. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁a personal note (before we dive in)

hi! kc here.

if you know anything about me, you know that this year especially, i’ve been focused on learning about different parts of history so that i can become a little more knowledgable and have better conversations with my friends. for most of my life, i’ve felt that i don’t really have an opinion on a lot of things, because frankly, until now i hadn’t really dedicated a lot of time to learning about politics, history, and the like. these little essays are meant to be a personal challenge to me, to recollect the information i’ve learned about specific subjects over a certain period of time.

about a month or so ago, i decided i wanted to learn about the cold war. so what did i do? i went to netflix, looked up “cold war” and clicked on the first thing i could find. (i’m not saying that’s where everyone should do their research, but for me it was a good place to start) most of the information in this little essay is from the Turning Point: The Bomb And The Cold War episodes on the platform. but here’s what i remember, to the best of my recollection. also, keep in mind the majority of this article is just me trying to remember stuff without looking at notes i took. i do go back and edit a little at the end, but if i say something that’s not accurate, lmk. so without further ado, here’s a brief history (to my understanding) of the cold war.

love, kc. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁

so, what WAS the cold war?

i’d always heard people reference the cold war in conversation, so to me that was a sign that this particular event in history contributed to the place we’re at now historically. here’s a brief definition.

the cold war was a war that took place between the soviet union and the united states from 1947 to 1991. here are a few things that made the cold war significant:

• it created an environment that led to the US using its secret service more than ever (the CIA), we would never go back to how it was before

• it made possible the reality of an apocalypse for the first time- thanks to nuclear bombs being a thing

• it saw the breaking up and fall empires (the soviet union), which impacts the soviet union’s relationship with the ukraine today

how did the cold war start?

the cold war really started to take root when german scientists discovered nuclear fission in the 1930s. nuclear fission is what makes a nuclear bomb a nuclear bomb. basically it’s when a neutron hits an atom, and other neutrons break off and hit other atoms, creating a chain reaction.

via other scientists, word of this discovery got back to the united states, where teddy roosevelt was president at the time. he decided we needed to catch up with these scientists and make a bomb of our own, which is where the manhattan project comes in. the idea of the manhattan project was that a group of individuals would meet to discuss plans for the making of a nuclear bomb (ironically, they had their first meeting the night before pearl harbor happened lmao).

as world war II was ending in 1947, the allies (britain, the united states, and the soviet union) were starting to figure out how they were going to distribute germany amongst themselves, and also how they were going to defeat the japanese, who were still building an empire.

after hitler died, the potsdam conference took place. this was where it was decided that stalin, who was leading the soviet union at the time, would take over east germany. britain and the united states got west germany. this conference took place in august. the soviets were planning an attack on japan that was to take place in april. the united states was pretty fed up with japan as it was and wanted to get an attack overwith. they were tired of losing soldiers in battle. also, during potsdam, stalin was noticeably stingy about his acquired territories, and the united states did not want to have to worry about distributing land like that again. after sending a letter to the japanese government, basically being like “yo, either you guys accept defeat or we’re gonna bomb you,” and getting rejected…

we dropped a bomb on hiroshima.

two weeks later, we dropped another one on nagasaki.

how were japanese americans impacted during this time?

it’s also important to note that there were a lot of racist attitudes surrounding japanese people in america at the time. these manifested in several ways, mainly through internment camps and animalistic propaganda.

president truman was misinformed when deciding whether or not to drop the bomb on hiroshima. he was told that it was a military town, when in reality it was 80% civilian. 70k people died in the first hour of the bomb being dropped, this number doubled a few months later (due to radiation, etc.)

with nagasaki, it was a similar situation.

the dropping of the bomb was detrimental for the japanese, and is considered to be the first strike of the cold war. there was actually supposed to be a third bomb drop, but truman stepped in and decided that was enough of that.

hearing of this just a few weeks later, stalin became determined that the soviet union get to work on their bomb.

