Talk:Cold War

Starting the Article / Framework

So, I have started the primary article for the Cold War, one of the most important unifying historical topics for the mid- to late-Twentieth Century. I am currently teaching this topic to a group of very able upper secondary school students, so it seem rather appropriate to adopt this as one of my "Live" articles for CZ. I have also made substantial contributions to the equivalent article in Wikipedia, with regard both to structure and detail.

In order to get started, I have supplied a basic framework for the historical overview, with links to the secondary articles that will inevitably become necessary. With respect to the latter, the equivalent article in Wikipedia seems to undergo seasons of gradual "bloating" of the main article with detail—my suggestion is that we should aim to avoid this in CZ, and keep the overview as an overview.... (!) I have placed the rationale for each phase of the Cold War below. My aim shall be to populate each phase with a concise historical overview, prior to expanding on these in the secondary articles. Please feel free to join in!

• Origins of the Cold War - to deal with the immediate post-war superpower relations (1945-46) and relevant preceding events from the start of the 20th century
• 1947-1953 - from the generally recognised start date of the Cold War to the change in leadership for both superpowers (Truman >> Eisenhower and Stalin >> Krushchev)
• 1953-1962 - from the dual change in superpower leadership to the Cuban Missile Crisis
• 1962-1969 - from the Cuban Missile Crisis to the start of Détente / arms talks, US moon landing
• 1969-1979 - from start of Détente to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
• 1979-1985 - the so-called Second Cold War, from the Soviet invasion of Afghanisation to the rise of Gorbachev
• 1985-1991 - from the rise of Gorbachev to the collapse of the Soviet Union
• Legacy of the Cold War - to deal with the aftermath, the "new world order", relics of the Cold War and current echoes

Paul James Cowie 01:30, 10 February 2007 (CST)

More Data for Cold War Page

Nuclear Threat: Some Quotes

As America’s atomic destruction of Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945) proved, the possibility of complete annihilation of an entire country was no fairy tale. (In 1949 America already had a stockpile of 200 A-bombs.)

President Harry S. Truman remarked before the U.S. Congress on September 6, 1945: “Our geographic security was forever gone—gone with the advent of the atomic bomb, the rocket, and modern airborne armies.” Henry L. Stimson, previously Secretary of War under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman (only until late 1945), wrote in Harper’s Magazine in February 1947: “Now, with the release of atomic energy, man’s ability to destroy himself is very nearly complete.”

Cold War: Terminology

“The term “Cold War” seems to have originated with Walter Lippmann [a political journalist], who used it first in a column and later in a book of that title, in 1947.” Copeland, Miles, The Real Spy World (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1974), p. 200.

Churchill’s Quote

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill spoke of the Soviet Union strictly in militaristic terms. Churchill described an “iron curtain” drawn down upon the Communist front, in a telegram to President Truman on May 12, 1945; Churchill warned that the west had no idea what secret plots might be hatching in Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s mind. Ten months later Churchill repeated his warning in a public speech in Fulton, Missouri: “From Stettin on the Baltic to Trieste on the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.” Of the Communists Churchill declared, “I am convinced that there is nothing they admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than military weakness.”

Truman Quote

In March 1947 Truman canvassed Congress for $400 million in financial aid (the “Truman Doctrine”) for Greece and Turkey to ensure that the political complexions of those countries remained simpatico with the American Way. “It must be the policy of the United States,” Truman explained at the time, “to help free peoples who are resisting subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressure.”

Author “X” and the growing “Soviet threat”

In the April 1947 issue of Foreign Affairs, an author named “X” counselled the American government in “The Sources of Soviet Conduct”, suggesting that American foreign policy must be first and foremost militaristic:

“It is clear that the main element of any United States policy toward the Soviet Union must be that of a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies. . . . The issue of Soviet-American relations is in essence a test of the over-all worth of the United States as a nation among nations. To avoid destruction the United States need only measure up to its own best traditions and prove itself worthy of preservation as a great nation.

Eisenhower’s quote

In a speech before the United Nations on December 8, 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower described the Cold War environment in this manner: “two atomic colossi are doomed malevolently to eye each other indefinitely across a trembling world.”

References

Jeffrey Scott Bernstein 15:15, 11 October 2007 (CDT)