The American Century Pt III: Cold War to Victory
This American Century...
The attitudes of the victors in the Second World War could not have been more different than those of the First. Instead of demanding reparations of impoverished, and indeed, obliterated, conquered foes, the victors put in place, at the urging of the US Secretary of State, George C. Marshall, an aid package that pumped millions of dollars into rebuilding the infrastructure of war-torn Europe. In the Pacific, GEN Douglas MacArthur's, "Peace with Honour", and allowing Japan to retain Imperial trappings, accomplashed much the same thing.
But there was one other fundamental difference between the ends of the two world wars...a visible enemy.
The Soviet Union did not attempt to hide the fact that the believed communism to be the destiny of the world...and Iosef Stalin believed himself to be the one to grant that destiny. It was as much to oppose this, as for any humanitarian reasons that the Marshall Plan was enacted.
The next 45 years saw the world polarized between two powers. Not all of the erstwhile allies of either side would have much in common with their sponsors, except for an unyielding hatred for the allies of the other power...throughout Asia, Africa, the Mid-East, and Central America proxy wars would flare by the score. Some openly supported by one side or the other, some only indirectly. And in three cases, directly. Those three direct interventions yielded two losses and a tie. Korea and Vietnam gave the US a tie and a loss respectively...and Afghanistan...directly contributed to the downfall of the Soviet system.
The US loss in Vietnam, had a significant impact on American society. It led to increased distrust of the government. It led to a sharp increase in the media's hostility toward the government, and a massive loss of morale in the military forces. It is not unrealistic to say that if the Sov forces in Europe had come charging through the Fulda Gap and across the North German Plain, the US, and by default NATO would have been faced with the choice to surrender or go nuclear, which, under the Carter administration, would not have been particularly likely.
Instead of rolling into Germany, the Soviets decided to try their luck in propping up the secular/socialist government in Afghanistan. Like the US in Vietnam, they were too successful, and thus sowed the seeds of their own defeat. By completely destroying any active dissent in government, and eradicating all of the urban dissidents, the Sovs forced the rebellion into the hinterlands. Just as the Soviets and Chinese supported the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong against the US in Vietanam, the US provided arms and support to the anti-soviet rebels in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, back at home, the Soviet economy was crumbling...under the brief and inefficient rules of Chernyenko and Andropov great cracks were beginning to form. The new Soviet Premier, Gorbachev, tried to selectively open portions of the Soviet economy to placate consumers...but giving them a taste of Western ideas and goods left them hungry for more...and the Soviet juggernaut became a man falling over broken glass...unable to determine whether to outrun the fall or to catch his fall on his hands and knees.
That decision...was eventually made by the Czechoslovak and East German governments and people. The Czech decision to open its borders...and the consequences of thousands of East Germans crossing them ultimately sealed the doom of the Soviet Bloc...and on one wild night in November of 1989, millions of people around the world watched as the immense physical symbol of communist Europe, the Berlin Wall crumbled...broken apart by those it was meant to seal off, the East German people...
Within 3 short years, communism in Europe was a dead issue...Even that mighty balwark of world socialism...the first nation on earth to fully embrace a Marxist ideology was no more...
The Cold War had ended...with out a significant direct military engagement between the principle combatants...
Next : Picking up the pieces of the Cold War...Take care all and God Bless America
The attitudes of the victors in the Second World War could not have been more different than those of the First. Instead of demanding reparations of impoverished, and indeed, obliterated, conquered foes, the victors put in place, at the urging of the US Secretary of State, George C. Marshall, an aid package that pumped millions of dollars into rebuilding the infrastructure of war-torn Europe. In the Pacific, GEN Douglas MacArthur's, "Peace with Honour", and allowing Japan to retain Imperial trappings, accomplashed much the same thing.
But there was one other fundamental difference between the ends of the two world wars...a visible enemy.
The Soviet Union did not attempt to hide the fact that the believed communism to be the destiny of the world...and Iosef Stalin believed himself to be the one to grant that destiny. It was as much to oppose this, as for any humanitarian reasons that the Marshall Plan was enacted.
The next 45 years saw the world polarized between two powers. Not all of the erstwhile allies of either side would have much in common with their sponsors, except for an unyielding hatred for the allies of the other power...throughout Asia, Africa, the Mid-East, and Central America proxy wars would flare by the score. Some openly supported by one side or the other, some only indirectly. And in three cases, directly. Those three direct interventions yielded two losses and a tie. Korea and Vietnam gave the US a tie and a loss respectively...and Afghanistan...directly contributed to the downfall of the Soviet system.
The US loss in Vietnam, had a significant impact on American society. It led to increased distrust of the government. It led to a sharp increase in the media's hostility toward the government, and a massive loss of morale in the military forces. It is not unrealistic to say that if the Sov forces in Europe had come charging through the Fulda Gap and across the North German Plain, the US, and by default NATO would have been faced with the choice to surrender or go nuclear, which, under the Carter administration, would not have been particularly likely.
Instead of rolling into Germany, the Soviets decided to try their luck in propping up the secular/socialist government in Afghanistan. Like the US in Vietnam, they were too successful, and thus sowed the seeds of their own defeat. By completely destroying any active dissent in government, and eradicating all of the urban dissidents, the Sovs forced the rebellion into the hinterlands. Just as the Soviets and Chinese supported the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong against the US in Vietanam, the US provided arms and support to the anti-soviet rebels in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, back at home, the Soviet economy was crumbling...under the brief and inefficient rules of Chernyenko and Andropov great cracks were beginning to form. The new Soviet Premier, Gorbachev, tried to selectively open portions of the Soviet economy to placate consumers...but giving them a taste of Western ideas and goods left them hungry for more...and the Soviet juggernaut became a man falling over broken glass...unable to determine whether to outrun the fall or to catch his fall on his hands and knees.
That decision...was eventually made by the Czechoslovak and East German governments and people. The Czech decision to open its borders...and the consequences of thousands of East Germans crossing them ultimately sealed the doom of the Soviet Bloc...and on one wild night in November of 1989, millions of people around the world watched as the immense physical symbol of communist Europe, the Berlin Wall crumbled...broken apart by those it was meant to seal off, the East German people...
Within 3 short years, communism in Europe was a dead issue...Even that mighty balwark of world socialism...the first nation on earth to fully embrace a Marxist ideology was no more...
The Cold War had ended...with out a significant direct military engagement between the principle combatants...
Next : Picking up the pieces of the Cold War...Take care all and God Bless America
posted by Mik at 10:03 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home