Introduction
The Cold War has been defined by the tense standoff between East and West. Although there were periods when tensions ran very high, humanity was spared the devastation of a Third World War. Instead, smaller localised wars were fought in developing countries where the United States and the Soviet Union wanted to assert their influence. These became the ‘hot’ wars of the Cold War.
Despite being on the winning side, Britain was physically and financially shattered after the Second World War. It had to rebuild itself while decolonisation was progressing rapidly. But as an ally of the United States and as a nation which upheld the values of liberal democracy, stopping the spread of communism was considered important enough to deploy British troops throughout the developing world.
Korean War 1950 - 1953
The first major conflict of the Cold War broke out in Korea. It was the first modern conflict in which one of the combatants made systematic attempts to change the ideological beliefs of their prisoners of war.
Korea had been under Japanese occupation since 1910. In 1945, the future of the country looked uncertain. It was divided along the 38th parallel, with the north occupied by the Soviet Union and the south by the United States. Both withdrew by 1949. The war started when Communist North Korea invaded the south in June 1950, intending to unite Korea under Kim Il Sung’s Communist regime.
Due to a boycott by the Soviet Union, the United Nations Security Council was able to pass a resolution to send troops to defend South Korea. Sixteen member countries sent troops with the United States sending the highest number, followed by Britain and the Commonwealth. National Service was extended for two years to bring British units up to strength.
China sent troops to support North Korea, and by 1951 the war had reached a stalemate. Armistice negotiations began in June 1951, but the fighting continued. The terrain and conditions in Korea were very inhospitable, with troops enduring both freezing temperatures and extreme heat.
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Large numbers of men were taken prisoner during the war. Both sides were accused of treating prisoners harshly and the Chinese attempted to indoctrinate their prisoners with communist ideology, using both physical and mental torture. It is estimated that around 50 British prisoners died in captivity and just over 1,000 were repatriated by the communists in 1953.
After two years of talks, an armistice was finally signed in July 1953. Over 13,000 UN and 82,000 communist prisoners of war were exchanged under the terms of the armistice. The exact death toll of the Korean War remains unclear. About four million Korean soldiers and civilians were killed and around five million were made homeless; Britain lost over 1,000 men.
The Korean War is still not officially over. A peace agreement has never been signed and Korea is still divided along the 38th parallel. Although tentative attempts at reconciliation began in 2000, relations between North and South Korea remain tense mainly due to the North’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons. Large numbers of United States troops are still deployed in Korea.
The Vietnam War
The Vietnam War provides an important contrast to the Korean War. After the war of independence which ended with France defeated in 1954, Vietnam was also a country divided between north and south, with an uncertain future. The war that broke out in the late 1950s was fought over what government Vietnam should be united under. The United States was determined that it would not be communist.
Unlike Korea, there was no United Nations resolution. Many new members considered interference in Vietnam to be unjustified. The United States had to act on its own with support from Australia, New Zealand and allies in Asia including South Korea.
Britain’s position over Vietnam was ambiguous. The British Prime Minister Harold Wilson did not condemn the actions of the United States, but at the same time decided against deploying British troops.
The Vietnam war was fought in the full glare of the media and, by the 1960s, protest against the war was gathering pace. The biggest demonstrations happened in the United States but there were also protests in Britain and Europe.
In Britain, the Vietnam War became an important focus for university students within the radical and lively atmosphere of protests in the 1960s. Wilson’s reluctance to condemn the United States caused resentment. The war had continued to escalate and later spread to Laos and Cambodia. Major anti-war protests were organised by the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign. In March and October 1968 there were two big demonstrations in London. In March there were violent clashes with the police, who were determined to keep protesters away from the United States Embassy in Grosvenor Square. The demonstration in October was attended by over 100,000 people and was redirected towards Hyde Park. It was relatively peaceful. The protests were reported on extensively by the media and helped to influence public opinion about the war.
The United States finally withdrew from Vietnam in 1973 and in April 1975, Saigon fell to the communists. In 1976 Vietnam was officially reunited and became the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Zimbabwe’s fight for independence
In the former British colony of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), racial politics and decolonisation were played out against the backdrop of the Cold War. The political rhetoric of all sides involved in Zimbabwe’s protracted road to independence was influenced by the Cold War.
The British government made it clear that independence would only be granted to Southern Rhodesia if black majority rule was allowed. Power was held by the Rhodesian Front and based on white minority rule. The leader of the Rhodesian Front, Ian Smith, refused. In 1965 he announced the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) and renamed the country Rhodesia. Ian Smith tried to justify his actions and gain international support by presenting white Rhodesia as a defender against the spread of communism in Africa.
The British government responded with sanctions and tried on several occasions to persuade Ian Smith to cooperate with a moderate black leader, without success.
Slowly an armed struggle began by black guerrillas against the Rhodesian Front. Two main groups, which were split along tribal lines, were involved - the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) under Joshua Nkomo and the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) with Robert Mugabe as leader of the guerrilla wing (ZANLA – Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army). By 1972 the struggle had gathered full momentum.
The guerrillas received support and weapons from the Soviet Union and China. Although Mugabe was a Marxist, it is likely that most guerrillas were nationalists rather than committed communists. But the support proved crucial to their success. The guerrillas were also supported by neighbouring African countries and often had safe bases across the borders. Ian Smith’s regime was subject to an international arms embargo, but he also benefited from covert support, notably from the white minority government in South Africa.
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By 1979, Ian Smith had to admit defeat and Britain called the Lancaster House Conference. It put an end to the guerrilla war and allowed black majority rule. The ceasefire and disarming of guerrillas was administered by the Commonwealth Monitoring Force (CMF). In the elections that followed, Mugabe’s ZANU party won by a comfortable margin. This enabled him to become Prime Minister when Zimbabwe became independent in April 1980.
After independence, the always tense relationship between ZANU and ZAPU deteriorated into a near civil war and a series of bloody massacres of ZAPU’s mainly Matabele supporters. In 1988, the two parties became ZANU-PF under the control of Robert Mugabe.
