Cold War

POVERTY WAS AN important factor in the advance of the Cold War, the ideological conflict that sharply divided the world into two contrasting blocs from the end of World War II to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The Western bloc included the United States and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies, and the Eastern bloc consisted of the Soviet Union and the communist regimes of central and eastern Europe.

The Cold War did not escalate into an armed conflict between the two superpowers, although both the United States and the Soviet Union were directly involved in several conflicts such as Vietnam and Afghanistan, respectively. The two countries also engaged in the largest nuclear arms race in human history. The Cold War, a term coined by American political adviser Bernard Baruch in 1947, was fought through propaganda, intelligence services, diplomatic plots, and economic pressure.

Following the Truman Doctrine, formulated by President Harry Truman, the United States decided to send aid to countries such as Greece, which, at the end of World War II, were facing civil wars that could lead to the establishment of communist regimes. Without this policy of containment, the entire region would suffer from a domino effect, bringing about a generalized acceptance of communism.

As part of this policy, growth and development became key words in the economic schemes of the Cold War. Countries associated with the United States would be able to display affluence in contrast to the austerity associated with communism. The Marshall Plan (or European Recovery Program) was the first outcome of the new policy of containment, although it was originally devised when World War II alliances were still in place.

At the end of the war, European countries were devastated. Heavy bombings had destroyed entire cities and had damaged industrial production. The agricultural sector too was destroyed, which had led to starvation in several areas of Europe. Food shortage and high unemployment were causing discontent and social unrest. An incredible sum of $13 billion (the equivalent of today's $100 billion) was given to those European countries that had joined the Organization for European Economic Cooperation.

The Soviet Union and the countries in eastern Europe did not join the project. Postwar poverty was proving one of the major factors in the growth of communist parties in western Europe, especially in Italy and in France, where the PCF (French Communist Party) became the single largest party in postwar elections. Yet the PCF was forced to leave the government in 1947, and a similar fate befell the Italian Communist and Socialist Parties.

The United States had also hoped that the Marshall Plan would help to break the Eastern bloc, and in July 1947, all European nations except Spain were invited to a meeting in Paris to discuss the plan. Poland and Czechoslovakia agreed to attend at first, but were prevented from doing so directly by Moscow. The Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, obviously feared that the plan would have caused the integration of eastern European countries within the American sphere of influence. The plan initially met with strong opposition from the Republican Party in the U.S. Congress; however, it was finally passed with a strong bipartisan majority when it became apparent that the Soviet Union was trying to extend its sphere of influence over Europe.

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