Cold War Confrontations

Another, quite different face of the Cold War was seen at the "periphery"  from southeastern Europe in the 1940s to Southeast Asia in the 1960s and early 1970s, to Central America and Afghanistan in the 1980s. In these regions, American and Soviet forces were nearly as reluctant to confront one another directly as they were along the Iron Curtain in Central Europe. Yet this did not lead to a standoff without fighting. Instead, around the world through parts of five decades, American and Soviet clients  sometimes governments, sometimes "resistance" forces  engaged in active combat, at times backed up by "advisors" or even regular forces of one or the other superpower.

The first of these armed "Cold War" confrontations took place in the birthplace of Western civilization, Greece, during the middle and late 1940s. It began nearly two years before World War II itself ended. At the beginning, the supporting power on the Western side was Britain, not the United States  indeed, the U.S. held itself sharply and c

. . .
conscripts) were also organized as "Security Battalions" (Alexander, 1982: 1213). As the German star waned, the resistance forces and the Security Battalions began what was often a threeway struggle for control of Greece. In 1944, as German forces began to retreat, the ELAS moved to assert control over the Pelopponesus, being welcomed in some towns; imposing itself by terror and executions in others. ELAS and EDES units sometimes engaged in open battle against one another (Zotos, 1967: 14445). In general, however, the Communistdominated ELAS emerged as the effective authority in much of Greece. Meanwhile, the British were trying to organized an effective governmentinexile to take charge in Greece once the Germans retreated from Athens. The British motives were ultimately strategic: they needed a friendly Greece astride the critical sea lanes leading to the Suez Canal. They believed, however, looking at the prospective postwar world, that only a democratic Greece would fulfil their needs. A rightist authoritarian government might be friendly in the short run, from fear of Communism, but an unpopular dictatorship would be unstable and thus unreliable in the long run (Alexander, 1982: 89). As the
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Round Greek, Greek Communists, Cold War, Imperial Japanese, Nevertheless Communists, Greek Communist, Churchill October, World War, Truman Doctrine, American Soviet, greek communists, world war, yergin 1977, alexander 1982, cold war, world war ii, war ii, greek army, zotos 1967, german occupation, american soviet, johnson 1983 434, percent soviet influence, politics decades world,
Approximate Word count = 2716
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Cold War Confrontations