Free Essay At The Front in the Cold War

Gromyko, Andrei in his book At the Front in the Cold War, underscored his excitement of returning home in 1948 to assume his position as the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs after spending eight years in the United States. His enthusiasm was, however, short-lived as it just dawned on him that the cold war was real , as typified by North Atlantic Treaty (NATO). That had been preceded by propagandist campaigns characterized by a vast majority of stakeholders stemming from politicians, journalists, economists, and historians, among other ho passed a strong message of the communist threat and the defensive character of the military block. The rival idea of the USSR characterized the cold, and the USA ho championed for communism and capitalism, respectively. The Cold war, therefore, was an ideological war fought by the two powerful fronts, the USSR and the US, with the former championing for communism a latter underlying capitalism ideology.

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The concept of cold is, and NATO had been primarily purported by the then Secretary of state in 1949-1953, Dean Acheson who had also contributed in the Marshall Plan and the Truman doctrine in the quest for pushing or the US foreign policy (Gromyko 165).A major incident of the US interference in the international affair of the Korean War by drawing their troops in South Korea. However, the Soviet Union managed to quell the situation using their moral and material aid in support of North Korea, coupled with the opening of the armistice talks, which succeeded in 1953 (Gromyko 165).

Discussion of the Author's Arguments

The author argues that despite the spirit of wartime cooperation that had remained between the USA and the Soviet, there still existed mutual suspicion between the West and the Soviet Union that was fast-growing. The author asserts that, though a difficult task, he handled it skillfully, albeit the Soviet delegates being unwelcome in the US, which by then not only the world's most prosperous country but also the ole nuclear power. WW2 had previously devastated the Soviet Union, and its weakness in the minority a fueled by its membership in the new UN Council. Thereby, Gromyko, a tasked with reducing the Soviet's inequality appearance in every possible way (Gromyko 156).

The ominous cold war symptoms never interfered with the UN preparatory commission; hence the latter' achievement in its work preparatory that is achieved in a short time, it homes credit owed to Gromyko. Gromyko, therefore, remembered for remaining the soviet foreign policy dominant spokesperson due to his discipline, dignity, and self-retrain, unlike another cold-hearted leader like Valerian Zorin, Yakov Malik and Andrei Vishinsky (Gromyko 157). Gromyko held a high office in the government of the Soviet for over fifty years, under the leadership of Stalin to Gorbachev. Being his country's foreign minister, Gromyko a responsible for meeting and negotiating with almost every leader in the world.

Gromyko's Memoirs on Cold War

Gromyko's memoir underscores the intrigues of power politics in Kremlin scenes, coupled with the events and characters that that ere dominant in his political life. The biography I a vivid insight into the unprecedented soviet's half-century and in politics. His work is a portrait of hi political contemporaries and revelations. Gromyko, the late Russian prime minister, in his memoir offers his life account, coupled with events and personalities that contributed to the shaping of his career through the provision of penetrating portraits of his contemporaries in politics and the analytical continuation of Stalinism in the USSR. His memoir underlies the account of his time as a soviet statesman during the cold war where he was a foreign affairs minister inn 1957-1985 and the detailed report of 1943 when he Soviet's ambassador to the Us and 1946 when he became the permanent representative of the soviet in the United Nations (Gromyko 156). Upon his return, he was appointed as the deputy ambassador in foreign affairs and a Russian ambassador in the United Kingdom in 1952(Gromyko 157). It is during that time that Gromyko played a crucial role in the Cuban missile crisis through negotiation in the arms limitation treaties like SALT 1, 2, Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and ABM treaty, among others. Under the leadership of Brezhnev, Leonid, Gromyko succeeded in building the detente policy between the US and USSR during the cold war since he had to play the middle ground (Gromyko158).

Gromyko's memoir additionally brings out a clear insight into the understanding of the foreign policy of the Russian on the era of post-war that was initially based on sociological expertise, coupled with political scientist speculations hence forming the prescientific stage of knowledge. Gromyko's memoir aids in the opening of the Russian archives that subsequently yield answers to a vast majority of questions, for instance, on whether or not and to what degree was Russia responsible for the cold war outbreak. The memoir provides sufficient knowledge that provokes the debate on the origin and evolution of the cold war. That is evident through most of his achievements like the signing of the Test Ban Treaty in 1963 that had been dragged since 1958 and along with Alexei Kosygin getting India and Pakistan to sign of the Tashkent Declaration peace treaty in the Indo-Pakistan war aftermath in 1965 (Gromyko 159).

