The Cold War

The Cold War began in 1945 after the end of World War II. The Korean War, considered the first conflict of the Cold War, began in 1950. Cold War conflicts continued up until 1989 with the tearing down of the Berlin Wall during the Reagan Administration; keep in mind that some historians argue that the Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The onset of the Cold War marked the beginning of over four decades of longstanding tension between the Soviet Union and the United States. Not only was ideological/political tension between Soviet communism and US democracy widespread internationally, but US leaders within their own nation used fear and paranoia as tools of power--the most notable being US Senator Joe McCarthy. US-Soviet conflict would eventually grow to involve more than the two nations alone: the Vietnam War, Cuban Missile Crisis, Korean War, the Berlin Crisis, etc.