Cold War History Essay Writing Tips

Wrting an essay about the Cold War has its own set of unique challenges, beyond those associated with writing a history essay on any topic. There are pitfalls to avoid, as well as things that you should take into account. The most important are:


1. The Cold War Is Over, But...

Hindsight is a wonderful tool, but sometimes it can skew your perspective. Specifically, don't write a history paper from the perspective that the way events turned out is the only way that they could have turned out. Always put yourselves in the shoes of the people of the time—at least as best as you can.

With regard to the Cold War, it's vital that you don't write your essay as if the outcome was a foregone conclusion. Yes, the United States exists and the Soviet Union does not. Yes, Communism as a political movement is largely discredited while "Western capitalism" is alive and well. However, Cold War policymakers, journalists, and generals didn't know, in 1963, that within the next thirty the Soviet Union and its ideology would collapse. Heck, political scientists in the 1980s were flabbergasted when 1989 rolled along! Therefore, when you're trying to understand and later explain Cold War decisions, you can't explain them from your own, hindsight-deluded, perspective. Think back in time, to when the red menace still ruled the Earth...

For example, the Soviet crushing of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 is nowadays often seen as one of the first steps in the eventual dissolution of the Soviet empire. But, in 1956, it may have seemed like exactly the opposite: a Soviet show of strength that proved just how powerful the USSR still was!


2. ...it's Politics Still Reverberate.

The further you go in your education, the more political it gets. This is especially true in the Humanities and Social Sciences; this is especially true in History and Political Science.

By the time you get to college and university, getting a good grade usually means—to a greater or lesser extent—appealing to your professor's political point of view. You can whine about it, but that's the way it is.

Now, ten or fifteen years ago, this meant, quite simply, being liberal. What did this entail, in a few blunt words: sucking up to the Soviets. Those days are being left behind, however, and the political spectrum at institutes of higher learning is beginning to level out. While this may be a good development in many ways, it makes writing papers a bit trickier, too. Now, you can't just assume your prof's a hardcore liberal and write a love letter to Khrushchev. Instead, you have to read your prof (ask him or her pointed questions about current events, for example) and find out what he or she is like. Then tailor your essay to fit your prof's political views. You may not like it, but it's certainly a part of writing a "good" Cold War paper.

Incidentally, since the Bush administration has done a fine job of raising the level of anti-Americanism beyond the US as well as within its own borders, you also have to factor that in. Writing papers critical of US Cold War-era involvement in Latin America, for example, will get you better grades in this type of environment than an equally well-researched and well-written paper on why, for example, staging a coup in Chile and putting Pinochet into power wasn't so bad.

Politics isn't just in the past.


3. Sources

Finally, be aware of who you're reading. Cold War historians are infamous for filling their books with moral judgments—sometimes well hidden, so look carefully—of not only their subjects but also of other historians. Their works may still be useful, but filter them by finding out a bit about who their authors are. Did they work in the State Department, did they stage small pro-Mao rallies in their spare time?

This is good historical practice anyway, but even more so when dealing with modern history, and subjects like the Cold War. Because there are historians who'll tell you, with a straight face, that America is the greatest thing to hit the world since sliced bread (hello, Niall Ferguson!); and, God knows, Marxist historians still persist (The Age of Hobsbawm ain't over yet). So take the time to get to know the personality behind the words. It'll pay off.


Well, that's the end of this week's Cold War History Essay Writing Tips. Tune in next week for more. Same Cold War time, same Cold War channel!

Cold War Timeline

The following is a list of events significant to the Cold War. It is divided into three general sections, of which the middle section is the longest and most directly concerned with the immediate history of the Cold War. The other two sections are context and aftermath.

Reading over this narrative Cold War timeline should give you a grounding in Cold War history and its context, and introduce you to the most important and interesting events of the Cold War—which you may then wish yo study in more detail!

I. Pre Cold War



1776

The most symbolic date of the American Revolutionary period: the year of the Declaration of Independence. For our purposes, we shall call this the year that the United States (USA) came into existence.

