V o L u m e I : a d

event of a Soviet attack. The European allies of the United States worried

about American saber-rattling and feared that Washington might unwisely

unleash a nuclear war, particularly as Dulles made much of going to the

“brink” of war in order to confront the communist states. Such a prospect

was particularly worrisome, as the most likely location for a military confronta-

tion was the European continent. Throughout the Cold War, much of official

Washington professed to believe in monolithic communism—the idea that

all communist states moved together in lockstep, with Moscow calling the

shots. This proved to be a mistaken notion, and it ignored the traditional

antagonism between China and Vietnam as well as other rivalries.

In 1954 France suffered a resounding military defeat in a remote valley

in northeastern Vietnam at Dien Bien Phu. The Indochina War had never

been popular in France, and this defeat enabled the French politicians to

shift the burden of blame to the military and extricate their nation from the

war. Not coincidental to the timing of the battle, a conference was under way

at Geneva to discuss problems in Asia. The resulting Geneva Accords of July

1954 provided for the independence of Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Viet-

nam was “temporarily” divided at the 17th Parallel with elections to take

place throughout the entire country in two years to reunify it.

Republic of Vietnam (RVN, South Vietnam) President Ngo Dinh Diem

refused to permit the elections, however, and the Eisenhower administration

firmly supported Diem. Washington pointed out that communists ruled the

Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV, North Vietnam) and that commu-

nists, once in power, had never allowed truly free elections that might unseat

them. Nevertheless, Diem’s decision led to a renewal of the struggle to unify

Vietnam that became the Vietnam War (1957–1975).

Meanwhile, French Army regulars found themselves immediately trans-

ported to fight in Algeria, where nationalist agitation led to the outbreak of

violence in November 1954. The Algerian War simmered for a time but then

grew in intensity and claimed increasing numbers of French soldiers includ-

ing draftees, although the brunt of the fighting on the French side was carried

by the professionals. Ultimately, fears among the French settlers in Algeria

and professional army officers that they were again going to be sold out by

the Paris government led to a military putsch. This ended the French Fourth

Republic in May 1958 with the return to power of General Charles de

Gaulle, who proceeded to establish the Fifth Republic with a greatly strength-

ened presidency, tailor-made for the general himself.

In the 1950s a group of nations was emerging as a self-proclaimed neu-

tralist or nonaligned bloc—also known as the third world or developing

world to distinguish it from the Western powers and the communist bloc.

India’s Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru became its leader, but other promi-

nent spokesmen were Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia and Gamal Abdel Nasser

of Egypt. In April 1955 representatives of twenty-nine African and Asian

states held a major conference at Bandung in Indonesia to set out the guide-

lines for nonalignment. For Washington at least, this brand of neutralism—

laced with a strong condemnation of colonialism and imperialism promoted

by leaders of the developing world—often seemed to favor the Soviet Union.

32

Course of the Cold War (1950–1991)

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In Europe, the major problem was the ongoing impasse over the settle-

ments with Germany and Austria. In January 1954 the foreign ministers of

Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States met in Berlin, but

there was no progress on fundamental issues. The United States insisted on

free elections throughout Germany, which was to the advantage of the West,

while the Soviet Union preferred direct talks between the FRG and the

German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany). The Soviets also

made it clear to their Western counterparts that the price for the reunification

of Germany and Austria would be the permanent demilitarization of both

states. Washington, however, firmly supported the creation of a West Euro-

pean army that would include the FRG. This became known as the Euro-

pean Defense Community (EDC). In August 1954, however, the French

National Assembly rejected the EDC, effectively killing it. A formula was

then found for the FRG to rearm within the North Atlantic Treaty Organiza-

tion (NATO).

In 1955 the Soviet government made a number of moves to ease the

Cold War. The USSR established diplomatic relations with West Germany

and agreed to release the last German prisoners of war from World War II.

Finland received the territory of Porkkala near Helsinki, which the Soviet

Union had secured at the end of World War II. The Soviets also evacuated

their naval base at Port Arthur in the Far East. Finally, the Soviets agreed to

the Treaty of Belvedere that ended the occupation of Austria and restored it

to full sovereignty, on the pledge of permanent Austrian neutrality and eco-

nomic concessions.

In these circumstances, the leaders and foreign ministers of the United

States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and France met in Geneva in July

1955 in a new effort to resolve the impasse over Germany. President Eisen-

hower, Premier Nikolai Bulganin, Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden, and

Premier Edgar Faure met in a cordial atmosphere. Eisenhower issued his

Open Skies Proposal to prevent surprise aerial attack and to pave the way for

wide-scale disarmament. The Soviet leaders, however, had no intention of

opening Soviet territory to foreign inspection and thus rebuffed the pro-

posal. Nor were the Soviets interested in a mutual security pact between the

U.S.-sponsored NATO and its counterpart, the Soviet-sponsored Warsaw

Pact (created in May 1955). Both sides also refused to budge from their pre-

vious positions regarding Germany, and the result was impasse. In October

1955 the foreign ministers again met in Geneva and again failed to find com-

mon ground. Hopes for a settlement regarding Germany had disappeared.

The continuing threat posed by the Soviet Union greatly boosted the

movement toward European unification. Only the continuing military threat

posed by the Soviets could have caused the West European states to come

together. The Council of Europe had been established in 1949. It was fol-

lowed by the 1953 European Coal and Steel Community, and although

efforts by the West European states to create a European army that included

West Germany failed, the European Economic Community (EEC) came into

being in 1957. In 1959 Britain took the lead in forming a counterpart, the

European Free Trade Association.

Course of the Cold War (1950–1991)

33

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