In the months following the Second World War, the United States and Soviet Union could be considered to be allies as they both shared in the victory over Adolf Hitler and his Nazi kingdom. This friendship soon became enemy territory really fast when they got locked in a struggle for prevalence in the new “Cold War.” What would turn out to be the Cold War started off as tensions between the then ‘Big Three’ allied leaders on coordination of strategy. These various issues sky-rocketed border disputes settlement, creation of the United Nations and post-war occupations of Japan and Germany. However Poland still remained at the top of the pecking order of issues amongst the Big Three. The Cold War saw America and her allies bitterly pitted against the Soviet Union with regards atomic energy intelligence. America successfully used overhead imagery to detect and analyse critical of the nuclear infrastructure of the Soviets. The USSR was however able to go largely undetected because of their mastery of denial and deception countermeasures.
There were some people that could be considered as power players of the cold war from both the American and USSR point of view.
- Although he died before the start of the cold war, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a power player in the events that led up to the Cold War. His working relationship with Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin also set the pace
- Harry S. Truman became the president upon the death of FDR and had to take up the task of leading America through the end of the Second World War. He was not very popular and many felt he lacked the requirements needed to lead such a volatile bunch and deal with the Soviet Union as well.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower was the 34th president of the United States and he served in Europe during the Second World War. He instituted a more forceful foreign policy on anti-communism than that of Harry Truman.
- Josef Stalin led the Soviet Communist party from 1922 to his death in 1953 where he ruled as a dictator. He aimed at USSR gaining complete domination of Eastern Europe as he believed that alone would prevent a repeat of events. Americans unfortunately viewed this decision as a plan of USSR to dominate the world. Her resistance to this brought about the Cold War.
- Nikita Khrushchev became the Soviet leader at the death of Stalin in 1953. While he denounced Stalin and seemed to be making policies that would bring about a thawing of the Cold War, his forces shot down a US spy plane in 1960 and took a hard stand against Americans by that action. This brought him into a bitter confrontation with John F. Kennedy.
- Winston Churchill was a prime minister of Great Britain and a talented orator who was an American ally hoping to thwart Josef Stalin from his determination at world domination. In his famous speech given in 1946 he warned against the Soviet Union and their desire to build an Iron Curtain - a term that remained throughout the Cold War era.
The United States spent $2 billion into a program that would build the first atomic bomb before the Nazi Germany. This project was called the Manhattan Project and while the Germans surrendered before it could be used on them it was eventually dropped on Japan. As this bomb was being built, the utmost secrecy was maintained to the point that workers on the project did not know what was being built. FDR did share this information with one of the big three under the codename Tube Alloys but Josef Stalin on the other hand was kept in the dark. The bombing of Japan showed the world that forces of nature could be used as a weapon and this in turn gave rise to the nuclear age. Although America felt it would take at least two decades for other countries to be able to develop their own atomic weapons, the Soviet Union after just four years was able to successfully detonate a prototype.
This loss of atomic superiority led to America blaming espionage gleaned from Soviet scientists who were accused of smuggling themselves into the labs of American scientists giving rise to the Red Scare. However much of the information gathered by the Soviet scientists were not trusted and subsequently not used even though they felt no single nation should be allowed to wield ultimate power through possession of a weapon of such strength – not even America. This desire to dissuade such monopoly led to the rising up of many scientists with an aim of creating an atomic bomb so America’s monopoly could be broken. However Soviet’s bomb spurned the United States to make even more powerful bombs in a bid to regain their nuclear advantage? This desire gave rise to the creation of the hydrogen bomb of 1952 that got its power from fusion rather than fission. This bomb was 100 times more destructive than the one that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945. Some scientists that expressed their concerns over making of bombs were blacklisted and used as scapegoats to other scientists that may have similar concerns. One of such scientists was J. Robert Oppenheimer who though called the ‘father of the atomic bomb’ had his clearance revoked.
The Cold War saw America and USSR going back and forth with the making of better nuclear weapons like rockets and missiles. Very soon they had both mastered how to replace bombers with unmanned bombers called Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. Although they could travel through space they could not be called back if they have been launched in error. As the years went on, the amount of nuclear weapons created by America and the Soviet kept on rising as each country tried to gain superiority which led to an international obsession. As time went on America was veering towards responding to attack via the non-conventional use of atomic weaponry. They believed this could be used properly to deter other nations from harming American interests.
