New Zealand and the Cold War

Communist Party of NZ poster

Although the origins of the so-called Cold War can be traced back to the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, this intense ideological struggle between the Western powers and the Soviet Union really began after the Second World War. The major capitalist democracies – the United States and Great Britain – had allied with the Soviet Union to defeat Nazi Germany and Japan between 1941 and 1945.

But with victory came discord: not 'hot' war, but not peace either – a 'cold' war, as it was termed. Just over 40 years later, with the disintegration of communist power in the Soviet Union and its sphere of influence, the Cold War ended.

Throughout the Cold War, international tension waxed and waned. It was greatest between 1948 and 1953, 1958 and 1962, and 1979 and 1983; less pronounced during the post-Stalin 'thaw' of the mid 1950s, the heyday of détente in the early 1970s, and during the glasnost era from 1985. Even so, hostility and suspicion between Cold War antagonists was the rule throughout: intelligence gathering and espionage, diplomatic maneuvering, and strategic planning never ceased.