The Cold War

1 Cold War The examples of the Chinese "Eastern Wind" in the decades after World War II include the expansion of Chinese influence in Asia and the Pacific. Beijing's support for North Korea is one factor that has worried the U.S. and its allies, especially concerning the balance of power.

While the U.S. paid much attention to Russia (the Soviet Union), China emerged as a new security threat (Gaddis, 2005). Gaddis and Reynolds observe that the rise to power of Mao and the Communist Party created unexpected challenges to Washington, which had overlooked the possibility of cooperation between China and Russia in the postwar period. In addition, the communist revolution influenced the spread of communist ideas across the world, as more people believed that communism would prevail over capitalists, as seen in China.

Moreover, the continued spread of China's economic influence underlines the effect of the Eastern Wind on global politics. As a vying power, China engaged in deliberate efforts to neutralize the Western influence in Taiwan and Singapore, leading to a heavy crackdown that led to the Tiananmen Square Massacre of 1989

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2 The political economy of China has been dominated by expansionism. Concerned about maintaining its influence in Asia and beyond, the U.S. had to come up with a strategy to counter Chinese expansion (Reynolds, 2001). Gaddis explains that the U.S. did not anticipate the rise of Communist China, implying that it was not prepared to handle the threat of a new power in Asia that would upstage the existing balance of power (Gaddis, 2005). The Chinese support of communism in Vietnam is also an example of the Chinese Eastern Wind, which saw it join hands with Russia to fight the Western influence in Vietnam.

The “Western wind" blew through the spread of capitalism and U.S. interest in the world, dominated by anti-communism sentiment. In Asia, the Western Wind sought to protect South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore (Reynolds, 2001). This led to a collision with the Eastern wind, as seen in the effects of the Cold War in Vietnam, Cambodia, and other regions that were turned into a battleground between pro-capitalism and pro-communism.

The Cold War was a product of the collision between the West and the East over economic ideologies each region espoused. The collision led to a prolonged period of animosity between the East and the West, with Russia and China leading the East against a Western alliance that the U.S. and European power led. The collision was also manifested in the split of Germany into West and East Germany. Proxy wars were fought all over the world as each faction tried to show up its influence over global politics (Reynolds, 2001). At the climax of the collision between Western and Eastern winds was the collapse of the Soviet Union, leading to the end of the Cold War. Without the collision, the Soviet Union would have survived for a long time (Reynolds, 2001).

In a nutshell, the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union were a result of the strong impact of the Western Wind on global politics. The collision was costly in terms of

3 human life and properties as the Cold War raged. Therefore, the Western and Eastern Winds influenced global events during the Cold War era.

4 Bibliography Gaddis, J. L. 2005. The cold war: A new history. Penguin.

Reynolds, D. 2001. One world divisible: a global history since 194. Penguin Books.