Europeans are determined to prevent such killing and destruction from ever happening again. In 1963 the United States and the Soviet Union signed some confidence-building agreements, and in 1967 President Lyndon Johnson met with Soviet … 18 John Kent and John W. Young ‘The “Western Union” concept and British defence policy, 1947–1948’, in Richard Aldrich, ed., British intelligence, strategy and the Cold War … Soon after the war, Europe is split into East and West as the 40-year-long Cold War begins. The Cold War lasted roughly from 1947-1991. The Cold War was called cold because the featured heavyweights, the Soviet Union and the United States, were nominally \"at peace.\" But they engaged in circling each other, jabbing at each other, testing each others’ supposed weaknesses in every part of the world, in the Byzantine politics of the United Nations, and in a couple of dozen other international organizations. The book examines the role of Western broadcasting to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe during the Cold War, with a focus on Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. The Western European countries, wanting above all to stop communist expansion, sought to convince Washington that it should grant temporary financial and material aid to the Western democracies that had been seriously weakened by five years of war. Under this new leadership, the Soviet government implemented decentralised, market-based reforms aimed at improving growth. At the same time, Denmark, Norway and Sweden discussed the idea of military cooperation within a Scandinavian defence union. The latter were referred to as the Eastern Bloc. In 1961, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev told a party congress that the USSR would achieve full communism within 20 years. The Cold War had solidified by 1947–48, when U.S. aid provided under the Marshall Plan to western Europe had brought those countries under American influence and the Soviets had installed openly communist regimes in eastern Europe. The Western also allowed Hollywood to present Cold War themes without directly referencing the ‘Red menace’ (Britton 2006: 41), and provided a widely known structure for representing the struggle between America and its enemies during the Cold War. It includes chapters by radio veterans and by scholars who have conducted research on the subject in once-secret Soviet bloc archives and in Western records. The study became the first Cold War -era contingency plan for war with the Soviet Union. Reykjavik, Margaret Thatcher said, was the turning point in the Cold War. On 22 January 1948, Ernest Bevin, British Foreign Secretary, delivered a speech to the House of Commons in which he condemned the Soviet threat and asserted his determination to further the United Kingdom’s cooperation with France and the Benelux countries through a Western Union that would expand the Dunkirk Treaty. In less than a decade, and powered by the soaring price of oil, President Vladimir Putin has turned Russia into a powerful international player. Russia’s military budget has increased six-fold since the beginning of the century, and Russia’s intelligence networks have penetrated all corners of Europe. The Western Bloc or Capitalist Bloc during the Cold War refers to the countries allied with the United States and its NATO alliesagainst the Soviet Union and its allies. The principal requirement for the end of the cold war, in short, is self-determination for Eastern Europe. West European nations create the … The historical roots of the European Union lie in the Second World War. Thus, along with the liberal use of nuclear weapons, the Soviet Union and its Warsaw allies planned to launch a massive blitzkrieg aimed at taking over most of Western Europe. Some debate on who coined the term "Cold War" but it was a major conflict between the United States/Western Europe and the Soviet Union/Eastern Bloc. Stalin’s mistrust of Western governments, his insincere negotiations at the end of World War II and his determination to expand Soviet communism into eastern Europe were significant causes of the Cold War. COLD WAR: SOVIET PERSPECTIVES. The term "cold" is used because there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two superpowers, but they each supported major regional conflicts known as proxy wars. The governments and the press of the Western Bloc were more inclined to refer to themselves as the "Free World" or the "Western world", whereas the Eastern Bloc was often called the "Communist world or Second world". Diplomacy. The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union and the United States and their respective allies, the Eastern Bloc and the Western Bloc, after World War II. Russia’s reliance on Western credits has turned into Europe’s reliance on Russian gas. The Brussels Treaty, scheduled to remain in force for 50 years, provided for the organisation of cooperation among the five signatories in the military, economic, social and cultural spheres. The Western Bloc, also known as the Capitalist Bloc, was a coalition of the countries that were allied with the United States and its ideology, a member of NATO, and/or opposed the Soviet Union, Warsaw