Title: the effect of the cold war on third world countries – Personal blogs
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the effect of the cold war on third world countries

Tag: the effect of the cold war on third world countries
In what ways did the Cold War affect international relations between 1945 and 1990?
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Content: It led the Berlin Blockade, created the divisions of Vietnam and Korea, resulted in the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 which furthers exacerbated the relationship of the West and the Soviet Union. It further exacerbated and fuelled other conflicts and wars in the Middle East (Painter, 2001). Another aspect of Cold War that had an impact on international relations was protecting sphere of interest by both sides “truly at global level” for example 1956 Hungarian uprising and the subsequent intervention by the Soviet troops, because the soviet did not like the Hungarian’s intention to leave the Warsaw Pact, (Bell, 2001). Similarly, the USA was also maintaining a sphere of interest in other parts of the world, especially in Latin America. During the Cold War, fear of the spread of communism had resulted in US military involvement in Latin America in various ways, for example, the US helped train and provided arms and other assistance to anti-communist in Nicaragua and El-Salvador and by using force to further safeguard its interest in the region. A good example of this was the armed intervention by the United States in the Dominican Republic in 1965, here the US aim was as suggested by Young & Kent, (2004) to stop the spread of communism in the region; in other words, this was a pre-emptive attack against communism. Another example was the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala and the failed attempt to overthrow Castro’s government in Cuba because America regarded Castro as an unfriendly and enemy (Bell, 2001). Furthermore, superpower rivalry was played out in parts of the world for example, in sub-Saharan Africa particularly Angola which became a battleground for the superpowers. On the one hand, the USSR and Cuba were supporting and arming Angolan government while on the other hand the USA and South Africa supported the UNITA rebels.