what is the historical context that’s important to understand about the soviet union?

before we go further, i feel like it’s crucial that i provide context on what the soviet union was like at the time, and how it got to that point.

before stalin, there was lenin. and before lenin, there was the communist manifesto.

in 1848, during the industrial revolution, two guys named karl marx and frederich engels published the communist manifesto. basically, this book preached taking power away from the bourgeoisie (upper class) and giving it back to the proletariat (working lower class). lenin became inspired by this book, and rose to power after world war I.

during lenin’s time in power, he got rid of a ton of people in the upper class, and started this thing called the bolshevik revolution. in 1922, russia became the soviet union.

stalin was a bolshevik, and eventually lenin’s successor. he started this thing called collectivization - which is kind of like the redistributing of land, particularly the land of the middle class or “kulaks.” collectivization eventually led to a lack of food and starvation, especially in places like the ukraine. ukraine was particularly rebellious during the bolshevik revolution, so their people suffered more as a result. oftentimes, soviet soldiers would go into peoples’ homes and take food off of their tables themselves.

in the 30s, the soviet union reached full fledged totalitarianism. stalin started these camps that were called “gulags,” which is where he would send people who he felt could challenge him (engineers, doctors, intellectuals). he even killed some of his fellow bolsheviks during this time, afraid they would try to take his power away.

so by the 40s, things were pretty intense.

how did the rise of communism impact the environment of the united states in the 40s?

once the cold war was in full swing, stalin basically started saying things about how he was anti-american and just stuff not in approval of america’s values. word got back to the united states, of course, and a lot of people weren’t too happy about communism.

there was also a thing that happened around this time where people in the united states found out that the soviets had started building a bomb of their own (via an air force plane), and it was discovered that this guy named david who worked at las alamos, new mexico (where the bombs were built) had given certain documents to the soviets. he confessed that he was a part of a spy ring, involving his sister, ethel, and her husband julius rosenburg.

julius and ethel rosenburg were put on trial and executed during this time for “giving the bomb” away to the soviets. after this, the tensions surrounding communism escalated in a number of ways.

the national security act of 1947 was also introduced during this time. the act created the CIA, the pentagon, and more security for the white house. the CIA kind of flops in the beginning though - the head of britain’s secret service, which we were in cahoots with, turns out to be a soviet spy (yikes!). we also try to do this undercover mission in soviet union where we train ukrainian spies to retrieve information and a lot of them end up getting killed. it’s important to note, the kgb has been active in the soviet union since 1917, so by this point, they’re definitely ahead of us in that regard.

during this time, the HUAC also becomes a thing. the HUAC was this organization that started interrogating people in hollywood, trying to see if they were communist or not. having any semblance of communist values, or even values that were just not capitalist, was super frowned upon. people in hollywood definitely weren’t the only people getting interrogated. if someone was suspected of being a communist at this point in the united states, they could lose their job or get blacklisted. it was that serious.

also at this time, there was a guy named joe mccarthy, who was an american politician. this dude made a name for himself interrogating people on television. however, he took it a step too far when he started interrogated american soldiers, and then he basically got the 40s equivalent of “cancelled” and drank himself to death.

what was the vibe in the 50s?

during the 50s, the hydrogen bomb became a thing, which was significant because hydrogen bombs are like, wayyyy more powerful than nuclear bombs (like 1000x more sometimes). the united states started working on theirs.

in the 50s, the threat of a potential nuclear attack started to feel more and more real. there were literally pamphlets on how to build bomb shelters, and kids even did drills for this sort of thing in school at the time. yeah, like fire drills - but it’s a bomb instead.

also during the 50s, the CIA gets revamped thanks to the dulles brothers (kind of like the duffer brothers, but like not). this version of the CIA does better than the last, and even starts conducting coups in other countries to stop the spread of communism (ahem, iran, ahem).

stalin did die in 1953 - which led to the rise of a new, more progressive leader kruschnev. krushnev was quite different from stalin. he gave the soviet people more creative freedoms during his time in power, and even exposed stalin for how terrible he actually was in this super badass speech.

