The End Of Cold War

Max Ranger

THE END OF THE COLD WAR

a.What was the Second Cold War?

The Second World War is a notion used by contemporary historians to describe the intense degradation of East-West relations which had been softened during Détente. The initial notion, used to picture the reawakening of tensions between the USSR and the USA, belongs to Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, who stated on June 1st 1978 in Prague the evolution of actual international relations would lead “if not to Cold War, at least to fresh war”. The uncertainty about the true difference of degrees between Cold War and fresh war has pushed historians to use the term “Second Cold War”.

The First Cold War containing military tension peaks such as the Korean War, the Berlin Crisis and the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Second Cold War was also about heavy militarisation but the conflicts turned out to be proxy wars. Even though some historians consider 1975 to be the starting point of the Second World War with the Communist storming of Phnom Penh (Cambodia) and Saigon (Vietnam), the most likely and precise date would rather be 1979. The Soviets strengthened their foreign policy by deploying their army on December 24th 1979 in Afghanistan to help the Marxist-Leninist government to tear down the opposing Mujahideen. In addition, the USSR provided military help to the Sandinista Revolution Front, a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary, to overthrow President Somoza in 1979 (it succeeded). On the other hand, the US adopted a stronger foreign policy as they delivered material (weapons, supplies) and non-material (military training) aids to help the Mujahideen counter-attack Soviet and DRA (Soviet Democratic Republic of Afghanistan) troops. Furthermore, Jimmy Carter, the US President, took the decision to place new ballistic missiles (Pershing II) in the Federal Republic of Germany the same year the USSR and the USA had agreed about SALT II ( they finally did not sign it).

The Second Cold War is said to finish in 1985, the year Gorbachev was elected as he brought new air to a suffocating USSR and re-establish correct relations with the West (being less conservative than his predecessors). However, he only removed the Red Army troops from Afghanistan in 1989.

b.Why did Détente end and a Second Cold War start?

Although Détente‘s major purpose was to relax East-West tensions, its implicit goal was to alleviate the economic burden of both blocs. The USSR seized the easing of tensions to extend its power and especially its influence in the third world. The USSR saw the developing world as a way to acquire ally states where to implant naval bases (greatly outnumbered by NATO’s).

The Soviets delivered help to Egypt: they replaced all the lost equipment by Nasser’s Egypt during the Six Days War in 1967 and sent thousands of military advisers. During the early 1970s, the USSR became very close with many Middle East states (Syria, Iraq). However, in the early 1970s, Sadat, Nasser’s successor, expelled every sing Soviet advisor because the USSR had refused to help Egypt recapture the lost territories to Israel during the Six Days War. By 1974, Soviet influence in the Arab states had drastically declined; it deprived USSR from most of its strategic locations in the developing world. This Arabic tension episode highlights the Soviet wish to continue Détente although the USSR still kept sending military supplies to Egypt and Syria.

However, surprisingly enough, the USSR gained incredible power in the West (Europe). The fall of dictatorship (accelerated by a revolution in Portugal) in both Greece and Portugal resulted in new-left wing governments. Furthermore, it profoundly hit the US as many members of these left-wing governments were seeking to get out of NATO. As a consequence of these European changes, the freshly-granted-independence Portuguese colonies were rapidly seized by the USSR; in Angola, the biggest independence guerrilla group (MPLA) was backed by Moscow and supplied with soldiers by Cuba. The USSR signed a co-operation treaty with Angola in 1976 and with Mozambique a year later.

On the other side of the Pacific, the US had not taken advantage of Détente as much as the USSR had. They simply decided to maintain their global power bases (which did not please the USSR) but their main goal was to help their citizens by creating and/or reinforcing a strong welfare state. However, they were completely sick about the Soviet foreign policy.

The Americans were extremely angered at the USSR which kept hiding information to them such as a possible Arab attack over Israel, a close ally to the US. Hence, they excluded the USSR from Arab peace negotiations. They even cheated on the USSR by using vicious tricks: they created virtually legal weapons which SALT I did not cover. As a result, they hypocritically re-launched the Arms Race even though they were facing economic problems (Vietnam War). The big increase of weapons can be seen as a solution to boost the economy again but in a context of Cold War, it is never a good sign of relaxation. In addition, the death of Mao in 1976 marked an important slow down of Sino-American relations; it was no longer possible for the US to put pressure on the USSR thanks to the Chinese.

Besides, the whole concept of Détente had been crushed down by the Watergate Scandal (illegal tape recordings) by 1974. The Congress, wounded by the Watergate Scandal and the secrecy with which Nixon conducted the US foreign policy, refused many of Nixon’s plans (especially the sending of US troops in Cambodia). Nixon, who had represented Détente for years, suddenly lost all of his credibility. It was not only a very bad advertising for Nixon not only domestically but internationally because who could trust a man who “had betrayed” his own people?

Eventually, Détente progressively crumbled. The USSR took advantage of Détente ( it had got all it could) to reinforce its military positions in the world, especially the developing world, while the USA put at first too much trust in the Détente; did they see it as a co-operation period at the beginning? They finally saw Détente as liberal and weak: it brought failure in Vietnam. But Americans don’t stay on failure; they are quick to stand up again. The USA soon reacted with the re-launching of the arms race and the exclusion of the USSR about peace negotiations in the Middle East. As a result, tension built up again with the soviet

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