6. Globalisation of the Cold War: Decolonisation, Nuclear Weapons and the Space Race

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we think about how the Cold War became a global conflict, focusing in particular on: (i) the idea of the Cold War as an ideological conflict (i.e. between political systems) rather than merely a political one (i.e. between two countries); (ii) the emergence (via the process of decolonisation) of new countries in Africa and Asia, which presented fertile battlegrounds for ideological conflict; (iii) the attempts by both the US and Soviet Union to ‘persuade’ these new countries to join their ‘side’; (iv) the development of inter-continental missiles and increasingly long-range and powerful nuclear weapons; and (v) the start of the Space Race.

Course

In this course, Dr Thomas Tunstall Allcock (University of Manchester) provides an introduction to the Cold War, 1947-91, the period of geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union and its satellite states (the Eastern Bloc) and the United States and its allies (the Western Block). In the first module, we provide an introduction to the topic as a whole, considering how we should actually define the Cold War, and its diplomatic, economic and ideological dimensions. In the second and third modules, we think about the origins of the Cold War, before turning in the fourth module to consider the importance of the Korean War (1950-53) on the conflict. In the fifth module, we think about the domestic impact of the Cold War, before turning in the sixth module to consider how the Cold War began to incorporate tensions in Africa, Asia and South America to become an increasingly global conflict. In the seventh module, we consider the importance of the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) to the development of the Cold War, before turning in the eighth module to the most important conflict of them all – Vietnam (1955-75). In the ninth module, we consider the development of the war between 1968-75, a period of easing tensions between the US and Soviet Union known as Detente, before turning in the tenth module to the ratcheting up of tensions during the presidency of Jimmy Carter (1977-81). Finally, in the eleventh module, we think about how the Cold War came to an end.

Lecturer

Dr Tom Tunstall Allcock is a lecturer in American history at the University of Manchester. His research focuses on U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War, with particular interests in U.S.-Latin American relations, presidential history and diplomacy, and the cultural history of the Cold War.