Cold War

The Cold War was a four-decades-long ideological, economic, and political conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. The conflict arose out of the ashes of World War II (1939–1945) and fueled by the widely disparate political philosophies of the two sides—communism in the case of the Soviets and a capitalistic democracy in the United States. The superpowers competed for domination on the world stage. Each tried to gain the upper hand in military might, political influence, and scientific achievement. The term “Cold War” was used because the two sides never took part in military combat. In the end, the Soviets could not sustain the economic effort needed to continue the conflict. The Cold War ended with the collapse...