Perspectives on the Cold War, Decolonization and the Vietnam War - Essay Example

Perspectives on the Cold War, Decolonization and the Vietnam War The Second World War was a dividing event in the world history since it significantly changed power relations, as well as created new conflicts, which dominated world proceedings in the second part of the 20th century. First and foremost, the warfare shattered much of the prestige and power of Europe (Sanders, Nelson, Morillion and Ellenberger 190). It also gave rise to two superpowers, the US and USSR, which assumed leadership of world affairs. After the battle against the Axis powers of Italy, Germany and Japan, both the U.S. and the USSR entered the postwar age as adversaries. Their competition for worldwide supremacy formed a phenomenon referred to as the Cold War. The Second World War also aided to fasten the pace of nationalism or self-rule in the earlier colonies, in Europe. From 1945 to 1985, over 90 nations (a third of the world’s populace) attained self-rule from their colonies. As decolonization happened together with the Cold War, the two worldwide occurrences had an extremely close, as well as interrelated past, with each one persuading the character and context of the other. This paper will make use of various historical documents to look into the ideas, perceptions and strategies, which formed the course of the Cold War and decolonization. Also, during the Cold War era, individuals invoked tough moral stands in a world filled concurrently with fear of one’s enemies and purpose to create circumstances for a brighter future, mainly in Third World nations (Sanders, Nelson, Morillion and Ellenberger 190). Using the introductory material and documents from the section in the textbook, Perspectives on the Cold War, Decolonization and the Vietnam War, this paper will explain and analyze the historical context in which these developments occurred and the specifics of moral arguments made by individuals from the United States, the Soviet Union and Vietnam. In both sentiment and rhetoric, the Cold War was frequently perceived and viewed as a moral crusade (Sanders, Nelson, Morillion and Ellenberger 190). It was also perceived as a prolonged endeavor between the right and the wrong. These parties perceived themselves as the superior and exclusive model for the entire world. They each sought to use this view as a reason for their actions. To the people from the Soviet Union, Americans were aggressors, warmongers, capitalist imperialists and exploiters. To the Americans, on the other hand, communists were deceitful, expansionists, dishonorable and fanatics. Therefore, the cold war turned into something far more than simply a geopolitical attempt to benefit and attract other spheres of influence. The Cold War was also the basis of decolonization in much of Asia and Africa. Even though, opposition against European colonialism started much before the independence group gained momentum following the Second World War, much effect of decolonization was felt during the Cold War. Led by educated and determined elites, nationalist movements both in Asia and Africa mobilized their people to struggle for independence and resist colonial authority. In some regions, the formation of political groups, as well as the use of mass rebellions and public disobedience, forced the colonizers to offer independence in a fairly peaceful and orderly way. However, in other regions such as Kenya, Algeria and Angola, the colonizers forcefully endeavored to hang on to power, and it led to the formation of liberation movements, which caused actual fighting (Sanders, Nelson, Morillion and Ellenberger 191). Soviet’s thoughts of the U.S. and the Cold War As a leader of the USSR for more than 20 years, Josef Vissarionovich Stalin was one of the most significant figures of the 20th century (Sanders, Nelson, Morillion and Ellenberger 194). Stalin joined the Bolshevik Party, meaning communist and became one of the closest collaborators to communism. Having cautiously secured his political role by 1930, Josef managed a number of significant political, social and economic initiatives, which shaped the industrial foundation of the Soviet Union. He also broke the political conflict of the peasant people and formed a terror apparatus, which made him an uncontested ruler of the nation. Stalin entered, in August 1939, into a nonaggression treaty with Hitler, which kept him out of the Second World War till German’s invasion of Moscow, in 1941 (Sanders, Nelson, Morillion and Ellenberger 194). Eventually, following a sterling 25 million killing and unreported destructions, the Russians forced the Nazi forces out of Russia. This greatly contributed to the Allied’s victory in the warfare. What Stalin experienced in the Second World War, all the killings and destruction of property, did nothing to ease his ways. However, he grew to be a much tough delegate during wartime talks. Stalin gave a speech in 1931 titled On the Tasks of Workers in the Economy. In his speech, he captures many aspects of the warfare and also the philosophy of the USSR. According to the Soviet Union, the United States, together with its Truman Doctrine, endeavors to be a world leader. In Novikov’s Telegraph to Moscow, the United States has set itself in a way that they are on top of the world. They have enforced themselves to others claiming to be the leaders in everything and that it why also in the arms race they are always in front and will never adhere to the disamourment rule. The Soviet Union only believes that such a country could be considered as aggressors, warmongers, capitalist imperialists and exploiters since a person or country could not just force themselves to others and expected a positive reception. Sanders, Nelson, Morillion and Ellenberger’s (198) book, considers Truman to be a politically unable individual. That is the main reason why the influence of the United States shifted at some moment worldwide to the Soviet Union. Also, with regards to the Cold War, Soviets had a policy of making every nation their friend. They thought that the U.S. policy of enforcing people into their rule was not right; therefore, they thought of a more friendly way of attracting people to them. USSR’s way also worked in attracting some major allies, which greatly saw the decolonization of a majority of African and Asian states. It is through the pressure they put in Capitalist states such as Britain to let free their colonies that saw decolonization spread so fast during the Cold War era (Sanders, Nelson, Morillion and Ellenberger 199). Through supporting the views of weaker nations such as the ones in Africa and Asia saw Russia spread its communism rule tremendously throughout the world, which increased tensions