The Defining Concept of Military Conflicts during the Cold Wars - Essay Example

THE DEFINING CONCEPT OF MILITARY CONFLICTS DURING THE COLD WARS By Location Introduction The term Cold War has used over years to refer to the tension between the USA and the USSR that ensued after the World War II. After defeating the Axis powers, the Soviet Union had the strongest and the largest world’s army while the USA possessed the powerful atomic bomb it had used against Japan in Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Ball 1998). Despite their collaboration to defeat a common enemy, Japan, their engagement in the war, just masked the contempt they had for each other. Economic competition and political conflict characterized the Cold War, even though, the two nations never involved in active military conflict (Innes 2012). Various US policies and some significant events were clear indication that the Cold War was unavoidable (Whitton 1951). The USA fought the war using ideologies like the containment policy that had been fuelled by domino theory, Potsdam, and Yalta conferences, Iron Curtain Speech of Winston Churchill, Marshal Plan, and the Truman Doctrine and Russia responded with communist ideas (Ball 1998). Soviet expansion, proxy wars, nuclear arms race, the Berlin airlift, and Cuban Missile Crisis were some of the moments that clearly defined the tension between the USA and the Soviet Union. Therefore, there was no form of active military confrontation during the Cold wars as the nations were battling it out through political and economic ideologies. Whereas traditional wars had been defined through armed conflict, the Cold War was fought indirectly. Western and Eastern Europe countries created an atmosphere for advocating either for American or Russian processes of democracy and communism (Innes 2012). It is, therefore, important to discuss the defining concept of military conflict during the cold wars, whether it was based on proxy wars or Military conflict. The Proxy War Concept When mankind had developed weapons too terrible to use like the atomic and nuclear bombs, the presence of these deadly weapons deterred the superpowers of engaging in active or direct confrontation (Stein, 1980). History holds that wars are always eminent, but development in arms race would discourage direct military action. Therefore, the best way for the super powers was to engage in limited wars that are only devastating to the participating countries and other people involved but not destructive to the global levels or result in mass destruction (Innes 2012). During the cold war, the world was divided into First, Second and Third Worlds (Ball 1998). The First Worlds comprised the western nations that had capitalist economies with democratic governments. The Second World was the socialist and communist countries, and they together form the Eastern Block. However, Third World constituted the developing nations, former European colonies, and non-aligned groups. The Third World suffered the devastating effects of cold wars as their countries were targets for proxy wars by the super powers. For instance, a super power of can face a third world country like with the case of US in Vietnam of the presence of USSR in Afghanistan (Innes 2012). In this case, the super powers engaged indirectly to instigate war on small countries where their interventions oppose conflicting ideologies. The arms race brought about the dangers of mass destruction as the super powers had weapons that could wipe out the entire world. For instance, in 1962, the USA had confronted Russia over using missiles in Cuba (Ball 1998). If they had gone to war, there could have been unimaginable destruction. Therefore, the two super powers figured out that it was better waging or instigating civil wars in smaller or developing nations and support pro-ideologists. The stand-in fights are what refer to as proxy wars that the superpowers viewed as the safest way to engage in hot wars during the Cold War (Innes 2012). Although the USA and Soviet were in a state of political and economic ideology conflict, the war did not involve military action as they fought using their doctrines where the USA wanted to conquer the world through capitalism while the Soviet Union was trying to popularize its communist ideas in the East Asia and the rest of the world (Ball 1998). Therefore, proxy wars defined military action during the Cold War. The war in Mainland China is a classic example of proxy wars where the two superpowers used small countries to fight for the popularity of their ideologies. USA used countries it deliberated from the Second World War was to spread its containment policy in a bid to stop communism ideology from spreading to other parts of the world (Innes 2012). The USA and its allies fought proxy wars hoping to instil and spread the democratic or capitalist system. The magnitude of destruction during the World War II made the two sides to realize that their active participation in a hot war would wipe out civilization and this explains why the war involved fighting for geopolitical influence (Ball 1998). However, the two super powers instigated occasional conflicts between pawn countries. A good example was the battle in mainland China between 1950’s and the 1960’s where the capitalists headed by the USA never fought China directly but rather wrangled over small countries like Vietnam and Korea (Innes 2012). Therefore, proxy wars were the defining moments of military action