释义 |
cold war
cold warn.1. often Cold War A state of political tension and military rivalry between nations that stops short of full-scale war, especially that which existed between the United States and Soviet Union following World War II.2. A state of rivalry and tension between two factions, groups, or individuals that stops short of open, violent confrontation. cold warrior n.cold war n (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) a state of political hostility and military tension between two countries or power blocs, involving propaganda, subversion, threats, economic sanctions, and other measures short of open warfare, esp that between the American and Soviet blocs after World War II (the Cold War) cold′ war′ n. 1. intense political, military, and ideological rivalry between nations, short of armed conflict. 2. (caps.) such rivalry after World War II between the U.S.S.R. and the U.S., and their respective allies. 3. rivalry and tension between people or factions. [1945] cold warA state of international tension wherein political, economic, technological, sociological, psychological, paramilitary, and military measures short of overt armed conflict involving regular military forces are employed to achieve national objectives.Cold WarA phrase coined by Bernard Baruch to describe the ideological conflict between western countries and the Soviet bloc.ThesaurusNoun | 1. | cold war - a state of political hostility between countries using means short of armed warfareantagonism, enmity, hostility - a state of deep-seated ill-willhot war - actual fighting between the warring parties | | 2. | Cold War - a state of political hostility that existed from 1945 until 1990 between countries led by the Soviet Union and countries led by the United States | Translationscold (kəuld) adjective1. low in temperature. cold water; cold meat and salad. 冷的,涼的 冷的2. lower in temperature than is comfortable. I feel cold. 寒冷 寒冷3. unfriendly. His manner was cold. 冷淡的 冷淡的 noun1. the state of being cold or of feeling the coldness of one's surroundings. She has gone to live in the South of France because she cannot bear the cold in Britain; He was blue with cold. 寒冷,低溫 寒冷2. an illness with running nose, coughing etc. He has a bad cold; She has caught a cold; You might catch cold. 感冒,傷風 感冒ˈcoldly adverb in an unfriendly way. She looked at me coldly. 冷淡地 冷淡地ˈcoldness noun 冷淡 冷淡ˌcold-ˈblooded adjective1. having blood (like that of a fish) which takes the same temperature as the surroundings of the body. cold-blooded creatures. 冷血的 冷血的2. cruel and unfeeling. cold-blooded murder. 無情的 无情的cold war a major, especially political, struggle between nations which involves military threats but not fighting. 冷戰 冷战get cold feet to lose courage. I was going to apply for the job but I got cold feet. 喪失勇氣 丧失勇气give (someone) the cold shoulder verb (also ˌcoldˈshoulder ) to show that one is unwilling to be friendly with (a person). All the neighbours gave her the cold shoulder; He cold-shouldered all his sister's friends. 對人冷淡 (表示)冷淡 in cold blood deliberately and unemotionally. He killed them in cold blood. 殘忍地 残忍地cold war
cold war, term used to describe the shifting struggle for power and prestige between the Western powers and the Communist bloc from the end of World War II until 1989. Of worldwide proportions, the conflict was tacit in the ideological differences between communismcommunism, fundamentally, a system of social organization in which property (especially real property and the means of production) is held in common. Thus, the ejido system of the indigenous people of Mexico and the property-and-work system of the Inca were both communist, ..... Click the link for more information. and capitalist democracydemocracy [Gr.,=rule of the people], term originating in ancient Greece to designate a government where the people share in directing the activities of the state, as distinct from governments controlled by a single class, select group, or autocrat. ..... Click the link for more information. . The Iron Curtain and Containment Mutual suspicion had long existed between the West and the USSR, and friction was sometimes manifest in the Grand Alliance during World War II. After the war the West felt threatened by the continued expansionist policy of the Soviet Union, and the traditional Russian fear of incursion from the West continued. Communists seized power in Eastern Europe with the support of the Red Army, the Russian occupation zones in Germany and Austria were sealed off by army patrols, and threats were directed against Turkey and Greece. Conflict sometimes grew intense in the United NationsUnited Nations (UN), international organization established immediately after World War II. It replaced the League of Nations. In 1945, when the UN was founded, there were 51 members; 193 nations are now members of the organization (see table entitled United Nations Members). ..... Click the link for more information. , which was at times incapacitated by the ramifications of the cold war, at others effective in dealing with immediate issues. In a famous speech (1946) at Fulton, Mo., Sir Winston Churchill warned of an implacable threat that lay behind a Communist "iron curtain." The United States, taking the lead against the expansion of Soviet influence, rallied the West with the Truman Doctrine, under which immediate aid was given to Turkey and Greece. Also fearing the rise of Communism