The Soviet Union, as the world’s preeminent communist power, constituted the primary focus of American foreign policy during the COLD WAR that unfolded in the decades after World War II.
As the war ended, the Soviet Union, an American ally during the conflict, was one of the two remaining world superpowers. The alliance soon fragmented. Americans had long been suspicious of the Soviets, refusing to extend formal diplomatic recognition after the Bolshevik Revolution. Recognition came in the 1930s, but suspicions remained. During the wartime alliance, the Soviet Union played down rhetoric predicting the inevitable triumph of COMMUNISM over capitalism, but, after the war, the rhetoric resumed. The United States and the Soviet Union also had different priorities. The Soviets needed to rebuild their war-ravaged homeland. The United States wanted to rebuild BUSINESS that had already prospered during the war.
During the struggle, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin participated in the Teheran and Yalta Conferences, as well as the Potsdam Conference after Germany’s surrender, to help determine the postwar world map. At Potsdam, Stalin infuriated his Western counterparts by asking for more than the West thought he deserved. Despite their differences, they reached agreements on boundary and occupation lines. Within a few years, however, the Soviets began to challenge what were already flexible agreements and moved further to consolidate their power in Eastern EUROPE. They also chose not to participate in the American-led MARSHALL PLAN to provide economic aid in reviving Europe.
The Soviet Union quickly concentrated its power in Eastern Europe, adding many countries to its sphere of influence and eventually forming the Warsaw Pact in 1955 to counteract the Western-inspired North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Within the Soviet sphere, East Germany constituted a focal point of its concerns. In 1953, the Soviets crushed a worker rebellion in Berlin, a city that would remain a potential flashpoint of American and Soviet foreign policy. In August 1961, the Berlin Wall was constructed, which divided the city, and the West and the Soviets continued to disagree over the city’s fate.
East Germany was not the only satellite to cause concern for the Soviets. In 1956, just months after Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin and claimed that he had governed through his “cult of personality” rather than on behalf of communist ideology, Poland and, especially, Hungary posed difficulties. In the latter, demonstrations calling for independence eventually led to many deaths and the formation of a new Soviet puppet government. Twelve years later, Czechoslovakia also faced Soviet military might. After the Czechs opened the door to reform and mentioned the possibility of closer ties with the West, the Soviets began to pressure the local Communist Party to halt its activities. The Soviets were unsuccessful and finally were forced to once again engage military tactics to suppress the movement.
There was one glaring exception to Soviet rule in Eastern Europe. Under the leadership of Marshal Tito (Josip Broz), a communist, Yugoslavia steadfastly maintained its autonomy. It did not join either the military pact or COMECON, the economic counterpart to the military Warsaw Pact.
Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union increased over the fate of the People’s Republic of China. In 1949, Mao Zedong’s Communists defeated Jiang Jieshi’s Nationalist forces, and the American-supported Jiang fled to nearby Taiwan. Relations were strained further with the Korean War. Both China and the Soviets supported North Korean forces while the United States supported South Korea. Over the next decade, the Soviet Union strongly aided China and North Korea, but by 1960 relations began to deteriorate. By the end of the 1960s, tensions were high.
Another issue of disagreement for the Americans and Soviets was the Vietnam War. Throughout the conflict, the Soviets strongly supported the North Vietnamese while the United States aided the South. The relationship between the Soviet Union and North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh dated back to before the Korean War, when they signed a cooperation agreement.
The Soviet Union did not ignore Africa during this time. Egypt was a close ally. The Soviet Union supported Egypt in 1956 during the SuEZ CRISIS, when the Suez Canal was nationalized. The Soviets contributed to the construction of the Aswan High Dam and assisted Egypt in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
Throughout the cold war, the specter of nuclear annihilation was never very far from many people’s minds, especially after the Soviets obtained their own nuclear device in 1949. These fears came to a head in the 1962 CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS. Just three years after Fidel Castro became Cuba’s leader, Khrushchev placed offensive missiles on the island 90 miles from Florida. American intelligence discovered the missiles, and President JOHN F. Kennedy demanded their immediate withdrawal. Ultimately, Khrushchev yielded to Kennedy’s demands and removed the missiles, but not before the two nations moved to the brink of nuclear war. By the end of the next year, the Soviets and Americans signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty OF 1963, prohibiting all aboveground tests and agreeing to prevent the use of arms in space.
Khrushchev was removed from power in 1964 and was replaced by Leonid Brezhnev. As the 1970s approached, tensions became somewhat more relaxed between the two cold war adversaries.
Further reading: Aleksandr Fursenko and Timothy Naf-tali, “One Hell of a Gamble”: Khrushchev, Castro, and Kennedy 1958-1964 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1997); Vladislav Zubok and Constantine Pleshakov, Inside the Kremlin's Cold War: From Stalin to Khrushchev (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996).
—D. Byron Painter
World History