Gromyko's memoir attributes the cause of cold war to be the tension between the two superpowers, the USSR and US that had begun at the end of WW2, coupled with the conflict of ideology between the USA, the Soviet Union and the emergence of nuclear weapons and the fear of the communist influence in the US. He, however, acknowledges that the cold war could not have been prevented since the US Were not willing to accept communism whence the USSR was not ready to give up communism. The only way the war would have been averted was if the Soviet Union did not try to spread communism but rather a necessity in the quest to protect their country. Gromyko's memoir provides a detailed overview of how the cold war began through the Soviet's military action of backing North Korea's People's Army that had invaded its pro-west neighbor in the South. Despite the Americans officials' fear for the war as a communist campaign in taking over the world, they had a declaration that nonintervention was not an option hence backing up the South Koreans (Gromyko 160). He also attributes the cold war for creating a bipolar in world whereby world countries were either allied with the Soviet Union or the United States. Gromyko's memoir on the cold war is relevant today in the contemporary world since it shapes the world today. That is since it prevented communism from gaining power in the West and creating friendship. That was evident through the breakup of the Allied forces, thereby forming power struggles for land, energy, and ideologies between the communists and the capitalists.

Similarly, the memoir provides clear insights into how WW2 contributed to the cold war through the bombing of Japan's Hiroshima and Nagasaki that led to an end of the war. That subsequently ushered in the cold war that was characterized by conflicts between the USA and the Soviet Union that dragged for almost half a century and later resulted in a divided Germany and US involvement in Korea and Vietnam wars. Despite all those, Gromyko remained a Soviet Union's member through the communist party, retaining his position as the prime minister for decades, albeit the internal machinations and the Warsaw Pact communist nations. His memoir details his interactions with Marshall, Zhukov, Molotov, Nikita Khrushchev, Eisenhower, Dulles, Arafat, Fidel Castro, Sterling, among other politicians and through his foreign policy. Similarly, he was able to steer even the most prevalent events of the post-war, and the memoir is a sincere devotion of his work as a diplomat (Gromyko 166). He provides vivid accounts on how he met his nonaligned negotiation partners and the atmospheres of their encounters.

The memoir ends by illustrating the new world order towards the 1960s and 1970s as the bipolar struggles between the US and the Soviet Union paved the way for international relationships in which the world split into more than two opposing blocks. First, it was between China and the Soviet Union that widened in the 1960s, thereby shuttering the communist block unity. Eastern Europe and Japan saw a dynamic economic growth between the 1950s and 1960s hence reducing their inferiority to the United States. Less powerful nations, on the other hand, had an opportunity of asserting their independence.

The cold war tensions were finally eased in the 1970s through the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) 1 and 2 in 1972 and 1979, respectively (Gromyko 187). That saw the two superpowers setting limits on their missiles that were antiballistic coupled with their culpabilities of carrying missiles and nuclear weapons. It was during Mikhail Gorbachev's administration that saw the beginning of a breakdown in the cold war in the 1980s. (Gromyko 188).He achieved that through his dismantlement of the socialist systems' totalitarianism and replacing it with a political policy of democratization.

Conclusion

Being a person of high stature, Gromyko had a process in diplomatic skills, albeit was considered by others as boring and mundane. His illustration excellent and active leadership in the Soviet Union, coupled with god memory during his tenure of administration for decades as a minister of foreign affairs and Russian foreign minister. As a Soviet ambassador, he underscored exemplary oratory and negotiation skills that quelled the cold war between communism and the capitalists. As an international diplomat at home is work was evidenced by his successful peace treaties and negotiations between the USSR and the USA through his state interest and his foreign policy.

Work Cited

Gromyko, Andrei. "At The Front of the Cold War, in Memoirs."Doubleday.Feb, 1990, pp.165195, https://www.amazon.com/Memoirs-Andrei-Gromyko/dp/0385412886