The Cold War
The Cold War lasted from the mid-1940s till the end of the 1980s. During this period international politics exposed the immense rivalry between two major blocs of power. The United States and its allies were the representatives of democracy and capitalism. The Soviets’ bloc represented Communism. The main allies of the USA during this period were France, West Germany, Britain, Japan, and Canada. Many Eastern European countries including Czechoslovakia, Poland, East Germany, Bulgaria, and Romania supported the Soviet side in the Cold War. Those countries that showed no commitment to either side were called as neutrals. The Cold War was war without the occurrence of actual warfare that hardened into a mutual and constant preoccupation. This war led to the formation of two huge military alliances: NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) that was formed in 1949, and the Soviet-oriented Warsaw Pact which was signed in 1955.
The Cold War was known to produce an immense rivalry between the main superpowers. As a result, advanced military weapons were accumulated. In spite of the victory over Nazi Germany, the Soviets and the USA were divided. The crucial step of the Cold War became the struggle over Eastern Europe. In the end of the 1950s Communist governments were established in some Eastern European countries including Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, and Hungary.
The president of the USA Harry Truman signed the Truman Doctrine in 1947 which empowered American assistance to anti-communist troops in Turkey and Greece. The goal of this policy was to restrain the expanse of Communism around the world.
A considerable impact on the duration of the Cold War occurred after the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953. In Geneva conference which took place in 1955 politics manages to achieve some progress on the issues concerning Eastern Europe, Germany, and weapons control.
Only in the mid-1980s the Soviet government reduced its forces in Eastern Europe, and the wall that had divided West and East Germany was torn down. The Cold War rivalry disappeared when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. Ideological basis for the Cold War had no future.
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