but don’t get it twisted. krushnev was still communist. he still wanted the united states to fear the soviet union. so, what did he do?

how did the cuban missile crisis come about?

so, krushnev lies about how many missiles the soviets actually have, in an effort to freak the united states out. krushnev starts saying that the soviet has thousands of missiles in their arsenal, when really they only have a few. unfortunately for him, thanks to our spy satellite corona (space race stuff), we were able to see that, there were in fact not, thousands of missiles.

in the 60s, jfk is elected president. as a sidebar, i feel like it’s also important to note that, during the cold war, a lot of presidents used the war to their advantage campagin-wise when it came to winning people over. at this point, financially, a lot of people (university science programs) also benefitted from the war being a thing, so there was kind of a need to keep it going. even though no bombs were actually being used, there was this arsenal that was still continuing to be built up, for like, kind of no reason.

the cuban missile crisis starts when fidel castro, a lawyer with a lot of communist ideals starts to gain a following in cuba. he starts nationalizing the profits of rich people, and a lot of them move to miami. the united states senses this threat to democracy, and swoops in with yet another coup. this one fails though - mainly because us troops set up shop in an area of cuba that used to be really poor but isn’t anymore (so one where fidel castro’s policies were actually seen as a good thing).

not wanting the us to invade cuba again, the soviet union deploys a couple of missiles on the island, which isn’t that far away from the us. at this point, they’ve also noticed that we have deployed missiles in turkey, and this was kind of their way of making a counter move. these missiles are discovered by our satellite, and everyone’s like: what. the. fuck.

jfk starts scrambling to figure out how to respond to this impending threat. he comes to the conclusion that it’s probably best to do a blockade, because invading on foot would likely start a war, and it’s not guaranteed that the united states would be able to get all of the missiles out if they tried.

during this blockade, a us plane gets hit by a soviet missile - but it’s an accident. as a result, krushnev and jfk come to an agreement: the united states will remove their missiles in turkey, and the soviets will remove their missiles in cuba. but the soviets will be the ones to announce it, and they won’t say anything about the turkey missiles.

side note - in 1961, the berlin wall is also put up, creating a divide between east and west germany, because life sucked in east germany and people kept trying to leave. this is important for later.

how is the cold war ironic at this point?

you would think the cold war ends there. but - in less than 2 years’ time, krushnev is removed from office because the soviets think he’s weak, and jfk is assassinated.

richard nixon takes jfk’s place, and while the use of nuclear missiles is nonexistent - both countries still have these massive arsenals. there are also peace talks, sure. but “proxy” wars continue to happen behind the scenes.

basically a “proxy" war is a war or conflict that the united states or the soviets get involved in to fuel their own motives. the united states tries to get rid of communism in guatemala, and fights against communism in vietnam. the soviet union invades afghanistan. it looks like things are relatively peaceful, but smaller countries are still fighting our battles for us.

what changes in the 80s?

in the 1980s, ronald reagan enters the picture. so do pershing missiles. basically, pershing missiles are missiles that can reach a target within minutes of being launched, even if they’re hundreds of miles away. also during this decade, a lot of close calls with technology happened that could have led to a full blown nuclear war, but didn’t. very scary to think about.

reagan also gives a couple of speeches, delegitimizing the soviet union as a country, so obviously the soviets think the us is going to attack in some way.

in 1983, a couple of things happen that lead to escalated tensions between the soviet union and the us. these things are: fleetex 83, able archer 83, and “operation RYaN.”

operation RYaN - the “ryan” is an acronym - the soviets were pretty paranoid at this point and this was the kgb’s effort to keep their eyes peeled for any sign of possible nuclear war from the us - this policy is a big reason why so many conflicts came close to happening during this decade.

