Cold War Influence Around the World

After World War II, global politics were thrown into upheaval. Former alliances turned into staunch adversaries. Old enemies became new friends. In the United States and the Soviet Union, a conflicting imperialistic vision for the world culminated in diplomatic tensions for the better part of the second half of the twentieth century as the US capitalist ideology collided with the communistic ambitions of the USSR. As such, the two countries worked hard to exert influence among newly independent, nearly independent, and strategically located states around the world between 1947 and 1965. Countries around the world were caught up in the tension, pressed into allying themselves with one country or the other. As tensions rose, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Cuba merit special study as their role in the Cold War served especially as the stage for this titanic political conflict.

Effectively, the world became a grand conflict bent on containment as each country worked to ensure that the other did not gain too great of an ideological influence through political maneuvering. Satellite states were set up in much of Eastern Europe including Poland, Albania, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, East Germany, and former Czechoslovakia. In order to counter, the United States exerted its influence over Japan and South Korea as well as Oceania, and Western Europe.

In the case of Cuba however, tensions rose to a notable climax between the two countries. After the installation of Fidel Castro as Prime Minister (1959) and ultimately as President (1976-2008), Cuba was finally free of Spanish and American influence. Castro installed a communist state that was unsuccessfully assaulted in the Bay of Pigs fiasco, a covert intervention approved by President Eisenhower in 1960. By this time, Cuba had staunchly allied itself with the USSR and diplomatically ended any hope for positive American engagement.

By 1962, tensions had reached a boiling point. American spy planes had discovered a nuclear missile testing site in the process of being constructed in Cuba. Given the alliance between this newly independent island nation and the USSR, the implications of an attack point so close to US shores posed a significant threat to American interests with disastrous implications. On October 22nd of that same year, President Kennedy addressed the American people concerning his findings: "It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union." Based on President Kennedy's speech on that definitive day, there remained no doubt as to the seriousness of the issue and to whom the responsibility for the attack would rest. The President ordered a blockade of ships around Cuba to ensure that no offensive missiles could pass. In effect, a crisis was averted in which this newly formed state found itself in the middle of a political tug-of-war.

In the case of Pakistan, their alliance rested firmly with the United States. Also a newly formed state strategically located next to the USSR, the country was created in a Western initiative to separate Indian Hindus from Indian Muslims. As Pakistan became part of the British Commonwealth, its loyalty was largely unquestioned, especially after joining the Central Eastern Treaty Organization (CENTO) in 1955. Loosely formed after NATO, this alliance of Eastern and Western powers provided a pretext for American and British spy planes to operate from air force bases in Pakistan just outside of Peshawar thereby surveying Soviet activities. Given the threat of the Cuban Missile Crisis seven years later, it is no small wonder that tensions had escalated to such aggressive measures as the newly formed Pakistani state was ultimately used through a third-party connection with the UK to serve American intelligence interests.

In the case of Nigeria, tensions remained somewhat neutral in the Cold War push between the two world powers in spite of great interest from both sides due to its size, economic potential, and its oil reserves. As Nigeria had existed as a British colony from 1800-1960, they were a de facto Western ally, yet their position was unique as they strove for an ideological separation from their former occupants. Buchi Emecheta describes local fascination for the United Kingdom in spite of colonialist history: "The Ibuza women . . . were preparing for the arrival of the town's first lawyer from the United Kingdom. The title 'United Kingdom' when pronounced by Adah's father sounded so heavy, like the type of noise one associated with bombs. It was so deep . . . that Adah's father always voiced it in hushed . . . as if he were speaking of God's Holiest of Holies." By not joining one side or the other, Nigeria maintained an independent status even as it withstood its own growing pains.

As the Cold War raged between the US bloc and USSR bloc, each country endeavored to enlist the support of smaller countries around the world. This effort not only contained the progress of enemy interests, but it also provided a strong offensive base for monitoring the actions of the other country. The Cold War certainly encompassed politics and control, but it fundamentally exerted the influence of powerful civilizations on newly formed countries that were seeking to build their own national identity. The psychological factors were heavy indeed, even for countries that ultimately established a neutral position. In the end, the ramifications of this global competition remain steady in the twenty-first century with old alliances still in place, unchanged in spite of the decades passed since.