"Why Russia Pursues to Regain the Former Influence?"…History of Cold War

In February this year, Russia invaded Ukraine, raising economic and military tensions between Russia and the West. Conflicts between the Western countries and Russia look similar to the conflicts in the Cold War. There are also an analysis that says that the reason Russia started the war was to regain the strong influence that Soviet Union had on the world. Let’s review the current world situation analyzing the Cold War when the Soviet Union collapsed.

 

During the World War II, the United States made an alliance with countries such as Britain and the Soviet Union against the Axis Powers. The relationship between the U.S. and the Soviet Union seemed good as the U.S. took a friendly attitude toward the Soviet Union. However, after the war ended, the West was afriad of Communism spreading throughout Europe. When a civil war broke out in Greece, the United States supported the Greek government against the communists. It was the beginning of the policy of containment aimed at preventing the Soviet expansion as part of Truman Docrine.

 

The United States gave financial support to Europe according to the Marshall Plan for an economic revival and stabilization of the democratic system in Europe. Against this movement, the Soviet Union blockaded West Berlin. After the Soviet Union withdrew the blockade yielding to U.S. pressures, the U.S. felt a need for a military alliance. Accordingly, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO) was established in 1949 and a military alliance was formed between Western countries. The alliance has lasted so far and became one of the causes of Russian Invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Since 2010s, pro-European sentiment has grown in Ukraine, including the Euromaidan protests. As a result, President Zelensky tried to join NATO and shed Russia's influence. But it was a major security crisis for Russia. NATO forces to be deployed in Ukraine would be located close enough to directly hit Russia's capital, Moscow. Furthermore, the former Eastern European countries’ cooperation with the West was completely opposite to Russia's ambition to regain the glory of the former Soviet Union.

 

In 1962, the United States confirmed that mid-range ballistic missile(MRBM) facilities were being constructed in Cuba, an ally of the Soviet Union when U.S. Air Force produced photographic evidence of the facilities. The missiles could directly hit the U.S. mainland because the facilities were very close to it. The U.S. demanded that the weapons in Cuba be dismantled and returned to the Soviet Union. After tense negotiations, an agreement was reached by the two countries. The Soviet Union dismantled thier weapons in Cuba in exchange for the U.S. dismantling MRBMs in Turkey. The Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world close to an unprecedented threat of nuclear war. Also, it assured that Mutually Assured Destruction was valid that one of them using nuclear weapons, they would result in co-destruction because the other would use them, too. So far, Russia has had a considerable amount of nuclear weapons because Russia inherited them from the Soviet Union. Russia's nuclear weapons are also the reason why the United States is reluctant to come into armed conflict with Russia.

 

Meanwhile, Soviet Union formed an alliance with China. But, after a split between China and the Soviet Union, the tensions reached their peak in 1969. And the United States decided to use it to shift the balance of power towards the West. Since Nixon, the President of the U.S. visited China, the U.S. had achieved a stunning rapprochement, establishing diplomatic ties with China. After his visit to China, President Nixon visited the Soviet Union. The U.S. and the Soviet Union proclaimed a new era of peaceful coexistence and established the new policy of cooperation between the two sides. They also agreed to strengthen their economic relations.

 

However, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the U.S. strongly criticized it. And the conflict between the two countries intensified again. President Reagan, who was elected the following year, increased military expenditure. He also labeled the Soviet Union an evil empire, and predicted that Communism would be left on the ash heap of history. Over the next few years, the U.S. and the Soviet Union continued arms race. The Soviet Union, which had devoted a lot of national resources to military expenditure, gradually began to face economic problems as the war in Afghanistan lasted longer than expected. 

 

In the 1980s, the Soviet economy suffered a recession. So, the Soviet Union announced an agenda of economic reform called "Prestroika," which allowed private property of business and paved the way for overseas investment in order to revive the crippled economy. At the same time, the Soviet Union promoted freedom of publication and transparency of national organizations. In addition, the tension between the U.S. and the Soviet Union was gradually easing. The conflict between the West and the Soviet Union subsided in the mid-1980s. And in 1989, the United States and the Soviet Union signed the treaty that they should reduce strategic offensive arms. Finally, they declared the end of the Cold War.

 

However, the Soviet alliance system began to collapse. The three Baltic counries(Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) tried to become completely independent of the Soviet Union. In 1989, the wave of revolution overturned the Communist countries, such as Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria. And Germany was reunified in 1990. Eventually, the Soviet Union collapsed and the dissolution of the Soviet Union marked the end of the Cold War.

 

In 1991, the Russian Federation was established, but Russia's status in the international community weakened. The former communist countries within the influence of the Soviet Union began to cooperate with the West one by one, and Russia was gradually surrounded by the Western countries. When Ukraine, a buffer zone between the West and Russia, was on the verge of falling into the hands of the West, Russia chose the invasion against it. Of course, Putin's political ambitions cannot be ruled out.

 

March 20, 2022
© Lee Sihu (keepedia06@gmail.com)

 

Reference

Lee Joo-young. (2005). “American History”.

Hickman, Kennedy. (2020) "The History of Containment Policy.".

“Cold War”. Wikipedia.