Question

How did cold war tensions contribute to conflicts in Vietnam and in Egypt?

Answer 1

Hint: The period in which there existed geopolitical tension between the USSR and the USA and their allies is called the cold war. Majority of the world was divided into two blocs. The Eastern Bloc led by the Soviet Union and the United States led the Western Bloc.

Complete answer: The war which took place in Vietnam can be considered as a ‘proxy’ war in the cold war. It means that even though the Soviet Union and the United States did not directly go to war however they each supported different sides in the war.

Vietnam used to be a colony of the French before the second world war. During world war II the Japanese took control of Vietnam and after the war had ended there was a power vacuum in Vietnam. Communist Ho Chi Minh and Vietnamese revolutionaries wanted freedom however the allies agreed that it belonged to the French.

French pulled out of the country after they lost a major battle to the revolutionaries in 1954 and this led to Vietnam being divided into Northern Vietnam and Southern Vietnam. March 8, 1965 the first official US combat troop arrived in Vietnam however the result of the Vietnam War was the defeat of the United States.

In Egypt we can see conflict between the US and Soviet Union. The Suez Canal was nationalized by Egypt and this was done to collect all the profits and to pay for the Aswan Dam. Due to this the tensions between the US and Soviet Union rose. The United State and its allies did not support Egypt having control of the Suez Canal.

Note: It is believed that 1947 was the start date of the cold war and in 1991, with the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the cold war ended. Russia drastically cut military spending after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and it experienced recession more severe than the Great Depression.