The Cold War
The Cold War - the 50 years of great power tension after World War II -
did not see a formal state of war between the U.S. and USSR. However, "proxy wars" fought by the clients of each superpower and conflicts occurring in the wake of decolonization killed millions in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Ironically, Europe, caught in the stalemate between the United States and the Soviet Union enjoyed its longest time of peace in recorded history. |
Washington and Moscow led their allies through the postwar decades with a
mixture of aggressiveness and wisdom. From the first, the west's economic and social structures were more productive than those of the eastern bloc. Yet through a massive effort, the Soviet Union achieved military parity with the west by the mid-1970s. By the last decade of the twentieth century, economic exhaustion brought an end to the Cold War. Increased cooperation characterized the relations between Moscow and Washington, as both looked to a new era in which they would try to keep their dominant roles in the world. |
By the end of 1945, the growing tension between the Soviet Union and the
United States made it impossible to construct a peace settlement. At the Potsdam Conference in the summer of 1945 a council of ministers was set up to draft peace treaties. After two years of difficult negotiations treaties were signed with Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Finland. In 1951, an accord between the western powers and the Japanese reestablished Japan as a sovereign state. Austria's position remained uncertain until 1955 when a peace treaty was signed and occupation forces withdrawn. The western allies and the Soviets were completely at odds over the German peace settlement. Not until the signing of the Helsinki Accords in 1975 was a status quo for Europe acknowledged, and that agreement did not have the force of a binding legal treaty. Finally, in the summer of 1990 the diplomatic issues spawned by World War II were put to rest in a series of treaties signed by all European parties. |