Victor Fung
IB History
October 9, 2008
The detonation of the Soviet atom bomb in 1949 proved to be a turning point in world affairs. With both the Soviet and American superpowers in possession of nuclear weapons, each side was unwilling to commit themselves to a full-scale nuclear war. Therefore a new method of expansion was needed in response to the nuclear deterrent that faced both sides, resulting in limited war or proxy war. The Korean War was the perfect example of a proxy war between the Communist bloc and the Capitalist bloc and had many long-term effects resulting from the long and bloody conflict.
The possibility of a nuclear-war, and "MAD" as it was later coined, played an important role in foreign policies following the 1949. This, however, did not necessarily mean an end of expansion for either bloc, and the use of "puppet leaders" to indirectly gain control of satellites began taking over the policy of direct intervention from either side. As a result, this strategy was to an extent almost universally used for many of the remaining un-aligned nations, many of which had gained new-found freedom from World War 2 and the resulting collapse of European colonialism.
IB History
October 9, 2008
The detonation of the Soviet atom bomb in 1949 proved to be a turning point in world affairs. With both the Soviet and American superpowers in possession of nuclear weapons, each side was unwilling to commit themselves to a full-scale nuclear war. Therefore a new method of expansion was needed in response to the nuclear deterrent that faced both sides, resulting in limited war or proxy war. The Korean War was the perfect example of a proxy war between the Communist bloc and the Capitalist bloc and had many long-term effects resulting from the long and bloody conflict.
The possibility of a nuclear-war, and "MAD" as it was later coined, played an important role in foreign policies following the 1949. This, however, did not necessarily mean an end of expansion for either bloc, and the use of "puppet leaders" to indirectly gain control of satellites began taking over the policy of direct intervention from either side. As a result, this strategy was to an extent almost universally used for many of the remaining un-aligned nations, many of which had gained new-found freedom from World War 2 and the resulting collapse of European colonialism.
