![]() ![]() To avoid such a cataclysmic outcome, policymakers in Moscow and Washington were highly sensitive to the risks of any conflict. Most importantly, the advent of nuclear weapons meant that any conflict between the superpowers risked a nuclear exchange that could have claimed tens of millions of lives and left a swath of destruction in both the Soviet and American homelands. The Cold War stayed cold for a variety of reasons. How could a war be cold? Essentially, by being fought not in the traditional manner of clashing armies, but by all other means short of actual combat. But by describing this war as “cold,” it indicates the struggle did not involve weapons and did not result in rival armies seeking to destroy each other. By using the word “war,” it captured the seemingly life-or-death struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union and between capitalism and communism. The very term “Cold War” is contradictory and confusing. My student could be forgiven for her confusion. That brought the world to the brink of what would have been a catastrophic conflict.īut through skill, prudence or luck – or all three – American and Soviet leaders managed to avoid direct combat with each other from 1945 to 1989, the basic period of the Cold War. Once, it led to the threat of nuclear war breaking out because Russia wanted to place nuclear missiles in Cuba, very close to the U.S. The Cold War relationship between the two rival nations was often tense. Washington and Moscow competed in numerous ways: over money and natural resources like oil, over allies, over weapons technology, over influence and prestige, over space exploration, over ideas. In 1991, the Soviet Union split up into 15 countries, the largest of which is Russia.īut back then, both of these two so-called superpowers wanted to be the most powerful nation in the world, building themselves up while simultaneously trying to reduce the power and influence of the other. It was, instead, an extended competition between the United States and the Soviet Union, along with their respective allies. Unlike the two world wars, there were no physical battles between the major adversaries. I told her the Cold War was not an actual war. After we discussed the various nations who fought in World Wars I and II, she asked: “Now, who fought in the Cold War?” “I am getting confused about all these wars we are studying,” one of my college students confessed to me years ago. In the Cold War, was there any actual war going on? Like, with armies? Or was it mostly about space? – Leia K., age 10, Redmond, Washington If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to. Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesĬurious Kids is a series for children of all ages. Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev, left, met with U.S. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |