allied countries to leave the socialist camp. In combination with the ongoing arms race, this brought the world to the brink of open war between the nuclear powers - the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when, due to the deployment of Soviet ballistic missiles in Cuba, a war with the use of atomic weapons almost broke out between the USSR and the USA;
the so-called "detente" (1962-1979), the period of the Cold War, when a number of objective factors demonstrated to both sides the danger of growing tensions. First, after 1962, it became obvious that an atomic war, in which, most likely, there will be no winners, is more than real. Secondly, the psychological fatigue of the participants in the Cold War and the rest of the world from constant tension made itself felt and required a respite. Thirdly, the arms race also began to show itself - the USSR was experiencing more and more obvious systemic economic problems, trying to keep up with its rival in building up its military potential. In this regard, the United States had difficulties as with its main allies, which were increasingly striving for peaceful development, besides, the oil crisis was raging, in the conditions of which the normalization of relations with the USSR, one of the leading oil suppliers, was very useful. But "detente" was short-lived: both sides viewed it as a respite, and already in the mid-1970s, the confrontation began to grow: the United States began to develop scenarios for a nuclear war with the USSR, Moscow, in response, began to modernize its missile forces and missile defense;
stage of "empires of evil" (1979-1985), in which the reality of an armed conflict between the superpowers began to grow again. The catalyst for tension was the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan in 1979, which the United States did not fail to take advantage of, which provided all kinds of support to the Afghans. The information war has become quite acute, starting with the exchange of ignorance of the Olympic Games, first in Moscow (1980), then in Los Angeles (1984), and ending with the use of the epithets "evil empire" in relation to each other (with the light hand of President Reagan). The military departments of both superpowers began a more detailed study of scenarios for a nuclear war and the improvement of both ballistic offensive weapons and missile defense systems;
the end of the cold war, replacement of the bipolar system by the unipolar system (1985-1991). The actual victory of the United States and its allies in the Cold War, associated with the political and economic transformations in the Soviet Union, known as perestroika and associated with the activities of Gorbachev. Experts continue to argue to what extent the subsequent collapse of the USSR and the disappearance of the socialist camp are due to objective reasons, primarily the economic inefficiency of the socialist model, and to what extent it is connected with the wrong geopolitical strategic and tactical decisions of the Soviet leadership. However, the fact remains: after 1991 there is only one superpower in the world, in which there is even an unofficial award "For victory in the Cold War" - the United States.
The results of the Cold War, which ended in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the entire socialist camp, can be divided into two categories. The first will include the results that are important for all of humanity, since the Cold War was a global confrontation, in one way or another, directly or indirectly, almost all countries of the world were involved. The second category is the outcome of the Cold War, which affected its two main participants, the USA and the USSR.
As for the results of the Cold War for the main adversaries, the two superpowers, in this respect the outcome of the confrontation is obvious. The USSR could not stand the arms race, its economic system turned out to be uncompetitive, and measures to modernize it were unsuccessful and ultimately led to the collapse of the country. As a result, the socialist camp collapsed, the communist ideology itself was discredited, although socialist regimes survived in the world and after a certain time their number began to increase (for example, in Latin America).
Russia, the successor to the USSR, retained its status as a nuclear power and a place in the UN Security Council, however, due to the difficult internal economic situation and the fall of the UN's influence on real international politics, this does not look like a real achievement. Western values, first of all, everyday and material values, began to be actively introduced in the post-Soviet space, and the military power of the "heir" of the USSR has significantly decreased.
The United States, on the other hand, strengthened its position as a superpower, from that moment - the only superpower.
The original goal of the West in the Cold War, preventing the spread of communist regimes and ideology around the world, has been achieved. The socialist camp was destroyed, the main enemy, the USSR, was defeated and for a certain time the former Soviet republics fell under the political influence of the States.
True, after a while it turned out that during the confrontation between the two superpowers and the subsequent celebration of America's victory in the world, a potential new superpower, China, appeared. However, relations with China are far from the Cold War in terms of tension, and besides, this is already the next page in the history of international relations. Meanwhile, the United States, which created the most powerful military machine in the world in the course of the arms race, received an effective tool for protecting its interests and even imposing them anywhere in the world and, by and large, regardless of the opinion of the international community. Thus, a unipolar world model was established, which allows one superpower to use the necessary resources for its own benefit.
