Cold War Essay

The Cold War

The Cold War lasted for 40 years. The rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union shaped political, economic, and social conditions in many parts of the world. From the end of World War II, the United States and its western European allies were involved in a near half-century war with the Soviet Union in which the United States and Soviets never actually went to war with one another. However, Cubans, Koreans, and Vietnamese were all intertwined and caught in the Soviets' drive to destabilize the free, democratic, capitalist world. The Cold War, at its core, was again a conflict of good vs. evil, just like World War II and coined and called by some the third World War. Just like World War II, the Cold War was a war that was a death match between those representing freedom and

In 1961 the Soviets built the Berlin Wall. The U.S. Response was containment. Investing in the Marshall Plan and capitalism would help stop the spread of Communism. The United States then founded NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, an intergovernmental military alliance with C.I.A. interventions. The nuclear arms race was the most critical part of the cold war. Both sides developed nuclear arsenals, which were both prominent in quality, which led to M.A.D., mutually assured destruction. In 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis was the first time the threat of Nuclear War loomed. Because of the Cold War, countries in Asia and Africa were affected. For example, The Korean War saw Communism vs. capitalism and the Vietnam war. Vietnam's longing for Communism was not an excellent threat to newly allied Japan backed by the U.S., which led to one of the U.S. longest wars. Then the Soviets were in Afghanistan. Thus, coining the planet is divided into three worlds: the first world, the second world, and the third world. The first world was the U.S., Western Europe, and any place that embraced