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Nuclear Arms Race
The Nuclear arms race effectively started with the Manhatten project and the subsequent American bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The USSR needed to be on a level playing field with the US and thus began a war of espionage to obtain American secrets to build atomic weapons. The premise of the cold war was built around the arms race. There was a sense of mutually assured destruction between the two countries, this led to paranoia and fear, which was really the catalyst for the cold war -
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Espionage: CIA vs KGB
The US and USSR spent considerable amounts of money into recruiting training and outfitting spies and agents. These were deployed around the world to retrieve information about the other's government and their plans. Info was obtained through double agents, bribes, bugs, intercepting communications, informers etc. Missions such as kidnappings, sabotage and assasinations were carried out. Espionage has larely been sensationalised and exaggerated, however; it was effectively how the war was fought -
Korean War
Effectively a war between Democracy and Communism. The North Koreans vs the South Koreans, and the US/UN vs China. WHilst the Korean war was only short lasting for 3 years, the country is still divided at the 38th parallel and tensions between North Korea, to the South and to the US are still high. Roughly 200,000 soldiers died and over 2.5 million civilians died. The Korean War was significant as it was an early war between two different political ideologies, and a rare intervention by the UN. -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact was a mutual defence organisation that put the Soviets in command of the armed forces of their member states: the USSR, Albania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria. The Pact called for any member to come to the defence of another if the other was attacked.This effectively unified many of the Soviet states and reinforced the Iron curtain. It would be a preventative measure for the soviets so the UK and US to attempt to invade or stop communism. -
Vietnam War
Similar to the Korean war in that the Communist North of Vietnam were engaged in a war with the South of Vietnam who was supported by the US. The Vietnam war lasted 20 years. The war was very divisive in the US and became very unpopular leading to the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 1973 and the unification of Vietnam under communist rule. This was truly a resounding defeat for the US and a big win for communism. Over 3 million people died in the war. prominent in this war was guerilla warfare -
The Space Race
The space race ultimately was a technological competition between the US and the Soviet Union. The space race saw a race to build rockets, put men on the moon and develop new technologies such as satellites. The Russians were the initial victors putting the first successful satellite into orbit (Sputnik I) and also put the first man into space. The real significance of the space race is how it transformed 20th century technology and how many positive impacts it has had technologically since -
Building of the Berlin Wall
Thousands of East Germans fled the Soviet ruled East Germany to the Democratic West Germany. As a response to this the COmmunist East German authorities built the Berlin wall to keep these people within East Germany specifically East Berlin. The wall was regarded as a symbol of communist opression, about 5000 East Germans managed to escape from the wall, however; thousands of people were captured and 191 killed. The Berlin Wall was dismantled by 1989 -
Cuban Missile Crisis
For 14 days in October 1962 the world stood on the brink of nuclear war. The USSR had stationed nuclear weapons on Cuba, when the US discovered them they demanded their withdrawal. The Americans enacted a naval blockade around Cuba and made it clear that they would use military force to neutralise the 'threat'. The closest that nuclear war came, with previous tensions in Cuba escalating the situation. The Cuban Missiles were removed in exchange for US withdrawal from Cuba and nukes from Turkey
