Chapter 45 Chapter 8 The Cold War Era 1

1 In the 45 years from the fall of the atomic bomb to the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the trend of global history is not a single period that remains unchanged.In the discussion of the following chapters, we can see that the 45-year period is divided into two major periods with the 1970s as the watershed (see Chapters 9 and 14).However, due to a special international situation that has always shrouded the period, the two periods have been forged into the same model: that is, after the end of the Second World War, the so-called "Cold War" between the two superpowers for a long time.

As soon as the drums of World War II ceased, mankind immediately fell into a new battle situation that can be called the "Third World War".As the great philosopher Thomas Hobbes (Thomas Hobbes) said: "War is not limited to combat behavior; in fact, as long as the will to fight is clear, this period can be counted as war." (Hobbes, chapter 13) The United States and the Soviet Union The cold war between the camps is obviously the keynote of the second phase of the short twentieth century, which fits Huo's definition of war.A whole generation of people have grown up under the shadow of a global nuclear war. Everyone believes that this nuclear war may break out at any time and will cause a catastrophe for mankind.Of course, some people think that neither side has any intention of attacking, but even they have to be pessimistic, because "Murphy's Law" (Murphys Law) is the most powerful law of human affairs ("If things go wrong Probably, sooner or later it's bound to get worse").What is even more unfortunate is that as time goes by, politically and technologically, one thing after another that may go wrong has emerged.The situation of nuclear confrontation has continued unabated and has evolved into a long-standing confrontation; based on the "crazy" mentality of "mutually assured destruction = MAD", "nuclearization with nuclear weapons" has become a way to prevent any party's button from causing the spontaneous destruction of human civilization. the only way to perish.Fortunately, this kind of suicide did not happen; but for almost 40 years, human beings lived in the shadow of its terror every day.

Objectively speaking, the Cold War was special because the immediate threat of a world war did not exist.Furthermore, for all the rhetoric on both sides—especially the United States—the governments of the two superpowers have tacitly accepted the fact that the distribution of force around the world at the end of World War II was largely unequal, though wildly uneven. Stability is unshakable.The sphere of influence of the Soviet Union was limited to the area occupied by the Red Army and other armed forces of the Communist Party at that time, and it has never tried to expand outward by force since then.The power of the United States covers the rest of the capitalist world, plus the Western Hemisphere and the oceans, and has single-handedly accepted the hegemony of the former colonial powers and old imperialism.Similarly, it also respects the hegemony of the Soviet side.

In the European area, national borders were drawn between 1943 and 1945.There are two grounds: one is based on the agreement of the three giants of Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin; the other is based on the political fact that only the Red Army can defeat Germany.However, there are still a few undefined boundaries, especially in Germany and Austria.The final solution is to divide the territory of Germany into two parts according to the occupation forces of the east and west, but to withdraw all the troops stationed in Austria.Since then, Austria has become the second in Switzerland-a small country that sticks to neutrality, is thriving, and outsiders are jealous, it can only be called "boring" (which is quite correct).West Berlin, on the other hand, became an isolated city in the territory of the Soviet Union in Germany. Although the Soviet side was reluctant, it did not intend to insist on it, and silently accepted this fact.

As for regions outside Europe, the orientation of the Eastern and Western forces is not so clear-cut.Among them, Japan is the only exception. From the very beginning, the United States has monopolized it. Not only did the Soviet Union be excluded, but all other participating countries, large and small, were not allowed to get involved.As for the rest of the world, the old colonial empires were already dying, and their end was just around the corner; in 1945, they were hopeless and dying in the Asian continent.But here lies the problem. The old powers are about to leave, but the new countries that will emerge in the post-colonial period (Postcolonial) are still uncertain.As we will see in the following chapters (chapters 12 and 15), this area has thus become a battleground between the two superpowers. In the days of the Cold War, conflicts and discords will never stop.The boundary between the two sides here has always been blurred, which is completely different from the clear distinction in Europe.As the Communist Party’s territory expands outward, it is difficult to predict what will happen, let alone demarcate it in advance (even temporary and vague agreements are difficult to obtain).Therefore, although the Soviet Union had no intention of allowing the Communist Party to take over the Chinese regime, it actually happened.

However, even in these soon-to-be-called "Third World" regions, the conditions for international political stability have gradually taken shape within a few years.Because the situation is becoming more and more obvious, although most of the emerging countries in the post-colonial period do not resonate with the American group, they are not themselves communist countries.In fact, most of them still hold an anti-communist attitude towards the handling of domestic politics, while adopting a "non-aligned" position (non-aligned, that is, not joining the military bloc led by the Soviet Union) in international affairs.To put it simply, from the successful beginning of the Chinese Communist Revolution until the 1970s, Communist China no longer belonged to the communist camp that only followed the lead of the Soviet Union.