Who called the war "cold": 10 facts from the history of the confrontation between the USA and the USSR
Editorial responseOn February 1, 1992, a Russian-American declaration was signed on the end of the Cold War, which was waged by the United States and the USSR, as well as their allies, from 1946 to 1991, within the framework of which an arms race was carried out, economic pressure measures (embargo, economic blockade) were applied, military -political blocs and military bases were built. The joint declaration between Russia and the United States, signed on February 1, 1992 at Camp David, officially put an end to ideological rivalry and confrontation.
George Orwell invented the Cold War
The term "cold war" was launched in 1946 and began to denote a state of political, economic, ideological and "paramilitary" confrontation. One of the main theorists of this confrontation, founder and first CIA chief Allen Dulles considered it the pinnacle of strategic art - “balancing on the brink of war”. Expression Cold war first sounded on April 16, 1947 in a speech by Bernard Baruch, adviser to US President Harry Truman, before the South Carolina House of Representatives. However, he was the first to use the term "Cold War" in his work "You and the Atomic Bomb" George Orwell, wherein Cold war meant a prolonged economic, geopolitical and ideological war between the United States, the Soviet Union and their allies.
The United States planned to drop 300 atomic bombs on the USSR
In 1949, the Pentagon adopted the Dropshot plan, according to which it was planned to drop 300 atomic bombs on 100 Soviet cities, and then occupy the country with 164 NATO divisions. The operation was to begin on January 1, 1957. Due to the bombing, they wanted to destroy up to 85% of the Soviet industry. Massive attacks on Soviet cities were supposed to force the USSR and its allies to surrender. It was planned to use about 6 million 250 thousand people in the war against the Soviet Union. The developers set out to wage not only military actions, but also psychological warfare, emphasizing that “psychological warfare is an extremely important weapon for promoting dissidence and betrayal among the Soviet people; it will undermine his morality, sow confusion and create disorganization in the country. "
Operation "Anadyr" on Liberty Island
The Cuban Missile Crisis became a serious test of the Cold War. In response to the deployment of American medium-range missiles near the Soviet borders - in Turkey, Italy and England - the Soviet Union, in agreement with the Cuban government, began installing its missiles. In June 1962, an agreement was signed in Moscow on the deployment of Soviet armed forces on Svoboda Island. The first combat units participating in the operation, code-named Anadyr, arrived in early August 1962, after which the transfer of nuclear missile charges began. The total number of the Soviet group in Cuba was supposed to be 44 thousand people. However, the plans were hampered by the blockade of Cuba. The United States announced it after it found launch sites on the island for launching medium-range ballistic missiles. Before the declaration of the blockade, about 8,000 soldiers and officers arrived in Cuba, and 2,000 vehicles, 42 missiles and 36 warheads were airlifted.
Arms race begins
August 29, 1949, when the Soviet Union conducted the first test of the atomic bomb, which marked the beginning of the arms race. Initially, neither the United States nor the Soviet Union had a large arsenal of nuclear weapons. But between 1955 and 1989, on average, about 55 tests were conducted each year. In 1962 alone, 178 tests were carried out: 96 by the United States and 79 by the Soviet Union. In 1961, the Soviet Union tested the most powerful nuclear weapon - Tsar Bomba. The test took place at the Novaya Zemlya test site in the Arctic Circle. During the Cold War, many attempts were made to agree on a universal ban on nuclear weapons testing, but it was not until 1990 that the Treaty on the Limitation of Nuclear Weapons Tests began to be implemented.
Who will win the Cold War?
Since the second half of the 60s, doubts arose in the USSR about the possibility of winning the war. The Soviet leadership began to look for opportunities to conclude treaties on the prohibition or limitation of strategic nuclear weapons. The first consultations on possible negotiations began in 1967, but no understanding was reached at that time. The USSR decided to urgently eliminate the lag in the field of strategic weapons, and it was more than impressive. So, in 1965, the United States had 5,550 nuclear warheads on strategic carriers, while the USSR had only 600 (these calculations do not include warheads on medium-range missiles and nuclear bombs for bombers with a flight range of less than 6,000 km).
Eight zeros for ballistic missiles
In 1960, the United States began production of land-based intercontinental nuclear ballistic missiles. Such missiles had a mechanism for protection against accidental launch - using a digital display, the operator had to enter a code. At that time, the command ordered the installation of the same code 00000000 (eight zeros in a row) on all such missiles. This approach was supposed to ensure a quick response at the start of an atomic war. In 1977, taking into account the threat of nuclear terrorism, the command decided to change the simple and well-known code to an individual one.
Moon bombing plan
During the Cold War, the United States sought to prove its superiority in space to the USSR. Among the projects was a plan to bomb the moon. It was developed by the US Air Force after the Soviet Union launched its first satellite. It was supposed to launch a nuclear rocket to the surface of the moon to provoke a terrible explosion that could be seen from Earth. In the end, the plan was not realized, because, according to scientists, the consequences of the mission would be catastrophic if it ended in failure. The rockets of those times could hardly go beyond the Earth's orbit. Priority was given to expeditions to the moon, and the existence of plans to detonate a bomb remained a secret for a long time. Most of the documentation on the "Project A119" was destroyed, its existence became known in 2000. The American government has not yet officially recognized the existence of such plans.Secret underground city in Beijing
Since 1969 and for the next decade by order Mao Zedong an underground emergency shelter for the government was being built in Beijing. This "bunker" stretches over a distance of 30 kilometers near Beijing. The giant city was built during the period of the Sino-Soviet split, and its sole purpose was to defend itself in the event of war. The underground city was home to shops, restaurants, schools, theaters, hairdressers, and even a roller skating rink. The city could simultaneously accommodate up to 40 percent of Beijing's residents in case of war.
$ 8 trillion for ideological confrontation
Medal for Victory in the Cold War (USA) Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / US Army Institute of Heraldry
Known historian Walter Lafaber estimated US military spending during the Cold War at $ 8 trillion. This amount does not include military operations in Korea and Vietnam, the intervention in Afghanistan, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Chile and Grenada, the many CIA military operations, and spending on research, development, testing and manufacture of nuclear ballistic missiles. At the height of the Cold War, the United States and the USSR were preparing for a possible attack from the enemy, so they spent a total of $ 50 million daily on the creation of weapons.
In the USA, medals were awarded for participation in the Cold War
In April 2007, a bill was introduced in the US House of Congress to establish a new Cold War Service Medal, which was previously supported by Democratic senators and congressmen led by Hillary Clinton... The medal was awarded to all those who served in the armed forces or worked in US government departments from September 2, 1945 to December 26, 1991. The award does not have a definite status and is not formally a state award of the country.
When there is no real theater of hostilities, a real front line and real battles, that is, everything that makes a real war different from the Cold War, certain difficulties arise in identifying the direct participants. In an ordinary war, everything is simple: whoever participates in battles, or at least officially declared war on one of the parties to the conflict (or even several at once), is considered a participant in the war. During the Cold War, no one declared himself in a state of war, and, nevertheless, the confrontation divided into two parts almost the whole world, with the exception of neutral countries and countries that the events of the rest of humanity did not really touch.
Although, of course, the leading roles in each of the blocs were played by two superpowers. The USSR was the organizer and leader of two organizations that can be considered the structural backbone of one of the parties to the Cold War.
The first is the Warsaw Pact Organization 
(OVD), founded in 1955 and existed until 1991. It was a classic military alliance of several states, which had obligations of mutual military assistance in the event of aggression against any of them. The ATS included the USSR, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, the German Democratic Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria and, until 1961, Albania.
The second organization is the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA), which included the USSR, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. This structure has existed since 1949, but has been actively developing since 1960. Although the CMEA formally had nothing to do with military-political issues, but was only an economic union, the regime of special economic relations and mutual settlements between the allied countries was of particular importance during the cold war. For example, the USSR supplied strategic raw materials to the CMEA countries at preferential prices.
At the same time, the history of the Cold War also knows many states that adhered to an anti-American policy at some point in their history and thereby became allies of the USSR, without joining any blocs. These countries include, for example: Cuba, China. DPRK, Vietnam, Mongolia, Egypt, Syria, Libya, Algeria, Ethiopia, India, Nicaragua, Kenya, Senegal, Cambodia, Bangladesh and others.
