The Cold War: causes, consequences, and historical significance

Cold War began very shortly after the end of World War II when the Soviet Union built the Berlin Wall -- and made other moves in its campaign to spread communism -- and the United States and its allies worked to protect democratic states and to foster democratic advocacy in those states. It was called a "Cold War" because even though both super powers had ample nuclear capability to destroy the world, the two countries engaged in a war of words, political theories, and a war of wills -- but no direct military conflict occurred between the two superpowers.

Results of Three Interviews

My neighbor Shelly is in her early 50s and she said she has studied the Cold War in high school and college. She was willing to be interviewed and said she believed the Cold War "…was the reason Lyndon Johnson got us into Vietnam" and hence it was also the reason that Johnson used the "domino theory" to bolster his military plans. If Vietnam goes all communist, then the other nations around Vietnam (Cambodia, Laos, and others) would fall to the communists, Shelly remembered.

"The cold war started when the Soviets took part of Berlin and the western allies took the other part," she said. America and her allies tried to break down the will of the Soviets, she said. "The Cuban missile crisis was part of the Cold War," she explained. "No shots were fired and no missiles were launched, but we knew that our country was very close to nuclear war and we trusted President Kennedy to stand up to the Soviets and force them to remove the missiles from Cuba -- that to me was the most scary part of the Cold War."

Shelly's recounting of the Cold War does not exactly match the historical definition, but like others, she identifies certain events (Vietnam, Korea) with the Cold War. To her the Cold War can't be described through a definition; it's what happened as a result of the Cold War that defines it for her.

Carl lives kitty corner across from Shelly's house, and he is something of a history buff because he could remember the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 and how that, for him, typified the Cold War. "The Hungarians wanted out of the Warsaw Pact," Carl said. "Then the Soviet army invaded and arrested thousands of Hungarians and executed the leader, I think his name was 'Nagy'," Carl explained. "The Cold War was basically a standoff between communism and democracy," he continued. "We almost got blown up in the process when Khrushchev planted missile silos in Cuba. I had voted for Kennedy and I was so glad he was our president because he stood up to Khrushchev like I wanted him to do." Carl came the closest to giving a good definition of the Cold War, because he understood the division of Berlin right after WWII ended, and he understood the global political tensions that resulted. Carl knew that the Western allies had issued currency to Germans immediately after the war, to help them make it through; but he was aware that the issuing of currency irritated the Soviets and as a result they partitioned Berlin.