in war-torn Western Europe, the United States inaugurated the European Recovery Program, known as the Marshall PlanMarshall Plan or European Recovery Program, project instituted at the Paris Economic Conference (July, 1947) to foster economic recovery in certain European countries after World War II. The Marshall Plan took form when U.S. Secretary of State George C. ..... Click the link for more information. , which helped to restore prosperity and influenced the subsequent growth of what has become the European Union. During the cold war the general policy of the West toward the Communist states was to contain them (i.e., keep them within their current borders) with the hope that internal division, failure, or evolution might end their threat. In 1948 the Soviet Union directly challenged the West by instituting a blockade of the western sectors of Berlin, but the United States airlifted supplies into the city until the blockade was withdrawn (see Berlin airliftBerlin airlift, 1948–49, supply of vital necessities to West Berlin by air transport primarily under U.S. auspices. It was initiated in response to a land and water blockade of the city that had been instituted by the Soviet Union in the hope that the Allies would be ..... Click the link for more information. ). The challenges in Europe influenced the United States to reverse its traditional policy of avoiding permanent alliances; in 1949 the United States and 11 other nations signed the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO; see North Atlantic Treaty OrganizationNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), established under the North Atlantic Treaty (Apr. 4, 1949) by Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the United States. ..... Click the link for more information. ). The Communist bloc subsequently formed (1955) the Warsaw Treaty OrganizationWarsaw Treaty Organization or Warsaw Pact, alliance set up under a mutual defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, in 1955 by Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union. ..... Click the link for more information. as a counterbalance to NATO. The Cold War Worldwide In Asia, the Communist cause gained great impetus when the Communists under Mao ZedongMao Zedong or Mao Tse-tung , 1893–1976, founder of the People's Republic of China. Mao was one of the most prominent Communist theoreticians and his ideas on revolutionary struggle and guerrilla warfare have been extremely influential, especially among Third ..... Click the link for more information. gained control of mainland China in 1949. The United States continued to support Nationalist China, with its headquarters on Taiwan. President Truman, fearing the appeal of Communism to the peoples of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, created the Point Four program, which was intended to help underdeveloped areas. Strife continued, however, and in 1950 Communist forces from North Korea attacked South Korea, precipitating the Korean WarKorean War, conflict between Communist and non-Communist forces in Korea from June 25, 1950, to July 27, 1953. At the end of World War II, Korea was divided at the 38th parallel into Soviet (North Korean) and U.S. (South Korean) zones of occupation. ..... Click the link for more information. . Chinese Communist troops entered the conflict in large numbers, but were checked by UN forces, especially those of the United States. The focus of the cold war in Asia soon shifted to the southeast. China supported insurgent guerrillas in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia; the United States, on the other side, played a leading role in the formation of the Southeast Asia Treaty OrganizationSoutheast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), alliance organized (1954) under the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty by representatives of Australia, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, and the United States. ..... Click the link for more information. and provided large-scale military aid, but guerrilla warfare continued. The newly emerging nations of Asia and Africa soon became the scene of cold-war skirmishes, and the United States and the Soviet Union (and later China) competed for their allegiance, often through economic aid; however, many of these nations succeeded in remaining neutral. As the cold-war struggle continued in Southeast Asia, in the Middle East, in Africa (in nations such as CongoCongo, Democratic Republic of the, formerly Zaïre , republic (2015 est. pop. 76,197,000), c.905,000 sq mi (2,344,000 sq km), central Africa. It borders on Angola in the southwest and west, on the Atlantic Ocean, Cabinda (an Angolan exclave), and the Republic of ..... Click the link for more information. (Kinshasa), AngolaAngola , officially Republic of Angola (2015 est. pop. 24,300,000), including the exclave of Cabinda, 481,351 sq mi (1,246,700 sq km), SW Africa. Angola is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the west, by Congo (Kinshasa) on the north and northeast, by Zambia on the east, and by ..... Click the link for more information. , and others), and in Latin America (where the United States supported the Alliance for ProgressAlliance for Progress, Span. Alianza para el Progreso, U.S. assistance program for Latin America begun in 1961 during the presidency of John F. Kennedy. It was created principally to counter the appeal of