The Global Cold War Proxy Wars, Coup d'états, and Revolutions History 111 – World History since 1500

Spring 2022

Jorge Minella ([email protected])

Late 1945

 Some countries and societies devastated.

 Europe, China, USSR in particular.

 True extent of Nazi crimes against humanity being uncovered.

 United Nations recently created.

 Imperial system in disarray.

 Rising nationalism among colonial subjects.

Post-WWII World

 Economic growth.

 Decolonization.  And post-colonial nation-building.

 In the context of…

 The Cold War.  Indirect USSR-USA confrontation.

 Global.

Today’s Class

 Origins and effects of the Cold War.

 Global.

 The Cuban Revolution,.

 A Cold War parable.

 Difficulties of staying out of Superpowers’ influence.

The Global Cold War

The Cold War Defined

 “The rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States that followed World War II and shaped world politics between 1945 and 1989” (textbook, 994).

 Multiple dimensions.

 Tried to show the world each had the best model.

 For modern prosperity.

 Ideology and security.

 From diplomacy to proxy wars.

 Affected Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

 Global Cold War.

Cold War Origins

 Ideological and geopolitical confrontation since earlier on.

 Mutual mistrust since 1917.

 Post-WW2.

 Both emerged as superpowers.

 Although had experienced the war differently.

 USA’s territory unharmed.

 Massive destruction in the USSR.

The USSR and Eastern Europe

 Pro-Soviet Communist regimes installed in Eastern Europe.

 Buffer zone.

 Followed Stalin’s brutal economic development blueprint.

 Collectivization of agriculture.

 State controlled heavy industry.

 Nationalization of private property.

 Soviet control of Eastern European regimes.

Germany Divided

Soviet and American tanks face each other in Berlin, October 1961.

The United States

 Economic and military aid to gain and consolidate allegiance.

 Containment.

 Aid initially to rebuild Europe and Japan.

 Later to many countries in Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

Construction in West Berlin featuring a Marshall Plan sign, 1948.

Economic and Military Aid Collateral Effects

 Positive effects.

 Rebuilding infrastructure.

 Improving material conditions.

 Possible collateral effects.

 U.S. influence in local politics not always positive.

 E.g. Latin American 1960s and 1970s military dictatorships.

Budapest 1956 and Prague 1968

 Examples of how difficult it was to leave the superpowers’ influence and control.

 City of Budapest, Hungary, 1956.

 Student protest turned revolt against pro- Soviet communist regime.

 Government ousted.

 Soviet invasion restored pro-Soviet regime.

 City of Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1968.

 Local communist party sought liberalizing reforms still within socialism.

 Obtained popular support.

 Soviet invasion. A scene in Budapest, Hungary, October 1956.

The Cuban Revolution A Parable of the Cold War

Why the Cuban Revolution?

 What does the Cuban Revolution suggest about the Cold War context?

 How the superpowers competed for control across the globe.

 How smaller countries navigated the Cold War under constraints.

 The interaction between a global phenomenon (the Cold War) a local reality and history (Cuba, specifically).

The Cuban Revolution’s Roots

 Go way deeper than the Cold War.

 Americans and the Cuban sugar planter elite associated since around the 1870s.

 Cuba virtually an American protectorate following independence from Spain in 1898.

Growing U.S. Influence

 Cuban economy heavily dependent on sugar exports and U.S. investors and traders.

 Economic fluctuations caused unrest.

 And successive U.S. interventions.

 Fulgencio Batista.

 Post-Great Depression pro-U.S. dictator, 1934-1959.

 Entertainment, sugar, communications, energy, and mining sectors controlled by American investors and a few Cuban associates.

1950s advertisement of a Cuban Hotel and Cassino to the American public.

1950s Cuba and Fidel Castro

 Cuban middle and working-class.

 Sought higher standards of living.

 Fidel Castro.

 Middle-class reformer, not a communist.

 Turned to armed struggle due to lack of political openings in Batista’s dictatorship.

Guerrilla in Cuba

 Castro met Che Guevara in Mexico.

 Poverty and U.S. intervention in Latin America worried both.

 82-men guerrilla groups arrived in Cuba in 1956.

 To destabilize Batista’s regime and cause it to fall.

 International public relations campaign.

 Good relationship with the peasants in the countryside.

The Fall of Batista  Castro expected an urban uprising

that did not happen.

 Batista kept the cities under control with brutal repression.

 U.S. drops support for Batista.

 August 1958, guerrilla in the offensive.

 Batista left, Castro entered Havana on January 1st 1959.

 No Soviets in the picture so far.

Castro’s group enter Havana with a captured tank. January 1st, 1959.

What kind of revolution?

 Cuba’s history of U.S. domination.

 Would put Castro and the U.S. in route of collision.

 When all opposition to U.S. interest was seen as a pro-Soviet communist plot.

 Most of the population shared:

 Disgust for the old political establishment.

 Sought greater social justice.

 Greater independence.

 But beyond that, how to achieve such goals? No clear blueprint.

 But lots of power in the hands of Castro.

Castro’s Early Measures and Escalating Confrontation with the U.S.  Took the opportunity to centralize power.

 Wage increases, price control, land reform.

 Land reform clashed with U.S. interest; seen as communist.

 Escalation of Cuba-U.S. confrontation.

 Trade agreement with the Soviet Union.

 CIA and Pentagon acted to undermine Castro.

Bay of Pigs, April 1961

 CIA-backed invasion of Cuba by an army of Cuban exiles.

 Expected an uprising to begin against Castro following the beginning of the invasion.

 Underestimated Cuba’s defense capabilities and initial popular support for the revolution.

 Disaster for the U.S.; triumph for Castro.

After Bay of Pigs

 Castro deepened ties with the Soviet Union.

 Turned the Cuban Communist Party as the backbone of a single-party system.

 Declared himself a Marxist- Leninist.

 Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962.

Castro and Khrushchev in the 1960s in Moscow.

Cuba and the Cold War

 Emergence of the Cuban socialist regime deeply connected to the Cold War.

 And to Cuba’s previous historical experience.

 Cuba’s socialism endured the Cold War; many phases.

 Legacy of some social improvement.

 But lack of freedom and economic hardship due to a combination of reasons.

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