The Origins of the Cold War The ideological differences between the capitalist West led by the United States and the communist East led by the Soviet Union laid...
The ideological differences between the capitalist West led by the United States and the communist East led by the Soviet Union laid the foundation for the Cold War after World War II. The Yalta and Potsdam conferences failed to resolve tensions, and the Truman Doctrine pledged US support to countries resisting communist expansion.
Tensions escalated when the Soviet Union blocked Western Allied access to the sectors of Berlin under their control. This crisis led to the formation of NATO in 1949, a defensive alliance of Western nations.
In response to NATO, the Soviet Union formed the Warsaw Pact, a military alliance of communist states in Eastern Europe.
The world came closest to a direct nuclear confrontation when the Soviet Union deployed missiles in Cuba, leading to a tense standoff with the US until their eventual removal.
The Cold War dominated global affairs for decades, with both superpowers vying for influence and engaging in proxy wars around the world. It also fueled an arms race and space race between the two sides.
Policies like detente and glasnost under Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev led to improved relations with the West. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 marked the end of the Cold War era.
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This crisis brought the US and Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war, highlighting the dangers of the escalating arms race and mistrust between the two superpowers.