Diplomacy of the Cold War

A Rivalry after the Alliance

The Cold War grew out of the breakdown of the alliance that had defeated Nazi Germany. After 1945, the United States and the Soviet Union increasingly treated one another’s political and military influence as a threat. Disputes over Germany’s occupation, the future of Eastern Europe, and the conditions of economic recovery divided the former partners. [1] [2]

In February 1946, American chargé d’affaires George Kennan sent a long telegram from Moscow arguing that Soviet leaders were deeply suspicious of the outside world but could be resisted without a general war. His analysis helped shape containment: sustained efforts to prevent the expansion of Soviet influence. American officials disagreed about how to apply it. Kennan emphasized political and economic strength, while later advocates of a larger military buildup gave containment a wider and more heavily armed form. [3] [4]

Building Alliances and Managing Local Conflicts

During the Berlin airlift of 1948–1949, Western governments supplied their sectors of the blockaded city by air while seeking a settlement with Moscow. Negotiators drafting the North Atlantic Treaty had to reconcile European demands for reassurance with the American Congress’s constitutional role in decisions about war. NATO was established in 1949; the Soviet Union and its eastern European allies formed the Warsaw Treaty Organization in 1955. [1] [2]

Outside Europe, the rivalry intersected with civil wars, colonial rule, and struggles for national independence. The Korean War brought American and Chinese forces into combat and left diplomats negotiating prisoners and military lines while fighting continued. At Bandung in 1955, Asian and African governments sought greater control over their own international relationships, even though participants differed over communism and existing alliances. [5] [6] [7] [8]

Communicating under Nuclear Threat

During the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, the danger of nuclear war made the interpretation of messages an immediate matter of survival. President John F. Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev exchanged letters while American ships enforced a naval quarantine and military preparations continued. Khrushchev’s message of 27 October proposed linking Soviet missiles in Cuba to American missiles in Turkey and envisaged negotiations through the United Nations. At the same time, Attorney General Robert Kennedy met Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin privately. Public commitments concerning Cuba and a private understanding about removing American Jupiter missiles helped end the confrontation, although the channels did not carry identical information. [9] [10]

Détente, the easing of tensions from the late 1960s, widened negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union. Arms control negotiations produced the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and an interim agreement on strategic arms in 1972. The Helsinki Final Act of 1975 addressed European security, cooperation, and human rights. Competition and wars elsewhere continued. [11]

Changing Partners and an Uncertain Ending

Relations among Communist governments also changed. The split between Beijing and Moscow helped make a rapprochement between China and the United States possible. Pakistani intermediaries carried confidential messages, Henry Kissinger traveled secretly to Beijing in 1971, and Richard Nixon visited in 1972. Formal American relations with the People’s Republic of China followed in 1979. [12]

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and renewed military confrontation strained détente. Yet diplomatic exchanges continued, and Mikhail Gorbachev’s arrival as Soviet leader in 1985 opened a new phase of negotiations with Ronald Reagan. Their 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty eliminated a class of missiles. The upheavals of 1989, German unification in 1990, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 ended the rivalry and brought negotiations over new relationships, arms control arrangements, and recognition of independent states. [11] [13]

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