Introduction


A cartoon by Art Wood reflects the fear of a world-wide nuclear war that developed after the Russians successfully tested an atomic weapon in 1949.

Children cheer as a U.S. cargo plane with supplies for West Berlin flies overhead during the Soviet blockade of 1948–49.

A Cuban refugee in Miami, Florida, watches U.S. president John F. Kennedy address the nation about the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The world had never experienced anything like it. The Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States was a half century of military build-up, political maneuvering for international support, and behind-the-scenes military assistance for allies and satellite nations that began in the late 1940s and continued into the early 1990s. Both sides of the conflict wanted to avoid direct military action because of the threat of mutual nuclear destruction. But the period was punctuated by explosive situations that threatened to bring open war, including the Berlin Airlift (1948-1949), the Korean Conflict (1950-1953), the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), the Vietnam War (1964-1975), and the Afghan Invasion (1979-1989). In December 1989, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President George Bush officially ended the Cold War at a summit in Malta, but tensions between the two superpowers lingered for years.

Essential Facts

  1. Winston Churchill issued warnings about the Soviet Union as early as 1946 when he claimed that an “Iron Curtain” had fallen across Eastern Europe to describe the Soviet Union’s grasp for power in the region. The term was used throughout the Cold War.
  2. The first major event of the Cold War involved the amazing effort of British and American pilots to keep West Berlin supplied after the Soviet government closed all outside ground traffic. Between June 1948 and September 1949, pilots made 277,000 flights into West Berlin, carrying more than two million tons of products including coal for fuel.
  3. The end of the Cold War also saw the fall of the Soviet Union, which had united the countries of eastern and central Europe and much of northern Asia under communist rule. The break-up of the union changed the face of Europe and kept mapmakers busy as over twenty new countries emerged or reemerged over the next several years.
  4. In the late 1980s, the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union occurred with the defeat of the Communist party in Poland by the Solidarity Movement, a labor union led by Lech Walesa. Walesa risked his life and spent time in prison to found the Union.
  5. The Cold War was incredibly expensive over its four decades, costing the U.S. eight trillion dollars in military expenditures and over 100,000 lives in Korea and Vietnam. Although the exact figures for the Soviet Union are unknown, they spent a larger percentage of their gross national product on the war, maybe as much as 60 percent.
 

Recommended Resources

  1. Cold War Timeline: Cold War: Classroom
  2. End of the Cold War: Cold War Almanac
  3. Origins of the Cold War: Cold War Almanac
  4. Russia and United States End Cold War: Salem on History
  5. The Berlin Wall Falls - Great Events From History

All Resources

Display as: Categories, List
  1. A Thaw in the Cold War - 1970's Government and Politics
  2. A Worldwide Cold War: Cold War Almanac
  3. After the Cold War - 1990's Government and Politics
  4. Cold War Beginnings: Cold War Primary Sources
  5. Cold War Timeline: Cold War: Classroom
  6. Cold War: Involvement in Vietnam - 1970's Government and Politics
  7. Cold War: Salem on History
  8. Cold War: Sputnik - 1950's Government and Politics
  9. Cold War: The Bomb - 1950's Government and Politics
  10. Cold War: The Korean Conflict - 1950's Government and Politics
  11. Cold War: Triangular Diplomacy - 1970's Government and Politics
  12. Cold War: West's Encyclopedia of American Law
  13. End of the Cold War: Cold War Almanac
  14. End of the Cold War: Cold War Primary Sources
  15. Espionage in the Cold War: Cold War Almanac
  16. George Bush: Excerpt from End of Cold War: Cold War Primary Sources
  17. J. D. Salinger The Cold War
  18. Movie Learning Guides
  19. Origins of the Cold War: Cold War Almanac
  20. Russia and United States End Cold War: Salem on History
  21. The Berlin Wall Falls - Great Events From History
  22. The Cold War - 1980's Government and Politics
  23. The Cold War Continued: Crisis Years, 1960-1965 - 1960's Government and Politics
  24. The Cold War Continued: Nuclear Arms Race, Arms Control, and Détente - 1960's Government and Politics
  25. The Cold War Continued: The Cuban Missile Crisis - 1960's Government and Politics
  26. The Cold War Continued: The Vietnam War - 1960's Government and Politics
  27. The Cold War Review - Martin Walker
  28. The Cold War's Effect on U.S. Education - 1950's Education
  29. The Cold War: Postwar Tensions - 1940's Government and Politics
  30. The Cold War: Prelude in Wartime - 1940's Government and Politics
  31. The Cold War: Thaw - 1980's Government and Politics
  32. The Cold War: Third World Woes - 1980's Government and Politics
  33. The Cultural Cold War Review - Frances Stonor Saunders
  34. The Return of the Cold War - 1970's Government and Politics
  35. Was The Cold War Really A War? - History Fact Finder
  36. When Did The Cold War Start? - History Fact Finder