Tensions During The Cold War

‘Between 1949 and 1955 Cold War tensions increased rather than decreased’

Between 1949 and 1955 there were a range of events that affected international relations. In 1949, it was the end of the Berlin blockade, the Soviets had exploded an atomic bomb and China had become a communist country. In this essay, there will be discussing on whether there was a thaw in relations or whether tensions increased, which is what I will be arguing for.

John Foster Dulles’ idea of brinkmanship could be an argument for tensions increasing rather than decreasing between 1949 and 1955. The idea was that the USA could use nuclear strength to attempt to force agreements from communist opposition. The policy seemed to increase the danger of a future war as he believed

Known as the ‘Red Scare’, this phenomenon was exacerbated by the rise of communism in the Far East. Starting with the communist takeover in China in 1949, which raised fears in the US that communism would spread, several other countries in the Far East such as Korea and Vietnam would then later partly become communist. The Korean War of 1950 to 1953 strengthened the US’ view that the Soviet Union had aggressive and expansionist tendencies. The USA’s obsession with ‘domino theory’, a term used by Eisenhower in 1954 to describe the fall of countries in Asia one by one to communism, meant that it was predictable people were going to be conditioned into thinking that communism is like some sort of virus and that tensions would increase at that

At a time of seemingly increasing co-operation, much was expected from the first summit involving USSR and US leaders since Potsdam in 1945. The ‘Geneva Spirit’ of co-operation was short lived as the admission of West Germany into NATO complicated matters regarding uniting Germany. The only agreement to come out of the summit was the cultural exchange of scientists, musicians and artists between the USA and USSR; that should not be overlooked. Expectations on both sides were high and it could be argued that both sides did not forsee the negotiations collapsing the way the way they did, and possibly it was the unexpectedness of this that increased tensions. Particularly for Khrushchev, who hoped to change relations between the Soviets and the USA, who was prepared to have a united neutral Germany, which could perhaps show that the failure to reach real agreements led to increased tensions between 1949 and