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Three Worlds With decolonization creating new independent states, the superpowers positioned themselves to offer either democracy and capitalist economic growth or egalitarianism and rapid modernization respectively. Choosing to go their own way, many states struggled to modernize even as cold war competition found its way into Third World politics.
The First World—Western Europe, North America, and Japan—built liberal versions of modernity but also found it convenient to align with Third World dictators in an effort to defeat communism. Western Europe: U.S. economic support helped Western Europe recover from World War II devastation in remarkable ways. Agriculture and industry boomed, allowing for stable social and political systems resistant to Communist propaganda. Preservation of some Nazi elements in Germany ensured that communism struggled in the West. The United States: During the 1950s, economic prosperity and a strong sense of faith in the country led to rising birthrates and national pride. At the same time, however, widespread and manipulated fear of Communist infiltration led to hard-core anti-communist foreign policy and increasing arms expenditures. Eager to secure for minority groups the same right to prosperity enjoyed by whites, the Civil Rights Movement used nonviolence to demand (and eventually get) desegregation. The U.S. model thus combined liberal capitalism and increasing rights for all. The Japanese "Miracle": Shattered by World War II, Japan embarked on a reconstruction program that impressed everyone. U.S. military protection kept Japan’s military budgets small. American technology, investment, and markets, meanwhile, stimulated economic development and allowed Japan to produce one of the world’s most powerful economies. In addition to U.S. help, the Japanese government orchestrated much of the success.
Determined to avoid future invasions from the West, the Soviets conquered Eastern Europe to serve as a buffer zone. Many supported the Soviet system as an effective alternative to capitalism’s inherent problems. Soviet education, for example, excelled. Pride in the Soviet victory in World War II combined with skewed information on life in the First World to give citizens the impression that Soviet people enjoyed a living standard far superior to anyone else. As news of the outside trickled into Soviet-bloc nations, many still believed the Soviet system to be more just. The Soviet system, however, relied on brutality and suppression. Millions suffered in the Gulag system simply because the government dared not trust them. Unrest led Khruschev to secretly denounce Stalin, signaling a wave of political and economic experimentation in Eastern European states anxious to loosen the tight grip of Moscow. Revolts in Hungary and Poland, although gaining small concessions, were crushed as a sign to all that Moscow still dominated. Intellectuals, youths, and workers clamored for more changes but were brutally squelched. The Soviet Union’s educational system, which trained many from the Third World, produced gifted scientists who eventually launched Sputnik in 1957. To many Soviet leaders, this advancement signaled that the Soviets were destined to surpass the First World.
Having ousted the imperialists, many Third World nations believed they could now create humane versions of modernity different from the systems of the First and Second Worlds. Eager to build democracy and rapid economic growth without materialism or oppression, Third World leaders plunged ahead. Limits to Autonomy: Maintaining a "third way" proved difficult for Third World states. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund provided economic assistance, but also encroached on state autonomy. Multinational corporations, eager for profit, competed with native banks and remitted profits to First World stockholders. Politically, Third World leaders found themselves drawn into alliance arrangements, hosting U.S. or Soviet military bases while also trying to build up their own military forces. Far from accomplishing their visions of a "third way," many Third World nations fell to dictatorships willing to play the superpowers off against each other for arms and assistance. Third World Revolutionaries and Radicals: Other attempts to find a "third way" led to radical views of social change, as represented by the writings of Frantz Fanon. In China, Maoist radical visions led to the Great Leap Forward, which killed some 20 million, and the destructive excesses of the Cultural Revolution. In Latin America, dreams of empowering the poor and reducing the influence of multinational corporations led radicals to violent confrontations with U.S. interests. Cuban failures to improve the lot of the working poor opened the door to radicals like Fidel Castro, who eventually instituted radical reform. Abortive U.S. efforts to dislodge Castro drove him into the arms of the Soviets and precipitated the Cuban Missile Crisis. Fearful of Communist spread into the Western Hemisphere, the United States initiated aid programs that taught the virtue of democracy while also expanding anti-insurgency forces to combat rising revolutionary movements. As anti-communist concern rose, the United States found itself supporting violently repressive military regimes that liquidated huge segments of their own populations. >> Continue to the next part of the Summary: Tensions in the Three-World Order
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