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.
The Soviet Union fought against Nazi Germany as an ally of the British-French-USA military axis during World War 2, In spite of that alliance, the relationship between the Soviet and western countries was very fragile and brittle. This is perhaps not surprising given the huge difference in the political ideology that divided the two sides at that time. After all, communism and capitalism are far from easy bedfellows.
During the war, Soviet Russia maintained some dialogue with western allies. However, once the war ended, it withdrew. It severely limited its diplomatic dialogue and established a deep and wide ideological gulf with the western countries.
Less than a year after the war ended, Sir Winston Churchill bemoaned Soviet detente in a speech he delivered at Westminster College in Missouri, in March 1946. Churchill described how isolationist Soviet foreign policy had brought down an Iron Curtain across Europe, from the Baltic to the Adriatic, dividing western nations from those in the east.
Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia plus Romania were all under a high degree of Soviet influence if not control. They were puppets of the Soviet Union. Their communist parties were funded significantly by the Soviet Union.
Similarly, continual Soviet rebuffs towards establishing lasting friendship with western powers and its insistence instead on a policy of detente created deep doubts and uncertainties for many countries in Europe and around the world. Nobody knows, Churchill said, if Soviet Russia and its global communist organization has expansionist ambitions and, if so, what the limits of those ambitions were, if any.
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.
Throughout that five decades of Soviet detente, limited data about its economy and military were available to other nations. Western analysts grossly over-estimated Soviet economic wealth and military might. That misunderstanding greatly contributed to the arms race. Eventually, burdened by a crippling budget deficit, the Soviet Union moved to limit its military spending. Its President Gorbachev introduced Perestroika, a set of policies to strengthen the efficiency of the economy. He abolished bureaucratic constraints on individuals and businesses, introduced the market system to many sectors and opened it to global competition. Gorbachev also ended diplomatic detente with the West. As a result, a rich source of literary ideas, that any Cold War author had enjoyed for decades, dried up.
The Soviet Union fought against Nazi Germany as an ally of the British-French-USA military axis during World War 2, In spite of that alliance, the relationship between the Soviet and western countries was very fragile and brittle. This is perhaps not surprising given the huge difference in the political ideology that divided the two sides at that time. After all, communism and capitalism are far from easy bedfellows.
During the war, Soviet Russia maintained some dialogue with western allies. However, once the war ended, it withdrew. It severely limited its diplomatic dialogue and established a deep and wide ideological gulf with the western countries.
Less than a year after the war ended, Sir Winston Churchill bemoaned Soviet detente in a speech he delivered at Westminster College in Missouri, in March 1946. Churchill described how isolationist Soviet foreign policy had brought down an Iron Curtain across Europe, from the Baltic to the Adriatic, dividing western nations from those in the east.
Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia plus Romania were all under a high degree of Soviet influence if not control. They were puppets of the Soviet Union. Their communist parties were funded significantly by the Soviet Union.
Similarly, continual Soviet rebuffs towards establishing lasting friendship with western powers and its insistence instead on a policy of detente created deep doubts and uncertainties for many countries in Europe and around the world. Nobody knows, Churchill said, if Soviet Russia and its global communist organization has expansionist ambitions and, if so, what the limits of those ambitions were, if any.
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.
Throughout that five decades of Soviet detente, limited data about its economy and military were available to other nations. Western analysts grossly over-estimated Soviet economic wealth and military might. That misunderstanding greatly contributed to the arms race. Eventually, burdened by a crippling budget deficit, the Soviet Union moved to limit its military spending. Its President Gorbachev introduced Perestroika, a set of policies to strengthen the efficiency of the economy. He abolished bureaucratic constraints on individuals and businesses, introduced the market system to many sectors and opened it to global competition. Gorbachev also ended diplomatic detente with the West. As a result, a rich source of literary ideas, that any Cold War author had enjoyed for decades, dried up.
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