The Cold War is a term used to define a decades long political, economic and military struggle between the two most powerful allies surviving World War II, the Soviet Union and the United States. It included massive alliances with many of the world's other countries and dominated the foreign policy of every country during this era. The struggle began because of disagreements concerning postwar Europe - in particular the occupation and rebuilding of, and eventual withdrawal from Germany. As well, there were difficulties concerning the eastern "buffer" zone (or "Iron Curtain" as Winston Churchill called it) that the Soviet Union insisted upon which encompassed Poland, Czechoslovakia, Albania, Bulgaria, East Germany, Hungary, and Romania.
Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam Conferences
The Ideological Divide Between the Soviet Union and the United States
Stalin Drops the Iron Curtain
While there was considerable concern in the west that this expanded Soviet territory would mean the emergence of a new threat to European peace, a long and costly war marginalized the voices who advocated confronting Stalin, the Soviet dictator over his demands. Consequently, the United States organized NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization - countries at the time included Denmark, Canada, Belgium, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom, United States) to be a military umbrella which coordinated the resources of its member countries against Soviet aggression and the spread of communism worldwide.
The Need for Long Term Post War US Involvement in Europe
Greece, Turkey and the Truman Doctrine
The Marshall Plan - Diffusing Hunger in Europe to Halt the Spread of Communism
Bizonia, Trizonia and the Emergence of West Germany
Berlin Blockade and the Birth of NATO
Throughout the Cold War, there was very little "hot conflict" which involved the main participants - the US and the USSR. Instead, each side supported another nation against a local antagonist who was in turn supported by the rival side. Often these conflicts were based on local self determination issues. In other words, the United States and NATO supported efforts aimed at democratization while the Soviet Union supported communist regimes. However, in some instances, the United States would give aid or military support to dictatorships in places where the strategic support of that government against communism was important to stop the spread of Soviet influence. As time went on, the Cold War became less about Europe and its perceived security and more about a battle of ideas -- a choice between individual freedom and free market capitalism vs. state control and socialism.
The advent of nuclear weapons added another dimension to the Cold War conflict. The United States was first to create and then detonate a nuclear device, using the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to bring a quick end to the war in the Pacific without the need for a boots on the ground invasion. Speculation has suggested that the United States went ahead with using the atomic bomb as a result of the growing disagreements with the Soviet Union over Europe after the fall of Germany. Specifically, the US believed that if the Soviet Union was involved in a land invasion of Japan which was expected to be protracted and bloody, Stalin would use his casualty count to buy him more territory in Asia. The atomic bomb at once signalled the military superiority of the United States and avoided the potential spread of Soviet communism. This advantage was, of course, short lived. Through their own intelligence on the Manhattan Project, the Soviets created and tested their own nuclear copy of "Fat Man," the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1949. This test marked the beginning of an era where the US and USSR were considered "superpowers" and the start of an arms race which would continue well into the 1980's.
The Arms Race
