History Less Traveled: Cold War, Part 1.

In this first part of my History Less Traveled series, I will be taking you on a little tour of the cold war period. The Cold War period is often neglected in primary school. I want to highlight that this history can be applied to scenarios that we still face today. The cold war which started in earnest in 1946 under Harry Truman, was the beginning of America as we recognize it today. Let’s be honest, America made some questionable choices during this time. Unfortunately, I was born at the end of the Cold War, however, my parents and grandparents lived through it. Here in 2019, we are nearly two generations separated from the cold war. We may think that today in America where Donald J. Trump is president that we are surely at end times. The cold war saw world destruction closer up than ever before. This part will mainly be context with relatable parts to present day. I will try but can’t promise to keep it under 1200 words.

From War to Peace, From Player to Power

We have to start from the beginning. At the end of World War 2, the United States dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan. Japan surrendered and ended the war. The significance of this event brought about two distinct changes in the world. The use of nuclear weapons against another nation marked the first it had ever happened. Nuclear Weapons are in the fact, one of the central pieces to understanding the cold war. The second change was that America went from fairly strong and vibrant nation and transform into a world power. Immediately following the conclusion of the World War, the US was looking to rebuild Europe. The plan that won out over all others was the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan look to extend a fairly sizable chunk of credit and material to help rebuild Europe.

One might ask why the United States took on the role of re builder? Well, the simple answer is that Europe’s economy was destroyed. Most of the factories, cities and businesses had been bombed. America’s mainland was untouched by the battle. Once America had switch from war material to civilian products it became the world’s most powerful economy. Along with that it comes the power to extend credit. Many historians recognize this as the start of the American Century. America became Europe’s creditor. The debate about whether the American Century is actually still a thing is hotly contested. One could argue that in many ways, we are far from where we were in the 1950s in terms of credit and economic growth. On the other hand, America still dominates many important economic indicators and we hold the reserve standard currency.

The Red Scare

Senator Joe McCarthy from Wisconsin was elected to the Senate in 1947. Senator McCarthy would start a witch hunt of sorts but for communist. This is might seem a little backwards given that socialism and communism have made quite a comeback of recent years. I do believe that this has relevance because nuclear weapons weren’t the only factor in our competitive arms race with the Soviet Union. Senator McCarthy was hunting for communist within the government and then spread into other areas of society. His communist hunt became known as McCarthyism. At first it was just looked as crazy talk and eventually McCarthy was censured by Congress. Over time, the attitude of distrust and dislike of communism would grow within society.

Cold War: Korea Hot 

The Cold War is dotted by many actual wars both real and imagined. One of the first burst of actual war was in Korea. The nity gritty details of the war don’t matter so much in this case. The basic information necessary to understand the conflict in the Korea is the same basic dichotomy needed for the whole cold war. Korea used to be one country. Before World War 2, Japan invaded Chinese Manchuria and their forces reached in Korea eventually. The Japanese put up an elaborate puppet government to keep the Koreans happy. After the defeat of the Japanese in World War 2, Korea was split at the 38 parallel. The Northern side was communist or suspected to be. The southern side was not, they were democratic. Now keep in mind that Soviet Russia held influence over what is now North Korea. Meanwhile in South Korea, they wanted peaceful unification. The tensions were heating up in the late 1940s and by 1950, the North Koreans felt threatened and invaded the South. At the time President Truman held off intervening, pretty surprisingly. Until the United Nations got involved and the North Koreans nearly wiped out the South Korean army. The war lasted about 3 years. However, the significance of the war can be seen even today. To make peace, the Korea’s were split on 38th parallel. They also created the DMZ or demilitarized zone.

Today North Korea is a dictatorship that leans communist and socialist. In South Korea, its a booming technology driven capitalist economy. So not much has changed from 1953 except that the influence of both Russia and the United States is still relevant. The Korean war doesn’t just introduce us to capitalism vs. communism but also to sphere of influence.

Sphere of Influence

You may have heard this term before its sometimes taught. Sphere of influence is basically when a country has influence over a certain area or other countries. Influence can mean many different things: economic, military, social and political. In the past, there had only been maybe one or two really powerful countries. Their sphere of influence was basically world wide. For example, the British were in command of the world for nearly 2 centuries, it was an empire that the sun never set. This obviously changed with advent for two World Wars and globalization. America had and still has a fairly large sphere of influence. Soviet Russia also had and still has a little bit of the sphere influence. If we fast forward to modern times, its actually China that has more of a sphere influence especially in Asia. Its no secret that the US tends to exploit its sphere of influence for mostly economic purposes. If we were to compare why we invade countries in 2019 and compare that to why invade countries in 1960. The difference would be in 2019 we invade to protect our oil. In the 1960s, we invaded Vietnam to protect capitalism.

Continuation Part 2:

Come back and visit my blog for Part 2. In part 2 we will examine the significance of the Eisenhower presidency. We will look at JFK and LBJ. If I have still room, we will examine the meaning of the Vietnam War. There could be also much more because I really have a deep knowledge of this period.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it.

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