during the Cold War because the two superpowers were nuclear-armed and fighting each other directly would have escalated to a total nuclear war. Proxy wars were evident in countries like Angola, Afghanistan, Korea, the Middle East, Vietnam, and Latin America (Ball 1998). The proxy wars during the Cold War Greek Civil War marked the first proxy war during the Cold War that began as soon as the Second World was over (Ball 1998). The war started when Western Greek government as an ally to the western powers was at risk of being overthrown by the Communist rebels. However, the rebellion failed because Albania, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria as some of the communist allies offered little military support. The example of Greek shows how proxy wars defined military conflicts during the Cold War as Greek Communists were aiming at seizing most parts of the country (Innes 2012). However, the government responded with a vigorous counter attack and forced the rebels back. Therefore, Greece was a victim of the struggle for ideological supremacy between the USA and the Soviet Union. Eventually, the Western allies won the Greek Civil War because there was a large ideological split between Josip Broz Tito and Joseph Stalin (Innes 2012). Tito was initially part of the communist rebels but eventually blocked borders of Yugoslavia to the Greek Liberation Army when the Greek Communists sided with Stalin. Albanian joined Tito against the rebels and the combined strong military force led to the collapse of the rebellion. Therefore, the Greek war was the beginning of proxy wars since victory gave the capitalists confidence, and they were sure that this concept of military conflict would weaken communism. Proxy wars also involved offering military aid to allies to fight against the opponents (Innes 2012). For instance, the Afghanistan war when the Soviet Army planned a military invasion of Mujahadeen ignited inactive participation of the USA in the war through military support in the form of weapons and other war armoires. The USA provided Afghanistan rebels with weapons like the sophisticated FIM-92 Stinger and also offered them training (Stein 1980). Therefore, the Afghanistan war is another example of how proxy war was the defining concept of military conflict in the Cold War. The strong military support from the capitalist helped Taliban and the Al Qaeda to hold power temporarily. The Afghanistan example shows how the USA used proxy wars to suppress communism ideologies in the Middle East. Thanks to USA’s use of proxy wars that strong militia groups like Al Qaeda and Taliban are existing. Lebanon was also a victim of the Cold War between the two superpowers and fought the Lebanese Civil War (Ball 1998). During the war, Syria was a staunch supporter of Maronite side that had been dominated by Christians. The Lebanese Front received military support from Syria in the form of troops and arms. On the contrary, Israel, a long-time enemy of Syria, supported the Christian-dominated Lebanese Front by providing money, tanks, and weapons. The actions by Israel and Syria angered the Soviets who responded by supporting the Palestine Liberation Organization and also siding with the Lebanese National Movement as a leftist side (Stein 1980). The Lebanese example is also an explicit portrayal of how the USA and the Soviet Union engaged in proxy wars. The two powers entered the civil wars by taking sides thus instigating a military confrontation between opposing ideologies of the Lebanese territory. Portuguese wars in Mozambique and Angola are good examples of how proxy wars defined the military conflicts during the Cold War. During the wars, Portugal fought liberation movements the Liberation Front of Angola, National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola and FRELIMO (Ball 1998). The three movements made power transition in Angola difficult compared to the situation in Mozambique. UNITA and MPLA had been receiving support from the social countries while FNLA as the strongest movement was getting reinforcement from the capitalist side, Zaire. The Alvor Agreement of 1976 saw the warring movements agreeing to form an interim government with a joint rule. However, the USA sided with FNLA and this revoked fighting between movements resumed. The Angolan example confirms how the USA successfully used proxy wars to suppress the spread of communist ideologies in Africa, and these were some of the defining moments of active military action during the Cold War. For instance, involvement of Zaire in the war shows how the two sides were taking advantage of smaller or pawn countries to fight the ideological wars worldwide. Mozambique was not an exemption from the proxy wars when problems started with the handing over of power to FRELIMO as liberation movement (Ball 1998). However, the leftist government soon began to support the liberation movements that were against Rhodesia, a country led by the minority white governments and also rallied against South Africa. Rhodesian government, now Zimbabwe, responded by organizing and funding the anti-communist rebel Mozambique National Resistance which marked the onset of a civil war in Mozambique (Innes 2012). However, the capitalists suffered a blow in Rhodesia hey were defeated, and the country was liberated to become the present day Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe’s case is another proxy war approach in Cold War showing how the capitalists were trying to extend