The Cold War (1945–1991) was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's nations, including all great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. The war involved the mobilisation of over 100 million military personnel, making it the most widespread war in history. In a state of (1939–1945), primarily between the USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the Russian: Союз Советских Социалистических Республик (help·info), tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, IPA [sɐˈjʊs sɐˈvʲeʦkʲɪx səʦɪ and its satellite states A satellite state is a political term that refers to a country which is formally independent, but under heavy influence or control by another country. The term was coined by analogy to stellar objects orbiting a larger object, such as smaller moons revolving around larger planets, and is used mainly to refer to Central and Eastern European, and the powers of the Western world The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term that can have multiple meanings depending on its context (e.g., the time period, the region or social situation). Accordingly, the basic definition of what constitutes "the West" varies, expanding and contracting over time, in relation to various historical, including the United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the. Although the primary participants' military forces never officially clashed directly, they expressed the conflict through military coalitions, strategic conventional force deployments, a nuclear A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter; a modern thermonuclear weapon weighing little more than a thousand kilograms can produce an explosion arms race The term arms race, in its original usage, describes a competition between two or more parties for real or apparent military supremacy. Each party competes to produce larger numbers of weapons, greater armies, or superior military technology in a technological escalation. Nowadays the term is commonly used to describe any competition where there, espionage, proxy wars While powers have sometimes used whole governments as proxies, terrorist groups, mercenaries, or other third parties are more often employed. It is hoped that these groups can strike an opponent without leading to full-scale war, propaganda, and technological competition, such as the Space Race The Space Race was an informal competition between the United States and the Soviet Union, as each side tried to match or better the other's accomplishments in exploring outer space. It involved the efforts to explore outer space with artificial satellites, to send man into space, and to land him on the Moon.
Despite being allies The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . The Allies became involved in World War II either because they had already been invaded or were directly threatened with invasion by the Axis or because they were concerned that the Axis powers would come to control the world. After 1941, the against the Axis powers The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, comprised the countries that were opposed to the Allies during World War II. The three major Axis powers—Germany, Japan, and Italy—were part of a military alliance on the signing of the Tripartite Pact in September 1940, which officially founded and having the most powerful forces, the USSR and the US disagreed about the configuration of the post-war world while occupying most of Europe. The Soviet Union created the Eastern Bloc The terms Eastern Bloc, Communist Bloc or Soviet Bloc were used to refer to the former Communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, including the countries of the Warsaw Pact, along with Yugoslavia and Albania, which were not aligned with the Soviet Union after 1948 and 1960 respectively with the eastern European countries it occupied, annexing some as Soviet Socialist Republics The Republics of the Soviet Union or the Union Republics of the Soviet Union were ethnically based administrative units that were subordinated directly to the Government of the Soviet Union. Historically a highly centralized state, the decentralization and democratization reforms during the era of Perestroika and Glasnost conducted by Mikhail and maintaining others as satellite states, some of which were later consolidated as the Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Treaty is the informal name for the mutual defense Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance commonly known as the Warsaw Pact subscribed by eight communist states in Eastern Europe, that was established at the USSR’s initiative and realised on 14 May 1955, in Warsaw, Poland. In the Communist Bloc, the treaty was the (1955–1991). The US and some western European countries established containment Containment was a United States policy using military, economic, and diplomatic strategies to temper the spread of Communism, enhance America’s security and influence abroad, and prevent a "domino effect". A component of the Cold War, the policy was a response to a series of moves by the Soviet Union to expand Communist influence in of communism Communism is a social structure and political ideology in which property is commonly controlled. Communism is a modern political movement that aims to overthrow capitalism via revolution to create a classless society where all goods are publicly owned. Karl Marx posited that communism would be the final stage in human society, which would be as a defensive policy, establishing alliances such as NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization ; French: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique Nord (OTAN)), also called "the (North) Atlantic Alliance", is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on April 4, 1949. The NATO headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium, and the organization to that end.
Several such countries also coordinated the rebuilding of western Europe The Marshall Plan was the primary plan of the United States for rebuilding and creating a stronger foundation for the countries of Western Europe, and repelling communism after World War II. The initiative was named for Secretary of State George Marshall and was largely the creation of State Department officials, especially William L. Clayton and, especially western Germany, which the USSR opposed. Elsewhere, in Latin America Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages (i.e., those derived from Latin) – particularly Spanish, Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,501 km² (7,880,000 sq mi), almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area. As of 2008, its and Southeast Asia Southeast Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China and Taiwan, east of India and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic and volcanic activity, the USSR fostered communist revolutions A communist revolution is a proletarian revolution inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism, typically with socialism as an intermediate stage. The idea that a proletarian revolution is needed is a cornerstone of Marxism; Marxists believe that the workers of the world must unite and free themselves from, opposed by several western countries and their regional allies; some they attempted to roll back "Rollback" was a term used by American foreign policy thinkers during the Cold War. It was defined as using military force to "roll back" communism in countries where it had taken root, with mixed results. Some countries aligned with NATO and the Warsaw Pact, yet non-aligned country blocs also emerged.
