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Social Studies 11
Chapter 6 unit summary
The Cold War
Main points:
Cold war refers to the intense rivalry between the communist
Soviet Union and the democratic United States and Western
powers between 1945 and 1989. The war is called “cold”
because it seldom broke out into open warfare. The Soviet
Union wanted buffer states between itself and Western Europe
because it believed the West might try to invade the Soviet
Union by way of Europe. Though the U.S. and its Western allies
never fought the Soviet Union, the two powers have had close
confrontations that have at time nearly broken out into war.
The fact that both powers possessed nuclear weapons during
and since this time has served as a deterrent to war. Central to
this deterrence was the notion of Mutually Assured Destruction
(MAD) Nonetheless; there have been other situations and
conflicts which underlined the ideological differences in the
world since the end of World War II.
Precursor: The United Nations General Assembly
The purpose of the UN General Assembly is to provide a forum
where members of the U.N. can debate and vote on issues of
concern. The five permanent members of the Security Council
– Britain, France, the United States, Russia (formerly the Soviet
Union, and China- are seen as the “big five” powers of the
world and they each have a veto. The veto power, used
extensively by the Soviet Union in the past, has often prevented
the United Nations from taking action in crisis situations.
Igor Gouzenko incident
Igor Gouzenko was a young clerk working in Ottawa during the
war. He exposed a Soviet spy ring operating in Canada and
claimed a similar spy ring operated in the US and Britain. This
incident served to heighten tensions between the Soviet Union
and the West.
The Marshall Plan
After the end of the Second World War, the U.S. and Canada
contributed 13.5 billion dollars in aid to Western Europe. They
believed that the key to a stronger economy and
resistance/deterrence to the Soviet Union depended on the
rapid recovery of Western Europe.
Berlin Wall
Thousands of east Germans tried escaping the control of the
Communists by running to the west of the city which was held
and controlled by Anglo-American occupation forces. In an
effort to stop the escapes an wall was erected in the summer
of 1961 separating East Berlin from West Berlin. Many people
were subsequently killed attempting to escape over this wall.
For over thirty years it stood as a lasting symbol of Communist
oppression and a reminder of the Cold War between East and
West.
The Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological
fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two
separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the
end of the Cold War in 1991. On either side of the Iron Curtain,
states developed their own international economic and military
alliances:
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The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and the
military Warsaw Pact on the east side, with the Soviet
Union as most important member of each
The European Community and the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization on the west and south, with the United States
of America as the area's military powerhouse
Physically, the Iron Curtain took the shape of border defenses
between the countries of Western and Eastern Europe, most
notably the Berlin Wall, which served as a longtime symbol of
the Curtain as a whole.
Demolition of the Iron Curtain started in Hungary The concept
of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and
physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas
from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold
War in 1991. On either side of the Iron Curtain, states developed
their own international economic and military alliances:


The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and the
military Warsaw Pact on the east side, with the Soviet
Union as most important member of each
The European Community and the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization on the west and south, with the United States
of America as the area's military powerhouse
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
Another alliance system; what an original idea! Its purpose was
to discourage Soviet expansion into Western Europe. Each
country agreed to contribute army, naval and air forces to the
new defense. Original member countries included Britain,
France, Canada, USA, The Netherlands, Iceland, Italy,
Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway and Portugal. Nato has since
been expanded to include other countries.
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Treaty (1955–91) is the informal name for the
mutual defense Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual
Assistance commonly known as the Warsaw Pact subscribed
by eight communist states in Eastern Europe, which was
established at the USSR’s initiative and realized on 14 May 1955,
in Warsaw, Poland.
In the Communist Bloc, the treaty was the military analogue of
the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CoMEcon), the
Communist (East) European economic community. The Warsaw
Treaty was the Soviet Bloc’s military response to West
Germany’s May 1955[1] integration to NATO Pact, per the Paris
Pacts of 1954.
Korean War (1950-1953)
After the end of World War II Korea was divided: communist in
the north and a fragile democracy in the South backed by the
US. When North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950, a United
Nations force composed mainly of Americans, tried to force
the invading North Koreans back across their border. Canada
sent thousands of troops and three navy destroyers in support.
Lester Pearson, Canada’s future prime minister, tried to arrange
a ceasefire, which eventually took place in 1953. Today, the
ceasefire continues but technically the two sides are still at war,
divided by a demilitarized zone. Tensions still remain high in this
last remnant of the Cold War which can possibly become the
flashpoint for a renewed conflict.
Suez Crisis (1956)
In 1956, the Egyptian president Gamal Abdel-Nasser ordered his
troops to seize the Suez Canal from British and French control.
The Suez Canal was the main route for the western powers to
access the oil reserves of the Middle East. Britain and France
joined forces and invaded the area around the Suez Canal.
This created an international crisis as the Soviet Union
threatened them with armed conflict in support of Egypt. Soviet
support for Egypt was more opportunistic than genuine but it
was enough to cause great concern. Canadians played a
central role in this crisis by denouncing the British and French
landings. Lester Pearson then arranged for the United Nations
to send an Emergency Force, under Canadian command, to
separate the rival armies. Lester Pearson received the Nobel
Peace Prize for his role.
Cuban Missile crisis (October, 1962)
The Soviet Union shipped weapons to Cuba in support of
Communist revolutionary Fidel Castro. These included tactical
nuclear weapons that could reach the continental US and
parts of Canada. US president John F. Kennedy threatened
military action if these weapons were not removed
immediately. After days of great tension, Soviet leader Nikita
Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles in return for an
assurance that the US would not invade Cuba. This event was
the one the closest the two sides have come to nuclear war.