fleetex 83 was a mission where united states military planes deliberately flew over an area that contained a lot of soviet missiles, kind of in a teasing way, assuming that the soviets wouldn’t respond. the thing that happened as a result though, was that when the soviets did decide to have a response, they hit a civilian plane instead of a militaty plane, killing 60 us citizens.

able archer 83 was a drill carried out by NATO (which the soviet union was not a part of), acting how NATO would act if there was a nuclear threat. in the event of a nuclear threat, certain codes would be changed. because this drill was happened, NATO changed these codes and the soviet union noticed. the soviets assumed this was a real threat, and started to panic. at one point, their leader, brezhnev, was even carrying a cheget on his deathbed - a cheget is a suitcase that gives him the ability to start nuclear war with the push of a button. they had missiles deployed and ready to go, it was a whole thing.

reagan gets word of how affected the soviet union was by able archer 83, and is like holy shit. also around this time - the most watched tv movie ever, “the day after” comes out. this is a film that shows what it would be like the day after nuclear war happens. reagan watches this movie and has a bit of a change of heart, he wants to talk to brezhnev. around this time though, breshnev dies.

what happened during gorbachev’s term?

in 1985, gorbachev comes to power in the soviet union. gorbachev is a super important leader to remember because he was the leader during the fall of the soviet union.

cheronobyl - in 1986, there’s also an accident that happens at cheronobyl, a nuclear power plant in the soviet union. this basically just shows us how unsafe nuclear weapons really are, and how not seriously the government took safety surrounding them at the time.

major things start happening when pope john paul II is elected - the first polish pope. he speaks out about communism indirectly, which leads people to form the solidarity movement. it doesn’t take long before 10 million people have joined, and they start protesting against the soviet union and wanting more free elections. they do get their own free election eventually, which results in the first non communist leader the country has ever had.

in germany, people are over the berlin wall. east germany has this iron-fist communist leader, erich honeker, who literally praises the way communist leaders are handling protests in china (with violence). the people of east germany start to gather in the square in leipzig, germany, and peacefully protest every monday night.

people are also leaving, traveling through hungary and austria to get to the western world. eventually, new travel regulations are made. then, during a tv announcement, this guy who was supposed to announce the new travel regulations accidentally says that the borders in east germany are open, and people start to flee. soldiers don’t know what to do so they let people pass. the berlin wall is torn down. where was gorbachev during this? oh yeah, he was asleep.

after this, the baltic states (lithuania, estonia, latvia) also start to ask for more autonomy, even carrying out protests like the baltic chain. for some reason this bothers gorbachev more than the berlin wall coming down did.

lithuania holds an election and gains independence. 10 months after this, the soviet union tries to blockade the country into coming back, but the lithuanians remain strong.

at this point, the soviet union government is pretty much fed up with gorbachev. the leader has plans for this “new union treaty,” which is basically an attempt to keep countries in the soviet union whilst also giving them more autonomy. but leaders are fed up with it.

also at this point, there’s this other guy named yeltsin, who leaves the communist party to form the russian federalist party. essentially, there’s two leaders in russia at this point. yeltsin is super anti-gorbachev and speaks out about him all the time.

in 1991, a coup (of gorbachev’s closest advisors) gets together and puts gorbachev under house arrest. this happens the day before the new union treaty is supposed to go into effect.

it becomes super obvious super fast that the people in the coup are not fit to lead. one commits suicide, another tries to flee the country. yeltsin calls this group illegitimate, and soviet citizens agree with him.

gorbachev does come back eventually, but things are not the same. yeltsin starts bossing him around. eventually, yeltsin gets together with the leaders of ukraine and belarus and says, if you guys leave the soviet union, then i will too, and there will be nothing left for gorbachev to lead. so they do, and then yeltsin has gorbachev give a resignation speech on television, while he raises russia’s old flag.

after this, president bush gives a speech saying that the united states has officially won the cold war.

what happened after the fall of the soviet union?