further. Colonization was the only way the two blocs could manage to attract nations to their spheres. America’s View of the USSR and the Cold War George Kennan was among the most well-known American diplomats of the 20th century (Sanders, Nelson, Morillion and Ellenberger 200). His publication, The Sources of Soviet Conduct, is among the most persuasive documents in the American political history. In The Sources of Soviet Conduct, George expounded on the thoughts that he had tackled in his well known "Long Telegram" produced in 1946. The document had come following the surrender of Japan, which marked the significant end of the Second World War, and the main aim of Kennan’s publications was to present the vital aspects of the Russ-Soviet worldview, experience and political structure so that the United States could create effective and well-established policies, which were consistent with their own values, experiences and traditions. Kennan’s conclusion granted a framework that formed a set of policies, which have come to be known as containment. These were the policies that also shaped U.S.’s Cold War scheme for at least 40 years. The policies articulated United States’ self-perception in its fight against nations that supported Communism (Sanders, Nelson, Morillion and Ellenberger 200). Even though, America’s attempts to contain Communism in Europe were greatly successful, the upshots were less effective in parts such as Asia. Because the USSR had successfully created a nuclear weapon by 1949 since the Communist nations ruled the most populous part in the world, China, it appeared as if the nation was losing the Cold War. The political beliefs of USSR, according to the United States, are the upshot of circumstances and ideology; these are the ideologies passed on from formers leaders of the soviet to Cold War leaders. The ideologies of the founding fathers of the Soviets lied in the minds of the Cold War leaders. This enabled them to defend the withholding of dictatorship through stressing the danger of capitalism. According to the United States, Russia, the main leader of the Soviet Union, went through a lot to ensure that Communist was spread all through the world, yet they were very unsuccessful in a majority of the parts since not most nations joined their bloc (Sanders, Nelson, Morillion and Ellenberger 201). Finally, with regards to U.S.’s view on the Cold War, communism is a party, which struggles for the interests and wellbeing of the working class. This statement is extremely true in nature. However, the United States regards that when Communist and Capitalist economic systems are put together, they rapidly merge into the same result, which is Capitalism. This is to assert that a majority of communistic countries fail while capitalists thrive. There will never be a clean version of communism. Nevertheless, capitalism, in spite of its numerous flaws, has a proven track record whereas communism has failed. The United States considers that an argument can be created for improvement of the current system to abolish some of its errors, but a changeover to communism would not only not rectify the world's problems, but also cause many more. Vietnamese Thoughts on the Vietnam War and Decolonization In September, 1945, the same year when the Second World War officially concluded, Ho Chi declared both Vietnamese independence, as well as the established Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Ho was both the main head of the Vietnamese national, as well as anticolonial group (Sanders, Nelson, Morillion and Ellenberger 210). He had been brought up in a pro-independence home, and he, in reality, attempted to present a petition for his country’s independence to U.S’s Woodrow Wilson, in 1919, in Paris. No wonder why the nation has very strong urges toward decolonization. According to this country, Vietnam, every individual is born equal. People are endowed with certain undeniable duties and rights. Among these rights and duties are the right to life, pursuit of happiness and liberty. Vietnam, therefore, considered decolonization to be an extremely vital factor to any nation that was granted it since they now could live in sovereignty. Vietnam considers that colonization deprives a country of its democratic freedom (Sanders, Nelson, Morillion and Ellenberger 210). Therefore, through colonization, a country upholds its democratic structure. Also, colonization ruined the society, which they ruled. For instance, colonizers have structured more prisons compared to schools. They have cruelly slain people patriots causing them to drown in rivers of bloodshed. However, all these can be prevented if decolonization was implemented fully. From 1945 to 1954, the Vietnamese evoked an anti-colonial warfare against France, which acquired US$ 2.6 billion in financial aid from the U.S. The defeat of the French at the Dien Bien Phu was tracked by a peace talk in Geneva, in which Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, attained their sovereignty and Vietnam was shortly split between a Communist North and an anti-Communist South (Sanders, Nelson, Morillion and Ellenberger 215). South Vietnam, in 1956, with American support, declined to hold the amalgamation elections. Communist-led troops, by 1958, referred to as the Viet Cong, had started to combat the South Vietnamese regime. To uphold the South’s regime, the U.S. sent in 2,000 armed forces advisors, a figure, which increased to 16,300, in 1963. The military state declined, and, in 1963, South Vietnam surrendered the fertile Mekong Delta to the army. Vietnam did not only consider their battle significant in gaining back their land from the southern army, but also a way to show that they considered independence to be crucial. The Viet Cong struggled in all the ways possible till they overcame the world superpower, the United States, in battle. They incorporated guerrilla warfare technique, something which the United States was not conversant with, and that was the main reason Vietnam triumphed (Sanders, Nelson, Morillion and Ellenberger 216). It was vital to note that Vietnam did not regard U.S.’s policy to be helpful since it caused more harm than good. This is because, if a nation refused to heed to the demands of the United States, then only warfare would be used to settle out the matter. This is unlike the Unites States we know of today. Even though, they consider military intervention to be significant, they try out all peaceful means at first, then, they all fail, retract back to military conquest. Work Cited Sanders, Thomas, Nelson, Samuel, Morillo, Stephen and Ellenberger, Nancy. Encounters in World History: Sources and Themes from the Global Past, Volume One. New York: McGraw-Hill Humanities, 2005. Print. Read More