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The Cold War: The Arms Race And The Space Race

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The Cold War was a long period of tension between the democracies of the Western blocks and the communist countries of Eastern blocks. The west was, led by the United States and Eastern Europe was, led by the Soviet Union. These two countries became, known as superpowers. Although the two superpowers never officially declared war on each other, they fought indirectly in proxy wars, the arms race, and the space race (Nelson, 2018).

As Nelson (2018) stated, the Cold War began not too long after World War II ended in 1945. There was a great distrust between the Soviet Union and the USA and rest of the Allies after WW 2. The Allies were concerned with the brutal leadership of Joseph Stalin as well as the spread of communism. As many scholars …show more content…

These were wars fought between other countries, but with each side getting support from a different superpower. Examples of proxy wars include the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Yom Kippur War, and the Soviet Afghanistan War (Nelson, 2018).
The two superpowers also tried to fight the cold war by demonstrating their power and technology. One example of this was the Arms Race where each side tried to have the best weapons and the most, nuclear bombs. The idea was that a large stockpile of weapons would deter the other side from ever attacking. Another example was the Space Race, where each side tried to show that it had the better scientists and technology by accomplishing certain space missions first (Nelson, 2018).
While many scholars state that the 1989 Malta Summit was the end of the Cold War, however it was December 1991 before the Presidents of the United States and the Soviet Union formally recognised the conflict's end, with the Soviet Union, also being, dissolved at that …show more content…

In Russia, military spending was, cut dramatically and quickly. The effects of this were very large, seeing as the military-industrial sector had previously employed one of every five Soviet adults and its dismantling left hundreds of millions throughout the former Soviet Union unemployed. Russia suffered a financial crisis and a recession more severe than the United States and Germany had experienced during the Great Depression. Russian living standards have worsened overall in the post–Cold War years, although the economy has resumed growth since 1995 (“The effects of Cold War”, n.d., para 1,

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