Vietnam War (American involvement) 1954-1975
Both the U.S. and the Soviet Union tried to spread their political
and economic influence around the world. For example, the
Soviet Union provided economic and military aid to communist
governments in Asia. The United States then helped a number
of Asian countries fight communism by establishing the
Southeast Asia Treaty Organization. By the middle of the1950s,
the United States began sending military advisers to help the
South Vietnamese defend themselves against communist
aggression from North Vietnam. That assistance would later
expand into a protracted and costly period of American
military involvement in Vietnam. By 1964, South Vietnamese
forces were augmented by a steady arrival of American
combat troops. Though American forces did fight regular
elements of the North Vietnamese Army, this was not a
conventional war. The majority of encounters were between
U.S. Forces and the Viet Cong, a specially organized and
trained group of insurgents who relied on guerrilla tactics,
fighting principally in the dense jungles, complicating standard
American tactics and negating their technological advantage.
Additional notes on the United Nations: Successes and Failures
Successes in security issues
A large share of UN expenditures addresses the core UN mission
of peace and security. The peacekeeping budget for the 20052006 fiscal year is approximately $5 billion (compared to
approximately $1.5 billion for the UN core budget over the
same period), with some 70,000 troops deployed in 17 missions
around the world. The Human Security Report 2005, produced
by the Human Security Centre at the University of British
Columbia with support from several governments and
foundations, documented a dramatic, but largely
unrecognized, decline in the number of wars, genocides and
human rights abuses since the end of the Cold War. Statistics
include:
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a 40% drop in violent conflict;
an 80% drop in the most deadly conflicts; and
an 80% drop in genocide and politicide.
The report, published by Oxford University Press, argued that
international activism—mostly spearheaded by the UN—has
been the main cause of the post–Cold War decline in armed
conflict, though the report indicated the evidence for this
contention is mostly circumstantial.
The report singles out several specific investments that have
paid off:
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A sixfold increase in the number of UN missions mounted
to prevent wars, from 1990 to 2002.
A fourfold increase in efforts to stop existing conflicts, from
1990 to 2002.
A sevenfold increase in the number of ‘Friends of the
Secretary-General’, ‘Contact Groups’ and other
government-initiated mechanisms to support
peacemaking and peace-building missions, from 1990 to
2003.
An elevenfold increase in the number of economic
sanctions against regimes around the world, from 1989 to
2001.
A fourfold increase in the number of UN peacekeeping
operations, from 1987 to 1999.
These efforts were both more numerous and, on average,
substantially larger and more complex than those of the Cold
War era.
In the area of Peacekeeping, successes include:
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The US Government Accountability Office concluded that
UN Peacekeeping is eight times less expensive than
funding a U.S. force.
A 2005 RAND Corp study found the UN to be successful in
two out of three peacekeeping efforts. It also compared
UN nation-building efforts to those of the U.S., and found
that of eight UN cases, seven are at peace, whereas of
eight U.S. cases, four are at peace, and four are not or
not-yet-at peace.
Failures in security issues
In many cases UN members have shown reluctance to achieve
or enforce Security Council resolutions. Iraq is said to have
broken 17 Security Council resolutions dating back to June 28,
1991 as well as trying to bypass the UN economic sanctions. For
nearly a decade, Israel delayed implementing resolutions
calling for the dismantling of Jewish communities in "occupied
territories". Such failures stem from the UN's intergovernmental
nature — in many respects it is an association of 192 member
states who must reach consensus, not an independent
organization. Even when actions are mandated by the 15member Security Council, the Secretariat is rarely given the full
resources needed to carry out the mandates. The problem of
achieving consensus should hardly be surprising given the fact
that the UN accords both membership and voting power to
various countries whose own systems of government are
undemocratic and may even have questionable human rights
records.
Other serious security failures include:
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Failure to prevent the 1994 Rwandan genocide, which
resulted in the killings of nearly a million people, due to the
refusal of security council members to approve any
military action.
Failure by MONUC (UNSC Resolution 1291) to effectively
intervene during the Second Congo War, which claimed
nearly five million people in the Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC), 1998-2002, and in carrying out and
distributing humanitarian aid.
Failure to intervene in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre,
despite the fact that the UN designated Srebrenica a
"safe haven" for refugees and assigned 600 Dutch
peacekeepers to protect it.
Failure to successfully deliver food to starving people in
Somalia; the food was instead usually seized by local
warlords. A U.S./UN attempt to apprehend the warlords
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seizing these shipments resulted in the 1993 Battle of
Mogadishu.
Failure to implement the provisions of UN Security Council
Resolutions 1559 and 1701 calling for disarmament of
Lebanese paramilitary groups such as Fatah and
Hezbollah.
Sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers. In December 2004,
during the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, at least 68
cases of alleged rape, prostitution and pedophilia and
more than 150 other allegations have been uncovered by
UN investigators, all perpetrated by UN peacekeepers,
specifically ones from Pakistan, Uruguay, Morocco, Tunisia,
South Africa and Nepal. Peacekeepers from three of
those nations are also accused of obstructing the
investigation. Also, a French UN logistics expert in Congo
was charged of rape and child pornography in the same
month. The BBC reported that young girls were abducted
and raped by UN peacekeepers in Port-au-Prince. Similar
accusations have been made in Liberia and in Sudan.