International order from 1945 to 1969 Essay

Introduction By the end of Second World War in September 1945, world had seen human tragedies and devastation of civilizations on an unprecedented scale. The enormity of disaster had brought complete social, economic and political chaos in the countries involved in the war, requiring long term restoration and rebuilding projects (Cottam and Woodby, 1998). The victorious countries, with the only exception of USA, fared hardly better than the defeated Axis nations. The creation of UNO in 1945 to restore peace and order in the world brought a sense of general relief in world and people felt that after 6 years of intense violence stability and tranquility were returning back. However, almost as the War ended sharp ideological and strategic differences emerged between the two new superpowers, USSR and USA that pushed the world from World War to Cold War. The countries that fought against Axis powers during war years were now polarized against each other in communist and democratic factions pursuing political and strategic agendas against each other. The US led democratic world was wary of the dangers of totalitarian society under the communist rule, as marked in the Stalin’s USSR (Robbins, 1988). As the dangers of communism became manifest, USA realized that its status of a true world-power required it to take effective actions and develop long term plans in promoting the ideals of democracy justice , and liberty that had shaped the free world since past two centuries. The rift between these two opposing factions assumed serious proportions in the Berlin Crisis, Korean War, Cuban missile crisis, Czechoslovakian invasion of USSR and finally Vietnam war; events that defined the period ranging from 1945 to 1969. The Strategic Condition after 1945 The strategic affairs of world saw a revolutionary changeover with the atomic strike on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Laver, 2005). Previous to the atomic age, the strategic considerations generally involved three dimensions of land, sea and air forces. However the post war strategic planning defined defense just in two dimensional terms, where air, land and sea forces were categorized as conventional system and atomic weapons, including atom bombs and atomic missiles constituted the nuclear dimension of the strategy (Laver, 2005). As Laver (2005,) points out, under the new strategic system, the approaches were apparently limited to mere identification of the more appropriate strategy between conventional and nuclear. The real strategic situation however did not unfold itself as simply as it was made to be sound on paper. There were a broad range of issues in creating an optimum strategy and policy in the deployment and use of nuclear weapons within the new international framework that required a total departure from previously established norms and tactics. According to Laver (2005) some of the major issues affecting the new strategic policies were 1. Development of new technology to effectively implement the nuclear option. 2. New defense equipments that meet the nuclear requirements. 3. Mobilizing resources for effectively equipping the armed forces with a perfect combination of conventional and nuclear weapons. 4. Evaluation and measurement of economic, political and social fallouts of nuclear strategies throughout the world. These issues occupied the US foreign and strategic completely, especially in the wake of nuclear buildup in the USSR that created a possible threat of global nuclear catastrophe between the two superpowers. The first American nuclear strategy was forwarded in 1950 that proposed that national defense strategy should be build around the concept of containment. The core of the policy was simple- halting communism through combined conventional and nuclear strength of USA. In 1953, the policy of containment was replaced by policy of deterrence where nuclear option superseded the conventional strategy. However this policy was exposed as inefficient by Henry Kissinger who argued that US lacked sufficient conventional force to check communist expansion throughout the world and that implementing nuclear option towards this end would be catastrophic for the world. The end result, as put forward by Kissinger, would be US inaction and inability to counter the growth of communism (Kissinger, 1957). Kenney recognized the utility of this idea and he established the predominance of conventional strategy over the mindless destructive potentiality of nuclear option. The Vietnam War of 1960s offered US to test its conventional strategy and the incomplete success and the delayed results brought realization that the conventional strategies required further investment of resources and technology in the way of establishing democratic ideals and principles in the world. Cold War is referred to the period from 1945 to 1990 where the strategic conflict and conflicting ideologies of US and USSR that had enveloped world under a continuous shadow of war. The terror of mutual nuclear holocaust was the only factor that prevented both countries from fledging an all out war. Cold War originated due to different political, economic and strategic standings of both USA and USSR after the end of Second World War that created a hostile world environment (Dobson and Marsh, 2001). Three reasons have been put forward to explain the origin of the Cold War. US had emerged as a colossal economic power after the War but it failed to help USSR in building up it war ravaged economy and society, whereas Western Europe received massive funding and help from the US. The second reason was contrasting economic policies and world view of USA and USSR that pitted USA’s democratic and individual ideals against totalitarian and centrally planned philosophy of Soviet Russia. The third major reason was clash of geo-political interest and ambitions of the two superpowers. Driven by the mutual misperceptions and fear of each other’s intentions, ambitions and power, USA and Soviet Russia acted in ways to ostracize each other from their exclusive zones. In 1947 Marshall Plan of USA, that aimed to provide financial assistance in preventing an immanent collapse of Europe, sought to keep USSR out of the entire project. USSR, growing deeply suspicious of USA’s expansionist policies reacted by closing Western access to Berlin, creating first major crisis of the Cold War in 1948. Events unfolded dramatically with US led forces providing airlift to Berlin through 1948 and 1949, USSR responding by closing Western’s access to most of eastern European nations and creation of NATO in 1949 (Dobson and Marsh, 2001). These events firmly sequestrated the two sides and sealed any possible chances of reconciliation. With the outbreak of Korean war in 1950 and USSR’s expansionist policies in South East Asia, USA prepared itself for an all out diplomatic, ideological and if required armed intervention to combat its sworn enemy. The Cold War essentially transformed into a battle of showdown with both the countries trying to outmatch other by trade embargos, increasing efforts of polarization, espionage and technological race to develop greater horde of nuclear weapon and space research. The second major crisis of the Cold War was precipitated in the form of Cuba missile crisis. US intelligence information reported deployment of USSR’s nuclear missile in Cuba with range and payload to strike major US cities and places of strategic importance. There was intense pressure on the then President Kennedy to respond to crisis by military intervention in Cuba. However this step involved risks that the crisis may evolve into a full fledged nuclear war between USA and USSR. Restrain from Kennedy and right diplomatic measures helped to avert a major nuclear disaster. The final episode marking the international order from 1945 to 1969 was civil war in Vietnam in 1965 and the US intervention that led to more than 50, 000 US casualties and international embarrassment for US policymakers. Reference Cottam, M. L, Woodby, S. (1988). The Changing Agenda: World Politics since 1945. Westview Press: Boulder Dobson, A. P. and Marsh, S. (2001). U. S. Foreign Policy since 1945. Routledge: London. Henry Kissinger, Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy New York: Harper, 1957, Laver, H. S. (2005). Preemption and the Evolution of America’s Strategic Defense: Parameters. Volume: 35. Issue: 2. Robbins, K. (1988). The World since 1945: A Concise History. Contributors: Oxford University Press: Oxford.