Pact, and communism during the Cold War 1947-1991. The Cold War ended in the late 1980s, when communist regimes in Eastern Europe collapsed and the United States and the USSR signed a series of arms reduction agreements. Ending the cold war requires ending the Soviet threat to Western Europe, which requires ending Soviet subjugation of Eastern Europe, which means allowing the people of that part of the world to decide freely how to govern themselves. The cold war could have ended in world destruction, although it never got that far. A few days later, the Prague coup of 25 February 1948, when the communists forcibly seized power in Czechoslovakia, only heightened international tension and the dangers arising from the Cold War. Stalin was born Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili in the village of … The struggle between superpowers The Cold War reached its peak in 1948–53. Finally Gorbachev realized that he had a choice: Continue a no-win arms race, which would utterly cripple the Soviet economy, or give up the struggle for global hegemony, establish peaceful relations with the West, and work to enable the Soviet economy to become prosperous like the Western economies. Mutual suspicion had long existed between the West and the USSR, and friction was sometimes manifest in the Grand Alliance during World War II. Those concerns were heightened when the United States discontinued lend‐lease aid to the Soviet Union soon after the war ended. Cominform officials condemned what they regarded as the subservience of Europe to America, and both the USSR and its satellite countries refused help from the Marshall Plan. Check exchange rates, send cash abroad and more. On 17 March 1948, the five countries signed the Brussels Treaty establishing Western Union, designed to guard against any armed aggression in Europe (i.e. The conflic… De online service van Western Union wordt aangeboden door Western Union International Bank GmbH in samenwerking met Western Union International Limited. The Cold War was a division between Russia and western countries (the US and its allies, like Britain), which started in the 1940s and lasted until 1991. What is the Cold War? The French Government sought to guard against what it still considered a potential threat from across the Rhine. Western Union International Bank GmbH, handelend als Western Union … After the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, the two wartime allies – the Soviet Union and the US became increasingly split on ideological and political grounds. ‘European integration studies’ collection, ‘Oral history of European integration’ collection, The organisation of post-war defence in Europe (1948–1954), The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), The genesis and failure of the plan for a European Defence Community, The establishment of Western European Union (WEU). 447,454. The Cold War was a period of East-West competition, tension, and conflict short of full-scale war, characterized by mutual perceptions of hostile intention between military-political alliances or blocs. The Western Bloc, also known as the Capitalist Bloc, was a coalition of the countries that were allied with the United States and its ideology, a member of NATO, and/or opposed the Soviet Union, Warsaw Pact, and communism during the Cold War 1947-1991. However, the Brussels Treaty was soon left devoid of its newly-expanded authority after the signing of a succession of treaties establishing the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (April 1948), the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (April 1949), the Council of Europe (May 1949) and the European Coal and Steel Community (April 1951). Princeton: Princeton UP, 1971. Businessman Bernard Baruch gave the term "Cold War" its currency. The Cuban Missile Crisis was the epitome of this, and the closest the two countries got to nuclear war. The Cold War between the U.S. and the USSR in the Middle East resembled a chess match: each party sought to neutralize the strategic advantage … Life in the the Soviet Union during the Cold War was very different from life in the US. During the cold war, there was always a fear of a nuclear war. But although the Brussels Treaty failed to create a customs union, it did partially meet the concerns of the Americans, who considered that it reinforced the position and willingness of the five member countries, all keen to receive economic and military aid from the United States. Today it's primarily of historical importance. Ed. Kissinger, Henry. After the war the West felt threatened by the continued expansionist policy of the Soviet Union, and the traditional Russian fear of incursion from the West continued. Countries which have become NATO members after the end of the Cold War, Other NATO-affiliated states and partners, Learn how and when to remove this template message, 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine, North Yemen-South Yemen Border conflict of 1972, Struggle against political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union, Sovereignty of Puerto Rico during the Cold War, List of Eastern Bloc agents in the United States, American espionage in the Soviet