Main Events of The Cold War

Written by: Gáspár Richárd   In this essay I will introduce the Cold War and its most important events these include but not limited to: Cuban Missile Crisis, SALT treaty, space race, Red Scare. The reason of the creation of this essay is: it’s easier to write a research paper about a cold war and using it in my presentation than doing a different presentation and  a research paper as well. Those readers who do not know what the cold war is may be interested what it is so to help them out I will start there.

  Could use a quote here The Cold War was a global conflict between two superpowers, namely the USA and the USSR from 1947 to 1991.During this time one would hold ideological and economical power over the smaller countries. It is called Cold War because no actual military engagement took place during this time, instead they fought in a so called The Americans were afraid of the soviets and the US government named them “Red Scare” or sometimes just “Reds”.

The US wanted to stop the soviet spreading and came up with a few plans such as the Marshall Aid.

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It was offered by the secretary of state to help countries trying to rebuild after the war. The main idea was: by helping the countries with money they will be less likely to join the Soviets than the poor nations. Stalin accused the US of trying to turn the people against him by lending them money, so he did not allow soviet states to accept the Marshall Aid.Helmut Schmidt of Germany said it all in one sentence: ‘The high probability of failure was averted thanks to leaders who did not act according to plan, but instead relied on their moral and national visions as well as their common sense.’ (n.d.) by Helmut Schmidt Retrieved April 24 2018 from.  After the Second World War the USSR and US made an agreement to leave Iran, the Western Allies left by March, 6, 1946.

The soviet soldiers did not leave Iran by the deadline, instead a smaller soviet army started marching toward Teheran. In late March Truman, the president at that time, has decided to send an message to stalin, he called this message an ultimatum. He trheatened to deploy military forces in Persia if the soviet army did not pull out of Iran before the end of the month, around the end of March the soviets left Iran. Several aggressive actions like this from the part of the soviets lead to the opposition of the USA and USSR.In 24, June, 1948 Soldiers of the Soviet Union blocked access routes between West Berlin and West Germany because Stalin was afraid that this place will become a capitalist centre within Communist Eastern Europe. He planned to make a food shortage and make them surrender their regions. In response the US sent planes with rations for the people, clothes, medical supplies and even petrol and coal. Stalin tried to take down the airplanes and stop the supplies from flowing with no success.

Later he thought the US will not be able to supply the people for long; however, when he realised the supplies were still being shipped he lifted the blockade in May 1949.Beginning in the late 50s a new arena opened up before the two powers, it was space where they wanted to prove their technological, military and political system. The first artificial satellite, called Sputnik I, which was launched in October 1957, warned Eisenhower and his administrators and created fear and anxiety among the public regarding the Soviets achivement. In response to the Soviet’s success, the US created NASA on October 1, 1958 as the primary agency responsible for aerospace research and civilian space program. NASAs first objective was to launch a manned vehicle into orbit as soon as possible but the Soviets were the first who would send a man in space. To this the US ‘pressed the money button’ and gave more funding for math and science education. The Congress passed the NDEA, which intended to make the public education part of the national security. On December, 1968 NASA launched the first manned space mission to the moons orbit from their massive launch facility on Merritt Island, Florida.

Later on July 20, 1969 the first man stepped on the moons surface, the American astronaut is called Neil Armstrong. After landing he said the famous lines: „one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”. By landing on the moon, the US effectively won the so called space race against the soviets, which had begun by the first satellite called Sputnik I.   When the Space Race was already on its way another dangerous event took place in America, starting with the new nationalist who took over Cuba. Before Fidel Castro, who rose to power in 1959, the government was a military dictatorship. When Castro took the leadership he wanted to nationalize Cuba. This meant he wanted the American businesses in Cuba to be controlled by Cuban government. Americas response was to stop all aid to Cuba and stop importing sugar as well, this meant there was only one country left who was willing to bus sugar from Cuba, the USSR. They made an agreement in 1960 that the USSR will buy sugar from Cuba in exchange for oil.

Later that year Castro declared Cuba a communist country of course the USA did not like this. The USA believed that Castro was building nuclear missile sites for the soviets, they did not have confirmation however. In October, 1962, one of the American spy planes confirmed their fear and realized the missiles will be able to reach every major city in the US, unless acted upon.   Thankfully Kennedy was experienced enough to react in a favoreable way, he put Cuba in quarantine and made the missile threat public. Khrushchev ,who had planted the nuclear missiles in Cuba, realized this could lead to nuclear war so he wrote a letter to Kennedy. Both side knew if they dont solve this conundrum another war will be brought down on humanity, this lead them to make a deal. The USSR uproots their missiles in Cuba and the US will not invade Cuba, complying to the deal the missiles left Cuba throughout the following months. After the agreement  Khrushchev was esteemed by the west for his wisdom; however, China denounced him as weak. They made a hotline between the White House, Washington and Kremlin, Moscow to have the means of discussing problems if any would arise. In 1963 the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed, to prohibit any nuclear arms test in the sea,space or atmosphere.