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The Cold War

Interior of spy submarine HMS Ocelot

The Cold War started as early as 1944 - 1945, during the Second World War, when British and American planners began to get nervous about the strength and objectives of Soviet military forces in central and eastern Europe. In April 1945 Roosevelt died, and was replaced by Harry Truman: Roosevelt's Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius was replaced by James Byrnes. The Manhattan project had by now perfected an atomic bomb, and some historians, such as A.N. Wilson in After the Victorians, argue that Byrnes wanted to use the bomb as a demonstration of strength to the Russians. By now it was obvious that Stalin was not going to give up territories "liberated" from the Germans. Byrnes felt that extreme measures were necessary to deal with Stalin. During the Cold War the resolve to actually use atomic weapons was often questioned. Byrnes wanted to begin the new struggle by answering that question in the most graphic way possible. So, this argument suggests, two Japanese cities were destroyed. Perhaps there is something in this, although we should also recall the arguments of writers such as Max Hastings who in his book Nemesis, suggests that Japan virtually brought the attacks on itself by its refusal to surrender.

Following Japan's surrender, which with hindsight could have been the first phase of the Cold War, skirmishes were fought around Saigon in the winter and spring of 1945 - 1946. Japanese POWs were rearmed, and took part enthusiastically in operations against communist Viet Minh partisans, who during the war had fought with the Allies against the Japanese. General Douglas MacArthur was furious that troops considered the enemy only months before were now fighting people who had been allies just as recently. New alignments were emerging incredibly quickly. By 1948 direct confrontation between the West and the Soviets came closer with the Soviet blockade of Berlin, a city with areas controlled by the Allies, marooned in what was then Soviet controlled East Germany.

Cold War display at the Imperial War Museum, London

The stakes were raised considerably in August 1949 when the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb. The bomb's secrets had been passed to the USSR by Julius Rosenberg. From then on the threat of nuclear war hung over any potential hostilities. This threat set the tone for a hidden war. Apart from a brief period teetering on the brink during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, and two wars which skirted around the main issue, in Korea in 1949, and in Vietnam between the mid 1950s and 1975, the war was a hidden one of subversion, diplomatic manoeuvre and intelligence gathering. In past centuries combatants had been a little like competing stags, where the antlers were for show as well as fighting. A good display could sometimes avoid the need for any risky physical violence. This is only a generalisation of course. There have been terrible battles throughout history. Nevertheless it is surprising how many castles, for example, have been rarely, or never, used in battle. Their appearance was enough of a deterrent. Into the twentieth century things changed. The Cold War had centred itself on the idea of deterrent, but this deterrent was now hidden, invisible fears replacing big castles. Even during the Second World War leaders had given up directing operations from some impressive castle or government building. Now they sat underground, as Churchill did in the Cabinet War Rooms below Whitehall. Now there was the worry that some mistake could be interpreted as an attack and trigger a war. It also seemed that it was difficult to correctly gauge how strong an enemy was. The United States seemed to constantly overestimate Soviet military capability, and always there was a risk of lashing out in the dark, fighting an enemy that might not be coming towards you after all.

Growing up during this period the war was unreal. There were periods of real fear, but these periods were unpredictable. Apart from isolated episodes like the Cuban missile crisis, there were few big, easily recognised events that people could share. It might just be some depressing documentary on television. There was no spirit of the blitz. You seemed to be on your own. Just as the Cold War tended to be fought in hidden closed places, this war was in a very real way an inner struggle. I remember worrying about it all when I was a little boy, and watching the Morecambe and Wise Show to cheer myself up.

 

There are not many places to visit relevant to the Cold War. Most remain secret. However, there is a former Cold War bunker open in Scotland, as Scotland's Secret Bunker. The tunnels beneath Dover Castle, Kent were prepared as a headquarters in the event of nuclear attack. The upper levels of these tunnels can be visited. It is also worth visiting the spy submarine HMS Ocelot, now on display at Chatham Dockyard in Kent. Clambering through the submarine it is hard to imagine living in such cramped confines for months on end. In some respects I found that Ocelot had the atmosphere, and formica surfaces, of the 1970s caravans in which I used to spend summer holidays. The captain's cabin had a flimsy little two piece door that was just like the one on our caravan: but this caravan was attached back and front to what made me think of narrow, claustrophobic factory floors. The Cold War, a war of secrets, was fought in cramped places like this. The threat of nuclear weapons kept a lid on things, like those pressure cookers that were popular in the 1970s. My mum had a pressure cooker. It would sit and simmer for hours, the safety valve jumping every now and again.

The collapse of the Soviet Union, and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, marked the end of the Cold War. It was a war that had no firm existence, and so seemed able to reach people wherever they were, if only in their fears. In some ways the Cold War was a state of mind, like a nightmare. It was a war that disappeared in waking hours when everything seemed normal, and I went to school and did my homework, and watched the Morecambe And Wise Show.