Introduction
The post-WWII years turned out to be rather challenging for the world. It became the beginning of the new era of global development, including the escalating confrontation between Soviet and Imperialistic blocks, the beginning of the Cold War with its détentes and escalations. The invention of missile weapons led to the escalating of the Cuban missile crisis, and the instance, when the world stood on the edge of the Third World War.
Yet, according to the representatives of the school of realism, the prerequisites of the Cold War, and all the other occasions-symptoms (The Korean War, the Cuban Crisis, The war in Vietnam) were originated during the Yalta conference.
Yalta Conference
Every leader had their plan for the Yalta Conference: Roosevelt claimed for Soviet support in the U.S. Pacific War against Japan, particularly invading Japan; Churchill squashed for free voting and democratic governments in Eastern Europe (specifically Poland); and Stalin required a Soviet sphere of political impact in Eastern Europe, as necessary to the USSR’s national safety.
Despite the fact, that initially this conference was claimed to settle the peace issues, researchers believe, that it obstructed further confrontation. The fact is that leaders of the Allies, thinking about their power and authority initiated the artificial division of the world in two confronting blocks. The precedence of the division of Germany into three, and finally into two parts “for the sake of the future of German people” became the first step of the approaching confrontation. The bright example of it is the 1947 crisis, closely linked with the supply of the provision from Western Germany to Western Berlin. In reality, Germany became the buffer zone, with the help of which Soviet and Western blocks aimed to defend themselves from each other.
The fact is that the negotiators clearly realized, that after the elimination of the common enemy, further cooperation between West and Bolshevists would lose any sense, and the aims, achieved during the war and negotiations should be officially stipulated.
The positive inheritance of the Yalta conference is also beyond any doubt. It stated the elimination of any exhibition of Nazism, as its end had been approaching. All the Nazi parties and organizations, regulations, and influence had to be eliminated.
Another positive factor was the initiation of the global peace organization – the UNO. It was the attempt to keep the fragile post-war peace and entailed all the positive and negative experiences of the League of Nations, which could not prevent the war.
Cuban Missile Crisis
As it has been stated before, the Missile crisis is regarded to be the peak of the Cold War confrontation, which put the world on the edge of another bloodshed war, which would have neither winners nor losers, taking into account the presence of nuclear missiles from both sides.
After the victory of the revolution, with Fidel Castro at the head, Cuba became a socialistic state near the US shores. Surely, the Soviet Union could not miss an opportunity to maintain the newly formed association, and not to let a hedgehog into American pants. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev offered to locate soviet mid-range nuclear missiles on the territory of Cuba. After the satellite and air photo shooting revealed the presence of the missile grounds on the territory of Cuba, in late 1961, Kennedy arranged Operation Mongoose, a sequence of secret operations against Castro’s government which were to be confirmed unsuccessfully. More openly, in February 1962, the United States started an economic embargo against Cuba. But all these actions were just to draw the attention from the key US actions: the location of mid-range missiles aimed at the Soviet Union in Izmir, Turkey. Nevertheless, this fact became known for Soviet leaders, and Khrushchev publicly expressed anger and personal felony from the Turkish missile location. The Cuban missile consumption – the first time Soviet missiles were outside the USSR – was his retort to U.S. nuclear missiles in Turkey. Previously, Khrushchev had expressed hesitation to the poet Robert Frost about the willingness of the “liberal” U.S. to struggle over tough matters.
The missiles from both sides were located under immense secrecy, and it is hard to state, whether the Cuban location was the retort to the Turkish one or vice versa.
Korean War
This war became the indirect confrontation of the two blocks, resulting in another bloodshed, which took place in the country, divided by two ideologies, and struggling for freedom, safety, and flourishing.
On August 10th, 1945, after the Japanese capitulation in WWII, Korea was divided into two parts, along the 38th parallel, suggesting that the north part will be controlled by the Soviet Union, and the South – by the USA correspondingly. The elections in the south led to the defeat of leftist powers, which led to their boycott of the held elections, and the authority in the north part was passed to Kim Chen Ir, while the Southern part was under the authority of anti-leftist Syngman Rhee government.
The Korean War injured both Koreas hardly. Nevertheless, South Korea languished financially in the decade following the war, it was later able to update and industrialize. On the contrary, the North Korean economy improved rapidly after the war and until around 1975 exceeded that of South Korea. Nevertheless, North Korea’s economy finally slowed down. Nowadays, the North Korean financial system is virtually imaginary while the South Korean one is increasing.
A heavily safeguarded demilitarized zone (DMZ) on the 38th Parallel still divides the peninsula today. Anti-Communist and anti-North Korea emotions still stay in South Korea today, and most South Koreans are opposing the North Korean government. Nevertheless, a “Sunshine Policy” is applied by the scheming party, the Uri Party. The Uri Party and President Roh, the South Korean president, have often opposed the USA in discussions about North Korea, but the Grand National Party (GNP), the Uri Party’s main opposing party, still keeps an anti-North Korea policy today.
Conclusion
The decade, following WWII, turned out to be rather challenging for the whole world, and the exam on peace co-existence was almost failed several times. The Yalta conference, Caribbean missile crisis, and the Korean War as the depictions of the Cold War are the sides of the same coin, as the former inevitably led to the latter.