The United States was not only supported by NATO members
In turn, the backbone of the front supporting the United States in the Cold War was primarily the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). This bloc was chronologically the first, its creation in 1949 opened a new page in the history of the Cold War and actually gave the confrontation its classic character - in response, the USSR began to consider options for creating its own bloc, a few years later the OVD appeared, and the rivalry reached a new level. Initially, the goal of creating NATO was declared to be the maintenance of stability in the North Atlantic region of the world, but it quickly became clear that the main function of this bloc is to oppose the expansion of the USSR's influence in Europe and the continuation of the series of socialist revolutions and coups in the Eastern and Central European countries.
The original NATO members were twelve states: the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Portugal and Italy. During the Cold War, NATO was constantly replenished with new members: in 1952 Greece and Turkey joined the organization, West Germany joined in 1955, and Spain joined in 1982.
NATO is a highly developed military bloc that has a joint military force, as well as a single political leadership and a common military command, separate from the military structures of each of the participating countries. Of course, from the very beginning, a prerequisite was military assistance in the event of an attack on any of the countries participating in the Alliance. In the conditions of the Cold War, this point was, first of all, to prevent possible aggressive actions of the USSR and its allies in Europe, which were to be suppressed by the forces of the most powerful allies - Great Britain and the United States.
Just as in the case of the USSR, during the Cold War the United States acquired allies who were not part of NATO structures, at least for geographic reasons - they were far from Europe and the North Atlantic. The United States' Cold War allies included Japan, Australia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Israel, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, and others.
Alexander Babitsky
- 1962 - 1979 - The period was marked by an arms race, undermining the economies of rival countries. The development and production of new types of weapons required incredible resources. Despite the presence of tension in relations between the USSR and the United States, agreements on the limitation of strategic arms are signed. The joint space program Soyuz-Apollo is being developed. However, by the early 80s, the USSR was beginning to lose in the arms race.
- 1979 - 1987... - Relations between the USSR and the United States are aggravated again after the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan. In 1983, the United States deployed ballistic missiles at bases in Italy, Denmark, England, Germany, Belgium. An anti-space defense system is being developed. The USSR reacts to the actions of the West by withdrawing from the Geneva talks. During this period, the missile attack warning system is in constant combat readiness.
- 1987 - 1991 - Gorbachev's coming to power in the USSR in 1985 entailed not only global changes within the country, but also radical changes in foreign policy, called "new political thinking." Ill-considered reforms finally undermined the economy of the Soviet Union, which led to the country's de facto defeat in the Cold War.
The end of the Cold War was caused by the weakness of the Soviet economy, its inability to support the arms race any longer, as well as pro-Soviet communist regimes. Antiwar demonstrations in various parts of the world also played a role. The results of the Cold War were depressing for the USSR. The symbol of the victory of the West. was the reunification of Germany in 1990.
As a result, after the USSR was defeated in the Cold War, a unipolar world model was formed with the dominant superpower of the United States. However, there are other consequences of the Cold War. This is the rapid development of science and technology, primarily the military. So, the Internet was originally created as a communication system for the American army.
Today, many documentaries and feature films have been filmed about the Cold War period. One of them, telling in detail about the events of those years, "Heroes and victims of the Cold War."
War in Korea (participation of the USSR).
Participation of the USSR, USA and China in the Korean War. Role of the UN. Tens of thousands of American soldiers died in the Korean War
It cannot be said that the participation of the above listed countries in the Korean War was of great importance. In fact, the war was not fought between North and South Korea, but between two powers that sought to prove their priority by any means available. In this case, the US became the attacking party, and the "Truman Doctrine" proclaimed at that time is a vivid example of this. In keeping with its "new policy line" towards the USSR, the Truman administration did not consider it necessary to "make compromises in the future." It actually refused to comply with the Moscow Agreement, thwarted the work of the Joint Commission on Korea, and then moved the Korean issue to the UN General Assembly.
This step by the United States cut off the last thread of cooperation with the USSR: Washington openly violated its allied obligations, according to which the Korean issue as a problem of a post-war settlement was to be resolved by the allied powers. The transfer of the Korean issue to the UN was required by the United States in order to, in international political terms, approve the South Korean regime created by them as the only legitimate government in Korea. Thus, as a result of the imperialist policy of the United States and contrary to the desire of the Korean people to create a united, independent, democratic Korea, the country was divided into two territories: the Republic of Korea dependent on the United States and the Republic of Korea, which is in the same dependence only on the USSR, North Korea, in fact, the border between which became the 38th parallel.
