The Cold War

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The Cold War |

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David Pence |

7/19/2011 |

[Type the abstract of the document here. The abstract is typically a short summary of the contents of the document. Type the abstract of the document here. The abstract is typically a short summary of the contents of the document.] |

The Cold War was the hostile relationship between the USA and the USSR after World War Ⅱ which led a lot of nations into conflicts. It is called the “Cold War”, because “it never led to armed or ‘hot’ conflicts”. The Cold War started after the alliance between the USA, Britain, and the USSR, which was formed during the Second World War, ended. America and Russia which were the world’s leading superpowers had huge differences in their political beliefs, and other nations who supported each political belief started to form alliances. That caused a division of the world into two conflicting groups: non-communist nations which supported America, and communist nations which supported Russia. The tension created during the Cold War led to a lot of major crises such as the Korean War, “the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, Hungary and the Berlin Wall”.

The United States and the USSR feared each other. In 1945 Russia was displeased with the fact that America developed atomic bombs. The Russians were worried that America might use one against them, so they created atomic weapons of their own. With the development of atomic bombs, an arms race between America and Russia started. They both built up stockpiles of missiles and hydrogen bombs, and the tension between the two countries grew dramatically. Since “both Russia and America were ‘super-powers’ with enormous armed forces” the Americans were afraid of a communist attack, and the Russians were afraid of a capitalist attack.

Not only their fear, but also their hatred of one another had a huge impact on the causes of the Cold War. Even though they had fought together against Germany during the Second World War, they were...