Cold+War

COLD WAR

 **Cold War Reflection** The Cold War was always an easier topic to learn about in history. The title itself gives a hint as to what goes on -- Cold War means that there was no major fighting, loss of a huge army, or blood shed. It was more of a verbal fight than a physical one. Which ties in to the reasons why they couldn't do physical fighting. Both the US or NATO countries, were almost equal to the Soviet Union in the fight to create a stronger, deadlier weapon to destroy the other. Both countries had succeeded in that they created the hydrogen bomb. Because the H bomb was so deadly, able to cause the destruction of the entire earth, each nation feared using it on the other. Of course the US won this war because if we didn't... then our lifestyle would be quite different from how it is now. This is all from the top of my head. Now to elaborate and to get down on specifics. Right after WWII, the Cold War began around 1947. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin has had a problem with Europe and the United States long before this war due to political, economic, and military reasons. But after WWII when the leading nations, US, France, GB & USSR, were figuring out what to do with Eastern Europe, Stalin was planning to spread his communist ideals all throughout the countries. Anti-Communist nations, NATO, but more prominently the US, opposed Stalin's actions and tried to solve it with containment. Examples of these efforts would be the Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine. But confrontations between the East and Western was becoming increasingly severe. There was a Crisis in Berlin in which the Soviets blocked transportation routes, therefore Western leaders successfully solved this with the Berlin airlift. Then there was a War in Korea because the North was Communist & the South was Capitalist. Though the communist North attacked the South in hopes to unite the country under communist rule, the war ended where it started--North as Communist & the South still as capitalist. Then there was the nuclear arms race which was a battle to see who could do better. In the end, both the US & USSR had created the hydrogen bomb which was deadly to the entire world. And with that knowledge in mind, both countries did all they could, even sacrificing positions (Cuban Missile Crisis), so as to avoid unleashing their weapon, knowing that if they do, the other nation would have to retaliate causing total world destruction. Along the way, there was the space race where Soviet launched Sputnik. Then in order to out do the Soviets, the US decided to land the first man on the moon. Since the Soviet failed to do better, the US won that race. All in all, the Cold War had ended in 1991with the fall of the Soviet Union. The Cold War had left behind a great amount of legacy.