What was the concept of the "Cold War"?

Answer 1

Basically it was based on Capitalism vs. Communism, Democracy vs. Marxism. It started after the defeat of Hitler in WWII. The split point was located geographically in Berlin. That is why they started the famous Berlin Wall. That gave rise to the "iron curtain" in which there were countries that the Soviet Union stole from the West. And huge fencing was put between the eastern and western countries. Then they put soldiers on both sides eastern soldiers on one side and western soldiers on the other side. They pointed their guns at each other and said if you cross the fence you get killed. But it got even worst. The USA openned huge army bases near the iron curtain and so did the Soviet Union on their side. Tensions always were high along the iron curtain. This just spiraled into a sort of a cold standoff of nuclear missles pointed at each other. The USA had their weapons and the Soviet Union had theirs. Everyone knew that if one side lauched their missles the other side would do the same. So there was a cold standoff that lasted for 45 years. This was also an economic, idealism, and military cold stand off. The greatest fear that everyone had in the back of their mind was that if the war started that life would end as we knew it. So thank God, somehow it never happened that one side started to launch the missles otherwise we all wouldn't be typing on here.

Some say we were better off back then because if things hit the fan you knew who your enemy was ... it made the cold standoff effective. But nowadays with terrorism and all who do u nuke if say Los Angeles is nuked by terrorist or if NYC is nuked by terrorist. There is no one to retaliate against and so there is less to discourage some evil psychos from going crazy and killing millions.With the cold war you knew who the enemy was so this kept everyone in check.

Answer 2

The Cold War is based mainly on the situation between the U.S.S.R., China, and the United States. Some people believe the Cold War has ended, but I think that's naieve.
The situation is that both the U.S. and the superpowers U.S.S.R. and China have nuclear missles capaple of obliterating the entire planet many times over. So there is a concept called M.A.D."Mutually Assured Destruction" that prevents any of the nuclear superpower nations from initiating a nuclear first strike.
At one time this M.A.D. was not as solid, especially when the U.S.S.R. were installing nuclear missle sites in Cuba, and before that. I don't know when M.A.D. became solid. Anyway, this situation made it difficult for these countries to get into an all out war, because of the fear of a nuclear escalation. So the U.S.S.R. embarked on a campaign to try to brainwash Americans, and divide and conquer. We also had proxy wars with them with the Korean War, and the Vietnam war which really helped to divide Americans - and I believe today we are feeling the after effects of that. We also have had many skirmishes with them and many incidents, such as the downing of flight 007 by U.S.S.R. fighters, and shooting down spy planes etc. So the Cold War is mainly about brainwashing, proxy wars, spies, and especially building up the military, which partially started the spending out of control in the '80's under the Reagan Administration. Reagan made a deal with the Democrats that they could spend more on programs, and he could increase Military spending. So the two main "bring home the bacon" spending areas are the Military, and programs like Welfare. The Republicans are for the Military spending, and the Democrats are for helping the poor with really expensive ineficcient programs. What does this have to do with the Cold War? This Reaganomic spending is supposed to have bankrupted the U.S.S.R. and caused the collapse of the centralized U.S.S.R. government. What I'm saying is that the Cold War is not over, and what you see in the Middle East is partially a proxy war again with the U.S.S.R. and China, but it's more a financial war, or greed war than a political war.
By the way I may sound like I'm bashing the Republicans a little, and that's correct, although I'm fairly conservative.

Answer 3

The Cold War was the protracted geopolitical, ideological, and economic struggle that emerged after World War II between capitalism and communism, centering around the global superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union, and their military alliance partners. It lasted from about 1947 to the period leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991. Between 1985 and 1991 Cold War rivalries first eased and then ended.

The global contest was popularly named The Cold War because open hostilities never occurred between the United States and the Soviet Union. Instead, the "war" took the form of an arms race involving nuclear and conventional weapons, networks of military alliances, economic warfare and trade embargos, propaganda, xenophobia, espionage, and proxy wars, especially those involving superpower support for opposing sides within civil wars. The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 was the most important direct confrontation, together with a series of confrontations over the Berlin Blockade and the Berlin Wall. The major civil wars polarized along Cold War lines were the Greek Civil War, Korean War, Vietnam War and the Soviet-Afghan War, along with more peripheral conflicts in Angola, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.

The greatest fear during the Cold War was the risk it would escalate into a full nuclear exchange with hundreds of millions killed. Both sides developed a deterrence policy that prevented problems from escalating beyond limited localities. Nuclear weapons were never employed as weapons during the Cold War.

The Cold War cycled through a series of high and low tension years (the latter called Détente). It ended in the period between 1989 and 1991, with the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and later the Soviet Union. Historians continue to debate the causes in the 1940s, and the reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1980s.

Answer 4

In a cold war, (to make it short)

there is no winner -
the (two) opposing parties do not directly fight each other but instead support smaller nations to fight against their enemy.
it is an arms race - they created weapons not for war but for security.

Answer 5

Due to the empirical ambitions of the Nazis, the U.S. and Russia (possessing diametrically apposed ideologies) united against a common (and lethal) enemy. Emerging not only victorious but stronger for their effort (read nuclear weapons) each side resumed the grudge match claiming high moral ground (free enterprise vs. workers paradise) which resulted in empirical ambitions by both sides without the mushroom clouds.

Answer 6

The wars in the north and south poles.
Like the Falkislands war.
:D

Answer 7

US and Soviet fought using nuclear build up,tactics intending to harm each others economy.
In other words they fought with everything but arms

Answer 8

It was cold....like freezing cold. Thus the name.

Answer 9

No shooting.

Primarily an arms race.