Cold War
The Cold War was a period of escalating tension between two empires that sought to exert their power and influence on the world stage. In the West was the U.S. In the East was Soviet Russia. While both promoted their own values and socio-economic and political systems, they shared a similar need to expand their rule following the end of WWII, with each developing threatening postures near to the other’s borders—the U.S. forming NATO and the Soviets planting missiles in Cuba. From the perspective of people who were not citizens of the U.S. or the Soviet Union, the economic, strategic, political and culture ambitions of the "superpowers" intersected with, and shaped the lives of people outside of those countries in numerous cases. For instance, the natives of the Marshall Islands got an up close and personal look at U.S. nuclear testing during Operation Crossroads, as shown in Robert Stone’s Radio Bikini. Then there were the people of Indonesia, who suffered the killings of 1965-66, in which an anti-communist purge took the lives of half a million or more Indonesians. In other words, the Cold War was not just a period of empty rhetoric and hostile rhetorical tones used by world leaders: there were serious activities conducted behind the scenes that affected people the world over as a result of the strained relationship between the West and the East and the need to prepare for all-out war. The arms race and proxy wars were then (as now) part of the process of doing business in the post-War, Cold War period. This paper will identify and analyze the central processes and outcomes of the Cold War from the perspective of people who were not citizens of the U.S. or the Soviet Union.

The economic, strategic, political and culture ambitions of the "superpowers” were linked with their all-out aim for dominance. The dividing line was the Berlin Wall in Europe, but the effects of these ambitions stretched well beyond Germany. Strategically, it was in both the best interests of the imperial countries—the U.S. and the Soviets—to have the best warfare technology: that is why the arms race commenced and why areas for testing bombs had to be located and used. And that is why the islanders of the Marshall Islands (Bikini Atoll) were removed from the island and sent to a smaller island with inadequate water and food supply: they were simply in the way. As Brown (2013) notes, they were not the only ones. Doctors in the U.S. were performing experiments using radiation on unwitting and uninformed (and non-consenting) patients all throughout the post-War period: indigent blacks, pregnant mothers, vulnerable children, military personnel—no one was off limits for these experiments, deemed necessary for the sake of science: “adding the accidentally exposed Marshall Islanders…and the purposely exposed American soldiers in field tests in Nevada, the toll of human subjects of radiation experiments mounts to the tens of thousands” (p. 251). The Marshall Islanders were never meant to be exposed—but since they were, American scientists went ahead and studied the effects of fallout on them too.

Operation Crossroads had begun in 1946—just one year after WWII had ended. The Cold War had not even technically begun yet—but already America was preparing for...…democracy and making sure the ideals and values of the West were not displaced by Communism (ostensibly at least)—shows the extent to which the Cold War impacted the lives of people who were not even part of that War. Cuba was another example: its people were like pawns in the struggle between Soviet Russian power and U.S. power. Castro just so happened to prefer Communism over American capitalism. Both were essentially forms of gangsterism—two sides of the same coin, but that was the Cold War—a turf war being fought out on the world’s stage between two local powers on the block, getting smaller bit players to do much of the fighting for them.

In conclusion, the Cold War was not a War that was fought on the battlefield as WWI and WWII had been. The Vietnam War was an output of the Cold War. The arms race was another. The people of Bikini and Indonesia and Cuba and the Middle East were all players in the role—more like victims in most cases but characters in the action nonetheless. The story of how the U.S. blew up Bikini Atoll and looked happily on the butchering of hundreds of thousands in Indonesia all for the sake of political hegemony and military might is a story of how the Cold War changed the world. It is a story of inhumanity on a global scale because the global powers were in duel to see who would have mastery over the minds and hearts of the world. The problem was that their approaches were pretty similar in terms of actions, even if their words were different.