Cold War

The Cold War was a forty-year period of tension between the United States and the former Soviet Union. It was referred to as the Cold War because neither side ever used military force directly against the other. Instead, it became a rivalry in which the two nations competed to become more powerful politically, militarily, and scientifically. The Cold War began around 1947 and lasted until the Soviet Union broke up in 1991. The period was defined by a difference in political ideology. The Soviet Union followed communism, while the United States was a democracy. As the Soviet Union tried to spread communism, the United States tried to stop it.

Both the United States and Soviet Union were part of the...