The Cold War

The Cold War "describes the tense war of words and ideas that developed between the United States and Western Europe on one hand and the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe on the other hand." The relations between the "free" U.S. and "communist" Soviet Union were very rocky. These two military superpowers were in a major power struggle.

During the Cold War, there was a problem that occured. In 1960 Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev launched plans to supply Cuba with a load of intermediate range ballistic missiles that would put the eastern united states within range of nuclear missile attack. In other words, the Soviet's were giving Cuba missles that could reach United States soil. The distance from Cuba to the U.S. state of Florida is a mere 90 miles. Khrushev assumed that the United States would take no action and when questioned denied that any missiles were being supplied to Cuba. By the summer of 1962, U.S. spy planes flying began secret missions to fly over Cuba and see what was going on. On October 14 the United States had the proof that they needed. That day the mission photographed the Soviet's overseeing construction work and spotted the first missiles. This became known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. For thirteen days the two countries tried to outwit the other. As Soviet ships carried the arms to the tiny island of Cuba, U.S. Navy brigades blocked their path. What looked like it would end in a war ended as the Soviet's turned their boats one by one back to the original place of departure. This has been regarded by many as the world’s closest approach to nuclear war.

This war was fought around the mid 1940's and ended about fifty years later with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The Cold War wasn't really a war because neither of the countries really did any serious damage to the other country. It was mostly psychological. The countries were just sending threats back and forth to each other.