Cold War

&nbsp There are many wars that have been fought and have had defining effects but there is one war that was never fought. It has had a defining impact on the U.S. and even the world, this war has caused a shift in society. The Cold War has also left its mark which still affects today creating some irony. This war also decided which nation was the super power in the world. The Cold War was a political war that plagued the world for sometime starting after World War II.

Cold War
The end of World War II left nations in ruin having to rebuild after the wake of the atrocity. This gave the U.S. and the Soviet Union the title of superpower as they were the only nation not in debt or in ruins from the war. Eventually the tension grew between the two nations causing each to try to gain more power over the other. This led to the build of arms and the Soviet Union developing a nuclear bomb to show that it can keep up with the U.S. Also, the war had freed Eastern Europe from Nazi Germany's hold which allowed both powers to try and influence the governments. Russia being ,communist, wanted all the nations in Eastern Europe to be communist as well to prevent others from invading. This started when Russia wanted to decide the future of Germany, the Soviet Union created a blockade preventing surface traffic from entering West Berlin in June 1949. Also, in 1949 the spread of communism led the U.S. to create the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which was basically created to stop the Soviet Union from becoming stronger. The influence of communism against democracy had caused fights between other nations leading to small wars. This had lead to wars called proxy wars and one such war started in Korea. The Korean War, also called the Forgotten War, was started on June 25 1950 when the Communist North decided to invade the South for dominance. Both North Korea and South Korea were each supported by the two super powers of the world, the U.S. and Soviet Union, the North was supplied with weapons by the USSR while the South gained military aid from U.S. forces. The war continued until July 27 1953 when a truce was made and a demilitarized zone was established at where the North and South borders were in the beginning. The Korean War definitely helped to ignite even more tension between the U.S. and the USSR. Following the Korean War tensions had been building up in Vietnam where the French had been fighting to regain control of its colony which eventually led to the French giving up. Also, in 1955 the Warsaw Pact had been established by the USSR and other communist countries in Eastern Europe. In November 1, 1955 the Vietnam War had been started and had a very defining impact on society as the war had been considered a police action and also the people saw no reason to be there. Although in the beginning the Vietnam War had many supporters due to the U.S. parading the war as a fight between communism and democracy or good versus evil. In 1963 during Lyndon Johnsons term the war had been escalated with more fighting in an already deteriorating country and fight against the communist North this was also due to the Gulf of Tankan incident. During this time the society of the United States had been resenting the war as many people in Vietnam were being killed with such animosity. Reporters had been televising the war and bringing disturbing images or the truth to the people creating opposition against the war. There was so much opposition during the war that the Vietnam War had become the most unpopular war in U.S. history. The war continued for several more years until 1975 when it was decided that the U.S. would start bringing troops out of Vietnam and eventually ended the war leaving behind a tormented country. Just before the war had been escalated there was an incident in 1962 known as the Cuban Missile Crisis which involved nuclear weapons. The Cuban Missile Crisis happened when the Soviet Union decided to create missile silos in Cuba. While in progress of its construction, news of this alarmed the U.S. president Kennedy and this caused the crisis. Instead of trying to negotiate or attack Kennedy decided to order a blockade of Cuba in order to halt construction of these silos so close to the U.S. This came as an unfriendly gesture to the Soviet Union which they threatened to use nuclear weapons if the blockade was not lifted. The USSR found that it was only fair to place missile silos in Cuba as the U.S. had missile silos in Turkey which was a country very close to Russia. This charade went on until October 1962 when Kennedy decided to negotiate with the Soviet Union in which they came to an agreement which included the removal of the missile silos in Cuba. Eventually the Cold War led to the Soviet war in Afghanistan which was fought between the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan with the aid of the USSR against the rebel group called the Islamist Mujahideen Resistance. This war continued for ten years beginning on December 24 1979 and ending in February 15 1989. This war was called the Soviet Union's Vietnam and eventually influenced the end of the Cold War. This was due to the Soviet Union's economy taking a fall and leaving their money to take a decline especially with the decrease in oil prices during the 1980's. This also stopped the arms race on both sides and helped to improve the relations between the Soviet Union and the U.S., also, allowing the U.S. to claim the title of super power.

http://www.hpol.org/jfk/cuban/

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/kowar/kowar.htm

http://library.thinkquest.org/10826/timeline.htm

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Soviet-Afghan_War

The End of the Cold War and its After Effects
The Cold War had many impacts on American society such as the growth of individualism allowing the change in homes between Female and male roles. It also had impacts on civil rights movements such as during the Vietnam War with the protests. The war also influenced the people's view on Communism, the Soviet Union, and nuclear threat.

http://americanhistory.si.edu/subs/history/timeline/origins/american_society.html