It is no coincidence that this happened precisely with the transition of the United States to the Cold War policy. The split of the world into two opposing class camps - capitalism and socialism, the resulting polarization of all political forces in the world arena and the struggle between them led to the emergence of knots of contradictions in the system of international relations, in which the political interests of states of opposing systems collide and are resolved. Korea, due to historical circumstances, has become such a knot. It turned out to be the arena of the struggle of capitalism in the person of the United States against the positions of communism. The outcome of the struggle was determined by the balance of forces between them.
The USSR, both during the Second World War and after it, consistently strove for a compromise solution to the Korean question, for the creation of a single democratic Korean state through the system of trusteeship. The United States is another matter, there was practically no room left for compromise solutions on Korea. The United States deliberately contributed to the growth of tensions in Korea, and if they did not take a direct part, then with their policy they actually pushed Seoul to organize an armed conflict on the 38th parallel. But in my opinion, it was a mistake on the part of the United States that they extended their aggression to China without realizing its capabilities. The senior researcher of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Candidate of Historical Sciences A.V. Vorontsov: "One of the decisive events in the course of the war in Korea was the entry of the PRC into it on October 19, 1950, which practically saved the DPRK, which was in a critical situation at that time, from a military defeat (this action cost more than two million lives of" Chinese volunteers ")" ...
The intervention of American troops in Korea saved Lee Seung Man from military defeat, but the main goal - the elimination of socialism in North Korea - was never achieved. As for the direct participation of the United States in the war, it should be noted that the American aviation and navy operated from the first day of the war, but were used to evacuate American and South Korean citizens from the front-line areas. However, after the fall of Seoul, US ground forces landed on the Korean Peninsula. The US Air Force and Navy also launched active hostilities against the DPRK troops. In the Korean War, US aircraft were the main striking force of the "UN military" assisting South Korea. She acted both at the front and on objects in the deep rear. Therefore, repelling air strikes by the US Air Force and its allies has become one of the most important tasks of the North Korean troops and "Chinese volunteers" throughout the war years.
The aid of the Soviet Union to the DPRK during the war years had its own peculiarity - it was intended primarily to repel US aggression and therefore went mainly along the military line. USSR military assistance to the fighting Korean people was carried out through gratuitous deliveries of weapons, military equipment, ammunition and other means; by organizing a repulse of American aviation with Soviet fighter aviation units stationed in the border regions of China adjacent to the DPRK and reliably covering various economic and other objects from the air. Also, the USSR was engaged in the training of command, staff and engineering personnel for the troops and institutions of the Korean People's Army on the spot. Throughout the war, the necessary number of combat aircraft, tanks and self-propelled guns, artillery and small arms and ammunition for them, as well as many other types of special equipment and military equipment were supplied from the Soviet Union. The Soviet side sought to deliver everything on time and without delay, so that the KPA troops were sufficiently provided with everything necessary to fight the enemy. The KPA army was equipped with the most modern weapons and military equipment at that time.
After the opening of key documents from the government archives of the countries involved in the Korean conflict, more and more historical documents emerge. We know that at that time the Soviet side assumed the enormous burden of direct air and military technical support to the DPRK. About 70,000 Soviet Air Force personnel took part in the Korean War. At the same time, the losses of our air formations amounted to 335 aircraft and 120 pilots. As for the ground operations to support the North Koreans, Stalin sought to completely shift them to China. Also in the history of this war there is one interesting fact - the 64th Fighter Aviation Corps (IAC). The basis of this corps was three fighter air divisions: 28th IAC, 50th IAC, 151st IAC.
The divisions numbered 844 officers, 1153 sergeants and 1274 soldiers. There were Soviet-made aircraft in service: IL-10, Yak-7, Yak-11, La-9, La-11, as well as jet MiG-15. The office was located in the city of Mukden. This fact is interesting because these aircraft were piloted by Soviet pilots. Considerable difficulties arose because of this. It was necessary to maintain secrecy, since the Soviet command took all measures to hide the participation of the Soviet Air Force in the Korean War, and not to give the United States evidence that Soviet-made MiG-15 fighters, which was not secret, were piloted by Soviet pilots. For this purpose, the MiG-15 aircraft had the identification marks of the Chinese Air Force. It was forbidden to operate over the Yellow Sea and pursue enemy aircraft south of the Pyongyang-Wonsan line, that is, up to 39 degrees north latitude.
