Cold War Study Cases

Tecnológico de Monterrey

Campus Santa Catarina

Conflicto y Reconstrucción en la Sociedad Contemporánea

“World Order after World War II”:

Scenarios

A General View

Scenarios:

1: “The Little Boy”

2: American Interest

3: Cuban Missile Crisis and Kennedy

Professor Bárbara Canavati Assad

Written by: José Arturo Pérez Díaz

A01194343

April 5, 2015

When the Enola Gay, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, flew through the grey skies over the Pacific towards the Japanese Isles, I seriously doubt that its captain, Colonel Tibbets, thought that the weapon he was to detonate, the “Little Boy”, over the city of Hiroshima, would be the end of a war and the beginning of another one. A war that would span from the moment the bomb exploded and destroyed a whole city and its inhabitants until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The story goes that Stalin, when he learned of the explosion over Hiroshima, went mad and ordered the immediate arrest of hundreds of scientists and chemists. He couldn’t believe that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics had been beaten by the United States of America in the first Race after the War. It wasn’t just the defeat of a nation; it was the utter defeat of an ideology and a political philosophy. The loss of the USSR in the first lap of the Nuclear Race would be a cold reminder for Stalin for the rest of his life.

After the War, Europe was completely destroyed. After 6 long years of warfare, the European economy was devastated, agriculture was non-existent, the industry was highly war-oriented and healthcare and education were not even a priority for the allies. President Harry Truman believed that Europe had to receive a counter cyclical “kick” in order to jump-start the economy. For that, he ordered Secretary of State George Marshall to devise a plan that would lend money to European and Asian countries. The European Recovery Program or more commonly known as the Marshall Plan, provided 120 billion dollars in today’s money for the reconstruction of Europe and Asia. One of its many purposes was to make sure that the Soviets were not able to ensnare Germany, France and the Benelux countries in their sphere of influence. The economic interests that America had were too big a loss, especially to the communists. The phrase that America had interests, and not allies is evident in this course of action. This geo-political move was one of the single most important actions by the US during the Cold War. It obligated the USSR to diversify and look for allies in the Americas and in Asia. This move generated the future proxy wars in Korea and Vietnam and interventions by the Soviet Army in Afghanistan and ultimately the collapse of the Soviets.