Popular culture played an important role in the struggle to gain ultimate influence in Europe during the Cold War. America chose to promote her culture to Europe which saw the government sponsoring cultural exports like Porgy and Bess which toured in the 50s and creation of America Houses that promoted anti-communism and the American culture. Although these tactics led to Europeans flocking to purchase American Rock and Roll albums, it did not have its expected results. While the Europeans enjoyed the culture of the Americans, they did not support their politics. The Russians in a bid to provide a counter-punch also began to promote their own culture albeit a bit carefully. They began to create their own radio stations and hoping that their youths would listen to them as opposed to the American stations that had started to exist.
The Soviet atomic project that ran from the 1940s and for much of the Cold War was brought on by a massive effort of intelligence by the United States and her allies. They were very interested in availability of uranium and nuclear warhead and testing. As the interest of the Soviet grew America began to gauge the level of their nuclear stockpile in a bid to evaluate USSR’s missile strength and how she would retaliate in an attack. In a bid to achieve this successfully the US intelligence effort went global with a use of covert operations and technical collection. The USSR however put some counter measures in place to prevent America from achieving just that. The 50s and the 60s were the formative years of the Soviet nuclear program and were the most dangerous years of the Cold War. Many drastic events like the Cuban Missile Crisis and other similar events helped shaped the countries approach to foreign policy, preservation of intelligence and national defence during the many years of the Cold War confrontation.
The Soviet was determined to protect her nuclear weapons project at all cost that they appointed generals to fill key positions at these research institutes and facilities. The KGB played a big role in safeguarding these nuclear facilities and they held nothing back from funding to intelligence resources to getting it done. This was done to thwart intelligence operations of foreign nationals. The secrecy surrounding the creation and development of these nuclear infrastructures was so severe that closed nuclear cities were built and would come to be known by the acronym ZATO. These cities were built in forested areas that could not be traced on the map but were assigned the names of towns nearby and post box numbers. This went on till the early 90s. Construction workers on these projects were isolated in a bid to prevent them jumping ship to provide information for foreign spies. The prison labour was mostly used as the providers of menial labour. The nuclear construction force however consisted of soldiers who signed a 25 year non-disclosure agreement. Codenames was provided for everything and they never stayed the same as they were changed continually.
The KGB was successful in creating codenames and counterintelligence operations that secured the safety and anonymity of the nuclear weapon. This put US on their toes and they began to infiltrate into the country via means like tourism, cultural exchanges and scientific meetings. As the KGB kept on being effective in their counterintelligence dealings America began to use espionage technologies like state of the art equipment that utilized science and technology. This cat and mouse game ensured that the KGB began to find new and improved methods of evading the American spies – like conducting their nuclear operations under a tent to prevent visibility. Communications were made through landline or the microwave system and sensitive documents were delivered by hand.
The Cold War was based off ideology and the military conflict of USSR and USA that began at the end of the Second World War and saw its end in 1989. This war will always be linked to the atomic bomb and its use as the ultimate military deterrent. These countries had always distrusted one another and their varying plans for post-world war Europe along with the control and creation of atomic weapons only served to intensify this conflict. Although the United States was wrong in predicting when the Soviet nuclear technologies would take off, they did enjoy some considerable success with regards their detection of many of the Soviet’s nuclear successes. This success could be in part to the fact that nuclear explosions were so powerful that it was impossible to hide them. The Soviet Union also had no way of hiding from the overhead imagery systems which captured their production facilities. The USSR however succeeded in averting the US detection of their transition to more advanced uranium enriched technology as they worked very hard in keeping that transition secret.
The atomic bomb however was the final issue that completely broke the relations of the Soviet and the US. German physicists discovered that fission occurs when uranium atoms are bombarded by neutrons and this development led to the development of a new weapon that could destroy everything. After being verified by European scientists in America and amid fears that Nazi Germany may use this knowledge to their advantage, Albert Einstein was made to sign a letter to FDR convincing him to forestall the German scientists. The ferocious power of the atomic bomb was made known when President Truman used it against Japan in 1945 and killed 100,000 civilians. Hence by the 50s the Cold War and its framework had been firmly put in place as both sides enhanced their nuclear arsenal
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