their influence in the country, but the newly formed Zimbabwean government saw to it that the democratic regime failed. Proxy wars were used to instigate the wars between Israel, and the Arab countries thought the wars have continued to date (Ball 1998). Israel by contrast was a proxy for the USA while the Soviet Union depended on Syria Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt as its proxies. Israel fought endless wars with the Middle East countries and the USA provided military support to the Christian dominated country. On the contrary, the Soviet Union succeeded in spreading its influence in Middle East and even convincing USAs allies like Iran and Saudi Arabia to back its communist ideologies. For instance, the Iranian Revolution of 1979 was an important step for the communists to spread their influence and they increased their indirect participation in the military conflict by offering more military support to Iran and other like-minded nations (Stein 1980). In this case, proxy wars were the primary agenda of the two superpowers in fighting for the oil-rich Middle East country where the USA was backing Israel to suppress communists while the Soviet Union succeeded since most of the Arabian countries would not back the Christian western capitalist ideologies. USA and the Soviet Union also shifted their geopolitical influence to Latin America by focusing on Cuba (Ball 1998). The USA government engaged in ideological conflicts with the communist backed Cuban government under Fidel Castro. In fact, the two superpowers scrambled for increasing their influence in Latin America immediately after the Cuban Revolution. The USA adopted many inactive military participation tactics including using Cuban Exiles as proxies to overthrow the communist government. The Cuban political scenario was an opportunity for the USA to expand its political and economic ideologies, and it became interesting how the Cuba’s government supported communist ideologies (Ball 1998). However, USA was and is still not comfortable with Cuba’s stand on communism. In response, the USA backed numerous efforts of overthrowing the Communist government to no avail. The Bay Pigs Invasion in 1961 was fully backed by the American-led capitalists though they were not successful (Innes 2012). Also in the Cuban scenario, the USA was using a proxy approach to engage indirectly in ideological confrontations with the communist Soviet Union. USA was never successful in spreading capitalist ideologies in Latin America despite funding and backing efforts to suppress the communists from controlling the region. USA and USSR also fought the cold war in Nicaragua when the USA backed the brutal National Guard (Ball 1998). Until its decline, The National Guard was carrying out atrocities targeting the Sandinistas where they bombed Managua, killing scores of residents. However, it was surprising that the US Ambassador advised the White House against telling the Guard to end the bombings since it would have interfered with the policy of keeping the Guard in power and ensuring that the Sandinistas were not in control of the country. Carter’s administration supported restructuring of the Nicaraguas borders, and this attracted response from the Russian-led Sandinistas (Innes 2012). Therefore, Nicaragua was another battle for USA and the Soviet Union to fight their proxy wars. Somoza regime had been overthrown in 1978 under bloody circumstances created room for the Contra War that claimed lives of many Nicaraguans. The situation got out of hands and attracted much international debate. During the war, both the Contra and Sandinistas received war aids from the two superpowers of the Cold War. The Nicaragua war was one of the proxy wars that the USA failed to capitalize its military power and economic ability. The USA had provided the Guard with astronomical military support though the superpower could not create a strong military force in Nicaragua. Therefore, the Contra War was a big blow to the capitalists as the superpower failed in to prevent the rebels from regaining most parts of the country. The Carter and Reagan regimes had vowed to suppress Sandinista as a way of fighting Russia indirectly, but the communist-led rebels were well prepared for the confrontation (Innes 2012). In this case, there was inactive military action between the USA and the USSR by offering enormous support to both the warring groups. A military Coup in Chile was some of the outcomes of the endless proxy wars between the communists and the capitalists (Innes 2012). In the Chilean case, the two superpowers went the usual military support and pushed for regime change. The USA’s CIA had a direct involvement in the many of the Cold War coups where the major focus was to displace the leftist regimes and to replace them with the military juntas or right-wing parties. The regime change was clearly manifested in Chile come 1973 to oust Salvador, who had held power for close to three years (Ball 1998). The left-wing policies triggered reaction from Washington DC because Allende was massively reforming land policies and would also authorize scraping or lifting of wages. On the other hand, the regime went ahead to increase public spending on education and health. However, Washington was more concerned with Allendes idea to nationalize various industries that did not exempt copper mines that were American owned. September of 1973 marked the beginning of the proxy war in Chile as the CIA support a