 |
Business | Industries | Finance | Tax |
| Index: > A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
|
|||||
| First Prev [ 1 2 3 ] Next Last |
| This article is part of the series Cold War |
| 1947-1953 |
| 1953-1962 |
| 1962-1991 |
The Cold War (c. 1945- 1991) was the open yet restricted rivalry that developed after World War II between groups of nations practicing different ideologies and political systems. On one side was the Soviet Union and its allies, often referred to as the Eastern bloc. On the other side were the United States and its allies, usually referred to as the Western bloc. The struggle was called the Cold War because it did not actually lead to fighting, or "hot" war, on a wide scale. The term was first used by the American financier and presidential adviser Bernard Baruch during a Congressional debate in 1947.
The Cold War was characterized by mutual distrust, suspicion, and misunderstandings by both the United States and the Soviet Union, and their allies. At times, these conditions increased the likelihood of a third world war. The United States accused the Soviet Union of seeking to expand their version of communism throughout the world. The Soviets, meanwhile, charged the United States with practicing imperialism and attempting to stop revolutionary activity in other countries.
The Cold War occurred from the end of World War II until the breakup of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. The Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan were some of the occasions when the tension between those two ideologies took the form of an armed conflict, but much of it was conducted by or against surrogates and through spies and traitors who were working undercover. In those conflicts, the major powers operated in good part by arming or funding surrogates, a development that lessened direct impact on the populations of the major powers.
In the strategic conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union a major arena was the strategy of technology (see also Deterrence theoryDeterrence theory is a strategy put forth during the Cold War that encouraged arms build ups to the point where the powers in question would be too scared to use their weapons. No sides involved would initiate a war for fear of retaliation. Because the th). It also involved covert conflict through acts of espionageEspionage is the practice of obtaining secrets spying from rivals or enemies for military, political, or economic advantage. It is usually thought of as part of an organized (ie, governmental or corporate) effort. A spy is an agent employed to obtain such. Beyond the actual killing of intelligence service personnel, the Cold War was heavily manifest in the concerns about nuclear weaponmushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945 lifted nuclear fallout some 60,000 feet (18 km) above the epicenter. A nuclear weapon is a weapon that derives its energy from nuclear reactions and has enormous destructive power a single ns. It was questioned as to whether wars could really be deterred by the mere existence of nuclear weapons. Another manifestation was in the propaganda wars between the United States and the USSR. Indeed, it was far from certain that a global nuclear war wouldn't result from smaller regional wars, which heightened the level of concern for each conflict. This tension shaped the lives of people around the world almost as much as the actual fighting did.
One major hotspot of conflict was GermanyThe Federal Republic of Germany ( German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland is one of the world's leading industrialized countries, located in the middle of the European Union. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark and the Baltic Sea, to the east, particularly the city of BerlinBerlin [ bɛrˈliːn ] is the national capital of Germany and its largest city, with 3,387,404 inhabitants (as of September 2004); down from 4. 5 million before World War II. Berlin is located on the rivers Spree and Havel in the northea. Arguably, the most vivid symbol of the Cold War was the Berlin WallNovember 16 1989 The Berlin Wall ( German: Berliner Mauer was a long barrier separating West Berlin from East Berlin and the surrounding territory of East Germany. Its intent was to restrict access between West Berlin and East Germany. It existed from 196. The Wall isolated West BerlinWest Berlin was the name given to the western part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the American, British and French allied sectors that were installed in 1945. The Soviet sector became East Berlin, part of East Germany. West Berlin was su (the portion of the city controlled by West Germany and the Allies) from East Berlin and the territory of East Germany, which completely surrounded it.
| Politics | Business | Finance |
 |
 |
 |
|