What was the Cold War? The Cold War was an ongoing political rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies that developed after World War II. ... It was waged mainly on political, economic, and propaganda fronts and lasted until 1991.
The Cold War began after the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945, when the uneasy alliance between the United States and Great Britain on the one hand and the Soviet Union on the other started to fall apart. ... The Americans and the British worried that Soviet domination in eastern Europe might be permanent.
Historians have identified several causes that led to the outbreak of the Cold War, including: tensions between the two nations at the end of World War II, the ideological conflict between both the United States and the Soviet Union, the emergence of nuclear weapons, and the fear of communism in the United States.
Until the 1960s, most historians followed the official government line – that the Cold War was the direct result of Stalin's aggressive Soviet expansionism. Allocation of blame was simple – the Soviets were to blame.
The Cold War shaped American foreign policy and political ideology, impacted the domestic economy and the presidency, and affected the personal lives of Americans creating a climate of expected conformity and normalcy. By the end of the 1950's, dissent slowly increased reaching a climax by the late 1960's.
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The Soviet Union wanted to spread its ideology of communism worldwide, which alarmed the Americans who followed democracy. The acquisition of atomic weapons by America caused fear in the Soviets. Both countries feared an attack from each other.1 J