According to the development of facts, after the end of World War II, the world situation stabilized quickly, and it remained until the 1970s, when the international situation entered another long-term crisis, before it began to change.Prior to this, the two superpowers were quite content with the fact that the world was not evenly divided, and tried their best to avoid resolving any border disputes through open armed conflicts, lest things get out of control and lead to formal wars.The code of conduct of both sides is actually contrary to common thinking and the vocabulary of the Cold War, and both believe that "long-term peaceful coexistence" is indeed possible.Even at a critical juncture, despite superficial official statements, the two sides seem to be on the verge of, or even already fighting.In fact, privately, each still believes that the other must be self-disciplined and temperate.During the Korean War (1950-1953), the United States participated in the war, but Russia never officially joined, although the U.S. government knew very well that the CCP actually had a full 150 aircraft piloted by Russian pilots (Walker, 1993, pp. 75-77 ).However, this information was kept secret, because the US estimated that it was difficult, and the last thing Moscow wanted to do was to be involved in a war.We also now know that during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the two sides were most worried about those bluffs preparing for war. .

This tacit understanding of treating the "Cold War" with "Cold Peace" was quite feasible until the 1970s. In 1953, Soviet think tanks were quietly making a comeback, taking advantage of a serious worker uprising in East Germany to rebuild the Communist Party.At that time, the Soviet Union already knew (or can be said to have learned), that the United States apparently wanted to "roll back" the Communist Party's forces, but in fact this call was nothing more than a battle over the air.Since then, the West has completely stood by on the sidelines of all events that occurred in Soviet Russia; this attitude can be confirmed from the reaction to the Hungarian incident in 1956.During the Cold War, although both sides insisted on fighting to the death, in fact, the basic decisions of the governments of various countries did not follow this policy. Instead, it was the secret intelligence activities that fought openly and covertly that truly brought into play the spirit of the slogan of decisive battle in the Cold War.Spy novels depicting spy murders became one of the most representative by-products of the influence of international struggles in the real world.Among such novels, the status of British writers has always been the highest-James Bond described by Lan Fleming and the hard-fought hero described by John Lecarre. Serving in the British Secret Service——Finally, in the human world of the novel, I saved a little face for the British who are declining day by day in real power politics.However, the activities of intelligence heroes are certainly more dramatic than actual power games. If you compare them seriously, except in some small countries in the third world, the influence of intelligence units such as the Soviet Secret Police (KGB) and the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) The force is still very small.

Against such a delicate background, during this long period of tense confrontation, has there ever been a moment that was truly dangerous and might trigger a world war? ——Of course, it is inevitable that there will be times when you have traveled too many dangerous roads and have to encounter accidents.This question is difficult to answer; thinking about it, the most explosive period may have been from March 1947 when US President Truman proposed his "Truman Doctrine" ("I believe that the policy of the United States is definitely to help those who rise up against A nation of foreign aggressors.”) until April 1951, when the same president fired General Douglas MacArthur, the commander-in-chief of the U.S. forces in Korea, General Douglas MacArthur, who disobeyed the command of the commander.During this period of time, the United States was extremely afraid that the non-communist areas in Eurasia would break out in revolution or be on the verge of disintegration; and this worry, it can be said that it was not all over-the-top—because looking around the reality, did not see that the Communist Party took over mainland China in 1949 .Conversely, from the perspective of the Soviet Union, it is also facing the US monopoly on nuclear weapons and its increasingly threatening anti-communist clamor. In 1948, Tito led Yugoslavia to flee, which was the first breach to destroy the unity of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.What's more, since 1949, China has been led by a government that not only devoted itself fully to the Korean War, but also wholeheartedly prepared to deal with the outbreak of a real nuclear war-this point, the CCP and other countries hold " The mentality of using nuclear to stop nuclear is quite different.All in all, the situation is treacherous, and anything can happen.

Four years after the atomic bomb landed on Hiroshima (1949), and nine months after the successful detonation of the hydrogen bomb in the United States (1953), the Soviet Union also obtained the manufacturing capabilities of these two types of nuclear weapons.From this moment on, the two superpowers have given up the means of fighting each other through war, because once a war starts, it will be tantamount to signing a suicide pact for each other.As for whether the United States and the Soviet Union have seriously considered taking nuclear action against the third world—such as the United States’ war against Korea in 1951, the United States’ aid to France in Vietnam in 1954, and the Soviet Union’s actions against China in 1969—their intentions are not clear. But the last facts were never adopted.But on several occasions, although neither side certainly had the real intention of resorting to nuclear weapons, they both spoke out to intimidate each other: for example, the United States tried to speed up the peace negotiations between North Korea and Vietnam (1953, 1954), and the Soviet Union threatened China in 1956. The United States and France withdraw from the Suez Canal and so on.The abominable thing is that just because both sides are convinced that the other side has no intention of going to war, and they never intend to press the fatal button, they have become more bluffed, threatening nuclear weapons at every turn to achieve the goal of negotiations, or to achieve their political goals at home ( This is America).Facts have proved that the effect of this kind of psychological warfare with full confidence is indeed true, but it has caused a whole generation of people to suffer miserably. They are terrified every day and live under the shadow of nuclear war. The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 was a totally unnecessary move.For several days in a row, not only almost threw the whole world into a meaningless war, but also scared the high-level decision makers of both sides to wake up. For a while, they finally became more rational.