The cold war era (1945-1991) was not simply a matter of power rivalries, of military alliances, and of the balance of power but of ideological conflict as well. The Western bloc, headed by the US, represented the ideology of liberal democracy and capitalism while the eastern alliance, headed by theRead more
The cold war era (1945-1991) was not simply a matter of power rivalries, of military alliances, and of the balance of power but of ideological conflict as well.
The Western bloc, headed by the US, represented the ideology of liberal democracy and capitalism while the eastern alliance, headed by the Soviet Union, was committed to the ideas of socialism and communism.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was seen as a high point of the cold war, as discussed below:
- In April 1961, the leaders of the USSR were worried that the USA would invade the communist ruled Cuba and overthrow Fidel Castro, the President of the small island nation off the coast of USA.
- Cuba was an ally of the Soviet Union whose leader Nikita Khrushchev decided to convert it into a Russian base. In 1962 he placed nuclear missiles in Cuba.
- Three weeks later, the Americans became aware of it and the President, John F. Kennedy was reluctant to do anything that might turn into full-scale nuclear war, but he was determined to get Khrushchev remove the nuclear weapons from Cuba.
- Kennedy ordered American warships to intercept any Soviet ships heading to Cuba as a way of warning the USSR of his seriousness.
- A clash seemed imminent in what came to be known as the Cuban Missile Crisis, which made the whole world nervous as it would have been no ordinary war.
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The Cold War had a profound effect on the international spaces of the Third World, affecting many wars and their development in particular. U.S. and the USSR have been influential for helping governments and corporations align their ideologies to express their objectives. This led to more proxy warsRead more
The Cold War had a profound effect on the international spaces of the Third World, affecting many wars and their development in particular. U.S. and the USSR have been influential for helping governments and corporations align their ideologies to express their objectives. This led to more proxy wars, where the superpowers provided support to opposing sides in peripheral conflicts rather than in direct combat. In Vietnam, for example, the United States intervened aggressively to contain the ongoing expansion of communism, especially the protracted and devastating war. Similarly, the Soviet Union’s involvement in Afghanistan in the 1980s led to a protracted war, with great suffering and instability. Economically, the international centers of the Third World were increasingly forced to act along capitalist or socialist lines depending on their alignment with great powers Countries with the US. integrated in Latin America mostly used capitalist strategies, while some African countries followed socialist strategies with Soviet support of this external influence influenced their Economic strategies and developed reform strategies, once in a while through foreign resources on special closure. Some countries including India joined the Non-Cooperation Movement and tried to stay in the US. Or a faction of the Soviet Union but made a difficult transition to neutrality under intense geopolitical pressure from both sides. Overall, the Cold War legacy of the Third World includes a history of war, economic crisis and political division, which has led to lasting change and equilibrium.
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