Union and Russian Federation, Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Western_Bloc&oldid=1007928640, Articles needing additional references from June 2014, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. In the post-war climate, this friendship and cooperation treaty was openly targeted at vanquished Germany in order to forestall any new aggression on its part. Communists seized power in Eastern Europe with the support of the Red Army, the Russian occupation zones in Germany and Austria were sealed off by army patrols, and threats were directed ag… On 22 January 1948, Ernest Bevin, British Foreign Secretary, delivered a speech to the House of Commons in which he condemned the Soviet threat and asserted his determination to further the United Kingdom’s cooperation with France and the Benelux countries through a Western Union that would expand the Dunkirk Treaty. Transfer money from Netherlands with Western Union international money transfer services. The obvious difference was communism, which took away freedoms from everyday people. The origins of the Cold War can be traced through numerous conflicts between the Soviet Union and Western nations, starting with the Russian Revolution in 1917. On 4 March 1947, France and the United Kingdom signed a mutual assistance pact in Dunkirk. Under Stalin, the state had total control over all media, and anyone caught reading, watching, or listening to any not permitted by the government was severely punished. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but the period is generally considered to span the 1947 Truman Doctrine to the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union. For the 45 year period of the cold war… The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union and the United States and their respective allies, the Eastern Bloc and the Western Bloc, after World War II. The United States quickly made known its preference for a regional pact which would exceed mere military matters. Cold War: Postwar Estrangement. Russia has regained its influence in Central Asia, and it has established a strategic cooperation with China in th… The Cold War had its roots in World War II, when the repeated delays in opening a second front in Europe made the Russians suspicious of the Western Allies' motives.  The Cold War was a sustained state of political and military tension between powers in the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc (Mid-1940s to early 1990s) Western Bloc (United States and NATO) 's Economic Organisation: OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) However, in the following months, tension continued to rise between the Western and Soviet blocs. Both plans were highly secret and were not made public until 1998 although a British spy for the Soviets, Guy Burgess, had passed on some details at the time. The Cold War, or more accurately the “Era of Cold Wars” (Reynolds 1992 p.10), between 1947 and 1991 divided Europe for over 40 years, eventually culminating in the rapid disintegration of the Soviet Union (USSR). 702. Post-Cold War Europe is history. Khrushchev was gone within three years, however, replaced by a collective headed by Leonid Brezhnev. Talks were immediately begun during which the British Government unveiled to France and the Benelux countries a plan for a mutual defence alliance in the event of external aggression. This page was last edited on 20 February 2021, at 17:37. The Western democracies and the Soviet Union discussed the progress of World War II and the nature of the postwar settlement at conferences in Tehran (1943), Yalta (February 1945), and Potsdam (July-August 1945). Inspired by Finland’s experience, but remaining divided about their neutral status, these countries wanted to protect themselves against any possible Soviet pressure and considered calling on the United States to provide them with the armaments required to deter any attack. When the Labour Party came to power in the 1945 general election it ignored the draft plan. The Cold War was a period of military and political tensions between the Soviet Union (and Warsaw Pact members) and the US (and NATO allies). In October, the recently-created Cominform took a fiercely critical stance towards the aid provided by the Marshall Plan, unveiled by the United States in June 1947, for the rebuilding of Europe. But the regional plan failed once and for all in 1949 when the Americans announced their unequivocal refusal to arm a neutral alliance. The governments and the press of the Western Bloc were more inclined to refer to themselves as the "Free World" or the "Western world", whereas the Eastern Bloc was often called the "Communist world or Seco… During the Second World War, the Soviet Union entered into an alliance with the Allied Powers. not including the overseas territories), no longer just from Germany, against any of its members. Matloff, Maurice. "We are in the midst of a cold war which is getting warmer." Makers of Modern Strategy. Peter Paret. The latter were referred to as the Eastern Bloc. The reforms were initially successful and the Soviet Union prospered … A united Military High Command of Western Union, a kind of joint HQ, was created.