By Marsha Klein
Immediately after the ending of World War II, the Soviet Union distanced itself politically and diplomatically from the West. In particular, it cold-shouldered the USA, created a wide diplomatic gap as well as an aggressive economic and military rivalry between the two nations. That rivalry, and its associated ideological divide, was the Cold War. Political defections, international intrigue, diplomatic dramas, national espionage and military grandstanding characterized the period. A cold war author was presented with a rich cascade of plots and sub-plots for many years.
During World War II, Soviet Russia fought fiercely against Nazi Germany as a valued ally with the West. Despite that alliance, the relationship between the Soviet Union and western countries was, even at that time, brittle. The relationship was burdened with distrust born out of ideological disdain. Communism and capitalism are not natural bedfellows.
Within the context of the Second World War, the Soviet Union did maintain a reasonably constant dialogue with its western allies in order to defeat Nazism. But once the war ended, the Soviet Union withdrew within itself. It almost totally cut-off dialogue with, and diplomatically distanced itself from the West.
Within a year of WWII ending, the Soviets had already begun to pull away from western countries. Sir Winston Churchill criticized this detente in a speech he presented at the Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, during March 1946. He described Soviet isolationism as having pulled a large Iron Curtain down upon Europe, dividing West from East.
All the countries to the east of that curtain were subject to a high degree of Soviet influence, if not absolute control. Eastern European nations within the Soviet sphere of influence included Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Romania. These Soviet satellites were widely regarded to be a source of instability for peace.
Similarly, the Soviet Russia continually rejected normal diplomatic relationships with western nations. It remained deliberately distant. Its absence of dialogue created an information void. Lacking hard data, the West filled that void with doubt and uncertainty regarding Soviet military intentions. Nobody knows, Churchill said in his speech, if the Soviet and its global satellites have expansionist ambitions.
Churchill titled his Westminster College talk the Sinews of Peace. However, commentators quickly dropped that banner in favor of the Iron Curtain speech. Many analysts now consider that speech to be one of the first indications signaling the start of the intense detente between Soviet Russia and the West that was the Cold War.
Limited information about conditions in the Soviet Union was available to western analysts. As a result, the Central Intelligence Agency and many other analysts in the West seriously overestimated the economic wealth and military power of Soviet Russia. That serious miscalculation persisted until the 1990s when Soviet President Gorbachev introduced a set of progressive policies known collectively as Perestroika. Those policies fundamentally changed the country. They opened up the economy, dismantled many of the old communist bureaucracies and constraints and introduced market mechanisms to determine prices and guide resource allocation by decision makers. In short, Perestroika marked the beginning of the end of the intense detente that provided so much literary fodder for a Cold War author.
During World War II, Soviet Russia fought fiercely against Nazi Germany as a valued ally with the West. Despite that alliance, the relationship between the Soviet Union and western countries was, even at that time, brittle. The relationship was burdened with distrust born out of ideological disdain. Communism and capitalism are not natural bedfellows.
Within the context of the Second World War, the Soviet Union did maintain a reasonably constant dialogue with its western allies in order to defeat Nazism. But once the war ended, the Soviet Union withdrew within itself. It almost totally cut-off dialogue with, and diplomatically distanced itself from the West.
Within a year of WWII ending, the Soviets had already begun to pull away from western countries. Sir Winston Churchill criticized this detente in a speech he presented at the Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, during March 1946. He described Soviet isolationism as having pulled a large Iron Curtain down upon Europe, dividing West from East.
All the countries to the east of that curtain were subject to a high degree of Soviet influence, if not absolute control. Eastern European nations within the Soviet sphere of influence included Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Romania. These Soviet satellites were widely regarded to be a source of instability for peace.
Similarly, the Soviet Russia continually rejected normal diplomatic relationships with western nations. It remained deliberately distant. Its absence of dialogue created an information void. Lacking hard data, the West filled that void with doubt and uncertainty regarding Soviet military intentions. Nobody knows, Churchill said in his speech, if the Soviet and its global satellites have expansionist ambitions.
Churchill titled his Westminster College talk the Sinews of Peace. However, commentators quickly dropped that banner in favor of the Iron Curtain speech. Many analysts now consider that speech to be one of the first indications signaling the start of the intense detente between Soviet Russia and the West that was the Cold War.
Limited information about conditions in the Soviet Union was available to western analysts. As a result, the Central Intelligence Agency and many other analysts in the West seriously overestimated the economic wealth and military power of Soviet Russia. That serious miscalculation persisted until the 1990s when Soviet President Gorbachev introduced a set of progressive policies known collectively as Perestroika. Those policies fundamentally changed the country. They opened up the economy, dismantled many of the old communist bureaucracies and constraints and introduced market mechanisms to determine prices and guide resource allocation by decision makers. In short, Perestroika marked the beginning of the end of the intense detente that provided so much literary fodder for a Cold War author.
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