military coup against Allende that led to ousting and murdering of the president (Ball 1998). In response, the USA saw to it that Augusto Pinochet ascended to power. The Chilean case is one of the many proxy wars that the USA’s containment policy excelled. However, the USA also had a hand in other military coups in countries like Bolivia, Uganda, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, and Argentina (Ball 1998). The victories meant that USA was spreading its ideologies and suppressing communist influence in most parts of the world. Therefore, the capitalists were successful in containing communism ideologies within its Asian territories as one of the main agendas of the proxy wars. The Korean War was another of the proxy wars where the Soviet or the Communist North decided to invade the democratic South Korea (Dodds 2003). However, the USA would not allow the war to stand though there were still worries from the destruction that the Second World War had left on humanity. The North has received full military support from the Soviet Union though China was also considering entering the war in support of the communists. Therefore, involvement of the USA in the war was more of a containment policy and was even stricter than the Greek war (Ball 1998). Truman was wary, though wary of the containment policy, limited his support to the communist North and this explains why the USA had dominated the Vietnamese proxy war. However, the proxy policy turned out more dramatic as the Chinese joined the war (Dodds 2003). Therefore, though Korea had no any strategic importance to the two superpowers, it was a perfect battlefield for the ideological wars. A three-year long battle ensued and the USA would respond with more dramatic policy shift where it vowed to increase more military aid to pawn countries that were fighting against the communist-dominated countries. The ending of the Korea marked new tensions between the United States of America and the USSR (Dodds 2003). The two world powers shifted their wars to Vietnam that began as typical of most proxies when USSR led by President Eisenhower sent military equipment and funding to South Vietnam (Lind 2002). The Soviets faced strong opposition that crashed its influence through military force. After JF Kennedy had won elections against Nixon, he vowed to continue supporting US friends and opposing enemies as a way of ensuring that the capitalist liberty survived under his regime. JF Kennedy’s sentiments were directed towards the Soviet Union, a clear suggestion that the US president was ready to send troops countries that were under communism duress thus the atmosphere was again set for another proxy war. The president saw the Vietnamese case an opportunity to make the capitalist power credible and was again coming up with another proxy policy. The USA began the war by sending aid and troops to South Vietnam. However, the Vietnam War was the most unfamiliar and unpopular among the US public, and this marked the first time the public had a direct influence on proxy war policies (Dodds 2003). Richardson while campaigning promised to end the Vietnam War but would respond by introducing the Vietnamisation policy as his doctrine for maintaining economic and military assistance (Lind 2002). The policy meant that the US troops would train the South Vietnamese to prepare them against to fight the Vietcong. The policy failed in Vietnam though Nixon made no attempt to withdraw US troops from the Vietnam (Dodds 2003). Therefore, the Vietnamese war would characterize as one of the proxy wars where the capitalists failed. In fact, the war sits in history as the main proxy war that the USA suffered a complete defeat. However, the US government still responded indirectly by funding few elements of military training. Conclusion In summary, the Cold War was an indirect fight between the two super powers of USA and the Soviet Union though they avoided any direct military confrontation. The magnitude of destruction from the Second World War prevented the countries from ignited another war that could wipe out the human race. However, the cold war also marked tremendous development in the arms race where dangerous weapons like the nuclear bomb were in the hands of the wrong powers that could use it if confronted by war. Therefore, both USA and Soviet Union were afraid of igniting a war that could involve them using nuclear weapons thus they saw that starting civil wars in small countries was the best way to engage in endless wars for ideological supremacy. In this case, proxy war was the main concept that defined military action during the Cold as both USA and the Soviet used pawn countries to fight each other indirectly by offering military aid in form of food, training, and weapons. References Ball, SJ 1998, The cold war, Arnold, New York. Dodds, K 2003, Cold War geopolitics, A companion to political geography, vol. 3, no. 1, pp 204-218. Innes, MA 2012, Making Sense of Proxy Wars: States, Surrogates, & the Use of ideologies in war, Potomac Books Inc., New York. Lind, M 2002, Vietnam: The Necessary War: A Reinterpretation of Americas Most Disastrous Military Conflict, Simon and Schuster, 2002 Stein, JG 1980, ‘Proxy wars: how superpowers end them: the diplomacy of war termination in the Middle East, International Journal, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 478-519. Whitton, JB 1951, ‘Cold War propaganda’, American Journal of International Law, vol.1, no. 2, pp. 151-153. Read More