The 1940s and 1950s

The Cold War's Proxy Wars

While the Cold War did not result in direct conflict between the USA and the USSR, the two countries were involved in many proxy wars, beginning soon after World War II. The first was in Korea, Japan’s former colony.

After WWII, the country was split: North Korea was controlled by China and the USSR, while South Korea was controlled by the USA. In June 1950, North Korean troops invaded South Korea, which led to a multi-national war. While both sides had successful campaigns, in 1953, the Korean War stopped in a stalemate.

Image note (right): A young Korean girl and her brother strapped to her back. She is a refugee of the Korean War and stands in front of a tank.

Image note (below): Map of the Korean War. Red represents North Korea and its allies, while green represents South Korea and its allies. You can see that by the end of the war, the division between the countries had barely changed at all.

An animated gif shows the changes in territory during the Korean War with North and South Korea taking and losing land.

Consequences of War

As a result of the Korean War, the United States began an aggressive worldwide campaign to stop the spread of Communism. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA: the CIA is the United States' spy agency) conducted anti-Communist missions in Iran, Guatemala, Vietnam, and Egypt, which led to a distrust of the West in those countries. Conversely, the USSR financially aided and politically allied with the newly Communist China.

As part of the new Communist regime, Chairman Mao created the “5-Year Plan” and the “Great Leap Forward” to industrialize China as the USSR had. However, both plans ended in massive failure: 20-50 million people starved to death and it led to a 10-year civil war. Chairman Mao burned books, killed professors, and more to keep control of China. While Mao tied himself to the image of Stalin, the USSR’s new leader, Nikita Khrushchev publicly denounced Stalin’s totalitarian regime. He opened the USSR to outside media and hosted the first World Festival of Youth and Students. This led to a fracture in Chinese-Soviet relations.

CIA Missions to "Prevent the Spread of Communism"

Select each country to read about actions the CIA took to attempt to prevent Communism from spreading.

Egypt

By the early 1950s, it was clear that the current king of Egypt was becoming radicalized, and in 1952, a coup ousted him from power. Gamel Nassar grew to prominence and took over the country with US backing. He decided to nationalize the Suez Canal, which resulted in a joint British-French-Israeli invasion. The US publicly denounced the invasion and the foreign troops evacuated. Egypt appreciated the assistance.

Iran

Iran had a constitutional monarchy. While the Shah (king) was sympathetic to British and US interests, Prime Minister Mosaddeq leaned towards Communism. The Shah fled. The CIA successfully organized a coup against Mosaddeq, which also allowed the Shah to return. The Shah thanked America by providing access to some of Iran’s oil fields, and Iran soon became one of the United States’ closest allies.

Guatemala

President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman came to power in Guatemala in 1950, and by 1952, his government was run by Communists and Soviet sympathizers that suppressed any anti-Communist outcries from Guatemalan students, Catholic leaders, military, and landowners. The US used psychological warfare and encouraged neighboring countries to get Arbenz out of power. Arbenz resigned in 1954.

Vietnam

Indochina (now Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia) was a French colony, but the French lost control by the early 1950s. Ho Chi Minh became a popular figure, but he was a Communist. Instead, the CIA backed Prime Minister Ngo Din Diem. They tried to get Diem to help the poor by improving transportation and education systems and redistributing the land. Instead, Diem became more autocratic until eventually he was assassinated, which disappointed the US. This would eventually be one of the long-term causes of the Vietnam War.

Brinksmanship

Two more “fronts” of the Cold War were the Arms Race and Space Race. America invented the first Atomic Bomb in 1945, and by 1949, the USSR had invented one as well. In 1951, the US invented a more powerful nuclear weapon, the Hydrogen (or Thermonuclear) Bomb. By 1955, the USSR had invented one, too. Then, in 1958, the USSR developed an ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile), which increased the range of a hydrogen bomb. The USA developed one the next year.

To many Americans, the development of the ICBM by the USSR indicated that the USA was no longer “winning” the arms race.

Meanwhile, the USSR launched 2 satellites (Sputnik I and II) and the first dog into space. The first US satellite exploded, so US President Eisenhower created NASA to invigorate the American space program.

The competition of military and space technology was called Brinksmanship – where both the USSR and USA went to the brink of war without fighting. It was a very dangerous, unsustainable game of chicken.

Image note: Sputnik I, which translates to “Satellite” in Russian. This was the first space satellite and its launch started the Space Race.

Decolonization

As the USA and USSR grew in power, Britain and other imperializing countries accepted that they could not sustain colonies after barely surviving two world wars. The Decolonization movement gained momentum after the Atlantic Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (both signed by European countries), as well as the Fifth Pan-African Congress, called for Self-Determination. By 1960, 10 new African countries joined Liberia, South Africa, and Egypt in full independence.

Image note: The Partition of India, 1947. Green, Orange, and dark Gray territories were all colonized by the British. In 1947, the Orange in the middle was designated as India, while the green sections were East and West Pakistan. The arrows show the movement of Hindus and Muslims refugees in 1948 to get to the area of their religious majority.

Map of Israel from 1948. The map has several markings indicating attacks.

The decolonization of British colonies also occurred in Asia. Gandhi led Indians to get independence from Britain in 1947. But when Gandhi was assassinated by a religious extremist, the British decided to divide the country: India was for Hindus; West and East Pakistan (later Pakistan and Bangladesh) were for Muslims. The geographic distinctions weren’t perfectly in sync with the religious populations, which resulted in violence. Two million people died and over 10 million people were forced to move as refugees.

The British converted one of their colonies, Palestine, into a home for Jewish Holocaust survivors. It was designed to recreate the Promised Land from ancient times and named Israel. The Arabs that lived in Palestine (now Israel) went to war that year to try to oust the new Jewish government but lost. This began a series of Arab-Israeli hostilities that continued into the twenty-first century.

Image note: A Map of Israel, as created in 1948. The map shows most of the major cities in Israel, including Jerusalem. Additionally, you can see the various cut-outs: the West Bank being one of the most contentious regions in the world.

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