Adam Smith publishes his Wealth of Nations, bringing into the world "the invisible hand of market" and the foundations of laissez-faire capitalism. The market, argues Smith, will regulate itself; rational self-interest will create the best for the most.

It is useful that we can trace both the beginning of the USA and of what Communism would come to see as "Western capitalism" to the same year.

1848

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto. Along with other writings, this will become the foundation of Soviet Communism. Marx and Engels see the world defined by material conditions, and theorize the revolution that will re-arrange the existing (Industrialist) social order, bringing about a classless society.


1917

The Russian Revolution. Following an abdication and a brief liberal government, Lenin and his Bolshevik Party stage a coup d'etat and seize power in Russia. Over the next few years, the Bolsheviks will defeat their opponents and consolidate their power. Communism is born.


1919

In Hungary, the Communist Bela Kun proclaims a Communist state—the world's second. It does not last long, and is soon replaced by the Conservative regime of Admiral Horthy. Already, the ideological fight between Communism and, broadly defined, Capitalism has begun.

1919-21

The Polish-Soviet War is fought. Lenin, who wishes to bring revolution to Europe through force, is defeated by the Poles. The spread of Communism is contained. Lenin changes tactics: instead of revolution by force, he will seek to foster Communist parties and Communist revolution by other, less military, means.

1922

The Soviet Union (USSR) is officially created. It is recognized by the British two years later. It will last until 1991.


1924

Lenin dies, unleashing a power struggle within the Communist Party. Over the next few years, Joseph Stalin emerges as the new leader of the USSR.

1928

Stalin introduces the USSR's first five-year plan. Part of this plan is a change in international strategy: no longer focused on a world revolution, as was Lenin, Stalin sets his goal as "socialism in one country".


1933

The US establishes a diplomatic relationship with the USSR.


1936-39

The Spanish Civil War becomes the first fighting ground for what will come to be called The Cold War. Franco's Conservatives battle Spanish Socialists. The USSR lends support to the anti-Franco forces, the Fascist Italians and Nazi Germans give aid to Franco, and the USA stays out.


1939-41

The first two years of World War II. In September of 1939, after having signed a secret pact, the Germans and Soviets attack Poland. After Poland falls, the Germans roll westward, into France, which falls quickly, too. Meanwhile, the Soviets, at the end of November, attack Finland. As a result, the USSR is expelled from the League of Nations, the precursor to the United Nations (UN).

Though the USA is giving lend-lease aid to Britain from the beginning of the war, the Americans are not yet directly involved.


1941-45

Germany betrays Stalin and attacks the USSR. Stalin suddenly becomes an Ally.

Later in the same year, the Japanese attack the American base at Pearl Harbor, which is followed up by a declaration of war against the USA by Hitler, sending the Americans into war with both the Japanese and the Germans.

The Americans and Soviets are now on the same side.

After defeats in North Africa, Russia, and the Allied landings in France, the war culminates in a "race to Berlin" between the USA and the USSR, by now the two major powers. The Soviets win.

As a result of a series of conferences held from 1943 to 1945, post-war Europe is uneasily divided between Western and Soviet camps. The Soviets take Eastern half of Germany and Eastern Europe, while the West "takes" Western Germany and Western Europe.

The superpowers and their spheres of influence are set.



II. The Cold War



1947-

After the war, the Americans institute what is known as The Marshall Plan: money given to European countries so that they could rebuild war damage and their economies (and, consequently, become consumer of American goods). Through Marshall aid, which was not given all at once, Western Europe received over $12 billion from the USA. Countries in Eastern Europe wanted a cut of the aid, too, but Stalin declined on their behalf.


1949

The USSR successfully detonates a nuclear bomb. Both superpowers now have nuclear weapons capabilities.

Earlier in the year, Communists win the struggle for control of China. The former government flees to Taiwan.

Finally, 1949 sees the founding of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a military alliance between Western nations that serves as a kind of mutual defense promise.


1950-3

The Korean War. What starts as a civil war between North and South Korea becomes the first Cold War clash between the USA, which supports the South, and the USSR, which supports the North. It ends without a clear winner.


