American History

The end of World War II did not come with guaranteed peace. Tension still remained high between the Western world especially the United States and the Soviet Union and its satellite states. Both sides still wanted to maintain supremacy though they employed little or no military   action at all.

Cold War Ideology and Policies
You cannot mention the term cold war and fail to mention George Orwell who popularized the term long before World War II was over. He had warned of a situation of peace that is no peace, which would be characterized by people living in constant fear of nuclear attacks. He brought out this picture so clearly in the essay You and the Atomic Bomb which was published in the British newspaper Tribune on 19th October 1945.

The cold war was the ongoing state of political conflict, economic competition, proxy wars and military tension between the Western world especially the United states and the Soviet union and its satellite states. It would be worth noting that the key participants military forces never clashed directly officially but instead expressed conflict trough technological competitions for example the Space Race, military coalitions, extensive aid to states thought to be susceptible, calculated conventional force deployments ,propaganda, nuclear arms race ,espionage, proxy wars and economic  competitions.(Higgs,2006)

There was an open disagreement between the US and the USSR about the design of the world after the World War II with the main aim being occupying most of Europe. The US and some western European countries on one hand established containment of communism through establishment of alliances such as NATO as a defensive policy against the Eastern Bloc on the other hand. The Eastern Bloc was created by the Soviet Union with the Eastern European countries it occupied. It annexed some countries as Soviet Socialist Republics wile at the same time maintaining others as satellite states some of which would later form the Warsaw Pact. (Goldgeier, 2003)

The cold war gradually died from 1953 this is highly attributed to the death the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. (Breslauer, 2002)