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Cold War and terrorism | Keeping the peace
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Cold War and terrorism

As well as these open conflicts, or 'hot' wars, the entire postwar world was affected by two other phenomena ...

Cold War (1945-1991)

This was a political and diplomatic conflict that, at times, threatened to escalate into open warfare. It was carried out between the Western powers, led by the United States, and the Eastern Bloc, led by the Soviet Union.

The term 'Cold War' originated in a speech made by Bernard Baruch, a financier and special adviser to the US president Harry Truman, in Columbia, South Carolina, on 16 April 1947. At the time, the US Congress was discussing the Truman Doctrine, which pledged support for 'free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities'. This anti-Communism was a sharp change from the West's support for the Soviet Union during World War II.

After the war, American aid was given to several western European countries, while the Soviet Union built up its eastern European satellite states. There was an escalation of tension in 1949 when the Soviets blockaded Berlin, and the division of Europe hardened with the formation of Nato (1949-50) and the Warsaw Pact (1950). The Korean War, with the involvement this time of Communist China, was symptomatic of the increasing sabre rattling of the time.

There were further crises when Soviet troops invaded Hungary, and when Britain, Israel and France invaded Egypt during the Suez crisis (both 1956). The building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 and the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 also brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. The arms race was a clear expression of Cold War rivalry, which often turned into real conflict in areas such as South-east Asia and Central America.

Tensions began to relax in the 1970s, especially following German chancellor Willy Brandt's policy of reconciliation. The reform policies of Mikhail Gorbachev greatly reduced Cold War friction, and following the reunification of Germany in 1990, US president George Bush was able to declare the Cold War at an end in January 1991.

Terrorism

The systematic use of violence to achieve political ends has become a common tactic among a wide variety of groups, from independence movements to a country's secret services (the Soviet Union's KGB is a good example). Random bombings, shootings and/or 'disappearances' – and the fear and panic they provoke – can put pressure on governments, proving that they are unable to protect their populations, or can be used by dictatorships to frighten their people into submission and obedience.

Terrorism was used by dictators such as Hitler and Stalin. It was also employed by groups fighting for what they considered to be their rights, such as the Zionist terrorists in Palestine after World War II, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) in the 1970s and the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the Troubles in Northern Ireland (1969-2000).

There were many politicians – Nelson Mandela being the most distinguished – who started their careers as terrorists and ended up as presidents of their countries.

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