1953

Staliin dies, and is succeeded as Soviet leader by Nikita Khrushchev. Three years later, Khrushchev will denounce elements of Stalin's rule—and lay all the blame for Soviet "excesses" at Stalin's feet—in his famous "secret speech".

De-Stalinization begins.

In Iran, a coup backed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) restores the Shah to power.


1955

The Soviets create a response to NATO: The Warsaw Pact. This military alliance encompasses countries within the sphere of influence of the USSR. Unlike NATO, however, the Warsaw Pact is an agreement imposed on its members.


1956

A series of anti-Soviet revolts in Eastern Europe culminate in the Hungarian Revolution. Budapest rises up against what it views as the unreformed Stalinist practices of its own Communists as well as a national exploitation at the hands of the USSR. The revolution is crushed by the Soviet army. The West does not intervene—both embroiled in its own crisis, the Suez War, and not wanting to damage the status quo.

In 1960, the Americans send a secret telegram to the Soviets, by way of Yugoslavia. Its message: "The Government of the United States does not look with favor upon governments unfriendly to the Soviet Union on the borders of the Soviet Union."


1957

The Soviets launch the Sputnik satellite into space. This prompts fear in the USA that the "space race" is being lost—and, more broadly, that Western education and technology levels are falling behind those of the USSR. The response: more investment in both.


1959

After several years of guerrilla fighting, Fidel Castro becomes the leader of Cuba. Always considered "American" (and once described as an apple that gravity must pull towards the USA), a Castro-led Cuba now dismays the Americans. Although not a Communist revolution, and certainly not a Soviet one, the Cuban Revolution eventually gets pushed into the Soviet camp.


1959-75

Taking over from the French, the USA begins its long and varied war in Vietnam. The country, which was split in 1954 after the French loss at the battle of Dien Bien Phu, sees the Communist North fighting against the South, which is increasingly supported by the Americans; what begins with American "advisers" escalates into a full-blown, media-saturated military conflict.

The Vietnam War is too long and complicated to do justice quickly, but, in the context of the Cold War, it serves as yet another proxy battle steeped in ideology—at least superficially. Even more important, however, is the American "domino theory", which states that if one domino falls (one country "goes Communist"), others will follow. Hence, the Americans see the defeat of Communism in Vietnam as a necessity to keep Communism from spreading elsewhere.

Meanwhile, by this time the USSR is feuding with Communist China and Yugoslavia.


1960

The Soviets shoot down an American spy plane.


1961

American President John F. Kennedy launches an invasion of Cuba by way of a force of Cuban exiles. This attempt to "take back" Cuba, known as The Bay of Pigs invasion, fails. Poor planning and chance are at fault.

Later in the year, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to orbit the Earth. Yet another success for the Soviet space program.

In August, the USSR seals East German borders and begins construction of the Berlin Wall.


1962

The Cuban Missile Crisis. Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba threaten the start of a nuclear war. If the Soviets fire at the USA from Cuba, the American will retaliate by firing at the USSR. Eventually, the crisis is contained and nuclear war averted.

That an agreement is reached says much about the shifting reality of the Cold War.


1964

The Chinese detonate their first nuclear weapon.


1968

The year of protests: in America, against the Vietnam War; in Paris, among the students; and in Eastern Europe, against Soviet control. The most famous, the "Prague Spring", is put down with military force by the USSR.


1969

American astronauts land on the moon. This calms American "space race" fears and is taken to be a validation of American Cold War policy.


1970

Elections in Chile become a Cold War battleground when both the CIA and KGB each spend roughly $450,000 in covert support of opposing candidates: right-leaning Jorge Alessandri and left-leaning Salvador Allende, respectively. Allende wins the election by 1%.

In 1973, the CIA will support a coup that topple's Allende's government.


1979-89

The Soviet-Afghan War. The Soviet version of America's Vietnam War: a prolonged defeat against a technologically inferior and ideologically opposed enemy. Much like Soviet support for North Vietnam in the Vietnam War, the Americans give aid to the Afghanis.