after the soviet union fell, there were a lot of nuclear weapons in various ex-soviet union countries. a lot of these countries opted to destroy their weapons or give them back to russia. the ukraine destroyed most of theirs, but kept some.

project sapphire happens. this was a deal made between the united states and kazakhstan(su country), where the us took a ton of unused uranium and flew it out of the country. the smooth execution of this showed just how much the CIA had improved.

also after the fall, while trying to transition to capitalism, the soviet union struggles economically. this is because there’s more demand than there is supply, and you can’t just transition to a democracy straight away.

many of russia’s major oil and gas companies get auctioned off to oilgarchs (super wealthy russians), for really cheap.

yeltsin worries he won’t be able to get reelected, so he bribes oligarchs, telling them that if they invest in his campaign, he will give them russia’s best oil and gas companies. he gets reelected.

during his second term, yeltsin becomes a bit of an embarrassment. he’s not fit to lead anymore. so, going into the new year 2000, he announces that putin will take over as prime minister. putin was heavily involved in the kgb for years. yeltsin doesn’t want his family to be held responsible for his shady actions, so he picks someone he knows will cover for him - which was putin.

there’s also a war going on between russia and chechnya, and this allows putin to pose as some kind of war hero (this was later assumed to be staged). elections take place later that year, and putin wins the presidency.

what were putin’s early years in power like?/how did we progress to the current russia-ukraine situation?

during his first term, putin actually does some positive things. he attempts to build relationships with other countries (tries to bond with the us over hating terrorists) and he gets russia out of debt(thanks to war in the middle east). however, one of the first things he does is reinstate the old soviet union stalin era anthem. it becomes very clear that he does not want russia to stay a democracy. he also starts to take control over the media.

he also bonds with the oligarchs, especially after putting one particular oligarch in jail. basically, putin starts selling enterprises to the oligarchs for prices that are way more than they should be, and then pocketing extra money. then, this super rich guy named khodorkovsky (was almost the richest man in the world), indirectly calls putin out in a meeting for making shady business deals. he gets thrown in jail. the other oligarchs then start to bend at putin’s will, and he starts to get money out of them as well, which makes him the richest man in the world.

ukraine also has an election, and putin endorses one of the candidates. the more pro-democracy candidate gets poisoned at the last second by a government agent, and the election is falsely won by the guy that putin endorsed. people demand that the votes be recounted, and the more democratic leader wins.

when putin’s term is up, a good friend of his, medvedev, becomes president. he’s a little more on the democratic side of things, and media transparency increases during his term. people start finding shady things out about putin, and become very opposed to him running again when he announces his rerun in 2011.

putin is angry at the united states, because he thinks for some reason that there’s no way that people could actually be protesting him, that it must be orchestrated by the CIA or something.

after gaining the support of russian traditionalists, putin wins the election.

during his second term, that other dude runs for ukranian presidency again. he wins, all while ukraine’s economy is in shambles. ukraine’s leader talks about joining the european union at this time, but putin offers him $15 million and lower gas prices to basically not do that. this guy picks putin’s offer, and has to leave because people from the ukraine start rioting.

in 2014, crimea, this island that’s owned by the ukraine, is invaded by russia.

in 2022, russia invades the ukraine.

ukraine and russia have since been in a war, in which russia has occupied about 20% of ukraine’s territory.

if you made it this far down the page, thanks for reading my little article :) ALSO though, if you have any subjects you think i should do research on, i’m always open to suggestions!! leave a comment below with what you think i should research next.

picture this. you’re settling into your mid-afternoon slump for your daily instagram scroll. you’ve got a diet coke in hand, and an hour to kill before you have to force yourself to go to your apartment complex’s gym. this is where the rest of the twenty somethings in your building congregate between the hours of 2 and 5 pm.

after scrolling past three engagements, two half-marathons, and a “we’re expecting!” post, you get a rather fascinating DM in your inbox.

you’ve thought about this event sporadically every couple of months for the past five years, and now the day has finally come.

you’ve just gotten an invite to your 5 year high school reunion.

and it gets better.

not only is there an invite, but there’s a whole instagram account dedicated specifically to this debacle. there’s also a group me (sign up for details!), and a following list of people you haven’t heard from or seen in half a decade. suddenly, you’re not looking so couch potato-esq anymore. you’re on the edge of your seat, in fact, scrolling through the names and profiles of faces whose lives you can really only theorize on, based on what you see. at one point in time, though, you had real experiences, some good (and some slightly traumatic) to go off of.

it’s all a little bit jarring.

but the thought of going is, weirdly appealing, nonetheless.

