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#1:

The Times-Warner Cold War Documentary is a twenty-four episode television documentary that aired in 1998; It shows footage and interviews from the events between the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War. Pat Mitchell and Jeremy Isaacs, producers of this series (Cold War) also produced a World War II documentary series titled The World at War. Some of the writers are: Hella Pick, Jeremy Isaacs (producer), and Lawrence Freedman. Each episode of the series features different footage and interviews from significant figures and witnesses of particular events. Harry S. Truman was an American politician and the 33rd President of the United States. Prior to becoming president, Truman had served as U.S. Senator from Missouri (1935-1945) and as Vice President (1945). He was president during the end of World War II, and when tensions with the Soviet Union started to increase leading to the Cold War. Truman’s Speech to Congress was delivered in March 12, 1947. In the speech, Truman requested and justified his request to provide financial aid to Greece and Turkey. The excerpt of Truman’s speech was taken from U.S. Congress, Congressional Record, 80th Congress, 1st session. Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, met with the Warsaw Pact nations to assess potential threats to the socialist camp. As a result of the situation in Czechoslovakia, in 1968, the socialist states wrote A Letter to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Such letter was taken from Moscow News in 1968.

The U.S. and the Soviet Union, previously allied during World War II, struggled during the Cold War with opposing ideological, economic, and political factors. The United States saw the possible expansion of communism or socialism in Europe as a threat. In contrast, the Soviet Union was hoping that the struggling states would turn to socialism. Such fears and desires led these two powers to intervene and “support” emerging nations. One of the tools used by the U.S. was the Marshall Plan, which was aimed at helping the devastated countries of Europe after World War II. The Soviet Union started supporting emerging and struggling countries, such as Ethiopia and Egypt. The U.S. perceived such support as a threat of expansion and was driven to offer help and weapons to certain countries as well. The documentary states that the emerging nations used the Cold War to obtain arms and money. As the situation grew, the super powers agreed not to seek advantage at the others extent, in Moscow’s Summit (1972). However, “Super powers spawned an arm race in the developing world, their promises of restraint were blown to the winds” (Tuner, “Good Guys, Bad Guys”). The super powers not only intervened in the Eastern Hemisphere (Ethiopia, Egypt, Israel, Angola), they also intervened in the West (Cuba, Guatemala). Fidel Castro’s policies were perceived as a threat by the United States, therefore, the president wanted to remove him from power. As revolutions started to occur in Latin America, the U.S. offered help to countries in need. However, most of them did not want to become involved in the conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The situation “cost Latin America millions of lives,” but the U.S. believed that allowing them to fall into communist regimes would have led to worst outcomes (Turner, “Backyard”).

As previously mentioned, the U.S. and Soviet Union intervened in various countries during the Cold War. The Soviets provided weapons to Egypt and supported the creation of the state of Israel (1948). However, in 1967 Israel was surrounded by Soviet troops and turned to the United States for weapons and support. When Egyptian territory was lost to the Jews, the Soviet Union felt that they had to compensate for such loss. After the Moscow Summit (1972), Egypt attacked Israel eager to win back the lost territory. Nevertheless, the U.S. was winning the Cold War, in the Middle East, and the Soviet Union’s mistrust towards the U.S. grew. During the conflict between the MPLA, FNLA, and UNITA, Angola turned to Cuba for help because they feared the MPLA, which was allied with the Soviet Union. The Cubans were determined to end the South African advance and obtained the victory. In Latin America, Cuba resisted the attempts of the U.S. to remove Fidel Castro from power. Furthermore, Castro provided support for Allende’s policies in Chile. As the violence in El Salvador became worse, President Carter (U.S.A.) aided and advised the country to overcome its situation. Most of the intervention, by the U.S. and Soviet Union, was done in Egypt, Israel, South Africa, Cuba, El Salvador, etc. (the last two mainly by the U.S.).

The Cold War began when Truman was president. He was committed to containing the expansion of the Soviet Union, and supporting opponents of Communism everywhere (Through the “Truman Doctrine”). In his speech to Congress, in March 12, 1947, Truman said: “I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures” (Truman’s Speech to Congress in Mindtap 26-1c). Leonid Brezhnev’s supported the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia through the “Brezhnev Doctrine.” He stated: “the perseveration of the socialist system in Czechoslovakia are not only your task but ours as well…” (A Letter to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in Mindtap 26-1c). I believe that the reciprocal fear between the United States and the Soviet Union is justified because they were conscious about what each country was capable of doing to defend their beliefs. I also believe that such fear is a sign that they were, at least partially, aware that most of their actions were not justifiable.