1980-89

A series of anti-Communist movements in Eastern Europe. The most prominent is Poland's Solidarity movement. Unlike earlier attempts at reform and revolt, these are not put down by Soviet force.


1983

American President Ronald Reagan introduces the idea of "Star Wars", an anti-missile satellite system. The move is indicative of American economic pressure on the Soviet, which is no longer able to keep up—or keep up the illusions of keeping up—with American technological and military progress.


1985

Mikjail Gorbachev becomes the Soviet leader. He will introduce a loosening of Soviet controls that will unintentionally lead to the eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union.


1987

Reagan and Gorbachev sign a treaty banning certain types of missiles from Europe.


1989-90

A wave of successful independence movements in Eastern Europe. Communist governments fall across the "Soviet Bloc": Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, etc. The USSR does not intervene.

In 1989, the Berlin Walls falls. In 1990, Germany unites.

1990

Boris Yeltsin elected president of Russia.


1991

The Warsaw Pact comes to a formal end.

The USSR ceases to exist.


III. Post Cold War

In various Eastern European countries, Communists—suddenly reborn under different political names—remain in politics or even in power. Some still remain in power today. The Cold War, though officially "over" because one of the two combatants, the USSR, no longer exists, isn't quite over in Eastern Europe.

In Russia, Vladimir Putin, twice President and still the de facto leader of the country, was a member of the KGB. He stills keeps various KGB ties. In addition, various Communist Party members, though no longer official politicians, now exert political pressure as businessmen in control of vast industrial firms that passed from nationalized control to their own as the chaotic end of the Soviet Union made immense wealth available to those with the proper connections. In Russia, moreso even than in Eastern Europe, the Cold War is not yet over.

Neither is it over in the United States, which still continues with certain Cold War policies (such as constructing a Star Wars-like missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic) and, at times, treats the new "war on terror" as an extension of the Cold War to be fought with similar tactics.

What does this means for the future:

Who knows?

The Cold War is over. Long live the Cold War!

Cause of Cold War

The cause of the Cold War is debatable. Because the Cold War doubles as a conflict between two countries (the USA and the USSR) and between two ideologies (Capitalism and Communism) several different causes can be suggested:


1. Because Capitalism and Communism are usually seen as antithetical, it can be argued that the Cold War began when Communism began, in 1917 with the Russian Revolution. Or, if not quite in 1917, then in early 1920s, when Lenin and his Bolsheviks consolidated their power in Russia and tried to spread Communism to the West, to Europe on the blade of their swords—although they were rather quickly unsuccessful, being defeated by the Poles in the Polish-Soviet War (1919-1921).


2. Another commonly argued cause of the Cold War is, fittingly enough, the beginning of World War II in Europe: 1939. The Soviet Union, now under Stalin, had signed a secret pact with Germany's Hitler, and both countries attacked Poland in September of that year.


3. However, the most popular cause of the Cold War was not the beginning, but the end of World War II: 1945. Stalin, after being betrayed by Hitler in 1941, finished the war on the Allied side, but the tensions between the victorious Western Powers and the USSR were already in evidence. The USSR was gobbling up the countries East of Germany, and part of Germany itself, which made the Americans and British somewhat hesitant. The British feared too strong a Soviet presence in Europe and the Americans wanted a free and open Germany which would become a large market for its products. The Soviets stood in the way to both. In fact, American General George Patton once famously remarked that when the Americans had gotten to Berlin, they should have kept going on to Moscow!


4. Finally, probably the latest starting date and cause for the Cold War that's been argued is 1947, the year in which the Soviets acquired the knowledge to make nuclear weapons. Because the Cold War is so heavily wrapped up into nuclear technology—and technology in general—some will argue that it was caused by the Soviet challenge to American nuclear power, which had been demonstrated at Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.


The most important thing to keep in mind when looking at the cause of the Cold War is that there is no one, definite cause. The Cold War was a conflict that was ideological, that grew out of World War II—which, itself, grew out of World War I and its aftermath—and that was fought in various ways. Hence, the key when deciding on the cause of the Cold War is not which cause you choose, but how well you argue the one you do. They all have more than enough evidence for you to construct a solid argument.