Lecture Rehearsals: 3.5. Cold War & Peaceful Coexistence

For 2021-10-14 Th

Oct 15, 2021

3.5. Cold War & Peaceful Coexistence

(60:28)

3.5.1. Lecture—Aftermaths of World War II

World War II ended in 1945. But the world did not settle into its Cold War pattern until the end of 1950, after Mao’s victory in China, after the beginnings of decolonization with the British withdrawal from the Indian subcontinent, and after the first six months of the Korean War (07:52)

3.5.2. Lecture—Origins of the Cold War

There was little logic to how the Cold War started. And, indeed, there probably would not have been a Cold War—at least as we knew it—without a bunch of accidents surrounding the Korean War, and the miscalculations of Ki Il Sung, Josef Stalin, and Mao Zedong (17:36):

3.5.3. Lecture—Containment & Destabilization

The strategy of the US during the Cold War was one of “containment”—by and large. It was in the end very successful. It was, I think, the right strategy—for the US government, for the US, and for the world (14:13):

3.5.4. Evaluating the Soviet Economy

The Soviet Union as a successful example of “late development”? Probably not. Contrary to the conclusions of Robert Allen’s From Farm to Factory, the right comparator for the USSR and counterfactual for what would have likely happened in the absence of really-existing socialism is not India but Spain (13:36):

3.5.5. Lecture—Cold War Winners & Losers

Among those who survived, there were vastly more winners than losers from the Cold War. And, in a sense, all those who survived were winners. It became clear which was the better system, and so people converged (07:11):