…because you have friends you’re just dying to catch up with after all this time!

i fear that’s not the case here.

…because there’s just one too many memories you absolutely have to relive or you’ll just combust!

quite the opposite, really.

…because deep deep down inside you, there’s this unquenchable desire to prove that you’re somehow worthy (even if five years later), of the attention, respect, and time of insecure teenagers, who likely aren’t (quite as) insecure, or teenagers anymore (although you’re having trouble remembering that part of this story).

bingo.

okay, you guessed it.

a few days ago, this was me. and a few days later, it still is. 23, and hopelessly undecided about showing face at an event with people i “couldn’t care less” about.

…because how do you know if you’re ready to go to your high school reunion?

before you answer that, i feel as though i need to give a little context on my high school arc (if we could even call it that). here’s the wrapped version:

friends maintained after: 2

parties attended: 3

life altering crushes: 1

boyfriends: 0

dances where i had a date: 1 (senior prom)

would recommend this experience to a friend? certainly not one of the four i had in high school.

okay, that’s dramatic, but you get the picture. i certainly wasn’t “cool,” i didn’t have reservations at multiple lunch tables, and it took me a second to find my footing. honestly, by the time i did, i was on my way out, onto bigger and better things.

…said “things” that i am now doing - in a loose definition sort of way.

honestly, a few hair color changes and mindset shifts later, i like to think i’m the kind of person that had a glow up post high school. in fact, i know i did. i do not look, act, or seem remotely the same.

and i take a lot of pride in that.

and for some reason, i expect, as anybody who wasn’t cool in high school probably would, for people to have a reaction to that.

but i’m also not naive, and i know this isn’t the kind of event you go into with expectations. even if the idea of “showing up” (as the new and improved version of me of course), has been a favorite selection in my maladaptive daydream circuit over the past couple of years. actually, probably, especially if that’s the case.

honestly, i’d kind of like to keep that daydream as unrealistic as possible for now.

the truth of the matter is…

i don’t think i’m ready to go to my high school reunion. and it’s not because my post high school glow up wasn’t good enough for me, or that it wouldn’t be good enough for the people at this near-projectile-vomit inducing function.

i was talking about this with my mother, actually, who did go to her high school reunion a few months ago. for the first time since graduating. in 40 years.

what’s funny, is that at the time, suzanne(my mom) was actually having a pretty visceral reaction to the idea of going to her reunion as well. the only reason she followed through is because she’d promised a friend(who was going through a hard time), that she would. hey, she’s better than me.

and my mom actually had a good time.

but while on the phone with her a few days ago, asking if she’s team “go” or “don’t go” for me personally, she had this to say:

“you shouldn’t go if you feel like it defines you.”

and i think, if i’m being honest, that’s exactly why i shouldn’t be in that group me. i also think, if i’m being even more honest, that’s probably why a lot of people are currently in it.

i’m pretty sure that’s why people started doing 5 year high school reunions in the first place. i don’t know if i would say the same about the 40 year ones. i would hope people stop trying to impress other people at that point.

so in a conclusion that’s long overdue, i’m not ready to go to my high school reunion.

and i think that’s okay.

but more importantly, i think it tells me a little bit about where i need to be looking inward.

but mark my words, next time i go to a high school reunion, it’ll be for the right reasons. even if “next time” is thirty-five years from now.

and hey, that’s saying something ! ;)

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