Why aren’t Russia and the U.S are friends and what would have happened to Alaska if it had started? The Cold War started due to a combination and a long period of ideological, political, and military tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. The war lasted about 45 years 1947 to 1991.
The war was about the different systems and each side wanted to spread its system. They wanted to stop each other from gaining power. The reason it is called the cold war is because they never fought each other directly.
The arms race was to build up the biggest and most powerful weapons, especially nuclear weapons. The U.S was the first to build and use the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. About 4 years later, the USSR tested its own atomic bomb, in 1949. The U.S made the H-bomb which was more powerful than the A-bomb. Then a year later the USSR also made the H-bomb.
They both started developing an ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) that could deliver warheads across the globe in minutes. The people of the U.S and USSR were feeling fear, uncertainty, and tension because of the threat of the nuclear warheads. Many Americans were afraid of communism spreading into the U.S. The Red Scare and McCarthyism in the 1950s got people accused of being communists, without proof.
How Americans felt
Many people built bomb shelters and were taught to duck and cover in school in case of a nuclear attack. Americans felt proud of standing up for freedom and democracy. people were feeling the sense of competition especially in the space race and the Olympics. Churchill was worried so he said ” From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent” it means it was hidden from the world.
How Soviet citizens felt
The government was tightly controlled so many citizens didn’t know everything that was going on. Many felt proud of the power and thought the West was trying to destroy them, and propaganda painted the U.S as aggressive and dangerous.
Both of the counties felt fear from the nuclear war because both countries had power and lots of nuclear warheads. They mistrusted each other, and they thought that they were aggressive and dangerous.
How the war stopped
The war started to die down because the USSR economy was falling down, and it was the collapse of the Soviet Union. They were major changes in world politics during the late 1980s.
Sources
Churchill, Winston. 1946. Iron Curtain. March. America National Churchill Museum. https://www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org/sinews-of-peace-iron-curtain-speech.html.
The National WWII Museum. n.d. Cold Conflict. https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/cold-conflict?utm_source=chatgpt.com.