revolutionary politics, such as those adopted in Cuba (see Fidel ..... Click the link for more information. to counter leftist appeal), both the Soviet Union and the United States supported and maintained sometimes brutal regimes (through military, financial, and other forms of aid) in return for their allegiance. In Europe, the East German government erected the Berlin WallBerlin Wall, 1961–89, a barrier first erected in Aug., 1961, by the East German government along the border between East and West Berlin, and later along the entire border between East Germany and West Germany. ..... Click the link for more information. in late 1961 to check the embarrassing flow of East Germans to the West. In 1962 a tense confrontation occurred between the United States and the Soviet Union after U.S. intelligence discovered the presence of Soviet missile installations in Cuba. Direct conflict was avoided, however, when Premier Khrushchev ordered ships carrying rockets to Cuba to turn around rather than meet U.S. vessels sent to intercept them (see Cuban Missile CrisisCuban Missile Crisis, 1962, major cold war confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. In response to the Bay of Pigs Invasion and other American actions against Cuba as well as to President Kennedy's build-up in Italy and Turkey of U.S. ..... Click the link for more information. ). It was obvious from this and other confrontations that neither major power wanted to risk nuclear war. Hopes for rapprochement between the Soviet Union and the West had been raised by a relaxation in Soviet policy after the death (1953) of Joseph StalinStalin, Joseph Vissarionovich , 1879–1953, Soviet Communist leader and head of the USSR from the death of V. I. Lenin (1924) until his own death, b. Gori, Georgia. ..... Click the link for more information. . Conferences held in that period seemed more amiable, and hopes were high for a permanent ban on nuclear weapons. However, the success of the Soviet artificial satellite Sputnik in 1957, attesting to Soviet technological know-how, introduced new international competition in space exploration and missile capability. Moreover, both Soviet Premier Nikita KhrushchevKhrushchev, Nikita Sergeyevich , 1894–1971, Soviet Communist leader, premier of the USSR (1958–64), and first secretary of the Communist party of the Soviet Union (1953–64). ..... Click the link for more information. and U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles grimly threatened "massive retaliation" for any aggression, and the Soviet Union's resumption (1961) of nuclear tests temporarily dashed disarmament hopes. While Khrushchev spoke of peaceful victory, extremists in both camps agitated for a more warlike course, even at the risk of nuclear catastrophe. China began to accuse the USSR of conciliatory policies toward the West, and by the early 1960s ideological differences between the two countries had become increasingly evident. Detente and the End of the Cold War During the late 1950s and early 60s both European alliance systems began to weaken somewhat; in the Western bloc, France began to explore closer relations with Eastern Europe and the possibility of withdrawing its forces from NATO. In the Soviet bloc, Romania took the lead in departing from Soviet policy. U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War in Southeast Asia led to additional conflict with some of its European allies and diverted its attention from the cold war in Europe. All these factors combined to loosen the rigid pattern of international relationships and resulted in a period of detente. In the 1980s, U.S. President Ronald ReaganReagan, Ronald Wilson , 1911–2004, 40th president of the United States (1981–89), b. Tampico, Ill. In 1932, after graduation from Eureka College, he became a radio announcer and sportscaster. ..... Click the link for more information. revived cold-war policies and rhetoric, referring to the Soviet Union as the "evil empire" and escalating the nuclear arms race; some have argued this stance was responsible for the eventual collapse of Soviet Communism while others attribute its downfall to the inherent weakness of the Soviet state and the policies of Mikhail GorbachevGorbachev, Mikhail Sergeyevich , 1931–, Soviet political leader. Born in the agricultural region of Stavropol, Gorbachev studied law at Moscow State Univ., where in 1953 he married a philosophy student, Raisa Maksimovna Titorenko (1932?–99). ..... Click the link for more information. . From 1989 to 1991 the cold war came to an end with the opening of the Berlin WallBerlin Wall, 1961–89, a barrier first erected in Aug., 1961, by the East German government along the border between East and West Berlin, and later along the entire border between East Germany and West Germany. ..... Click the link for more information. , the collapse of Communist party dictatorship in Eastern Europe, the reunification of Germany, and the disintegration of the Soviet Union. In the 21st cent., however, the revival, under Valdimir PutinPutin, Vladimir Vladimirovich , 1952–, Russian government official and political leader, b. Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). After graduating from the Leningrad State Univ. ..... Click the link for more information. , of Russia's military power and great power ambitions led to new geopolitical tensions and conflicts between Russia and the West, and the economic and military modernization of China (which remained ruled by the Communist party) also resulted in tensions and conflicts, especially with respect to Chinese claims in the South China Sea. Bibliography See D. F. Fleming, The Cold War and Its Origins, 1917–1960 (1961); J. L. Gaddis, The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1941–1947 (1972, repr. 2000), The Long Peace: Inquiries into the History of the Cold War (1987), The United States and the End of the Cold War (1992), We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History (1997), Strategies of Containment (1982, rev. ed. 2005), and The Cold War: A New History (2005); K. W. Thompson, Cold War Theories (1981); P. Savigear, Cold War or Detente in the 1980s (1987); J. Sharnik, Inside the Cold War (1987); M. Walker, The Cold War (1994); R. E. Powaski, The Cold War: The United States and the Soviet Union, 1917–1991 (1997); V. Zubok and C. Pleshakov, Inside the Kremlin's Cold War: From Stalin to Khrushchev (1997); J. Chen, Mao's China and the Cold War (2001); W. LaFeber, America, Russia and the Cold War (9th ed. 2002); A. Fursenko and T. Naftali, Khrushchev's Cold War (2006); W. D. Miscamble, From Roosevelt to Truman: Potsdam, Hiroshima, and the Cold War (2008); R. Khalidi, Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East (2009); J. Mann, The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A History of the End of the Cold War (2009); C. Craig and F. Logevall, America's Cold War (2009); D. E. Hoffman, The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy (2009); E. H. Judge and J. W. Langdon, The Cold War: A Global History with Documents (2d ed. 2010); M. P. Leffler and O. A. Westad, ed., The Cambridge History of the Cold War (3 vol., 2010). cold war the state of hostility and political competition which existed between the two superpowers, the US and USSR, in the post-World War II period, which involved strategies of political subversion, spying, the promotion of regional wars between smaller powers, etc, but which stopped short of all-out war. Some commentators regard the period of the cold war as covering only the years of greatest mutual suspicion and hostility – 1945-55. For others, the era of cold war only ended with the advent of GLASNOST and PERESTROIKA, and the break-up of the Eastern military and economic bloc in 1989 and 1990. See also NUCLEAR DETERRENCE, BALANCE OF POWER.cold war a state of political hostility and military tension between two countries or power blocs, involving propaganda, subversion, threats, economic sanctions, and other measures short of open warfare, esp that between the American and Soviet blocs after World War II (the Cold War) www.coldwar.org www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcwsMedicalSeecoldCold War Related to Cold War: World War 2, World War 1, Cuban Missile CrisisCold WarThe cold war was a pivotal era in the twentieth century. The term cold war itself, popularized in a 1946 speech by prime minister Winston Churchill of Britain, describes the ideological struggle between democracy and Communism that began shortly after the end of World War II and lasted until 1991. For the foreign policy of the United States, the cold war defined the last half of the twentieth century. It was a war of ideas, of threats, and of actual fighting in the countries of Korea and Vietnam, pitting western nations against the Soviet Union and China and their Communist allies. The 1940s and 1950s saw the cold war bloom into a period of unparalleled suspicion, hostility, and persecution. Anti-Communist hysteria ran through each branch of government as the pursuit of U.S. Communists and their sympathizers consumed the energies of the Executive Branch, lawmakers, and the courts. Rarely in the nation's history have constitutional rights been so widely and systematically sacrificed. The cold war began in the aftermath of World War II. Although only recently allied against Germany, the United States and the Soviet Union saw their relationship quickly dis-integrate. The division of Europe, with the Soviet bloc countries sealed off behind what Churchill called the "iron curtain," had been the first blow. A fear that Communism would undermine the security of the United States took hold of the nation's leaders and citizens alike. Measures had to be taken to safeguard the country from infiltration, it was popularly believed, and the government began a vigorous campaign against Communist activity. On March 21, 1947, President Harry S. Truman took a significant early step toward protecting the country from Communism by issuing an order establishing so-called loyalty boards within each department of the executive branch (Exec. Order No. 9835, 3 C.F.R. 627). These boards were designed to hear cases brought against employees "disloyal to the Government" and, on the evidence presented, remove disloyal employees from federal service. The loyalty boards deviated from the traditional standard of presumed innocence. Instead, the boards made their determinations based on whether "reasonable grounds exist for belief" that an accused employee was disloyal. Thus, instead of having to prove Beyond a Reasonable Doubt that the accused person was guilty of disloyalty, it was sufficient to bring enough evidence against the accused person to damn that person in the eyes of the board. This abridgment of due process, which ended jobs and ruined reputations, grew harsher under the administration