In this armed conflict, a separate role was assigned to the United Nations, which intervened in this conflict after the US government passed it on a solution to the Korean problem. Contrary to the protest of the Soviet Union, which insisted that the Korean issue was an integral part of the problem of the post-war settlement as a whole and the order of its discussion had already been determined by the Moscow meeting, the United States put it in the autumn of 1947 for discussion at the 2nd session of the UN General Assembly. These actions became another step towards consolidating the split, moving away from the Moscow decisions on Korea and towards the implementation of American plans.
At the November session of the UN General Assembly in 1947, the American delegation and representatives of other pro-American states managed to reject Soviet proposals for the withdrawal of all foreign troops and push through their resolution, create an interim UN commission on Korea, which was entrusted with overseeing the elections. This Commission was elected from representatives of Australia, India, Canada, El Salvador, Syria, Ukraine (its representatives did not participate in the work of the commission), the Philippines, France and Chiang Kai-shek China. It was supposed to transform the UN into a "center for harmonizing actions on the Korean question", provide the Soviet and American administrations and Korean organizations with "consultations and advice on every step related to the establishment of an independent Korean government and the withdrawal of troops", and ensure under its supervision that Korea elections are based on secret ballot of the entire adult population.
However, the UN Commission in Korea did not succeed in creating an all-Korean government, as it continued the course of forming a reactionary organ of power that was pleasing to the United States. The protests of the popular masses and public democratic organizations in the South and North of the country against its activities led to the fact that it could not fulfill its functions and turned to the so-called Intersessional Committee of the UN General Assembly for assistance. The Committee recommended to the Interim Commission, thereby canceling the decision of the UN General Assembly of November 14, 1947, to hold elections to the highest legislative body - the National Assembly in only one South Korea, and submitted the corresponding draft resolution to the meeting of the UN General Assembly session. Many states, including Australia and Canada, members of the Interim Commission on Korea, did not support the United States and argued that such an action would result in permanent division of the country and the presence of two hostile governments in Korea. Nevertheless, with the help of an obedient majority, the United States passed the decision it needed on February 26, 1948, in the absence of a Soviet representative.
The adoption of the American resolution had disastrous consequences for Korea. While encouraging the establishment of a "national government" in South Korea, which inevitably entailed the creation of a national government in the North, it also pushed for the dismemberment of Korea, instead of promoting the formation of a single independent democratic state. Those who advocated separate elections in the South, such as Rhee Seung Man and his supporters, actively supported the decisions of the UN General Assembly, arguing that a strong government was necessary to defend against the North Korean "offensive". The leftists were against separate elections and the activities of the UN Commission, they proposed a meeting of the political leaders of North and South Korea in order to resolve internal affairs themselves after the withdrawal of foreign troops.
It is not difficult to conclude that the UN Commission was on the side of the United States and worked in its favor. A clear example is the resolution that turned US troops in Korea into "UN military forces." Formations, units and subunits of 16 countries operated under the UN flag in Korea: England and Turkey sent several divisions, Great Britain equipped 1 aircraft carrier, 2 cruisers, 8 destroyers, marines and auxiliary units, Canada sent one infantry brigade, Australia, France, Greece, Belgium and Ethiopia, one infantry battalion each. Additionally, field hospitals and their personnel arrived from Denmark, India, Norway, Italy and Sweden. About two-thirds of the UN troops were American. The Korean War cost the UN 118,155 killed and 264,591 wounded, 92,987 were taken prisoner (most died of starvation and torture).
Death of Stalin, internal party struggle, exposure of the personality cult
March 5, 1953. diedI.V. Stalin, who for many years stood at the head of the party and state. With his death, an entire era ended. Companions of Stalin had to not only solve the issue of the continuity of the socio-economic course, but also divide the party and state posts among themselves. Given that society as a whole was not yet ready for radical changes, it could have been more about a certain softening of the political regime than about a rejection of the Stalinist course. But the likelihood of its continuation was also quite real. Already March, 6 Stalin's associates began the first section of leading positions. The first place in the new hierarchy was taken by G.M. Malenkov, who received the post Chairman of the Council of Ministers and the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee.
