Cold War - Guerra Fria

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This conflict was at it’s core an ideological struggle between two economic and social systems, caused because their extremely different principles and values: totalitarian communism and democratic capitalism. Both the USSR and the USA saw each other as illegitimate regimes, which would only cause harm for their economy if it continued to exist. As John Lewis argued on his book “ “…..” the tensions that are growing out of fundamentally different social systems and views of the world turned out to be irresolvable for both powers. Making a war focusing its forces on supporting their own systems and proving they are the legitimate “. As the Cold War was gaining momentum, each party was fighting not only to prevail, but also to win de alliance of as many other countries they could.

Although the roots of the Cold War were based on ideological contradictions, the conflict still represented a ‘military period’, where both sides of the issue maintained a powerful military which was indeed prepared for direct conflict. During the decades of the war, both sides made investments on technology, mainly the development of atomic bombs, as well as increases in the military budget; such as the budget for purchase of weapons, on what historians call the Arms Race. The historian John Lewis stated in a comment about the Cold War military technology that “A direct conflict on that time would probably result on the extinction of both countries , as both had nuclear weapons”. The direct confrontation between the USSR and the USA was not a reality on that time, however the conflicts on other territories such as Asia and Eurasia were increasing, as a result from the direct influence of the battle between economic systems.

The necessity of forming blocs in a conflict can be seen from decades ago, but on an ideological confront where both systems felt the necessity of prevailing over the other, the need of turning neutral countries as allies was far more important. The alliance between countries that shared the same way of thinking is a way to join forces and prove their efficiency and strength. Examples that show the importance of unity can be seen through the creation of the NATO by the US and the Warsaw pact by the Soviet Union. As well by the creation of plans and doctrines from both, to support nations devastated on the World War. On one side, the US started the Marshall Plan, offering help and loans to reconstruct capitalist countries that were devastated and on the other side, the SU , through the Comecon, offering mutual help for socialist countries .

As the years past, the importance os gaining allies and conquering alliances became even more important as a crisis reached the capitalist Golden Age and the necessity of spreading the socialism and gaining more adepts was essential for the soviets to survive .

With the American forces prevailing on both military and ideological sides, the Soviets became more cautious on their strategies, focusing efforts on Eurasian countries. Much of the American steps and foreign policy were guided by what they call the “ Domino Theory”, which the president Eisenhower described very well :”You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences. “ The communist victory in one nation would probably lead to a fast chain reaction of communist domain in neighboring states, mostly in Eurasia and Southeast Asia. This theory was much used by the american to justify their intervention on the Vietnam war, which their defeat lead to the proof that this theory had much less global impact than it was assumed.

During that indirect conflict it is important to notice the relevance of wars that happened parallel to that time, and had direct conflicts representing the american and soviet disagreements . As the Cold War came to dominate U.S. foreign policy, America extended security commitments to Japan. The US made many agreements to build a permanent presence in the region and support the Japanese and south Korean nation, creating important alliances. After Japan’s surrender to the Allied Powers in 1945, the United States occupied the defeated nation and began a series of reforms designed to build a new democratic nation by reducing the military power and dividing their largest business conglomerates. The americans made the Japanese islands into an important facet of America’s global structure focusing on strengthening , and not pushing, their relation on what would become a key cold war ally. Also, the U.S. efforts to save South Korea from a communist invasion accelerated their attempts to restore Japan to an elevated international position, turning them a prosperous ally of the United States.

After many years of ideological conflict, the Soviet bloc was considered to be defeated by many reasons, including its inefficacy on keeping an technological society and finding allies. With the capitalist democracy, prevailing over the communists, with a system where all the military technology was turned into civil applications. As Schumpeter argues “innovation is the key for economic development” , being exactly what happened during The Cold War, when the capitalist nations managed to apply their technologies gained on military developments, into civil usages

One of the last proof of Soviets defeat is easily found on the economic success of some of the countries supported by the american nation on parallel conflicts.Along with Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are great examples of that.

During the Korean War, when north Korea tried to invade South Korea to unify both countries, supported by the Soviets and China, the US supported South Korea, preventing this unification to happen.The Korean War had massive consequences for the entire region as a peace between both countries is considered fragile until today. With the failure of unifying the country, the United States achieved its larger goals by preserving and promoting NATO interests and defending the Japanese territory. Also, the Korean War served to encourage the U.S.policies of militarization .The capitalist system applied on South Korea had amazing results, turning them into a technological polo and industrialized country guided by the US, having as proof of its success their GDP rates grown from 3,4 Billion Dollars on 1964 to 75 Billion Dollars on 1980.

Another example of the asiatic nations success supported by the US is Taiwan . During its crisis at the middle 1950’s, when the United States navy supported the republic of China to evacuate their population to Taiwan and after when china retreated from a direct conflict with