“After 1960, the Cold War was fought increasingly by proxies.” How far do you agree with this statement?
...ere was intensification of the commitment from the US under President Johnson. He increased ground troops form 200000 men in July 1965 to 500000 in 1968 together with an increase in economic aid to the South. We see a period of Americanization instead of increasing significance of fight using proxies. For the USSR, proxies were not really used and they were not really involved because of the cold war but more because of the sino-soviet rivalry. The USSR was initially cautious about getting involved in Vietnam as they were more concerned about being the key vanguard of communism against China. Aid to Ho was limited and the SU actually preferred peaceful unification more than an outbreak of war. Khurschev was not in favour of building up Soviet influence in SEA and thought of Vietnam as only a sideshow, fearing unhappiness from the US. It was only due to the Sino-soviet rivalry that the SU decided to lend extra help to North Vietnam as the North Vietnameses’ support became an important factor in this struggle for power. However, the proxies did not really fight increasingly as Ho played the USSR and China against each other, controlling them,to maximize amount of aid to fight against the US(South Vietnam), instead of the superpower, USSR, having the power to control North Vietnam to fight the cold war against US for her. In Cuba, the war was fought mainly by the Americans themselves and partly by the proxies. The Cuba war showed a period of time whereby there was almost a missile crisis. US got involved in the war to protect herself from having communism at her doorstep, threatening her, and therefore, also to contain communism. Castro succeeded in taking over control of Cuba and was welcomed by the US initially. However, the situation changed when Castro wanted to end Cuba’s dependence on the US by confiscating American property which seemed to the US as a form of pro-Soviet moves. With the Bay of Pigs invasion, Cuban exiles helped the US with anti-Castro actions, acting as US’s proxy. When the SU started building missiles in Cuba, President Kennedy felt threatened and ordered strict quarantine of Cuban waters.However, the proxies were only prominent in the Bay of the pigs invasion but lacked significance towards the Cuban missile crisis which was dealt with by Kennedy and the American soldiers themselves. There is no increase of fighting using proxies as use of proxies was limited. With regards to the SU, there was an a much larger use for proxies in the Cuba war. By using Cuba as a proxy, the SU was able to ‘reside’ in the backyard of their rival, US. Cuba and SU also established closer economic links and defence arrangements. By 1962, the SU had begun to build sites for ballistic missiles on Cuba. This enabled the USSR to make use of its proxy to “fight” against US at such a close distance without much threat to their motherland and people. Futhermore, the SU would have missiles only 90 miles away which would double her hitting power against the US. By 1962, there were 42000 Russian troops on Cuba equipped with short range tactical nuclear weapons. The missiles built were used as a bargaining counter, to offer to dismantle missiles in return for US not invading Cuba. However, an increasing use of proxies to fight is not prominent as the SU did not really make us of proxies in past wars such at the Vietnam war but were drawn into the war mainly due to US’s m...