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Period: to
Cold War
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Containment
Containment led to many proxy conlficts over the course of the Cold War, such as Korea, vietnam, afghanistan etc. The US policy was also instrumental in the origins of the Cold War, as the USSR viewed containment as a policy threatening to their own national interests. This bred much dirstrust and colficlt over the course of the Cold War, and it led to many important events, events that themselves directly affected the course of US-Soviet relations. -
Nuclear Arms Race
The nuclear arms race is of paramount importance to the Cold War. It was the ghastly spectre of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) by the agency of nuclear weapons that made the Cold War as dangerous as it was. The stockpiles of these dangerous weapons produced by this armaments race were representative of the fear and mistrust present throughout the Cold War. athe Nuclear Arms Race mave however, have prevented a “hot” war. It is said that the threat of MAD was the factor preventing all out war. -
Nikita Khrushchev
Khrushchev is clearly of paramount importance to the Cold War, as he helmed the USSR for more than 11 years, the first new Soviet leader after Stalin. Khrushchev was head of the USSR during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and as a result he had a huge influence on the resolution of that particular trouble spot. He changed the focus of the USSR, and had very different foreign policy to Stalin. All of these factors combined to have him leave his indelible footprint upon the Cold War and history. -
Berlin Wall construction
The construction of the Berlin Wall is significant as the Wall was emblematic of the Cold War itself. It was the site of one of the tensest moments of the Cold War. This was the Berlin Crisis of 1961, which evolved into a high stakes confrontation between US and Soviet tanks. The Wall prevented free movement between the two Berlins, trapping families on opposite sides of the border. Just as the Berlin wall was emblematic of the Cold War, its fall in 1989 was an omen of the end of the Cold War. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis (CMC) is considered by many to be the closest that the world came to nuclear war. The implications of the tense standoff were dramatic. The fact that Kennedy and Khrushchev came to an agreement was a portent of things to come, as if the USA and USSR could come to an agreement over something as important as the CMC, they could easily come to an agreement over less critical issues. After the CMC military force utilising nuclear weapons wasn't a real diplomatic option. -
Ronald Reagan
Reagan was President of the USA through most of the final decade of the Cold War, and he had a profound effect upon it. It was Reagan's huge military expenditure that bankrupted the USSR, a major factor in the collapse of the USSR and the end of the Cold War. Reagan was voraciously anticommunist, and supported action to oppose communism anywhere possible. He also played a major role in the signing of the START treaties, which limited the numbers of nuclear arms possessed by the USA and the USSR.
