We explain what the new cold war was and what were the main events that characterized this stage.
What was the new cold war?
It is known as the “new cold war” to A period of relations between the communist oriental block and the western capitalist block which passed between 1975 and 1985. Throughout the Cold War the links between the Soviet Union and the United States (the powers that led each block) went through different stages.
In the 1960s there was an era of relaxation of tensions between the East and West, known as the “era of distension” (1962-1975). However, in the mid -1970s The relations between the powers worse and, in a short time, they led to a new international crisis.
It is usually considered in 1975 as the beginning of the “New Cold War.” However, several factors led to the restart of tensions: the Second Arab-Israeli War of 1973, the international economic crisis for the price of oil, the Watergate scandal in 1974 and the American defeat in Vietnam in 1975 created a favorable dynamic to a new expansion of the Soviet influence.
Between 1979 and 1985, relations between the United States and the USSR reached its maximum tension. Among the main factors that caused this are Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan In 1979 and the international policy of Ronald Reagan, president of the United States since 1981. However, in 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev assumed the leadership of the USSR and carried out a series of political reforms that calmed the tensions between the two blocks.
See also: Chronology of the Cold War
The causes that led to the increase in tensions
During the 1970s, there were several situations that tension the relations between the United States and the Soviet Union:
- In Southeast Asia, Northern Vietnam beat the United States in the Vietnam War and the country was unified under a communist government in 1975. With the withdrawal of the American armies in the area, the communist forces of Cambodia (known as the “red jemeres”) managed to impose themselves on the government and established a communist system in the country.
- In Central America, the Sandinista Revolution of Nicaragua overthrew the Somoza Clan North American government in 1979. In its place, a revolutionary regime that had the support of the USSR and Cuba was established. For decades, this had been an area under American influence.
- In Africa, Congo (1970), Ethiopia (1974), Mozambique, Benín and Angola (1975) installed communist regimes through revolutions that overthrow the previous pro-western or colonial governments.
The establishment of communist governments led to the loss of influence of the United States in those regions. Instead, the new regimes were favorable to the USSR. However, in none of the regions these countries formed homogeneous blocks and local problems prevailed over the east-orient polarity. For example, in Southeast Asia the former rivalries led to war between Vietnam and Cambodia (1977-1991) and Vietnam and China (1979).
The key moment: the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979
During the nineteenth century, Afghanistan had been the field of dispute of Russian imperialism and English. In the 1970s this country became a key territory in international relations.
From the overthrow of King Zahir Shah in 1973 a period of internal political instability was opened in which the power were disputed by various communist factions faced in turn with Islamist guerrillas.
The USSR decided to intervene to keep the country in the sphere of Soviet influence. In 1978, The USSR supported a coup in 1978 that overthrew the Republican government And, when the opposition joined the new Prosovostic government, he decided to intervene in a military manner. On December 24, 1979, Soviet troops entered the country and began the Afghanistan war.
The annexation of Afghanistan carried the Soviet influence beyond the traditional territory of the Warsaw Pact. In response, USA and its allies organized a counteroffensive. The UN and the non -aligned countries condemned the invasion. The United States decided to help Islamist guerrillas faced with Soviet troops, and implemented a series of measures aimed at curbing Soviet expansionism.
The American response to Soviet challenge
In the United States, The different international events were interpreted as an expansionist advance of the Soviet Union. In this sense, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan (the two US presidents who ruled the country in the 1970s and 1980s) had an increasingly aggressive attitude with the USSR.
During the Carter government, the distension posture had prevailed and relaxation of tensions. However, when the USSR invaded Afghanistan in 1979, he suspended the coexistence policy and opted for a more aggressive position. The following year, Ronald Reagan won the US elections with a total combat campaign against communism and the advance of the USSR.
Jimmy Carter's presidency
Jimmy Carter (who was president of the United States between 1976 and 1980) led the country to a new international policy influenced by moral and humanitarian issues. That impulse remembered former president Wilson, also a member of the Democratic Party. During his term, the central element of the new American foreign policy was the defense of human rights.
At first, Carter He obtained important successes. After arduous negotiations he got the Senate to approve in 1977 the agreement to return sovereignty to Panama and Remove US troops from the Panama Canal. This meant a great change in the traditional American policy towards Latin America.
In 1978 he gave his greatest diplomatic success: the signing of the Camp David agreements by Menajem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel, and Anuar El Sadat, president of Egypt. In 1979 he restored diplomatic relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China, and signed the Salt II agreements with the USSR that limited the production of nuclear weapons and missiles.
These disarmament agreements were, however, severely criticized by the most conservative American opinionwhich allowed the USSR to be in an advantage position. Among these critics, one of the main leaders of the Republican right, Ronald Reagan.
All the successes of Carter's international policy were overshadowed by the triumph of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in January 1979. Jomeini's access and Shiite clergy to power in Tehran marked the appearance of Islamism.
In turn, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan precipitated a new phase in international politics and in the cold war.
Carter's reaction was immediate:
- It froze the debate in the Senate of the Salt II agreements, which were going to be signed with the USSR and established a limit to the production of nuclear armaments and missiles.
- He announced a drastic reduction for the sale of grain and high -tech products to the USSR.
- Announced the “Carter Doctrine”: the American commitment to use the force if necessary to access the oil resources of the Persian Gulf.
When Carter finished his mandate, and in the elections he was defeated by Republican Ronald Reagan, Soviet-American relations were deteriorated.
The Presidency Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan was president of the United States between 1980 and 1988. His position before the USSR and the new tensions was defined by a phrase that he pronounced in a speech in which he described the USSR as “the Empire of Evil.” Reagan argued that the USSR had to be fought and the Cold War.
