What is the Cold War and why is it called that?

Answer 1

After World War II, the US and USSR were the two strongest militaries in the world. Shortly after WWII the Soviets also figured how to make atomic weapons; shortly thereafter both developed the larger hydrogen bomb.

With these weapons both nations worked to expand their influence with other, smaller, nations. The Western Europe Nations and the US formed an alliance called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The Soviets decided that they wanted to have an organization for their mutual defense; they formed the Warsaw Pact with the other Eastern European Nations.

Both the US and the USSR wanted to expand their influence beyond Europe. Asia was the next place of conflict. In Korea, the Soviets backed and supplied China who in turn supplied the North Koreans. The US and most of the newly founded United Nations back South Korea in its fight against communism.

After World War II, the losing nation of Germany was split into centers of influence. West Germany was divided among Great Britain, France, and the US. East Germany was awarded to the USSR (Soviets) for their center of influence.

Many of the educated and skilled East Germans decided that they preferred life in a democracy rather than under the communist East German government that was a puppet to the USSR. Thousands left the east for a new life in West Germany. This "brain drain" from east caused the East Germans (USSR) to put up the walls and fences that included the Berlin Wall.

Ultimately, the US had heavy fortifications across West Germany and airbases in England to stand guard against the expected and promised onslaught of Soviet troops into Western Europe. The Soviets forified the Warsaw Pact nations (Romania, Hungry, Poland, Czechoslovakia) against the expected attack from the west. For over 40 years (mid-1940's to late 1980's) this nose-to-nose standoff lasted without a major incursion into either side's territory.

That is why this was called the Cold War.

Answer 2

new perspective Vol 6, No 2



As early as 1893 the German Socialist Eduard Bernstein described the arms race between Germany and its neighbours as ‘a kind of ‘‘cold war’’ where there is no shooting but bleeding’. It was not, however, until after 1945 that the term ‘Cold War’ became an everyday expression to describe the rapidly deteriorating relations between the USSR and the United States. In an article written in October 1945, George Orwell argued that the invention of the atom bomb brought a ‘peace that is no peace’ in which the United States and USSR would be both ‘unconquerable and in a permanent state of cold war with each other’.

Answer 3

The Cold War was a time of political unrest between The Soviet Union and US. It was mainly called the cold war becaus neither nation fired on each other.

Answer 4

The cold war is when your enemy is not shooting at you but still hates your guts. It is a war of words. We went through this for 15 years with the Soviet Union.

Answer 5

thats a question requiring elaborate detail but in word wor i can tell u it was an conflict between the USSR and US in which they never came directly face to face in combat (cold) and the main conflict was that the USSR wanted to spread communism across the globe and the US wanted to contain its spread....the iron curtain speech was great...so the two superpowers decided that the fate of all the coutries in between could be decided by them and they decided to send troops into countries such as Korea and Vietnam and Germany without being too considerate about the countries' own preferences

Answer 6

the Cold War was the period of protracted conflict and competition between the United States and the Soviet Union and their allies from the late 1940s until the late 1980s. The main U.S. allies were Western Europe, Japan and Canada. The main Soviet allies were Eastern Europe and (until the Sino-Soviet Split) China. Throughout the period, the rivalry between the two superpowers 3].

At the Potsdam Conference starting in late July, serious differences emerged over the future development of Germany and Eastern Europe.[6] At Potsdam, the U.S. was represented by a new president, Harry S. Truman, who on April 12 succeeded to the office upon Roosevelt's death. Truman was unaware of Roosevelt's plans for postwar engagement with Soviet Union, and generally uninformed about foreign policy and military matters. (Schmitz) Therefore, the new president was initially reliant upon a set of advisers, including Ambassador to the Soviet Union Averell Harriman, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, and his own choice for secretary of state, James F. Byrnes. This group tended to take a harder line toward Moscow than had Roosevelt. (Schmitz) Administration officials favoring cooperation with the Soviet Union and incorporation of socialist economies into a world trade system were marginalized.

One week after the Potsdam Conference ended, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki added to Soviet distrust of the United States. Shortly following the attacks, Stalin protested to U.S. officials when Truman offered the Soviets little real influence in occupied Japan. (LaFeber 2002, p. 28)

In February 1946, George F. Kennan's "Long Telegram" from Moscow helped articulate the growing hard line against the Soviets. (Schmitz) The telegram argued that the Soviet Union was motivated by both traditional Russian imperialism and Marxist ideology, and that Soviet behavior was inherently expansionist and paranoid, posing a threat to the United States and its allies. Later writing as "Mr. X" in his article "The Sources of Soviet Conduct" in Foreign Affairs (July 1947), Kennan drafted the classic argument for adopting a policy of "containment" toward the Soviet Union.

A few weeks after the release of the "Long Telegram," former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered his famous "Iron Curtain" speech in Fulton, Missouri. The speech called for an Anglo-American alliance against the Soviets, whom he accused of establishing an "iron curtain" from "Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic." (Schmitz)

On September 6, 1946 James F. Byrnes made a speech in Germany repudiating the Morgenthau Plan, as well as warning the Soviets that the U.S. intended to maintain a military presence in Europe indefinitely. (see Restatement of Policy on Germany) As Byrnes admitted a month later "The nub of our program was to win the German people . . . it was a battle between us and Russia over minds. . . "[7]

Answer 7

It is the opposite of the Iraq war, which is very hot!!

Answer 8

was a war without weapons