Do you think that the losses caused by the Cold War are justified by either the United State’s and/or the Soviet Union’s goals?

#2:

The 1998 documentary series Cold War was produced by Pat Mitchell and Jeremy Isaacs with various others contributing to the show’s writing. The series broke up the Cold War across 24 episodes with each one focusing on a particular time period or set of related events. Episode seventeen, “Good Guys, Bad Guys”, discusses the conflict between US backed Israel and Soviet backed Egypt, as well as the two powers providing aid to groups vying for power in Africa. The episode titled “Backyard” goes over how the United States tried to stop communist movements in Latin America by providing aid to more right wing groups and inciting coups. In his speech before Congress on March 12, 1947, President Truman laid out what would become the United States’ foreign policy regarding communist expansion. While requesting aid for Greece and Turkey, Truman implies that it must be the job of the U.S. to halt communist expansion and support those resisting it. Similarly, Soviet Party chief Leonid Brezhnev states, in his address to the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in the summer of 1968, that it is the duty of the members of the Warsaw Pact to prevent other socialist and communist nations from being steered away from those political systems.

In the films, the ambitions of the U.S. are to prevent the spread of communism in the 3rd word developing countries mentioned, and possibly overthrow any communist regimes already established. The approach taken was to support any promising noncommunist groups with funding and sometimes weapons, so they could fight off the communists or start a coup. For example, when during the 1950s the Guatemalan government began showing signs of communism taking root, the CIA helped mobilize peasants and exiles against the government. According to CIA chief Howard Hunt, the goal was to create “a terror campaign. To terrify Arbenz particularly, terrify his troops…” (Film: “Cold War Documentary Part 18 – “Backyard” 1954-1990”). As a result, the Guatemalan leader Jacobo Arbenz was exiled, his government overthrown, and many of his supporters arrested. The motivation of the Soviet Union was to cultivate and aid the spread of Communism throughout the world. In one of the films Karen Brutents of the Communist Party Central Committee states “In Europe, the borders were set in stone, and there was no opportunity of expansion there for either side. It would have started a new world war. Where could the hunting take place?” (Film: “Cold war Documentary Part 17 – “Good Guys, Bad Guys” 1967-1978”). The 3rd world developing countries were where the hunting could take place. They needed and wanted support from wherever they could get it, and the Soviets were willing and ready to do so and spread communism.

One of the Cold War “hot spots” discussed in the first film is the conflict between Israel and Egypt. Egypt received support from the Soviet Union that helped the country to further develop. Eventually Egypt, along with other Arab nations, sought to destroy Israel. Between Israel and Egypt, Israel came out the victor after defeating several Arab armies during the Six Day War in 1967 and eventually pushing back Egyptian forces in their retaliatory attacks. However, the real winner of the conflict was the United States. It was able to demonstrate its ability to successfully support developing nations, and an unwillingness to back down to Soviet threats and demands. The next of the hot spots mentioned was Angola. In Angola, the victors were the communist MPLA forces and the Soviet Union, as the MPLA were in power at the beginning of Angola’s independence and it resisted several attacks by other U.S. backed groups. In Latin America, the next hot spot, the U.S. was largely successful in asserting its dominance in the region, with the exception of Cuba.

The roles played by Truman and Brezhnev during the Cold War were to create the basis for the foreign policies of their respective nations and to create the perpetuate the tensions between themselves. In his address to Congress in 1947, Truman says “I believe it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures” (Truman, “The Truman Doctrine” in Mindtap, 26-1c). This established that the U.S. would not allow for the spread of communism outside of its current borders, and would further paint communists as the enemy for decades to come. Similarly, Leonid Brezhnev wrote in his letter to the Communist party of Czechoslovakia “… we cannot agree to have hostile forces push your country from the road of socialism and create a threat of severing Czechoslovakia from the socialist community…” (Brezhnev, “The Brezhnev Doctrine” in Mindtap, 26-1c). Similar to Truman’s statement, this establishes that the Soviet Union will not allow its allies to succumb to outside forces. However, it differs in the obvious fact that Brezhnev is seeking to defend communism.

Question: Who gained more out of the Cold War, the U.S., Soviet Union, or developing 3rd World countries?