In the Council of Ministers he had four deputies: L.P. Beria, a close associate of Malenkov, who headed the Ministry of Internal Affairs; V.M. Molotov, Minister of Foreign Affairs. Two other posts of deputy chairmen of the Council of Ministers were occupied by N.A. Bulganin and L.M. Kaganovich. K.E. Voroshilov was appointed chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. N.S. Khrushchev was appointed to the secretariat of the Party Central Committee. From the very first days, the new leadership took steps against the abuses of the past. Stalin's personal secretariat was disbanded. On March 27, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR announced an amnesty for all prisoners whose term did not exceed five years. In mid-July 1953, at one of the meetings in the Kremlin, chaired by G.M. Malenkov, who was in those years the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, N.S. Khrushchev made accusations against L.P. Beria. N.S. Khrushchev was supported by N.A. Bulgarin, V.M. Molotov and others. As soon as the voting began, Malenkov pressed the hidden bell button.
Several senior officers arrested Beria. The military side of this action was led by G.K. Zhukov. By his order, the Kantemirovskaya and Tamanskaya tank divisions were brought into Moscow, taking key positions in the city center. This action was carried out by force. However, there was no alternative at that time. IN september 1953... N.S. Khrushchev was elected first Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee... By this time, being at party work since 1924, he had passed all the steps of the apparatus ladder (in the 1930s he was the first secretary of the Moscow organization of the CPSU (b), in 1938 he headed the party leadership of Ukraine, in 1949 he was appointed secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee). After the elimination of L.P. Beria between G.M. Malenkov and N.S. Khrushchev began conflicts that concerned two main aspects: economy and the role of society in the ongoing changes. As for the economy, then the strategy for the development of light industry, for which Malenkov advocated, and the “union” of agriculture and heavy industry, proposed by Khrushchev, were opposed.
Khrushchev spoke of the need to increase purchase prices for the products of collective farms that were on the brink of ruin; on the expansion of cultivated areas and the development of virgin lands. Khrushchev achieved significant raising government procurement prices (5.5 times for meat, twice for milk and butter, 50% for grain). The increase in purchase prices was accompanied by the cancellation of collective farms' debts, a reduction in the tax on household plots and on sales on the free market. Expansion of cultivated areas, development of virgin lands Northern Kazakhstan, Siberia, Altai and the Southern Urals were the second point of Khrushchev's program, the adoption of which he sought at february (1954) plenum of the Central Committee... Over the next three years, 37 million hectares, which was three times more than planned in February 1954 and amounted to approximately 30% of all the lands cultivated at that time in the USSR, were developed. In 1954, the share of virgin bread in the grain harvest was 50%.
On the Plenum of the Central Committee 1955 (January) N.S. Khrushchev came up with a project corn cultivation to solve the fodder problem (in practice, this manifested itself in an unprecedented action to introduce this crop, often in regions that were not at all adapted for this). At the same Plenum of the Central Committee, G.M. Malenkov for the so-called "right deviation" (GM Malenkov, in contrast to NS Khrushchev, considered the development of not agriculture, but light industry as a priority). The leadership of the government passed to N.A. Bulganin. The position of N.S. Khrushchev in the political leadership of the country strengthened even more. 1953-1956 biennium... - this period entered the consciousness of people as “ thaw”(After the title of the novel by IG Ehrenburg, published in 1954).
A distinctive feature of this time was not only the holding of economic measures, which largely ensured the life of Soviet people, but also softening of the political regime... “Thaw” is characterized by collegial management. In June 1953, the newspaper Pravda spoke of such management as an obligation to the people. New expressions appear - “personality cult”, eulogies disappear. In the press during this period, there is not so much a reassessment of Stalin's rule, as a decrease in exaltation in relation to the personality of Stalin, frequent quotations of Lenin. The 4,000 political prisoners released in 1953 is the first breach in a repressive system. These are changes, but still unstable, like the “thaw” in early spring. N.S. Khrushchev is gradually gathering allies around him to expose the personality cult of Stalin.
