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¶ … twentieth century Cold War between communist nations led by the Soviet Union and their opposing Western counterparts, led by the United States of America and its North American Treaty Organization (NATO) allies. Specifically, we will discuss how the termination of the so-called Cold War and its associated revolution impacted political events during the two decades from 1970 to 1990, and the longer-term effects that prevailed upon American politics and governmental policy.
The term Cold War generally refers to the post-1945 relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR) which followed the conclusion of World War Two. This relationship was a dominant feature of international politics for several decades in the mid-twentieth century. A number of landmark events marking that period in history, including the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Berlin Wall, the Vietnam War and the overshadowing threat of nuclear war throughout most of the latter half of that century. It was termed a "cold" war, because actual direct warfare did not occur between...
And the U.S.A. Instead, the two sides engaged in physical conflict using client states who represented their respective beliefs. For example in the Vietnam war, South Vietnam was an anti-communist state supplied by the U.S.A. To fight North Vietnam, which was a nation that received its arms and weapons supplies from communist powers including the U.S.S.R. And China. Similarly with the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the United States moved to supply internal rebel Afghan movements with arms to repel the communist invaders, but once again avoided direct confrontation with the U.S.S.R. As early as 1946, there were clear indications that the Soviet-American conflict had become globalized, with related situations developing in China, Japan, Europe and the Middle East (Zagoria, 1993).
The Cuban Missile Crisis represented the closest brush the world experienced with actual direct nuclear warfare between the U.S.A. And the U.S.S.R. It should be recalled that during this period, the Soviet Union encompassed many countries which are today sovereign nations, including the Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan and others. The United States and the U.S.S.R. were historical enemies who fought their mutual enemy of Nazi Germany as allies…
References
Dean, J. (1999). Evaluating the Post-Cold War Policy of the United States. Union of Concerned Scientists. Retrieved from http://www.comw.org/pda/jdean.pdf
Trueman, C. (2000). What was the Cold War? History Learning Site. Retrieved December 31, 2011, from http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/what%20was%20the%20cold%20war.htm
Zagoria, D. (1993, September). Cold War & Revolution: Soviet-American Rivalry and the Origins of the Chinese Civil War | Foreign Affairs. Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved December 31, 2011, from http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/49160/donald-zagoria/cold-war-revolution-soviet-american-rivalry-and-the-origins-of-t
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