Compare And Contrast The Cold War Vs America

The Cold War: The Soviet Union v The United States of America Cold war (noun): A state of political hostility between countries characterized by threats, propaganda, and measures short of open warfare, in particular. At a time when the worlds two superpowers were at odds, engaging in a cold war, America was able to prevail through the eventual break up of the Soviet Union, and intervention in foreign affairs such as the Korean war and the Cuban Missile Crisis. With the end of the second World War, the Third Reich fell leaving two clear superpowers in the world: The Soviet Union, and The United States of America. These two superpowers had vastly different ideologies. The Soviets were a communist country whereas the United States was a capitalist
Initially Northern forces pushed the South forces to the brink of defeat. Nonetheless, the South as able to push the North back forcing them onto the brink of defeat. Chinese forces then entered the war pushing South Korea back. The war saw Seoul, the capital of South Korea, change hands an astounding four times. The war eventually turned into a stalemate at the 38th parallel, the original starting point of the war. The fighting stopped when an armistice was signed between the two sides. The war, however, never officially ended and the two sides are still technically at war today. Although the America backed UN and South Korea did not win the war, they did not lose either and consequently, America was able to uphold their foreign policy of containment due to the fact that the communist North Korea did not obtain new land, therefore preventing the spread of
In 1959, the Cuban government was overthrown putting Fidel Castro in place as leader. The United States did not support Castro so he turned to the Soviets for help and they supported him and the new Cuban government became a communist government. In May of 1962, the Soviets then secretly built nuclear weapons in Cuba, and they largely went unnoticed. However, the Soviets were not the only ones with nuclear weapons pointed at their enemy. The United States had nuclear missiles in Turkey aimed directly at the Soviet Union. In October of that year, an American U-2 spy plane spotted the missiles and things turned tense. Congress debated whether or not they should attack and destroy said missiles in Cuba. They were unsure if more missiles were on Cuba and were afraid that there might have been. Tense negotiations took place between the two leaders at the time, Kennedy and Khrushchev. Attacks were expected to happen, however they never came. On October 28th, both sides had backed down and agreed to remove their respective nuclear weapons. This event came to be known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. Khrushchev famously went on to say that that was the closest the world had come to destroying the human race. The consequences of the Cuban Missile Crisis could have been dire if it were not for both sides agreeing to pull their weapons out. But because both sides backed down, a nuclear