Cold War

Worldwide conflict from 1945 to 1991 between the capitalist democracy of the United States and the [Page 136]communist Soviet Union. The rivalry between the two nations dominated global political and military developments until the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union.

After suffering widespread devastation and more than 30 million deaths during World War II, the Soviet Union's primary postwar goal was creating a buffer of friendly states around its borders, particularly in Eastern Europe. The United States was equally determined in its mission, stated by President Harry S. Truman in the Truman Doctrine, to contain communism and halt its spread into Western Europe and the rest of the free world. Although the Cold War did not involve direct, armed hostilities between the world's two superpowers, the struggle did entail a half-century of tense diplomatic negotiations, hostile actions and incursions, nuclear and conventional arms races, and wars between small nations allied with the United States and the Soviet Union.

Origins of the Cold War

Although they had been allies during World War II, the two superpowers' cooperation crumbled during the late 1940s. In the United States, the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan (1948), which allocated funds to rebuild the war-torn nations of Western Europe, were the first steps in a campaign to check the spread of Soviet communism into Western Europe. In 1949, the formation of a Western military coalition, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), further strengthened Western Europe's ability to resist Soviet aggression.

A divided Germany was the site of hostilities between the Soviet Union and the United States throughout the Cold War. Because the West German city of West Berlin was located in Soviet-controlled East Germany, the city was a focus of Soviet aggression. In 1948, the Soviet Union initiated a blockade to prevent the West's access to the city. The United States and Britain responded by airlifting tons of supplies to bypass the blockade and fly in much-needed supplies, thereby maintaining a vital link to the West. The Berlin Blockade and the Berlin airlift signaled that both sides were willing to take strategic actions against one another but were reluctant to go to war.

When Communists led by Mao Zedong took over China in 1949, the United States became concerned that communism would spread throughout the rest of Asia. These fears seemed to be confirmed the following year, when Communist North Korea invaded South Korea. In response, the United States and more than 50 other member countries of the United Nations rushed to defend South Korea. The first armed conflict of the Cold War, the Korean War lasted three years and cost 37,000 U.S. lives.

The Arms Race and Cuban Missile Crisis

Early in the Cold War, the United States enjoyed a monopoly on nuclear weapons, a significant advantage that it used to offset Soviet conventional military might. However, the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb in 1949, spurring the United States to accelerate the development of its nuclear weapons program. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet Union and the United States created a host of newer, more sophisticated, and more powerful nuclear weapons and delivery systems. No longer did the nuclear threat consist simply of atomic bombs dropped by plane. Nuclear devices now could be delivered using intercontinental ballistic missiles and sea-launched ballistic missiles. Each nation came to possess the ability to destroy the other at half an hour's notice.

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