The Cold War featured periods of relative calm and of international high tension – the Berlin Blockade The Berlin Blockade was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War and the first such crisis that resulted in casualties. During the multinational occupation of post-World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway and road access to the sectors of Berlin under their control. Their aim was to force the (1948–1949), the Korean War The Korean War is a war between North Korea and South Korea (Republic of Korea, ROK) that started on 25 June 1950 and paused with an armistice signed 27 July, 1953. To date, the war has not been officially ended through treaty, and occasional skirmishes have been reported in the border region (1950–1953), the Berlin Crisis of 1961 The Berlin Crisis of 1961 was the last major politico-military European incident of the Cold War about the occupational status of the German capital city, Berlin, and of post–World War II Germany. The U.S.S.R. provoked the Berlin Crisis with an ultimatum demanding the withdrawal of Western armed forces from West Berlin — culminating with the, the Vietnam War The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, was a Cold War military conflict that may be said to have occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from September 26, 1959 to April 30, 1975. The war was fought between the communist North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the United (1959–1975), the Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba in October 1962, during the Cold War. In Russia, former Eastern Bloc countries, and communist countries , it is termed the "Caribbean Crisis" (Russian: Карибский кризис, Karibskiy krizis), while in Cuba it is called the " (1962), the Soviet war in Afghanistan Storm-333 – Khost – Panjsher – Urgun – Maravar Pass – Badaber – Zhawar – Jaji – Arghandab – Magistral – Hill 3234 – Arrow – Soviet withdrawal (1979–1989), and the Able Archer 83 Able Archer 83 was a ten-day NATO command post exercise starting on November 2, 1983 that spanned Western Europe, centred on SHAPE's Headquarters situated at Casteau, north of the Belgian city of Mons. Able Archer exercises simulated a period of conflict escalation, culminating in a coordinated nuclear release. The 1983 exercise incorporated a new, NATO exercises in November 1983. Both sides sought détente Détente is a French term, meaning a relaxing or easing; the term has been used in international politics since the early 1970s. Generally, it may be applied to any international situation where previously hostile nations not involved in an open war de-escalate tensions through diplomacy and confidence-building measures. However, it is primarily to relieve political tensions and deter direct military attack, which would likely guarantee their mutual assured destruction Mutual assured destruction is a doctrine of military strategy in which a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by two opposing sides would effectively result in the destruction of both the attacker and the defender. It is based on the theory of deterrence according to which the deployment of strong weapons is essential to threaten the enemy in order with nuclear weapons A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter; a modern thermonuclear weapon weighing little more than a thousand kilograms can produce an explosion.
In the 1980s, the United States increased diplomatic, military, and economic pressures against the USSR, which had already suffered severe economic stagnation Period of stagnation , also known as Brezhnevian Stagnation (or Brezhnev stagnation), the Stagnation Period, or the Era of Stagnation (Эпоха застоя, Период застоя), refers to a period of socio-economic slowdown under Leonid Brezhnev in the history of the Soviet Union that started in the mid-1970s. Thereafter, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (Russian: Михаил Сергеевич Горбачёв , IPA [mʲɪxɐˈil sʲɪrˈɡʲeɪvʲɪtɕ ɡərbɐˈtɕof]; born 2 March 1931) was the second-to-last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985 until 1991, and the last head of state of the USSR, serving from 1988 until introduced the liberalizing reforms of perestroika Perestroika (Russian: Перестройка, Russian pronunciation: [pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə]) is the Russian term (now used in English) for the political and economic reforms introduced in June 1987 by the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Its literal meaning is "restructuring", referring to the restructuring of the Soviet economy ("reconstruction", "reorganization", 1987) and glasnost Glasnost (Russian: Гла́сность, Russian pronunciation: [ˈɡlasnəsʲtʲ]) was the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of 1980s ("openness", ca. 1985). The Cold War ended after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, leaving the United States as the dominant military power, and Russia Russia (pronounced /ˈrʌʃə/ ; Russian: Россия, tr. Rossiya, IPA [rɐˈsʲijə]), officially known also as the Russian Federation (Russian: Российская Федерация (help·info), tr. Rossiyskaya Federatsiya, IPA [rɐˈsʲijskəjə fʲɪdʲɪˈraʦəjə]), is a country in northern Eurasia (Europe and Asia together). It is a possessing most of the Soviet Union's nuclear arsenal. The Cold War and its events have had a significant impact on the world today, and it is commonly referred to in popular culture such as fiction.
WHAG
A veteran of the Cold War shared his dangerous encounter on a burning submarine. Teachers hope students will grasp the true meaning of Veterans' Day. ...
Gautier High students treat about 400 vets to breakfast SunHerald.com (registration)
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Chris Wysocki
Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:55:01 GM
The . cold war. was finished... Never has liberation come to so many people all at once to Eastern Europe's millions, released from decades of bondage; to the world, freed from the shadow of nuclear Armageddon; and to the democratic ...
Q. Like what did they have to do, was it bad living conditions what was it like during the Cold War?
Asked by Brandi W - Wed May 14 14:23:32 2008 - - 3 Answers - 0 Comments
A. on the american side, things were actually picking up. economy was good, people were living the very 50's lifestyle. some changes were drills in schools, in case the soviets bombed america, red scare where people were always looking out for spies hiding in the U.S. in Russia however, there were more problems. People were still be supressed under communism and the iron fist. people were incredibly poor and starving and everyday things like bread, water and toilet paper were rationed out and people waited in lines for a long time for these necessities. it wasn't until the end of the cold war, and the fall of communism that the soviet union begin to see a change for the better.
Answered by Kat M - Wed May 14 14:33:24 2008
