Did you know that there was once a war where there was no war and it is more popularly known today as the Cold War. Does it sound confusing? Well, it's just history. The political propaganda. The History Of The Cold War.
The division of Berlin
The Berlin Wall (Real Image)
The story begins from the World War I in 1917. Read complete history of The World War I here: World War I. There were huge problems in Europe while the war was going on. To stop it, Vladimir Lenin who was the revolutionary leader of Russia (in the Russian Revolution) was brought back from his exile from Switzerland back to Moscow in Russia. He did changed a lot of things and things started getting normal. He threatened everyone while on his deathbed (in 1924) that Joseph Stalin, another leader, shouldn't be made the next leader of Russia as he suspected him of being a dictator. Dictator is someone who rules the country and has full power. And Lenin wanted to make a communist Russia which he did. Basically, as everyone was inspired by the great ideas of the French Revolution, he wanted Russia to be free from monarchy system and dictatorship.
Joseph Stalin
Stalin was a rising force in the communist party. Now what is communism? It is an idea where all the property is owned by a community and each person contributes and receives according to their need and ability. Stalin soon took over Russia after Lenin. He killed everyone who opposed him. Another dictator named Adolf Hitler tried to conquer whole of Europe but later failed. The allies consisted of The US, The British and the Soviet Union (Russia) and they had a pretty good relationship as well.
J. Stalin (Left), Harry S. Truman (Middle), Winston Churchill (Right)
After the World War II, Stalin was made the in charge of the eastern Europe in a meeting of the allies. So, Stalin, throughout the eastern Europe formed Soviet puppet governments as a wall between the western Europe and the eastern Europe. And so, the relationship between the old allies was soon deteriorating. Stalin tried to make many countries communist. Like Greece, Turkey and Iran. The US and British fought them to save those countries from being communist. In the case of Iran, the Soviets and the British decided to leave Iran after the war got over. British left, but Stalin betrayed them and tried to capture Iran. The UN Security Council pressurized the Soviets to get out of Iran.
The establishment of The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949 ensured the Soviets that the west was trying to destroy them. America announced the Truman Doctrine in 1947 where they announced that the Soviets cannot be trusted and they could do anything that they want to prevent the spread of communism throughout the world. Everybody started viewing this moment as the official declaration of the Cold War.
The Cold War (Soviet Union as a bear as it was a respected animal)
And now, let's see what happened next. USA sent 12 billion dollars to western Europe to help them recover from the Economic Crisis. The countries in control of Stalin looked that with envy. This was a full on economic battle between capitalism (US) and communism (The Soviet) although there wasn't any bloodshed. This was like a war without any war. Stalin didn't wanted to get defeated. So, just like the US, Stalin also made economical development in eastern Europe.
But Berlin (In Germany) suffered the most. The city had been divided up between the allies. The western Berlin was controlled by the US and The British while the eastern Berlin was of the Soviets. East Berlin's people travelled to the west to see how the US was developing the nation which was a tactic which made people interested in the western Europe and leave the Soviet Union. Stalin was getting frustrated and so, the Soviets made their own atomic bomb! The whole Europe was worried that if the US and the Soviets had a nuclear war, then it would be more devastating than they had ever even imagined. So, to clear up rumors, Stalin announced that there will be no war between the west and the east.
Now China starts getting involved here. China was US's friend but seeing China getting defeated and the formation of the communist party, the US started worrying. China and the Soviets became friends and the region of the Korea was under the eyes of Stalin. He controlled North Korea and the South Korea was controlled by the US where they set up an anti communist regime. Then there led a major war between the Soviets and the US for Korea where there were changes of dictators after dictators. Finally, both agreed and made truce. North Korea was of the Soviets and South Korea was of the US. US didn't use any nuclear weapons because it didn't wanted to create global destruction.
Red as The Communists and Blue as The UN and The US (Korea Map)
After all that mess, the US decided to change their president and wanted someone who could be tough on communism. So, the people elected the famed general of the WW2, Dwight D. Eisenhower. 1953, Stalin also died. Then came the new leader Nikita Khrushchev. Khrushchev went on a campaign called the De-Stalinization (1956) where statues of Stalin were taken down, Stalingrad was renamed as Volgograd and Khrushchev wanted people to be happy so he allowed complete freedom to the Soviet Union. He did this by brutally suppressing protests in Germany, Poland and Hungary. He started banning things to make people more happy.
Nikita Khrushchev
The West initially liked what Khrushchev was doing, but world events soured the relationship more. The two sides started spying each other a lot throughout the cold war. The US sent spies to the Soviet but the Soviet arrested them before they could do anything.
The US and the Soviets started developing themselves greater than each other. Russia, in the space race, shocked everybody when they launched the first satellite in the world: The Sputnik I and then they also sent a man (Yuri Gagarin) to the space as well. Also, the Soviets had more missiles than the US as well. Khrushchev became so confident that he even let the US set up a technology exhibit in Moscow (1959).
Sputnik - I
Tensions increased when both sides upgraded their atomic bombs to hydrogen bombs. In 1960, Americans again decided to change their president as they needed one who was even more tough on communism. So, then came John F. Kennedy (35th US President).
John F. Kennedy
Now, although the Soviets were advancing in technology, all their money was getting depleted into military and not to the people. Life under communism was very hard. But Berlin still remained a problem. The contrast of the economically wealthy west and the struggling east was getting clearer day by day. Many East Berliners travelled to the west and decided to stay there. This caused eastern factories to slow down, lose workers and economic loss in east Berlin.
Khrushchev was getting mad at all this. So he confronted John F. Kennedy and told his to leave west Berlin. But Kennedy made peace by saying that west Berlin was his and east Berlin was theirs. The US had no interference. Therefore, Khrushchev decided to build this big long wall on the border of west and east Berlin which was known as the "Berlin Wall". On August 13, 1961, Berliners woke up to see that their city had divided into 2 parts. Thousands risked their lives escaping the wall and hundreds died. The west couldn't do anything about it but the wall did display the huge failure of communism. Kennedy had to do something.
The game is not over yet, my friend. Part 2 coming soon.
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