of President dwight d. eisenhower. By amending the order in 1951, Eisenhower made it even harder for an accused employee to prove his or her innocence (Exec. Order No. 10,241, 16 Fed. Reg. 3690). Now, the Burden of Proof was reduced to a showing of "reasonable doubt as to the loyalty of [the] person," a standard amenable to trumped-up charges. The intensity of domestic fears grew in 1949, following the announcement by President Truman that the Soviets had developed the atomic bomb. Only a year later, the Korean War broke out. These events ushered in a period of bomb shelters; air raid drills in schools; civilian anti-Communist organizations; and suspicion of anyone whose ideas, behavior, personal life, or appearance suggested belief in or sympathy for Communism. Terms like Pinko, Red, and Communist sympathizer found their way into the national vocabulary. During the late 1940s, the House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC), created to investigate subversives, provoked widespread concern that government officials had given secrets to the Soviets. Over the next decade, in a climate of general suspicion that it helped foster, it also investigated union leaders, academics, and, most dramatically, Hollywood. The right to freedom of association meant little to congressional investigators. HUAC subpoenaed private citizens and confronted them with a no-win choice: cooperate in naming Communists or face Contempt charges. Crucial to the success of these hearings was the cooperation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which provided the committee with both public support and information. At the same time, Senator joseph r. mccarthy conducted his own hearings through the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. From 1950 to 1954, McCarthy's charges about alleged Communist operatives in the State Department and the Army captivated the nation. Like HUAC activities, his witch-hunt shattered reputations and lives, but it backfired when he attacked the U.S. Army. Censured by the U.S. Senate in 1954, he ultimately gave history a word that symbolizes the zealous disregard for fairness in accusation: McCarthyism. Starting in 1948, the Justice Department prosecuted members of the American Communist party under the Smith Act of 1940 (18 U.S.C.A. § 2385), a broadly written law that prohibited advocating the violent overthrow of the government. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld 12 convictions in Dennis v. United States, 341 U.S. 494, 71 S. Ct. 857, 95 L. Ed. 1137 (1951), and this ruling cleared the way for 141 subsequent indictments. Over the next several years, 29 convicted party members were sent to jail. In time, Congress provided prosecutors with new ammunition through the McCarran Internal Security Act of 1950 (50 U.S.C.A. § 781 et seq.) and the Communist Control Act of 1954 (50 U.S.C.A. § 841). Anti-Communist hysteria decreased somewhat following the embarrassment of McCarthy. However, the cold war continued. HUAC operated throughout the 1960s, as did the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations; both continued to locate the nation's troubles in the work of alleged subversives. And from the late 1950s to the 1960s, the FBI, under the direction of j. edgar hoover, secretly fought Communists and other targets through its Counterintelligence Program (Cointelpro). Although the domestic waging of the cold war had diminished by the early 1970s, the international struggle continued. Over the next two decades the cold war drew the United States into military involvement in Asia, Africa, and Central America. After Vietnam, the United States fought communism by supporting anti-communist factions in Angola, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Afghanistan. During the 1980s, the United States shifted to an economic strategy, hoping to bankrupt the Soviet Union through an arms race of unprecedented scale. The cold war effectively ended with the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. Further readings Craven, John Pina. 2001. The Silent War. New York: Simon & Schuster. Hakim, Joy. 1995. All the People: A History of Us. New York: Oxford Univ. Press. laFeber, Walter. 2004. America, Russia, and the Cold War, 1945–2002. Updated 9th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill. Levering, Ralph B. 1982. The Cold War: 1945–1972. Wheeling, Ill.: Harlan Davidson. Mendelsohn, Jack. 1999. "History and Evaluation of the Role of Nuclear Weapons in the Cold War." Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 31 (mid-summer). Neusner, Jacob and Noam M. 1995. The Price of Excellence: Universities in Conflict during the Cold War Era. New York: Continuum. Rosenn, Max. 1995. "Presumed Guilty." University of Pittsburgh Law Review (spring). Tatum, Dale C. 2002. Who Influenced Whom?: Lessons from the Cold War. Lanham, Md.: Univ. Press of America. Wenger, Andreas, and Doron Zimmermann. 2003. International Relations: From the Cold War to the Globalized World. Boulder, Colo.: L. Rienner. Cross-references Communism "House Un-American Activities Committee" (In Focus); Hiss, Alger; Nixon, Richard Milhous; Rosenbergs Trial. See CW See CWcold war Related to cold war: World War 2, World War 1, Cuban Missile CrisisAntonyms for cold warnoun a state of political hostility between countries using means short of armed warfareRelated Words- antagonism
- enmity
- hostility
Antonyms |