10 Presidents & Politicians that shaped the Cold War

George H. W. Bush’s presidential portrait Photo sourced from Wikimedia

10 Presidents & Politicians that shaped the Cold War

The Cold War refers to a period of geopolitical tension between two newly formed superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term cold war is used because there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two superpowers. 

The conflict was based around the ideological and geopolitical struggle for global influence by these two superpowers, following their temporary alliance and victory against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in 1945. The tension between these two superpowers and fear for each other resulted to the cold war. Let’s take a look at some of the top leaders and presidents that shaped the cold war;

1.Harry Truman

A Portrait of President Harry S. Truman Photo sourced from Wikimedia

President Truman was a US president when the World War II ended, and Europe became an ideological battleground between the Soviet communists and the nations of the free west.When the US oversaw the Soviet Union’s policy of communism spreading  at the beginning of the Cold War, President Truman pledged that the United States would help any nation resist the spread of communism.

This policy of containment became known as the Truman Doctrine. President Truman enacted the Marshall Plan to provide aid to Europe’s post-war recovery and wanted to stop the spread of communism to a greater length and felt its influence on the world was a negative one. He became the first US president to be actively involved in the Cold war.

2.Joseph Stalin

Soviet leader Joseph Stalin Photo sourced from Wikimedia

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin famously know as just Joseph Stalin was a Georgian-born Soviet revolutionary and political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922–1952) and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (1941–1953).

Ideologically adhering to the Leninist interpretation of Marxism, he formalized these ideas as Marxism–Leninism, while his own policies are called Stalinism.He led the Soviet Union and was leader of the Soviet Union when the cold war broke out. He gave the Soviet Union the much needed push to spread the ideologies during the Cold war. 

Read more about him in Top 10 Unbelievable Facts about the Death of Stalin

3.Nikita Khrushchev

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev Photo sourced from Wikimedia

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was a Soviet Union leader who came to power after the death of Joseph Stalin. He made key changes to policies of his predecessor and sponsored the early Soviet space program, and enactment of moderate reforms in domestic policy. He conducted successful negotiations with the United States to reduce Cold War tensions.

Hoping eventually to rely on missiles for national defense, Khrushchev ordered major cuts in conventional forces. However despite the cuts, his time a the ruler of Soviet Union the world saw the tensest years of the Cold War, like for example the Cuban Missile Crisis, which shook both the USA and the Soviet Union. 

4.David Dwight Eisenhower

Dwight David “Ike” Eisenhower born David Dwight Eisenhower was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe and achieved the five-star rank of General of the Army. 

He engaged the Soviet Union in a space race by establishing NASA after Soviets launched Sputnik. He also upgraded the role of the National Security Council in planning all phases of the Cold War.He failed to set up a summit meeting to stop tension between the US and the Soviet Union towards the end of his reign after a US spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union.

5.Richard Nixon 

A portrait of US president Richard Nixon Photo sourced from Wikimedia

Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974.He became president when the cold war between the US and the USSR was at the baddest point as the two were actively involved in the Vietnam war, where the US joined the South, while the Soviets joined forces with the north.  

His administration promoted greater dialogue with the Soviet government, including regular summit meetings and negotiations over arms control and other bilateral agreements. This was one of president Richard Nixon’s strategies to avoid   Nuclear escalation in what was termed as détente. 

Read more about Nixon here

6.Gerald Ford

Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected to the office of president or vice president as well as the only president to date from Michigan. Ford continued the détente policy with both the Soviet Union and China, easing the tensions of the Cold War. 

In 1975, Ford was among the leaders who signed Helsinki Accords, which recognized the existing boundaries of European countries established at the end of World War II. He also talked with the Soviets and agreed in November 1974 to the Vladivostok Accords, which provided a general outline for a successor treaty to SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty).

7.John F Kennedy 

John Fitzgerald Kennedy  often referred to by his initials JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until 1963.He served the US when the Cold war was at its highest height.  He was the youngest person to assume the presidency by election and was actively involved in the Cold war. 

His tenure saw tensions between the United States and Soviet Union rise when aerial surveillance revealed that the Soviets were getting ready to deploy ballistic missiles in Cuba.The stand off which seemed like there could be a nuclear war between these two however lasted only 13-days .Kennedy held talks with Soviet leader and the reached an agreement to stop building nuclear power plant in Cuba. 

Read more about him in Top 10 Astonishing Facts about John F. Kennedy

8.Leonid Brezhnev

Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev  was a Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between 1964 and 1982 and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet between 1960 and 1964 and again between 1977 and 1982. His 18-year term as General Secretary was second only to Joseph Stalin’s in duration.

During his tenure he achieved nuclear parity with the United States and strengthened the Soviet Union’s dominion over Central and Eastern Europe. Furthermore, the massive arms buildup and widespread military interventionism under Brezhnev’s leadership substantially expanded the Soviet Union’s influence abroad. 

9.George H. W.  Bush

George H. W. Bush’s presidential portrait Photo sourced from Wikimedia

George Herbert Walker Bush was an American politician, diplomat, and businessman who served as the 41st president of the United States from 1989 to 1993. During his tenure Bush sought cooperative relations with Soviet’s Gorbachev, believing that he was the key to peace. Bush was US’s last president in the cold war. 

President George H.W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in July 1991 as a commitment for each country to reduce nuclear arms by a third. In December of 1991 President Gorbachev resigned and by the end of the year the Union of Soviet Socialists was officially dissolved. 

10.Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country’s dissolution in 1991.He was the first and the only executive president of the Soviet Union and served the  Soviet Union from 1990-1991.

It was during his reign that the cold war ended after his efforts of ending the cold war and the dissolution of the Soviet Union bore fruits. Ideologically, Gorbachev initially adhered to Marxism–Leninism but moved towards social democracy by the early 1990s. He resigned from his seat as president and the following day the Soviet Union was dissolved bring an end to the the cold war in the process. 

Read more about him here