With this purpose, Reagan launched a rearme program based on the objective of using the military force to overthrow any pro-communist regime, especially those that arose in Third World countries that until then were under American influence.
This doctrine was applied mainly in three countries:
- Grenade. In 1983, United States troops and other Western allies invaded Granada and overthrew the Hudson Austin government, which had the support of Cuba and the USSR.
- Afghanistan. During the Reagan government, the United States increased military assistance in arms and resources to Islamist guerrillas fighting the communist government during the Afghanistan War (1978-1992).
- Nicaragua. The United States attended the conformation of the guerrillas known as “the cons” that fought the Republican Government of the Sandinista Revolution.
The new conflicts
In a context characterized by an acute international economic crisis, the “oil crisis” initiated in 1973, and by the beginning of the final crisis of the Soviet system, the third world was the scene of the appearance of new conflicts.
The Middle East and Islamist movements
In the Muslim countries of the Middle East, a new political movement, known as Islamism, arose, which was antioccidental and antisovavietic.
In 1979, Islamist guerrillas undertook the fight against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
On the other hand, That same year the first Islamic revolution in Iran triumphed. Ayatollah Jomeini, the highest authority of the Shiite clergy, established a dictatorship based on the most rigorous principles of Islam. In the international field, the Islamic Iran faced at the same time with the two superpowers: “The Great Satan” Estanos and the communist and atheist USSR.
The following year, war between Iran and Iraq was unleashed. The war was a consequence of territorial and ideological conflicts. Iraqi leader Saddam Husseín feared that the power of the Islamist revolution in Iran will encourage a lifting of the Shiite population of their country. Took advantage of Iran's international isolation (faced with both the USSR and the USA.) claim control over an oil area on the banks of the Shatt al-Arab river and start an attack.
Between 1980 and 1988, Iran and Iraq faced each other in a long war. Iraq obtained the support of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other Arab states, in addition to the favor of the United States and the USSR. Instead, Iran was only assisted by Syria and Libya.
Conflicts between communist countries in Indochina
The American abandonment of the Indochina Peninsula brought a double communist triumph in April 1975. In Vietnam an allied regime of the USSR was established and in Cambodia the communist forces (known as the red jémeres) established a dictatorship aligned with the Chinese authorities.
The Chinese-Soviet conflict was completed in the Indochina Peninsula. The growing tension between the two countries culminated in the invasion of Cambodia for Vietnamese troops with Soviet support in 1978. Subsequent border clashes between China and Vietnam constituted the last phase of the confrontation between the two great communist powers due to hegemony in Indochina.
The Soviet withdrawal
For a few years, the international panorama had misleading an advance of Soviet positions. The reality was much less hopeful for the USSR. Economic stagnation and political immobility led the country to a situation in which it was impossible to maintain an expansionist foreign policy.
Several factors made Soviet leaders aware of the need to undertake deep reforms and seek international distension:
- The hardness of Reagan's positions was the key element that led the Soviet direction to reconsider the escalation in the confrontation with the US. The strategic defense initiative made evident the technological and economic superiority of the United States over the USSR.
- As of 1980, internal dissensions in the Soviet block weakened their strategic position. Popular manifestations against communist regimes multiplied in almost all countries of the East Block. The USSR had more and more difficulty maintaining control over the different states that were under its influence.
The situation was even more complicated in the USSR itself:
- The economy had serious structural problems. It depended on the imports of American grain to feed its population and was very late with respect to the western economy in various technological aspects. The economic stagnation and the deterioration of the standard of living of the Soviet population showed the impossibility of accepting the US military challenge.
- To this social and economic crisis was added a serious political crisis. Breznev's death at 76 in 1982 highlighted the problem of leadership in the Soviet political system. Power was in the hands of a gerontocracy. Breznev was succeeded by Yuri Andrópov, 68, who died two years later in 1984. Andrópov came to replace Chernenko, who died the following year in 1985.
On March 11, 1985, Mijaíl Gorbachev was elected general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and assumed the USSR government. For Gorbachev, the depth of the USSR economic and social crisis impossible to maintain the idea of parity between the two superpowers.
He considered that to get the country out of the crisis it was necessary to reduce military expenses and cut the resources used in maintaining the “Soviet Empire.” In that sense, He began taking measures to improve relations with the United States and the Western powers.
For this reason, it is considered that the period of “The New Cold War” ended when Gorbachev assumed the USSR government. In the following years, Gorbachev signed various agreements with the United States to reduce nuclear and conventional weapons, and was cutting the military and economic aid that gave its allies all over the world.
The Soviet withdrawal in the world did not prevent, however, the exacerbation of the internal crisis in the USSR. After the 1989 revolutions that ended the communist regimes of the “popular democracies”, the failure of a coup d'etat organized by the hardest sector of the PCUS caused the disintegration of the Soviet Union itself in 1991. With the fall of the Soviet Union ended the cold war.
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References
- Hobsbawn, eg (1998). The cold war. 20th century history. Criticism.
- McMahon, R. (2009). The cold war. A brief introduction. Alliance.
- Tucker, SC, & Roberts, PM (2007). The Encyclopedia of the Cold War: A POLITICAL, SOCIAL, AND MILITARY HISTORY, 5 VOLUME SET. ABC-Clio.
- Van Dijk, R., Gray, WG, Savranskaya, S., Suri, J., & Zhai, Q. (eds.). (2013). “Reagan doctrine.” Encyclopedia of the Cold War. Routledge.
